Book Review: Even In Paradise by Chelsey Philpot

Title: Even In Paradise

Author: Chelsey Philpot

Release date: Octobber 14th 2014
Pages: 360
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Harper Teen
Source: Bought

Synopsis:

When Julia Buchanan enrolls at St. Anne’s at the beginning of junior year, Charlotte Ryder already knows all about the former senator’s daughter. Most people do... or think they do.

Charlotte certainly never expects she’ll be Julia’s friend. But almost immediately, she is drawn into the larger than-life-new girl’s world—a world of midnight rendezvous, dazzling parties, palatial vacation homes, and fizzy champagne cocktails. And then Charlotte meets, and begins falling for, Julia’s handsome older brother, Sebastian.

But behind her self-assured smiles and toasts to the future, Charlotte soon realizes that Julia is still suffering from a tragedy. A tragedy that the Buchanan family has kept hidden... until now.

(taken from goodreads)

Review:

I have read a ton of good books. That said, there have been very few ones that have really captured my full undivided attention to the point where I can genuinely say: "I have fallen in love with this book". Now, I know it might seem like I'm over doing it here, but I honestly don't think there's a better way for me to express how much I loved this book.

Even In Paradise drew me in from the very beginning. I had only read a couple chapters and I was already thinking "I'm going to love this". While the writing of this book is undoubtedly beautiful and outstanding, it was more of the writing style that sealed the deal for me. I actually found this very strange because I'm usually one who would rather read a book where I feel like I'm actually part of the story as opposed to one where I feel like someone's there telling me their story. This book fits into the latter. And I loved it. I feel like this fact in particular made the story all the better. While I was reading, I kept envisioning myself and an older version of the main character sitting down while she told me this crazy and beautiful story. I don't really know why this book had such an effect on me other than it being a merely precious read. 

I simply can't categorize this book as your typical contemporary. It has everything a contemporary has only better. I has romance, and a very cute one at that, but there's a lot more to the story. So much more that I don't even know where to begin.

At first, you might begin to think that the whole book will revolve around Charlie and Sebastian's relationship, but then you realize that it's not just that. It's more about Charlie's friendship with Julia. She does fall in love with Sebastian, but she also falls in love with The Buchanans; the whole family. This served as a very interesting element to the story and it made the portrayal of said family a lot more raw. We see them through Charlie's eyes rather than behind the facade they put up of being this competent and having everything together. The author really makes the reader fall in love with this family. 

I really loved how simply everything began. How randomly Charlie and Julia meet and how strongly their friendship began. I truly liked Charlie as the main character, but the amount of love I have for Julia is other worldly. I loved how she, (as well as her whole family) was such a thought out and put together character. She was so flawed and broken, yet tried so hard to appear strong and resilient despite being part of this family so plagued and hurt by loss. Loss and family were two very important topics in the story and both were very well written and portrayed. 

There was a very poignant feel to this book. It was also bittersweet. The bottom line is: Go and read this book if you haven't already. it destroyed me in the best possible way and I don't think anyone should miss out on this lovely reading experience.

Rating:

     

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