Review: Paradise Lost by Kate Brian

CONTEMPORARY TEEN FICTION

Paradise awaits...

Now that Cheyenne's murdurer has been revealed and Reed knows the truth about who's been stalking her, shse's ready to leave the heartache and turmoil of last semester behind. And what better way to recover than a five-star Caribbean vacation?

Reed is reunited with former Billings Girls Kiran and Taylor, and she and her friends take over the exclusive island. They spend their days tanning on white-sand beaches and their nights partying on sixty-foot yachts.

It's heaven on Earth.

But as they raise their champagne flutes to toast their friendship, Reed worries that it's all too good to be true. Because  even in paradise, Billings Girls are never far from trouble--and nothing's more dangerous than the calm before the storm...

Another nice Private book added to my "already-read" list. See, the above summary doesn't say much about this, but the thing is, whichever one of the girls hooks up with Upton, the hottest male species to ever wak this earth who's also staying at the island, first, wins the Upton Game. And that lucky girl will be the envious one out of all of Billings House, because all the ladies are dying to land Upton in bed as well. And this year, it seems like Reed's starting to win this game, just as Upton is winning her heart But along comes Poppy, the girl who's had a crush on Upton forever, and everything goes splat...

I have to say, the suspense and drama in this book wasn't up to par, as far as the usual Private novels go. I would have expected more from this novel, especially since it's set in an exotic location, which gives double the creative freedom to the writer. After all, Kate Brian's already got her characters, and all she needs is a nicely unpredictable, page-turning plot to keep her readers hooked. There wasn't a lot of that in this book, except for the drama with Poppy and then the amazingly terrifying ending. That ending was definitely unexpected, but it was a nice twist to the plot. Especially since the rest of the book didn't have too much suspense.

Now, onto the characters! The new characters that are introduced in Paradise Lost are awesome. Upton is so cute--obviously, he's a major player, but he really makes Reed seem like she cares. And I love any guy who makes my favorite book-character-gal feel amazing. Even though a real clear picture of him has been described, I still think he's uber-hot. And definitely perfect for Reed, who needs to heal after having her heart snapped jaggedly in half twice. You go, girl! Time for you to grab another guy and move. On.

And then, all these characters such as Poppy, Paige, and Daniel, two of whom have already been introduced in Last Christmas. So when Paige and Daniel's mother started hating on Reed, it all made sense--'cause he was dating Ariana, Ariana dumped him for Thomas, etc. Y'all should know this if you've been following my reviews. Basically, the in-depth way each character was touched on in Paradise Lost was superb. I felt like even though the plot wasn't too twisty, the characters made up for it.

YES! I finally got the rest of the Private AND the rest of the Privilege series! Oh yeah! I get to read more about Reed's adventures at Easton, and then I get to check out a fantastic new series through the crazy, psychotic mind of Ariana Osgood...could things in my little book-fantasy-world get any better? I think not! Anyway, make sure you check out my reviews of all these books, 'cause Paradise Lost gets four stars!