Review: Paradise by Judith McNaught.

Posted May 17, 2008 by Rowena in Reviews | 8 Comments


Here’s some more SF reviews that I’m moving over to this book blog.

Hero: Matt Farrell
Heroine: Meredith Bancroft
Grade: 5 out of 5

Corporate raider Matthew Farrell had come a long way from the poor, scruffy kid of Indiana’s steel mills. A long way from the country club where, feeling like an outsider, he had dared to fall in love with a beautiful blonde named Meredith Bancroft, and known a once-in-a-lifetime passion and betrayal that still haunted his memory…Now world leaders courted him, the media watched his every move, and he was ready to move in on the Bancroft empire.

A cool, poised executive in her family’s legendary department store chain, Meredith had once defied her father for the sexually magnetic, intense Matt Farrell — and their brief, ill-fated marriage was the disastrous outcome. Now, as the Bancroft firm is threatened by a hostile takeover, Meredith is forced to confront Matt. As tensions build between them, bittersweet memories rise to the surface, leaving them suspicious, restless, and uncertain. Will they be able to believe in each other — and grasp the tender miracle that is before them?

Wow.

I haven’t read a more emotional book since, the last time I read this book. This book always strikes a chord in me that has me bawling my eyes out right about the time I get to the scene where Meredith tracks Matt down at the old farm house in Indiana. When Meredith finally confesses all that happened when she thought Matt didn’t want her anymore, it always squeezes my heart until I think I’m going to burst from the impact of it all. The raw emotion you read about coming from Matt Farrell in that particular scene will probably always stay with me.

This book is one of those books that has you cheering and rooting the couple on to the very end. It’s one of those books that stays with you period, long after you have read the book. Matt Farrell is an exceptional hero, one of the very best, I think at grabbing you and holding your attention long after you have finished the book. He’s one of those heroes that you think about, months, even years after reading his book. He’s one smart cookie and hot as all hell. Flippin’ gorgeous.

Meredith on the other hand is a gentle and caring young woman who fell in love with Matt, long before he got all richy rich on her. She loved him when he was a steel worker and had dreams of making it big and with all the drama that makes a romance novel, she had to fight tooth and nail to get her happy ending, even when she thought it wasn’t with Matt.

Matt and Meredith’s love story has the makings of a classic. It’s one of those stories that you can’t help but love, because of the emotion the book envokes in you. To have gone through everything they went through and still come out on top, with all of the odds working AGAINST you and to still find your way back to each other is something that everyone should read about and love, I promise that you will love this book, so you should totally go out and read it.

Judith McNaught did a wonderful job with this story and this was one of the reasons I continued to stalk Judith McNaught’s work at every turn, I fell in love with Matt and Meredith and was mad as spit when all of the hardships these two endured because of the people in their lives happened.

We highlighed Matt Farrell as our Hero of the Week a few weeks back and I’m so glad we did because this weekend I fell in love with Matt Farrell all over again and I can’t wait to reread the book again soon, so that I can fall in love again because I know I will.

Read it ya’ll, you’ll love it.

This book is available from Pocket Books. You can buy it here.


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8 responses to “Review: Paradise by Judith McNaught.

  1. Love

    This

    Book

    Honestly, love it to pieces. Meredith and Matt, her father and mother, the business mess, the paparazzi… 😀 love it.

  2. This one is on my keeper shelf! I just read a book that reminds me a bit of this and somewhat of Sandra Brown’s older books too… JoAnn Ross’s Private Pleasures. It’s an older title, out of print I think, but I got it at my library and LOVED IT. It sucked me in just as Paradise did. I went and got it from paperbackswap to put on my keeper shelf next to SB’s Mirror Image and JM’s Paradise.

  3. Oh yes, I recently read this and loved it. McNaught has angst down to a science. I love the ups and downs of this book. It is just so emotionally gripping. The sequel Paradise is good too.

  4. I absolutely adore this book and is my all-time favorite romance. And of course, I plan on marrying Matt Farrell (the whole thing with Meredith is a lie – he’s really with me.)

    I love love the emotion, the romance, and the characters that Ms. McNaught created with such vivid intensity. I must have re-read this book at least twenty times and each read is a joy. (sigh).

    Great review!

  5. Dev

    I’ve got this one towards the top of my TBR pile (along with 2 of her other books). I need to get cracking and start reading more.

  6. Rowena

    I totally agree with everyone. This book is one of the main reasons why JM is one of my favorite authors!

    Dev,

    You have to keep me updated on how you liked these books!

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