Return to Paradise (A Leaving Paradise Novel)

Return To Paradise is the highly anticipated sequel to Simone's 2007 release, Leaving Paradise. Thanks to my friend Tiger, who insisted I check out Perfect Chemistry, I became a huge Simone Elkeles fan. Needless to say, when I heard the sequel to Leaving Paradise releases this year, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Fans will not be disappointed.Return To Paradise starts off 8 months after Leaving Paradise ends. Caleb is back in trouble and struggling. He thought leaving home would solve his problems, but trouble seems to follow him where ever he goes. Caught between going back to jail and attending a peer mediation-counseling roadtrip, he chooses the latter. There is no way he wants to end back up in jail. No. Way. You can imagine his surprise when he discovers Maggie is attending the trip as well. I guess no one ever told him the past has a funny way of catching up on you when you least expec it. And now that she's back in his life, he can't deny his feelings for her any longer.Maggie has been waiting for this moment. She waited 8 long months for Caleb to return home and profess his love for her. When he didn't, she decided to move on. A frest start and everything. In fact, after this summer, she'll be spending her first year of college in Spain. But now Caleb is back in her life, and she's more confused than ever. She knows his sister was the one who hit her with a car, but Caleb doesn't know she knows. She wants him to tell her and trust her the way she trusts him. She wants him to go back to Paradise, reunite with his family and make things right. The only thing is, if she pushes him too far, will he runaway again? And if he does, will it goodbye forever this time?I have to tell you, I love books with alternating POVs. When done well, it's fascinating (and addicting) reading how each character not only view one another, but the situation. There's brooding, tortured Caleb and then there's understanding, reliable Maggie. Both need each other and are stronger when together, yet they just can't seem to get it together. The entire time, you'll be on the edge of your seat, thinking "Come on, already!" Simone definitely knows how to write a book with sexual tension and complications.Return To Paradise is more than your typical, fluffy young adult book. It's about self discovery, growing up and realizing you have to deal with your problems head on instead of running away from them. Oh, and of course, there's romance. I cannot tell you how much I love reading about Caleb and Maggie's relationship. It's rocky, it's funny, it's sweet, it's awesome.Technically, you can read Return To Paradise without first reading Leaving Paradise, but it won't have the same impact. To get the full experience, you have to read one before the other. While I liked Leaving Paradise more, I still adored and really enjoyed the sequel. It's one of those "Must stay up and finish this, can't stop reading, can't stop to eat, must know what happens next" type of books. My only grievence is the release date. I mean, it should have been released this summer when the fanbase is out of school and ready to read! Don't you agree? I thought so.

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Why I Read this Book: Ever since I finished reading Leaving Paradise (what a cliffhanger ending!), I've been anxiously waiting to read Return to Paradise. I'm a fan of Simone Elkeles' work. She has the ability to tap into that inner teenager with ease. It brings me back to my 17-year old, which is the reason I enjoy reading YA. I also enjoy reading her books because she writes using alternating POVs between her main characters, which allows the reader to know what they're both feeling and thinking. For me, this gives me a more thorough impression on their personalities. Simone Elkeles grabbed me with Perfect Chemistry and I've been enjoying her novels ever since.What I Liked: Return to Paradise picks up 8 months after Leaving Paradise ends. I was able to jump right back into Maggie and Caleb's story with ease, even though it has been almost a year since I read Leaving Paradise. Maggie and Caleb are brought back together in an interesting way. It's a bit of an awkward meeting since the two of them haven't spoken to or seen each other in 8 months. There's tension right off the bat and I like tension. Maggie and Caleb have each moved on in their own way but once they get face to face, they realize that they each still have strong feelings for the other. And even though Caleb finds himself in not the best of situations, he's still a good guy.Lenny's character was a great additional to this story. I truly hope he gets his own story. This guy was funny! Class clown funny and completely, utterly honest (he seriously has no mouth filter). He cracked me up!What I Didn't Like: Although I got closure with Return to Paradise, it wasn't what I was hoping for. I was expecting for a big BANG! impact, like I got with Leaving Paradise but what I got was more like a POP.There was a lot of teen angst in this book, maybe a little too much for my liking. Maggie and Caleb are fighting each other off for no good reason. Caleb is stubborn and makes some dumb choices. I found myself rolling my eyes a couple of times.I'm not a fan of the cover for Return to Paradise. This is a good example where I do not want faces on the cover because the people on this cover is not how I envisioned the main characters. I love this cover for Leaving Paradise and I feel that the Return to Paradise cover doesn't go with the theme of the first cover.Overall Impression: I didn't get the same affect from Return to Paradise as I did with its predecessor; I was expecting a little more. Leaving Paradise was so powerful, it left an impact of me for days. I expected the same with Return to Paradise and while it didn't quite live up to my expectations, I still enjoyed reading the story and getting closure.

I need more of Maggie and Caleb, Julio and Leah, Linda and Lou!!! 2 books isn't enough!!! Please consider writing a 3rd book!

If you’re looking for a good romance book this is it! But get the first leaving paradise first. This book is amazing!

