Customer Reviews

What Price Paradise

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

 

 

Abby is stuck in a small town, without the means to leave. She only works two nights a week waiting tables at the local bar being she doesn't have her diploma and that's all she can get. Every Friday Tate comes in to hang with his friends and have a beer and one Friday, after he has a big fight with his fiancée he is waiting in the parking lot to take her home and being she's the daughter of the town's (literal) whore she knows he's going to want to come inside.

Six weeks later and again Tate and his fiancée Diane are fighting, and for the 15th time she throws the ring back in his face and walks out the door to leave on vacation for two weeks. But this time when Tate talks to Abby he guesses she's pregnant and is determined to sacrifice his true love, Diane, and do right by Abby. He doesn't love Abby, he doesn't even know her but soon after they are married they are having an extremely hot and heavy sexual relationship, but that doesn't stop him from feeling massive guilt every time he hears anything about Diane.

What really bothered me about this book is that by the end we are supposed to believe that he used Abby to get out of his duty to marry Diane, being he had always had feelings for Abby, and yet he has a one night stand with her and doesn't say another word to her for six weeks and continues to maintain the love of his life is Diane? I guess that really stuck me the wrong way because he was so kind and eager in the beginning to please Abby and then Diane gets back in town and all he can feel is guilt. Tate is a straight up bumbling idiotic putz for 95% of the book. It's like one step forward two steps back for him . . . well, once he finally gets her into bed again anyway. He never cared when Diane ran around on him with the whole town so the fact he is jealous of any guy who smiles at Abby is just strange. Even if we are supposed to believe he didn't love Diane didn't he have any pride? What man wants to be cuckolded even if he doesn't care about the woman?

Another thing that bothered me is the obvious flubbing of their ages. Tate is supposed to be 13 years older than his 16 year old brother or 29 but he also went to college at 18, left 4 years later (22) and then cared of the family ranch for 4 years after that, or is 26. The same goes for Abby. She is supposed to be the daughter of the town whore but she had to drop out of high school to take care of her mom when she had cancer and then was on her own for 1 year after she died and she also never supported herself while her mother was alive so how is it that she's 23 unless her mother was dying of cancer for 5 years and yet still whoring? The whole thing is convoluted to get Abby in a position where she will be dependent on Tate.

The secondary characters of Buddy and Joe are good, but the whole thing was such a mess with Abby wanting Tate to actually chose her over Diane, which he never does and Tate feeling guilty about anything and everything, while trying to be a good husband to Abby and trying to move on from Diane who has her clutches deep in him.

This is a sweet tale that needed a bit more editing and a hero who wasn't so wishy-washy but for what it is it's an enjoyable little book.

3 stars.

What Price Paradise is light, sweet romance composed of great characters and growing love.

Abby, after a drunken, one night stand finds out she is pregnant with Tate McCullom's baby. Tate, being the upstanding, responsible man he is asks Abby to marry him. Tate and Abby immediately get married, despite Tate's engagement to the woman he has been in love with his entire life. Tate and Abby struggle with their new life together, trying to get to know eachother, preparing for the baby, and fighting with Tate's lingering feelings for his former fiance'.

Katherine Allred has a gift for creating characters. These are realistic people who you would want as friends or family. Abby is a sweet, innocent, and shy young lady who starts out young and naive and grows throughout the story into a strong caring heroine. Tate is a tough yet loving cowboy who is trying to do what is right while struggling with his past.

I enjoyed What Price Paradise because of the wonderful characters. The storyline however I did feel was a bit flat. There was not really a strong climax in which the story led up to. I read The Sweet Gumtree prior to this book (which is one of my all time favorites also by Katherine Allred), so my expectations were rather high. But this story I felt was just lacking a bit of that excitement which grabs the reader until they cannot put the book down.

Overall I would recommend What Price Paradise I would just tell the reader to expect an even, easy going reading experience not a rock your world emotional roller coaster.

This was such a cute little story. I loved how Tate took care of Abby and never became one of those arrogant jerks that believes the heroine has 'trapped' them. He did have his issues with his former love, but he was just a people pleaser.

Abby was a cute heroine learning all she could about Tate, but she still had her backbone to stand up to him. Overall I would recommend this story.

