Almost Paradise
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4.0 • 40 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From bestselling author Susan Isaacs comes a rich family saga about marriage, wealth, and celebrity in the midst of personal tragedy—and about the ties that bind us together and the missed opportunities that tear us apart.
Nick is stunningly handsome, the blue-eyed scion of a blue-blood New York family. Rich, talented, confident he will become the world's most famous movie star. Jane is delightfully funny, a dark-skinned, dark-haired, half-Jewish, half-German daughter of the Midwest. Smart, gifted, loving, she will become famous in her own right as well.
From the time they first meet in their Social and Intellectual History of the U.S. course at Brown University, it's love at first sight. Coming together from two very different worlds, they will cast off adversity and disapproval to forge a life filled with work, love, and children.
But fame and success come at a high price—their marriage. Just when it seems the promise of their love might be renewed, an accident leaves Jane hovering between life and death. Now, it's not only their union that might not survive, but Jane, too...
Almost Paradise is vintage Susan Isaacs, a witty, poignant, and engrossing tale of a man, a woman, and a passion wondrous, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.
Customer Reviews
Didn't want it to end, but reflecting back...
In the end I can honestly say I loved this book and didn't want it to end. But that wasn't always the case. In fact, in the beginning I almost put it down for good. While building a storyline around her 2 main characters, the author takes you through a couple hundred pages of family history full of unlikeable characters. And *just* when you become slightly interested in a character ("can't turn away from a train wreck" type of interested), the author abruptly goes backwards in time to tell you about THAT character's parents. On and on it goes like this so many times that, frankly, I forgot who was who and ceased to care.
I nearly stopped reading this one, but I'm thankful for my resilience. Eventually, I was rewarded with a good story that seemed pretty honest, albeit odd at times. The main character {SPOILER ALERT} develops a phobia that she is cured of rather suddenly and without fanfare, and then she becomes a new character entirely and one that you may not enjoy. The story ended abruptly and long before I wanted it to, but it's honesty earned my respect. The book is titled Almost Paradise for a reason.
Almost Paradise
I first read this book during one boring summer of my maybe 15th... 16th year of life??. Stuck at my gramma's house for a few days, I picked up this book to see if it was any good... Saw how thick it was and considered putting it back down.... How GLAD I was that I decided to give it a few quick pages worth of reading to see if it was anything that might just interest me enough to pass the time!!!! Wow! This book is amazing. I didn't put it down until I had read the entire book. Seriously... I read it through every meal, in the bathroom, and in bed.
... Here I am, 21 years later, reading it again on my ipad. I am a runner, and guess what I've been doing a LOT less of these past few days??. I need to hurry up and finish this book!! Again!!! ;)
I love, love, LOVE this book.
Not worth the money
Poor character development, wordy, boring