Finding Paradise

Score: 3.5 Bookmarks

Steam Level: 🍆🍆/5

Thank you to Berkley for gifting me a review copy of Finding Paradise by Barbara Dunlop. This is the second in the Paradise, Alaska series. I enjoyed the first book Match Made in Paradise a little bit more, just because I was able to relate to those particular characters more, but this was still a really fun read.

Marnie Anton is a lawyer from LA and she’s only in small-town Paradise, Alaska, to help out with a match-making event that her friend has cooked up so that LA women can meet hard-working, decent guys (who happen to all be pretty easy on the eyes too) in Alaska, in a town where men outnumber women pretty significantly.

Enter Conrad ‘Cobra’ Stanford, who wants no part in this match-making scheme. In fact, he just wants to be left alone to get his work done and mind his business.

The two of them are thrown together a bit, and things escalate pretty quickly between them and start to get steamy. I didn’t totally buy their attraction on more than a physical level though—maybe because it all happened pretty quickly and they didn’t know anything about each other. But, once I got past that it was fun being along for the ride (and there were more than a few ups and downs).

It was fun to see some of the characters from the first book, and while you could read this as a stand-alone I think the story would make a lot more sense if you read the first book before diving into this one.

If you enjoy small-town romances, especially ones set in Alaska, you’ll want to pick this one up.

Synopsis:

Passion heats up in Paradise, Alaska, for two people who couldn't be more different in this sweet, sizzling romance from New York Times bestselling author Barbara Dunlop.

Accomplished Los Angeles lawyer Marnie Anton has always been sensible, but when her friend Mia Westberg asks for help with a ridiculous matchmaking project, she can't say no. The idea of transporting city girls into the small town of Paradise, Alaska, is so crazy it just might...work? Against her best judgment, she tags along. Having grown up in a family of intimidating men, Marnie developed a preference for the urbane lawyers and clients in her life in LA. But when she meets a mountain of a buff Alaskan man with an intriguing snake tattoo, intimidated is definitely not the first thing she feels.

Conrad Cobra Stanford was skeptical of the matchmaking event from the start. Big-city women weren't adventurous, they were judgmental. They'd take one look at him and scorn his lifestyle, just like his first love did. Cobra planned to give the women a wide berth, but one of them won't be ignored. Marnie's everything that's wrong and everything that's right for him all at the same time. Just when he thinks he's got her pegged, she blindsides him with a startling past, falling into his arms and igniting his protective instincts and so much more....