Return To Paradise by Simone Elkeles

Title: Return To Paradise
Author: Simone Elkeles
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd.
Pub. Date: September 2010
Pages: 302
Series: Leaving Paradise #2
Summary (from goodreads.com):
Maggie and Caleb just went through the worst year of their lives. Hit by a car and starting life over with a limp, Maggie never thought she would forgive Caleb. But she did-and fell in love. What they shared was real. But Caleb wanted to be free from the past-a terrible secret: he wasn't the one who hit Maggie. So he left Paradise-and Maggie-forever.
When Maggie and Caleb run into each other in a different town, they can't deny their true feelings. Will Maggie leg Caleb get away again? Or will Caleb face the truth and return to Paradise?

 Caleb got in trouble. Again. It been eight months since he left Paradise, the small town he grew up in, and isn't planning on returning. So when its his turn to call, he waives it. But the cop insists he call Damon, his guidance counselor from the year before. He agrees to bail him out, if he'll join Re-Start, a program for teens affected by drunk and reckless driving. When Caleb arrives for the trip, he sees someone he never thought he'd see again. Maggie.

 Return To Paradise is the sequel to Leaving Paradise, and for those of you who have read it, you were probably mad at the huge cliff hanger ending. It's told alternating between the two characters' perspectives, Caleb and Maggie, like the previous novel. Which, I have to say, disappointed me. While some parts of Caleb's view seemed real, most did not. A lot of female authors just can't write from male perspectives, and Simone Elkeles is one of them. 

The drama felt a little forced; And the way Maggie and Caleb's romance was off again on again, where one moment Maggie hated him, then next she was kissing him, seemed unreal and made Maggie look stupid. In Leaving Paradise, I understood Maggie, but in Return To Paradise, she was kind of boring. Return to Paradise is a good sequel, not as good as the first book, but still worth reading.

Rating: 

3 Moons