Customer Reviews

The Road to Paradise Island

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The cover looks like a "bodice-ripper", but it most certainly is not! Victoria Holt was much more respectful and had dignity.

Annalice and her brother Philip are orphans from a long line of mapmakers. They find a hidden room in their house, and in there, a haunting diary from their ancestor and a map to an island with gold beyond their wildest dreams. Philip sets off to find the island, but he never returns. Annalice goes off after him and her life changes forever!

This is one of my favorites! I especially like the Victoria Holt novels where there are secrets uncovered (like a secret room and diary) and travelling to exotic places. This covers both!

When I first saw this book, it didn't look all that appeasing. It was given to me by a relative and I simply took it graciously. When I finally became interested in it, I sat and found I was in suspense and could barely put it down. The book is a captivating story of a girl, Annalice. When she finds a sealed room in her centruy old manor, she discovers a journal and a map. The journal reveals a tragic secret about Annalice's long dead ancestor. Her family business being mapmaking, her brother is fascinated by the mysterious map and goes off in search of the place clearly charted. This event starts up a whirl wind of events, some tragic, some fortunate, that all lead Annalice to her fate. I highly reccommend this ever so intriging book.

The Road to Paradise Island was the first of Victoria
Holt's books that I read. From then on I could not stop
going to the local library to search for anything written by
her.
In this story a young woman named AnnAlice finds a grave with
her name on the head stone. She then cannot stop thinking
about the person who long ago was buried there with her same
name. She finds the diary of late Ann Alice who came to a tragic
end early in life. She finds out that their lives are more entwined than just by a name.
I recommend this book along with all of her other works.
Also, just a note that you may or may not have known. Victoria
Holt wrote under a different alias "Philippa Carr"!! Have fun.

Like other reviewers, this was one of my first Victoria Holt books and I was hooked and went on to read many of her other books. I have read this one twice, my first time I think I was 13 or 14 years old. Ever since that time I wanted to have a daughter and name her Annalice, which I did eventually do with a slight spelling change. Definately not a trashy romance novel, it's full of mystery and suspense.

I have read one other Holt book, Secret for a Nightingale, and found it was one of the best books I have ever read! I went to a book store, much to my dissapointment, was told that her books were "outdated". I searched until I found this book. It was so captivating that I read it in two nights! I am still searching for more of her books. I'd reccomend any of her books to anyone.

My mom read this to me as a kid. This is my favorite Victoria Holt book ever! Holt is a very classic style writer, there are few "naughty" scenes in her books. She relies purely on plot and good writing. This book really scared me as a kid. I would not walk down a dark hallway for a month. Movies never scared me so my mom was always trying to get me spooked. This book did a number on me!(especially where the main character finds what she thinks is blood on the walls) I was scared out of my mind. Holt really used the power of imaginaion to get her point across in this book. Maybe it won't have that effect on everyone but it certainly did for me! I would read it again.

The first part of the novel was tremendously exciting, with the discovery of the secret room and the diary, but kind of went downhill from there....I found certain details in the ending a bit implausible, and couldn't suspend that much belief. To post details of the plot would be a spoiler, so I won't do it, but this wasn't as good, at least for me, as Ms. Holt's other novels. Highly recommend "The Pride of the Peacock" instead

want to read a book that has a heady mix of both romance and suspence?if yes then this book is a must read . it is definitely holt's best book ever

This is the first Victoria Holt I read and I was totally captivated by it. She has the ability to draw you into the story from the first couple of pages, something hard to find nowadays. The story revolves around Annalice, a young girl who finds the diary of one of her ancestors. In it she finds a map to an island with many riches. Her brother sets out to find it but never returns. Determined to find out what happened, Annalice goes as well. There she finds the truth and also love. This book is truly enthralling.

This was the first book of Victoria Holt that I read. I liked it so much that I read all of Ms. Holt's books, including the ones written by her under an alias. I wish I could find new ones to read, but so far, no success. This book made me get back into reading, something I had not done in a while. I really enjoyed the story.