Road to Paradise

by Paullina Simons

Book Overview

Love, passion, and friendship collide on the road trip of a lifetime in this breathtaking novel from Paullina Simons, internationally bestselling author of The Bronze Horseman and Tully. There's no telling where a journey will lead you... Shelby Sloane has big plans for the summer of 1981. She'll drive cross country in her graduation present--a classic yellow Mustang. In California, she hopes to find the mother who left her behind long ago, and then...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062444336
• ISBN13: 9780062444332
• Release Date: November 2016
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

hmmmmmm....

I LOVE Paullina Simons books. All of them. I can't say this is my favorite ( as Im sure anyone who read The Bronze Horseman will say as well) but this one was entertaining and I did find myself thinking about it long after the book was finished, as I do all of her books. I just really wanted another Tully or another Tatiana that stays with me for years and I didn't get it with Shelby. But, I'd recommend it and all of Paullina's books to anyone.

Tough book to process.

Road to Paradise is nothing like The Bronze Horseman Trilogy by this author- LOVED those books- and can't really be compared to her other books either. The book is all about dialogue- both internal and external. It centers around Shelby Sloane- a young woman unsure of who she is and unsure of who she Shall Be. So she decides to take a road trip across the states in her mint condition canary yellow mustang, given to her by the woman who raised her. The same woman who is not her actual mother but the one who was her mother, none the less. Which brings us to the point of the road trip: Shelby needs to know why her birth mother just up and left her and her father all those years ago. She believes her mother is in Mendocino, CA, and, more than anything, she knows she needs to settle that aspect of her life before she continues on to Harvard where she's been accepted on a track scholarship. When once best friend, Gina, discovers Shelby's making the trip to Cali, she horns in on the escapade to get to a boyfriend who left her behind. Shelby does, and doesn't, want Gina to come along. You see, they've had a falling out over that same boy, (of course!). But she also misses their longtime friendship and when Gina swears she'll help with the financial aspect of the trip- sensible, plan-everything-to-a- T Shelby, agrees. From the get go, the trip is sidetracked- much to Shelby's frustration. Gina promises her Mom they'll stop by several relatives houses- SO not on Shelby's plotted course- and when they pick up a young girl abandoned by the side of the road, Shelby might as well have thrown her best laid plans out the window right then and there. The girl has issues. SERIOUS issues. Yet Simons gave her a wisdom beyond her experiences and years. Simons obviously also uses the dialogue between the girls while on the trip as a way to express her personal opinions, which didn't bother me one iota because I liked her opinions! You just have to resolve yourself to that aspect of the story telling to "get" this book. Still, it took me til the end of the tale to fully appreciate what all was going on- but, I swear I did get there- because, after all, it's not the destination, it's what we learn along the journey that counts. And THAT is what this book is all about.