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Paradise
Paradise
Not yet published
Expected 27 Oct 26Suspense, adventure, and mystery abound during a multigenerational family trip to an exclusive luxury resort.
Cousins Sam, Lily, and Jordan meet up on family vacation every year. This year, their grandmother is paying for them to stay at Paradise, an exclusive tropical resort!
Paradise offers a gorgeous beach, multiple pools, all-you-can-eat buffets, and any adventure you can imagine. The kids can come and go as they please, while their parents zone out at the beach. It’s supposed to be fire.
But in this place where the other guests all seem like billionaires and celebrities, the cousins start acting like people they’re not. They test new identities, break some rules, and start to mingle with other kids who should raise red flags.
Pretty soon the trio is beginning to see another side of this gleaming resort.
And as the resort’s many secrets come into focus . . . family secrets start coming to the surface, too.
Cousins Sam, Lily, and Jordan meet up on family vacation every year. This year, their grandmother is paying for them to stay at Paradise, an exclusive tropical resort!
Paradise offers a gorgeous beach, multiple pools, all-you-can-eat buffets, and any adventure you can imagine. The kids can come and go as they please, while their parents zone out at the beach. It’s supposed to be fire.
But in this place where the other guests all seem like billionaires and celebrities, the cousins start acting like people they’re not. They test new identities, break some rules, and start to mingle with other kids who should raise red flags.
Pretty soon the trio is beginning to see another side of this gleaming resort.
And as the resort’s many secrets come into focus . . . family secrets start coming to the surface, too.
- GenresMiddle Grade
288 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication October 27, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 14, 2026
A middle grade novel set in a tween/teen’s perfect vacation spot-plenty of fun and sun with very little parental supervision or even involvement! But sometimes paradise is not all it’s cracked up to be and this trio of cousins is about to discover that truth.
Twins Sam and Lily look forward to time with cousin Lily and this year, their dad has allowed his estranged mother to treat them all to an all-expenses paid trip to a manmade island paradise with limitless food, outdoor and indoor water parks, video games and so very much more. Oh, and the adults have their own side of the island with spas, relaxing by the pool, attentive servers bringing them tropical drinks and no worries about their children because human and AI beings are ensuring their safety. But then Lily and Jordan take a daring jaunt out of bounds with Milo, Lily’s new friend (and maybe a bit more), and a more rowdy acquaintance and are bombarded by a storm and Lily hears a growling creature in the forest. And Sam? He’s hooked up with rich, spoiled brother sister duo Max and Avery and is breaking all sorts of rules and giving into various dares in an effort to not be the scared kid from back home dealing with a persistent bully that he hopes he left behind.
The three 13 year old main characters each have distinct personalities and some sort of cross to bear-Lily is quiet, a bit anxious and a fact-loving nerd, Sam is a game-loving, unathletic kid just trying to stay invisible and Jordan is outgoing, intelligent and is being forced to relocate and attend an all-girl private school. Supporting characters Max and Avery live in the lap of luxury but seldom see their parents who may not be the best model of parenting anyway and Milo is a gem club nerd right up there with Lily and fills the peace-maker, voice of reason when needed. Readers in the target range of grades 5-8 are sure to connect in some way with all of them and will be drawn into the mystery of the growling creature, the off-limits areas and the truth of Grandma Nan and the island paradise’s owner/developers who just happen to be Max and Avery’s parents.
The target age group is sure to love the adventure but this adult found some of the action to be redundant and the premise of parent-child separation to be more unrealistic than exciting. HOWEVER, kids can dream and with the lack of profanity and sexual content, this is a book that may fill that niche in many upper elementary, middle grade libraries for something a bit edgier but not yet YA and this is to be at least a duology which is always a good thing for librarians to note.
*Profanity: 2 instances of the mild variety, no F-bombs or g-damns
*Violence: moderate: damaging storms and scary outdoor mishaps, Sam recounts instances of a variety of bullying, threatening animal-human encounters
*Sexual content: none (romance between Lily and Milo may be continued in sequel)
*Representation: Physical and cultural descriptions are fairly sparse but a minor character Miko may be AAPI; marital discord present between Jordan’s parents; parental estrangement between Lily and Sam’s dad and his mother and dysfunction between Grandma Nan and both of her boys apparent.
