A Map to Paradise - Book Review

Title: A Map to Paradise

Author: Susan Meissner

Publiser: Berkley

Genre: Historical Fiction

{Thank you @prhaudio for the #gifted listening copy narrated by Lisa Flanagan. Lisa did such a wonderful job making the author’s beautiful words leap off the page! Thank you also to @uplitreads + @berkleypub for having me on tour. #partner}

Short Review: Susan Meissner is an auto buy author for me; her signature lush prose is on full display once again in her latest novel—A Map to Paradise. Out today—3/18—do not miss this one! And if you are new to @susanmeissnerauthor would be happy to recommend some of my favorite #backlist books! I love gushing about this author!

“Because there is no map to paradise. There is only the dream that such a place exists, as does the desire to possess it, and the determination to find it again when it’s been lost.”

History, mystery, and found family are the main themes of A Map to Paradise. While the history of being blacklisted in the 1950s was intriguing, and the mystery on Paradise Circle surrounding an agoraphobic screenwriter had me turning the pages, it was the found family—the unlikely friendship and sisterhood of neighbors & their immigrant housekeeper— that had my heart.

This book is filled with secrets and masterfully conveyed the anxieties of the 1950s over if the Soviets and America were to go to war; the dread of a communist takeover. It gave you a strong sense of what ‘displacement’ might have felt like in that time.

I’m going to leave it at that because—spoiler alert—this will be a @bookfriendsbookclub APRIL pick; including a zoom with the author. More to come on that later! A must read!

Book Summary ➡️