As soon as I finished Leaving Paradise, I was anxious to read Return to Paradise. This is a story of growth, sacrifice, and acceptance. One event and one choice can change the trajectory of so many lives. Caleb made a choice to protect the one person he always had protected without foreseeing the consequences. A year later he is faced with those consequences. One being Maggie his neighbor who was forever injured on the night of the accident that changed everything. Unable to deal with the consequences of his choice, Caleb leaves Paradise and Maggie behind. Fate gives them a second chance. They fight, but ultimately truth and love have the ultimate say. The question is, is it too late to make up for every ill-advised choice.The supporting characters emphasized this plot. I wish Caleb's ex-girlfriend would have been mentioned, but ignored. The plots with her do not add to the overall story and she seems contrived.

Perfect Chemistry is possibly Simone's most recognized title, it seems to get a lot of mention on YA blogs (for good reason) and I loved it as well. But Leaving Paradise is easily my favourite of Simone's books and I rate it as one of the very best YA books I've read. It's an intense emotional roller coaster that left me in tears and desperate for more. Finally the sequel is here and I finished it within a few hours of managing to get my hands on it. And you know what? It wasn't a let down in any way!It picks up eight months after the end of Leaving Paradise. Caleb Becker is in trouble again and to avoid jail time he is forced to attend a summer camp of sorts. He's with a group of teens who have been seriously affected by teenaged drink driving, and they are going to other groups of teens to tell their stories. One big problem; Maggie Armstrong, the girl Caleb was convicted of hitting whilst driving drunk, the girl he left behind 9 months ago, is part of the group. Caleb thought he'd left Maggie and his problems behind him for good when he left Paradise, but now he's forced to face them. Meanwhile, Maggie is still adapting to being disabled, forever walking with a limp thanks to the accident. And they're both forced to confront the past, their feelings for each other, and the secret that tore them apart as they're on this journey.I loved the set up for Maggie and Caleb's reunion. And I loved the other teens also on the trip, their own personal tales, all so different from one another, adding to the mix as they got to know each other better and some interesting relationships and bonds were formed. They all played off each other so well. They don't all get on, and the way they all act and treat each other is the kind of behaviour I think everyone can relate to in some way. I liked how it pushed Caleb and Maggie in different ways, and I liked getting to know the new characters as well.But of course the focus is on Caleb an Maggie. Like Leaving Paradise it's told in alternating points of view, Caleb and Maggie, giving the reader the chance to see the truth about how they're both feeling. I love seeing that when they see very different sides of each other. I loved them both in Leaving Paradise and I love them even more now. They've both changed a lot since the events of LP, and the continue to grow and change throughout Return to Paradise as well. It's as intense and emotional a journey as LP, but in a different way. It's got an edge to it LP didn't have. There was a lot of pain in LP but it's more anger and heat that flows through RTP. There are some surprising moments and outcomes to certain events in this one, but it's also got some laugh out loud humor as well.It's fast paced, I could not put it down. I was hooked once more in to Caleb and Maggie's story within a page. It's an awesome, satisfying conclusion to their tale and as a follow up to one of my favourite YA books ever, it's fantastic. Both this and LP have a realness to them, the way they don't flinch dealing with serious issues, that I just love. Caleb and Maggie are very complex characters with a lot going on for them both, together and apart. I can't explain how much I love them both, following their journey, the ups and downs they face. I can get angry at them, disagree with them, but ultimately, I love them both completely. A really awesome read and one I highly recommend!!

I absolutely loved Leaving Paradise, so I didn't hesistate to buy Return to Paradise once it was released, excepting the same brilliance. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed.I said in my review of Leaving Paradise that I was disappointed in the romance because it started too abruptly to late on in the book. I'm still disappointed. I just didn't really feel it. All emotional aspects Maggie and Caleb felt because of each other - anger, sadness, love - just felt a little over the top to me. When they were complaining about the other, it felt like they were making a big deal over nothing. And the love felt more like they were just silly teenagers declaring love when they didn't really know what it is. That's not how the story sets it up, but how it felt to me, it was just a little melodramatic to me.As well as all the emotion issues, not a huge deal happens in the book, either. Caleb and Maggie meet up when she signs up for and he's forced into joining the Re-START programme, a programme that has a bunch of kids who have suffered from drink driving in various ways, and they are to go and talk to other kids at summer camp, universities, juvie, and so on, to make them aware of the consequences. But we see very little of what happens at the meetings that take place, and don't get to know the other kids as well as I would have liked. The focus is all on the emotional connection between Caleb and Maggie.All in all, I was really disappointed. I have absolutely loved every other Elkeles book I've read, so it's a shame that I didn't enjoy this one. However, I'm not sure whether Leaving Paradise should be read as a stand-alone, as that's not the way it was intended. Maybe you will enjoy it more than I did.

I thought the first one 'Leaving paradise' was very good, and was looking forward to this one, however although it was ok, and the concept was a good idea, it didnt live upto expectations :(i also found it a bit slow in places.I was also reluctant to read it and kept putting it on my desk and reading another book at the same time, which is very unlike me.Maybe get it out the library to see if you like it before you buy?

Good sequel to leaving paradise, I liked the progression of the characters Caleb and maggie. When Caleb has to go come to terms on the night of the accident which is a heartbroken scene with his family where they learn the truth of that night.

Absolutely good to read the second book and find out the final outcome. Simone Elkeles is a great author and I would greatly recommend this book. Read the perfect chemistry by Simone Elkeles if you enjoyed this book. They are amazing!