*LBGTQ+: none
Thanks for the eARC, NetGalley and Pixel + Ink.
Twins Sam and Lily look forward to time with cousin Lily and this year, their dad has allowed his estranged mother to treat them all to an all-expenses paid trip to a manmade island paradise with limitless food, outdoor and indoor water parks, video games and so very much more. Oh, and the adults have their own side of the island with spas, relaxing by the pool, attentive servers bringing them tropical drinks and no worries about their children because human and AI beings are ensuring their safety. But then Lily and Jordan take a daring jaunt out of bounds with Milo, Lily’s new friend (and maybe a bit more), and a more rowdy acquaintance and are bombarded by a storm and Lily hears a growling creature in the forest. And Sam? He’s hooked up with rich, spoiled brother sister duo Max and Avery and is breaking all sorts of rules and giving into various dares in an effort to not be the scared kid from back home dealing with a persistent bully that he hopes he left behind.
The three 13 year old main characters each have distinct personalities and some sort of cross to bear-Lily is quiet, a bit anxious and a fact-loving nerd, Sam is a game-loving, unathletic kid just trying to stay invisible and Jordan is outgoing, intelligent and is being forced to relocate and attend an all-girl private school. Supporting characters Max and Avery live in the lap of luxury but seldom see their parents who may not be the best model of parenting anyway and Milo is a gem club nerd right up there with Lily and fills the peace-maker, voice of reason when needed. Readers in the target range of grades 5-8 are sure to connect in some way with all of them and will be drawn into the mystery of the growling creature, the off-limits areas and the truth of Grandma Nan and the island paradise’s owner/developers who just happen to be Max and Avery’s parents.
The target age group is sure to love the adventure but this adult found some of the action to be redundant and the premise of parent-child separation to be more unrealistic than exciting. HOWEVER, kids can dream and with the lack of profanity and sexual content, this is a book that may fill that niche in many upper elementary, middle grade libraries for something a bit edgier but not yet YA and this is to be at least a duology which is always a good thing for librarians to note.
*Profanity: 2 instances of the mild variety, no F-bombs or g-damns
*Violence: moderate: damaging storms and scary outdoor mishaps, Sam recounts instances of a variety of bullying, threatening animal-human encounters
*Sexual content: none (romance between Lily and Milo may be continued in sequel)
*Representation: Physical and cultural descriptions are fairly sparse but a minor character Miko may be AAPI; marital discord present between Jordan’s parents; parental estrangement between Lily and Sam’s dad and his mother and dysfunction between Grandma Nan and both of her boys apparent.
*LBGTQ+: none
Thanks for the eARC, NetGalley and Pixel + Ink.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
What a great cover--the lush tropical plants, the kids looking in the distance with concerned expressions, the building storm clouds, the snake in the title font, and of course the part that caught my attention right off the bat, the mysterious red-tinged eyes.
Siblings Lily and Sam are on a vacation of a lifetime with their parents, aunt & uncle, and cousin, Jordan. Paradise is literally paradise--all the excursions you could dream up with all the snacks you could possibly want. But then secrets around the cousins' grandma (who paid for the trip) arise, the kids run into some scary situations, and Lily swears she hears a growl in a place she's definitely not supposed to be.
The publisher has this listed for ages 10-14, but it definitely reads younger. The syntax makes me think of high-low so this would be good for reluctant readers with all the action and less complex sentence structure. I would recommend for ages 8+
Siblings Lily and Sam are on a vacation of a lifetime with their parents, aunt & uncle, and cousin, Jordan. Paradise is literally paradise--all the excursions you could dream up with all the snacks you could possibly want. But then secrets around the cousins' grandma (who paid for the trip) arise, the kids run into some scary situations, and Lily swears she hears a growl in a place she's definitely not supposed to be.
The publisher has this listed for ages 10-14, but it definitely reads younger. The syntax makes me think of high-low so this would be good for reluctant readers with all the action and less complex sentence structure. I would recommend for ages 8+
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This book was interesting enough for me to finish reading, but the "teen speak" was really distracting for me. The idea of the Paradise vacation resort was exciting, and some of the characters were defined, but there were a lot of characters, and some were one-dimensional, including Milo who was just sort of confusing. With more editing, I think this could be a fun read for middle schoolers, but it didn't quite hit the mark for me.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews