BOOK REVIEW ---- 5+ Stars --- Fool's Paradise by Lilliana Anderson

Fool's Paradise 

(Cartwright Brothers Book 5)

by Lilliana Anderson

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5+ stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This book had me crying.  It had me crying at the sheer emotional intensity between Toby and Blair and also because it means farewell to the sexy Cartwright brothers and their amazing wives

Where to start with this review?  How can I ever put into words the journey this book, this series has taken us on?  I started the year with an amazing book and it looks like I'm finishing the year with one that is equally as amazing.  So amazing I almost feel lost for words.

Fool's Paradise is the fifth book in the Cartwright Brother's series.  Whilst it could be read as a stand alone, there is plenty of explanation dropped in to 'catch you up' on the story but not too many spoilers, for two reasons I would instead recommend reading the rest of the series first.  Reason 1 is that in order to truly enjoy and get the most out of this book you need the full background story that has run through the other books.  The second reason is that every single book is fantastic and each brother is swoon-worthy, smouldering hot and wondrous in their own way.  You'd be missing out on what, to me, has been the best contemporary romance series of 2018.

I've been a little in love with Toby since we first saw his hidden heartache in Fool Me Twice, Book #1 of the series.  In each successive book we've caught glimpses of a man who constantly puts his family before his own happiness.  So this book was going to go one of two ways......... I was going to be broken in the best possible way, or I was going to be hugely disappointed. 

Toby was quickly becoming my everything. I didn't want to let go.

I couldn't.

I'm still mopping up the tears from my ugly crying over how beautifully broken Toby and Briar are, so we can safely say there was no disappointment anywhere!

No longer able to face a life he never wanted to live, Toby has disappeared.  Blair has been sent to find him and bring him home.  The haunted look that was ever present in his eyes is no longer there, can Blair be the one to drag it back?  With secrets and demons of her own, she knows just how soul destroying life can be.

"I want my soul back."There was such utter desolation in his expression that it took every morsel of strength within me not to cry. 

This man bleeds goodness. Alongside his misery.

I've already admitted that Toby has been lodged in my heart for what seems like forever.  He is and always will be one of my favourite book boyfriends and I have been desperately waiting for his story.  I knew Lilliana Anderson would need to write the heroine of all heroines, along with one pretty amazing plot, in order to meet the expectations I held for this book.  Well let me tell you now that she did even better than I anticipated and this story literally blew me out of the water.

Dread rolled of his body as he donned his old skin, the one we'd shed together. 

I could see my Toby slipping further and further away. 

My Toby......

Toby is a damaged hero, one whose pain you feel and who will steal your heart before you know it. Blair is a broken heroine, and I'm stunned that I ended up loving her as much as, if not even more than, Toby.  It needed someone special for me to hand my Toby over to, and Blair was just the perfect most imperfect heroine to do the job.  I loved at the end how all her problems weren't solved by love alone. 

He wanted me to get my head straight, to quite drinking, to quit using sex as a bandaid to my mental anguish. Love myself first? I didn't know if I could do that. Didn't know how.......

Love gave her the strength to tackle them, but professional help was still required.... just one of the many small touches that make this book feel real. Mad cap plot aside. I even forgave her for saying this about us maths teachers

"You've got to choose boring occupations that no one wants to talk about - accountants, indurance brokers, maths teachers."

I lost count of how many times this book made me cry.  Now I just want to be left alone to wallow in the glory of it, to mourn the passing of this series, to basque in the 'sunshine' of the story and to soak up the love that flowed from it's very soul.

I don't just recommend this book to ALL of you, I recommend the entire series.  These are the books that are so special you buy the paperback version too, so that you can fall in love with them all over again.

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Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Paradise-Cartwright-Brothers-Book-ebook/dp/B07J2TVBYH

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Synopsis

My job had a very specific goal: I found people who didn’t want to be found and delivered them to whoever employed me. 

After that, well, I tried not to think about what happened while I spent my money on things that made me happy. Resorts, men…I lived life by the seat of my pants because I never knew where I’d be the next week, or who I’d be looking for. 

When the head of a lesser-known criminal family hired me to find her son, I wasn’t sure what I was walking into. I had his photo, so I knew the man was hot with a capital H. But I expected the usual agitated scumbag I normally went after. Not some guy running a fishing charter and looking like he didn’t have a care in the world. 

I might have been curious. 

I might have gotten a little too close. 

I might have done a lot of things I shouldn’t have. 

Things that could get me killed this time. 

But hey, life wasn’t always about making the right choices. It was about making good ones. 

And Toby Cartwright was a great choice. 

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Ratings

5 stars - This is a book I will not forget and would definitely read again.

4 stars - I really enjoyed this book, I might not read it again but I would definitely recommend it to others.

3 stars - This story was good but either forgettable or just very typical of its genre.

2 stars - Whilst the book was readable I either didn't enjoy parts of the plot or just could not connect to the main characters.

1 star - This is a book I simply could not finish for reasons listed in the review.

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