AUTHOR: Lise Gold GENRE: LGBTQ+ Romance PAGES: 308 pages RELEASED: 27 January 2023 SERIES: The Resort #3 SYNOPSIS: London-based casino manager Meghan has no expectations of her two-week holiday in Spain; she’s just tagging along with her friend who’s visiting her love interest. When they arrive at a deserted hotel due to a booking fault and her friend leaves to see her boyfriend, she’s left with the bartender who stays on for the night. Bartender Florence is excited for the Pride weekend held at Paradise Hotel, but she did not anticipate working a shift the night prior to serve only one guest. Meghan, the guest in question, is anxious about staying in her room alone, and after an unexpectedly pleasant evening together, Florence offers her company to make her feel safe. Meghan is delighted with the arrangement that serves them both, but her attraction to Florence confuses her. As the only straight woman at a Pride event, she can’t help but feel conflicted about all the female attention her new friend is getting, and she starts questioning everything she thought to be true about herself. Welcome to paradise where a casual and unexpectedly steamy holiday leads to a life-changing self-discovery…
Londonites Meghan and Kim are holidaying in Spain so that Kim can visit her long-distance boyfriend. Turns out that their stay at Paradise Hotel coincides with a women-only pride event, and their booking wasn’t transferred to a sister hotel like everyone else’s. With no one else staying in the hotel that first night, and Kim staying at her boyfriend’s place, Meghan is a little anxious about being in the hotel all by herself, and so bartender Florence offers to stay with her after the end of her shift. There’s definite chemistry between the pair, even with their 10 year age difference, but Meghan is adamant that she’s straight. However as she spends more time with Florence, who continues to keep her company at night while Kim is with her boyfriend, Meghan begins to question her past relationships and her sexuality. As Meghan comes to terms with this self discovery and what it could mean for her future, Florence struggles with once again being someone’s secret. As Meghan and Kim’s holiday comes to a end, Meghan and Florence are forced to face the harsh reality of holiday romances and the journey one takes to coming out to themselves and to their friends and family. Lise has gone from strength to strength with The Resort series and I have absolutely loved being whisked away to Benidorm and the swoony Spanish coast. Not only that, but she’s taken the series from being super angst-free in Welcome To Paradise, to a tiny sprinkling of angst in After Sunset, to delivering all the angst and a third-act breakup in Paradise Pride. And as much as I enjoyed the angst-free romance of the earlier books, it made total sense to Meghan and Florence’s story that things would get difficult and hearts could be broken. One of the major focuses in this book is Meghan questioning her sexuality and coming to the realisation that she isn’t actually straight. When a lot of people have their sexuality figured out in the teens and 20s, it was nice to be able to follow someone in their 30s having this realisation and what it could mean for their life plans. Lise did a wonderful job with bringing Meghan’s story to life and the pressures this coming out journey put on her relationship with Florence. There was sweet moments, there was swoony moments, there were plenty of spciy moments, and there was some heartbreak in there as well. I also loved getting to see Florence’s co-worker Manuel a little more, and seeing how his story has progressed throughout the trilogy - being a straight man, it was a massive stretch that Lise would dedicate a whole book to his story, so I loved seeing him get a happy ending too. For a secondary character that we didn’t really get to see too much of in these books, it’s weird how much he did grow on me as a side character. I’m not one to pick favourites when it comes to companion novel series, but I do think Meghan and Florence’s story might be my favourite (until I inevitably reread these books and fall in love with all the characters all over again). If you’re looking for a sweet, swoony and spicy sapphic romance with a side of age-gap and a dash of coming out in your 30s, this is the book for you! |
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