Five Star Summer

by Ella Monroe

Escape to a luxurious Caribbean resort with a gloriously evocative beach read for fans of Elin Hilderbrand or Emily Henry.

Welcome to the five-star Paradise Sands Resort on the picturesque island of St Lucia; the perfect combination of high-end luxury and tropical Caribbean surroundings. Set on palm-fringed white sands and bordered by pristine turquoise waters, the hotel has long been a favorite destination for holidaymakers and honeymooners.

But the Sands Resort is under threat. This season, one hotel guest is not who they claim to be, and it's up to newly-appointed manager Claire to unearth who could be trying to undermine the resort's reputation and why.

Is it the newly-arrived single groom apparently jilted before his destination wedding? Or the handsome widower who's just checked in with his cute-as-a-button daughter.
Maybe it’s the charismatic CEO who says he's at the hotel to see about a business partnership yet wants to know a *lot* about day-to-day operations.

When in the midst of it all, an opportunity for romance also beckons, Claire must balance getting too close to anyone who might put the Paradise Sands' five-star reputation - and her own heart - at risk.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Summer

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2023

About the author

Ella Monroe is the pen name of authors Maz Rauber and Amy Reingold. Maz grew up in Australia and was a New York Post reporter before turning to fiction-writing. In her previous life, Amy was a Cordon Bleu trained chef and textile artist. After leaving her Midwestern hometown, Amy moved to Chicago, London, and Hong Kong. Both of us now live in Washington D.C., where each of us raised two kids. Maz loves to garden, doodle, kayak, walk her dog Aussie, and eat Amy's desserts. Not just a baker, Amy also designs one-of-a-kind coats. She loves her family, her dog, Zoe, her talking birds, Newman and Sadie and her caffeine habit. We're both incorrigible politics junkies and are hooked on YA fiction.

Reviews

[Lisa Burgos · Rating 3 out of 5]

During the Five Star weekend, their stories unfold, some relationships are mended while others appropriately ended.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

need a better proofreader

Love the setting!
Storyline was predictable.
What was most annoying was the obvious grammatical errors! Words in wrong spots, repeated words, wrong uses of words, made me new to go back and reread sentences once I figured out what it was trying to say.

[Karoline Kilkenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a level above meh but below good. Lady invites her 4 closest friends from each phase of her life. My fav was her childhood friend Tatum, small town girl forever ✊🏼

[Angela Cronen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the beginning, I found the many different characters hard to follow, but halfway through I couldn’t put it down.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars, not great. Not the “Perfect 2023 beach read” for me. I was tired when I finished this book. There were too many story lines taking place. Too much chaos in the hotel.
SPOILERS!
Claire and Mack. Lily and Shay, the jilted groom. That part was a little too far-fetched. Naomi with her crappy boyfriend, Greg, then meeting Will the Widower. Molly & Trevor. There were gaps in the story and “clues” that just didn’t add up. I found it shallow and there were several spelling, grammatical errors. A building is razed, not raised. I started tracking the errors and gave up. Oh well, it was free with Kindle points so I won’t go any further. I expected something better. I will say I did enjoy the descriptions of the island of St. Lucia, the food, etc.

[Mike Coley · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the story line this book was wrought with grammatical errors and missing words or words out of order. It was the first time I have ever encountered such a poorly edited book. Someone needs to go back through and re-edit. Every single chapter had at least one error if not more!

[Anne OK · Rating 2 out of 5]

A severe case of bad editing. Was there even a proofreader involved? This book was definitely in need of one! I was shocked by the number of clumsy, silly and just lazy typos, misspelling, etc., etc.

Otherwise, the cover drew me in and I couldn't help but get onboard for a Caribbean vacation at the luxurious five-star Paradise Sands Resort.

There's a whodunit mystery to be solve as the hotel is being threatened with sabotage. A delectable dip in the ocean blue and the beginning of new love awaits as well.

Sand, sun and fun tempted -- but it wasn't enough to save this shipwreck!

