Trouble In Paradise

by Liz Ireland

Roy McMillan Had Vowed to Live and Die a Bachelor!

But the McMillan credo didn't set too well the day that Ellie Fitzsimmons stepped off the train in Paradise, Nebraska. The confounded beauty lit up an October day with her sunshine. And though she was there to visit his brother, Roy had trouble keeping that fact in mind—and not making a complete fool of himself!

Ellie was in a pickle! And no amount of fabric could hide her secret for long. Roy McMillan only added to her troubles with his devastating smile. But when Roy learned the truth, would he still want to make their own little paradise on earth?

Genres: Historical, Harlequin, Romance, Historical Romance

297 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Liz was born in Texas and credits a rural upbringing in a houseful of books for her lifelong love of stories. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, she moved to New York and worked various jobs (book clerk, world’s slowest professional typist, substitute teacher) before landing a job in publishing. Since then, she’s made her home in Austin, Portland (Oregon), Ottawa, Montreal, and now Vancouver Island in British Columbia. In her free time, she enjoys playing in local concert bands, watching classic films, and—of course—reading. In addition to her writing career, Liz has worked for two decades as a fiction editor. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and has served as a regional representative for Crime Writers of Canada.

Under the pen name Liz Freeland, Liz writes the Louise Faulk historical mystery series. She also writes women's fiction as Elizabeth Bass.

Reviews

[Lydia E Winters · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet story with a bunch of sweet characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the read but I can't bring myself to give it more than three stars, mostly because I'm not a fan of stories with problems that could have been solved in ten minutes if people just TALKED to one another. A good read, but off to the donation bag it goes.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun, short read and I lovedddd Roy

[Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should have been a fun, quick read---actually, it should have been a novella. There was so little story/plot in this category-length romance that there were no fewer than six viewpoint characters (possibly seven---I think I’m forgetting someone) and three romances! And the big conflict between the main couple, Ellie and Roy, was one of my pet-peeves in the genre: the Big Misunderstanding Based on an Initial Falsehood. There's an assumption made of who she is/what her background is before she arrives in "Paradise, Nebraska," pregnant and penniless (though Roy and his brother initially don't know either of those facts)---that she's a wealthy widow from New York instead of a housemaid who got pregnant from being seduced by her employer's son. The premise wasn’t the problem. It was how the characters dealt with it that became problematic.

Roy doesn’t like women and plans on never marrying because women are nothing but trouble---a lesson he learned from his mother who walked out on him and his brother and father when he was a small child. So nothing Ellie says or does will ever convince him that she doesn’t have an ulterior motive.

Ellie, of course, is practically perfect in every way with some Manic Pixie Dream Girl characteristics.

As already mentioned, Ellie’s and Roy’s viewpoints aren’t the only ones, and theirs isn’t the only story in this short novel. We’re also given the POVs of Parker (Roy’s brother) and Clara (the girl he’s in love with) and Isabel (Roy and Parker’s wayward mother) and Uncle Ed (their father’s brother/Isabel’s actual lifelong love). Because Roy’s distrust of women and Ellie’s false identity are the only sources of conflict in their plotline (the main plotline of the book) and because he overcomes his conflict until he learns the truth about Ellie right as he’s about to propose to her, there isn’t a whole lot of tension or conflict in their relationship . . . nor a lot to their relationship at all. Which, I’m sure, is why there are two other, more poorly developed, relationships in the story to fill out the required word count.

There isn’t much to get excited about with either Ellie or Roy---although Roy does a pretty good impression of an alphahole a few times---so rather than sighing with pleasure by the time I got to the HEA at the end, I was just relieved the book was over.

And, one last thing, this would have been much better off as a sweet/clean romance. The two “sensual” scenes in the book were uncomfortable at best---especially given that Ellie is around seven or eight months pregnant during both of them. That’s not to say that pregnant women shouldn’t have/shouldn’t enjoy sex, but the entire pregnancy thing wasn’t well incorporated into her characterization, movements, internal life, actions/reactions, etc.---nor was it apparent in Roy’s relationship to her, whether emotional, visceral, or physical.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trouble was what she was in when Ellie Fitzsimmons realized that she was being fired from her job as a serving girl because she was pregnant. With no where to go and no family to rely on, she made the dramatic decision to use her new pen pal as an excuse to move from New York to Nebraska. Receiving a letter about the impending arrival of the lady that had been corresponding with him, Parker McMillan had to inform his brother Roy about their houseguest. As confirmed bachelors, the McMillan brothers was unsure how that would work out, having a women under foot. Being the skeptic that he was, Roy was suspicious of her motives from the beginning, but after meeting her he soon realized that a women’s scheming weren’t the only way they could disrupt the routine of his life. With the return of his mother after so many years, there was not a McMillan man in the county that would be safe.

Characters that are easy to get into and to understand. Great regional descriptions of the town of Paradise and the surrounding area. Typical - she lied and wondered if she could ever make it up to him - type of story. Several touching moments, a little bit of humor, a questionable love scene and a scary house fire later, Roy has to decide what to do next, if his brother doesn’t beat him to it, or the ranch hand for that matter.

[Captmashpea · Rating 2 out of 5]

there was just something missing

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet Historical from Harlequin!