Even in Paradise
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The Great Gatsby meets Looking for Alaska in this stunning debut from Chelsey Philpot. With inspiration drawn from Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, this novel perfectly captures the love and heartbreak that can change us most.
When Julia Buchanan enrolls at St. Anne’s at the beginning of junior year, Charlotte Ryder already knows all about her. Most people do . . . or think they do. But as Charlotte is pulled into the larger-than-life new girl’s world—a world of midnight rendezvous, dazzling parties, palatial vacation homes, and fizzy champagne cocktails—she realizes that behind Julia’s self-assured smiles and toasts to the future, she is still suffering from a tragedy. A tragedy that the Buchanan family has kept hidden . . . until now.
Intense Female Friendship: Charlotte thinks she knows all about the infamous Julia Buchanan. But being pulled into her world of midnight parties and palatial summer homes is more consuming—and dangerous—than she ever imagined.Secrets and Lies: The Buchanan family is dazzling, charismatic, and completely broken. The closer Charlotte gets, the more she realizes a hidden tragedy is poisoning them all from the inside out.First Love: Navigating her place among the Buchanans is complicated enough before she meets him. Falling for Julia’s brother adds a new layer of longing and heartbreak to the tangled web of family loyalty.Literary Young Adult: For readers who loved the atmospheric angst of Looking for Alaska and the tragic glamour of The Great Gatsby, this unforgettable novel is a modern classic in the making.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Charlotte Ryder is from a modest working-class family, yet attends St. Anne's, a private New England boarding school. After helping Julia Buchanan, a classmate from an infamous Massachusetts family, during a late-night drunken escapade, Charlotte soon dubbed Charlie by Julia is pulled into the complicated Buchanan orbit, even falling for Julia's handsome older brother Sebastian. The girls quickly become inseparable, and Charlie is invited to spend the summer in Arcadia, the Buchanan compound on Nantucket. The Buchanans all but adopt Charlie as one of their own, but they also expect Charlie to help protect Julia from herself a tall order given that Julia is unpredictable and still grieving the death of her older sister. Debut author Philpot's prose is eloquent and suspenseful as readers watch Charlie get swept up in the glamour, privilege, and charm of Julia and her family. While readers know early on that Charlie's relationship with the Buchanans is headed for a fall, they'll be as entranced as she is by this beguiling, Kennedy-esque family, for whom power and pain are inextricably entwined. Ages 13 up.