[Diane VanAtter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great storyline

I loved this story, and I would have given it 5 stars if I hadn’t been so distracted by all the grammar, punctuation and flip flopped words errors. I don’t think this book was ever properly edited. I am an avid reader and have read hundreds of books. I always seem to find the 1 or 2 word errors. But honestly, I can’t even count the number of writing mistakes in this book. There is an error in every other page (Kindle pages) to the point that by 39% through I had to stop highlighting them and /or rereading a sentence to try and make sense of it. Very disappointing that these were such a retraction from the potentially great storyline.

[Joy Wolff]

I liked this book. I have read others by Ms. Hilderbrand. I think it is not her best, but a great summer read, captivating, page-turning. She often has a last minute turn of the plot, which she does.

One thing I love about this author's books, is that she appreciates and loves fine furnishings and architecture. Her descriptions of houses in her books is stunning if one takes time to visualize the rooms!

I recommend it. I give it four stars.

[Siya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly the first 100 or so pages were so boring I had to put in a lot of effort to read it but like the next pages saved the book so yeah 3/5 is a good rating. A lot of grammatical errors but the storyline was good. There were some things that made zero sense. I like Mack and Claire part and Will and Naomi one.

[Sharon Alexander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too Much Turmoil

I got really tired of all the antagonists in this story. It was tedious and I actually skimmed through it to get to the end. I did not care for the story line and cannot honestly recommend it. You won't tell in love with St. Lucia at all. Boring!

[Jo Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

Trying to.figure out who was sabotaging the hotel will keep.you reading and you'll never believe who was behind it. Many people to.choose from. who.is real and who.is not.

[Rachel Bond · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me a while to read because I felt like nothing really happened until the very end. The plot followed 3 different love stories throughout the book, but some were far fetched and very cheesy!

[Kayla Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly didn’t really care too much for this book. It was just about a book about a girl who is running a hotel now and some of the guests staying there and what they are doing during their stay. Does have a little bit of romance but not spicy at all. I probably wouldn’t recommend this book.

[Judith Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing read for me! Boring at times plus several lines that made no sense at all!

Was this book even proof read?? Not only were there grammar mistakes but whole sentences that made no sense! Disappointing read!

[Cheryl Leydon · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyable summer read

Book was ok, but needs some editing to correct grammar and spelling. Full disclosure, I downloaded the book thinking at first it was an Elin Hilderbrand book on Kindle Unlimited.

[Carol · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of my time. I kept waiting for this book to get better and it never did. I violated my own rule when I kept reading it. The introduction of the characters was choppy and didn’t flow with what I considered a boring plot. First time reading this author and it will be the last time.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a so-so read-with a beautiful Caribbean resort that begs to be explored in person, however the characters and storyline did not live up to the setting, leaving the overall story incomplete and unfinished.

[Adrienne Vanderbloemen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy read but I skimmed a lot of story that didn’t add too much.

[Carrie Battaglia · Rating 2 out of 5]

characters never were developed

Just a real nothing story
Very poor editing - lots of typos
Characters never seemed to grab me
Disappointing
St Lucia sounds beautiful

[Michelle Tollefson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should have been a quick read, but the story was not compelling enough. Not the author’s issue, but there were missing or wrong words translated on Kindle.

[Donna Trinsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story was very good. But the editing was making the read difficult. I think if the editor read through again and fixed many mistakes the story would flow nicely

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5🌟

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

What happened to Greg? Who put snakes in the pool? Glad for Shey, Trevor, & Mack to be good guys and happy couples emerged!

[Christine Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the type of book that I love even though it is basically chick-lit. I love stories about female friendships with a little drama thrown in for good measure.

HSW review: A girl book

[Michelle van Bronkhorst · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book, but the lack of proofreading was a big distraction!

[Kathywalter · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay beach-read

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful

This book is intriguing having many twists and turns I really enjoyed it. not what I expected at all. I totally had the wrong person.

[Natalie Wolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked how there were three main characters but all their stories connected!

[Pamela Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great beach read