I liked this book. I admit the ages thing did throw me, I'm not very good at Advanced Math, but I CAN add and subtract reasonably well. Getting past that, the book is about a man and woman who have a one night stand, she gets knocked up. He convinces her to marry him, it's the only option he considers, and she reluctantly agrees. The kink in the story, he is already engaged to another woman, one he has been with since they were children. They have an on-again, off-again stormy relationship because she constantly cheats on him and dumps him. They get back together, and the whole cycle begins again. So he has this massive amount of guilt when he marries his bride, the guilt shows up when the couple isn't going at it like bunnies, but as soon as the afterglow wears off. His bride is trying to do everything right so she doesn't get kicked out, (hero would never do that, but she doesn't know it in the beginning). Another guy comes sniffing around the heroine, and hero gets jealous. Never mind the fact the new guy is actually the hero's best friend and armchair psychologist and is intentionally making the hero jealous. Then lo and behold, and the end, hero decides the love he thought he felt for former fiance is nothing but a child love, and they can be friends, he goes back to his pregnant wife to find out she has left in the night with nothing but her clothes and money his younger brother has given her. So flash forward a few weeks, the hero is depressed, can't find her and has come to his senses. Finds the heroine and they live happily ever after.

Oh my goodness. What an amazing novel!! It's an oldie, but a goodie! (I say old... it was published in 2005; compared to what I've been reading it's an oldie!)

I'll admit I was a little torn after I read the book description for What Price Paradise. This novel is about a guy who's caught between his fiancé and the girl he gets pregnant. My first thought after reading the book description was, "There is no way I am going to like this guy, and if I don't like the main character how can I like this novel?" But, boy was I wrong. Tate, the main character caught between two women, is incredible! He's sweet. He's sexy. And, he's a country boy!

See here is the thing...Tate has known Diana since they were kids. They have been together forever, but Diana is a horrible person. She cheats on Tate, and she constantly throws his ring back in his face. One day they have a huge fight and break up. During that break Tate "hangs out" with Abby. A few week later, him and Diana have reconciled (for the hundredth time) and Abby is pregnant.

This novel was romantic and exciting. It's original and beautifully written. I was addicted to every word, and I couldn't put it down. If you are torn about reading this novel, I suggest you stop second guessing yourself and go for it. I made the right choice by reading this novel.

I gave What Price Paradise by Katherine Allred 4 STARS. I strongly recommend this novel to adults and older young adults. I look forward to reading more novels by Allred in the future!

-XOXO

READING, EATING & DREAMING

FOR MORE REVIEWS CHECK OUT MY BLOG ON BLOGSPOT: READING, EATING & DREAMING I WAS BLAIR WALDORF

I've been on the look-out for novels about guys who are torn between the woman whom they think they love and the one they are helplessly attracted to, and the sweet but strong women who are in love with these guys forever. This kind of story line gives a very emotional, and heart-wrenching read, and they are hard to come by, especially the ones that are done just right, like this one. (The Velvet Promise by Jude Deveraux, where Gavin, the hero, is always in such turmoil over Judith, the h, not the woman he thinks he loves, became one my favorite novels. I didn't enjoy "The Rake's Rainbow" where the hero is in love AND ALSO very obsessed with ow until the very last chapter. He even wished h dead at one point!) My heroes would have to feel at least passion for the heroine since from the get go, if not love. It's a must. In this story, Tate has been in love with Diane for all his life, at least he thinks he is. But he can't help his attractions to Abby. Abby got pregnant just after one drunken encounter and they married, it's not a spoiler, Abby is pregnant since the first page. What follows is a very sweet, and passionate story of Tate's journey to self-discovery, and proving his love for Abby. What I like about this book is how Tate is so obsessed with Abby even when he thinks he loves another. He also feels very guilty about his feelings for Diane, and suffers when he thinks (and he knows!) he hurts Abby. Also, if you love older Linda Howard books, you will like Katherine Allred, I see some resemblances.

I came across this book by accident and I was very glad I did. I liked both the H/h. The h was a nice small town girl with a crappy life. Her mother was the town's prostitute and they were dirt poor. She took care of her mother and never resented her mother for the life they had. She worked at a bar a few days a week to pay bills. Abbie(h)secretly had a crush on the Tate(H). She was a pretty strong and independent young woman. The H was pretty much a nice guy but a little dense when it comes to love. He was engaged to a woman who kept cheating on him. He was aware of her infidelity and yet he kept the engagement. Luckily for him fate stepped in and he had a one night affair with Abbie and she became pregnant. I hated how long it took for him to realize that Abbie was who he truly loved and not the skank he use to be engaged to. I liked that Tate was always kind to Abbie even if he didn't think he was in love with her. I liked Tate's brother and friend. I loved how they conspired to keep Abbie and Tate together. I enjoyed watching Tate get jealous. IMO this was a sweet romance and I was so happy for their HEA.

This was a very good read. You never know sometimes when you buy an ebook online. But the writing was good. The plot made sense and followed well. The characters grew during the course of the book. The romance was sweet and lovely. Not a lot of high drama just a nice romance much better than many Harlequins that are out there today. It was a contemporary romance about a poor girl who ends up pregnant after a one night stand with an engaged man.