Paradise

February 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-When 16-year-old Billie inherits the large seaside home that once belonged to her grandparents, her mom abandons their London flat and takes the teen and her little brother to Cornwall without a plan or money. Once there, Billie's mom's troubled past comes flooding back, overwhelming her. The teen must take responsibility for the household, managing what little money they have and getting a job. As she gets to know her new surroundings and meets a sweet guy named Danny, she starts to piece together her mom's dysfunctional history and the truth about her biological father, her uncle, and her grandparents. The complicated story of her family unfolds with twists and revelations that are both inspiring and sad. The off-season seaside town is appropriately bleak and unwelcoming, setting just the right tone for her emotional state, and learning to swim is the perfect metaphor to represent Billie's growth and awakening. Alternating perspectives add dramatic irony by letting readers in on secrets even before the protagonist has pieced them together. A quiet and emotional mystery, this thoughtful novel will suit smart and sensitive readers.-Jennifer Miskec, Longwood University, Farmville, VA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2012
Grades 9-12 Billie Paradise literally discovers the key to her family's secrets when it arrives in the mail. She finds herself the proud owner of her mother's childhood home after the death of her estranged grandmother. Together with her unstable mother and little brother, Billie leaves London for the Seaton coastline, a veritable ghost town in the winter monthsan apt comparison given that her grandmother, uncle, and her birth father haunt Billie's memories. However, her search for her past is sidetracked by an urgent romance with Danny, a local boy she quickly falls in love with. Yet the narrative doesn't solely belong to Billie; the perspective shifts to her mother, grandmother, and assorted others throughout the telling, shuttling back and forth in time. While it reads quickly enough to appeal to reluctant readers, Nadin's novel is also quite mature and nuanced in its building of relationships. While some of the curves at the end might not be so surprising, this is a stirring, elegant, and winning effort.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)