REVIEW: Paradise Lost and Found – K. Aten

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"Welcome to Paradise Island Resort, where we specialize in sun, sand, and self-improvement."

Jess Parker has entered middle age single, bitter, and emotionally wounded. Even her friends have noticed her downward spiral into anger and resentment. Then she wins a self-help vacation to the beautiful Paradise Island Resort. Despite spending the past few years with her emotions on ice, the warm tropical climate and hotter resort manager, Lucia Cruz, succeeds in thawing her heart. Jess falls for Lucia, even knowing that her island stay is limited. Four weeks is hardly long enough when love is on the line.

Jess will need to make some tough choices about the rest of her life when her time is up. She's vowed to be a better person and has started making positive changes, but it's on Jess to put her heart and soul into it. She also holds onto the hope that some connections, no matter how unexpected, simply can't be broken.

Jess Parker is in her forties, her wife cheated on her and left and after the divorce she used food to overcome her anger and hurt. She is suffering from menopause, has given up everything she once loved i.e. softball, riding her bike and has turned into a bitter woman. Her attitude towards people borders on hostile and when her best friend Shell convinces her she needs a vacation she agrees.

Having won a free two-week tropical vacation, at the Paradise Island Resort, she booked her trip. The resort is a self-improvement retreat where guests are required to see a therapist and sign up for two activities. When she arrives at the resort, she is met by the resort manager Lucia Cruz who is thin, pretty and who Jess immediately hated.

Her therapist is Dr. Kam who knows exactly what is required in Jess’s case to get her on the road to healing and change. He is what you would expect a therapist to be like and his sessions with Jess made for some enlightening reading. She begins to be less bitchy and makes friends with Lucia who has always been around when she was.

Jess had given up having a relationship but had accepted the fact that Dr. Kam was right when he asked her if she wanted to be happy. Things heat up between Lucia and her and knowing that her stay was going to be short, and that Lucia could not leave the resort, she still grabs hold of any happiness she can have.

She begins art classes and learns to love them, her sessions with Dr. Kam become something she looks forward to and signs up for other activities, activities she never considered before. Lucia gets her to bike ride again and hike some of the things she stopped doing when she was busy lamenting her life.

Although it is forbidden for staff to mingle with guests Lucia and Jess find a way to be together and their relationship grows strong despite the short time they will have together. Jess agrees with Dr. Kam that she wants to be happy, and the only problem is can she remain the same when she returns home.

This was a beautiful story of a middle-aged woman finding herself and putting her pain behind her where it belongs. Jess and Lucia were wonderful characters that I couldn’t help rooting for but there is a secret about the resort that could bring a stop to any chance of a future together.

When I first began the book, I was prepared to just read it with no thought of liking or loving it and thankfully I wound up loving it. There were secrets, surprises, sex and a second chance at the brass ring.