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October Reads Worth Falling For

Danger, desire, second chances, and unexpected romanceβ€”discover this month’s Fresh Fiction Featured Books.

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A poisoned cousin, a five-year-old's life, and a family with too many secrets.


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Supernatural sparks fly
between a bookseller
& her hard-boiled ghost.


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If Her Highness thinks I’ll let another man claim her and my child, she’s lost her royal mind. Sophaya’s mine.


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She found a body. Then she started asking the wrong questions.


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He ghosted her ten years ago. Now she’s stuck with him for Christmas.


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She’s the lady everyone overlooks. He’s the prince who can’t look away.

A MAP TO PARADISE

A Map to Paradise, March 2025
by Susan Meissner

Berkley
352 pages
ISBN: 0593332865
EAN: 9780593332863
Kindle: B0D7GL1HJ7
Hardcover / e-Book
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"Female Friendship You'll Definitely Love"

Fresh Fiction Review

A MAP TO PARADISE
Susan Meissner

Reviewed by Debbie Devita
Posted April 9, 2025

Women's Fiction Historical | Women's Fiction Friendship

A MAP OF PARADISE

Melanie - a young and recently successful actress is blacklisted because she was seen in the company of β€œsuspected” communists. She is staying at a rented home in Malibu to be free of prying eyes in Hollywood.

Eva - a young Polish immigrant is hired as Melanie’s housekeeper and cook. She has many secrets that she hopes to leave behind in her new life in the US.

June - is Melanie’s neighbor in Malibu. She is caring for her brother-in-law, Elwood, an accomplished screenwriter.

This is my first historical fiction novel about the "Red Scare" and I was utterly transfixed! Meissner has a way of transporting the reader to the time and place of her novels and creating such authentic, three-dimensional characters. The story grabbed hold and didn't let me go until the very last page. Ultimately, A MAP TO PARADISE is an engaging and moving story of friendship, camaraderie, and resilient women.
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Learn more about A MAP TO PARADISE

SUMMARY

1956, Malibu, California: Something is not right on Paradise Circle.

With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation.

Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone?
 
As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it’s a fragile pact and one little spark could send it all up in smoke…

EXCERPT

No excerpt available.

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