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Book Summary and Reviews of A Map to Paradise by Susan Meissner

A Map to Paradise by Susan Meissner

A Map to Paradise

by Susan Meissner

  • Publishes:
  • Mar 18, 2025, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

1956, Malibu, California: Something is not right on Paradise Circle.

With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter's agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He's her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation.

Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood's sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don't see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone?

As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it's a fragile pact and one little spark could send it all up in smoke…

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
  1. When the women in the novel meet on Paradise Circle, all three are feeling the loss or imminent loss of their sense of belonging. Why is each woman struggling with a sense of crippling displacement? Are they on Paradise Circle by choice or circumstance?
  2. Has your sense of "I'm right where I belong" ever been similarly threatened or taken from you? How did you recover it? Or how did you adapt?
  3. How important is the concept of home to you? In what ways was your sense of home shaped by your life experiences?
  4. June, Melanie, and Eva all see themselves as victims in some way. Do you agree that they are victims? Who do you think is and who do you think isn't, and why?
  5. Do you think the women end up becoming friends because of these ...
Please be aware that this discussion may contain spoilers!

See what our members are saying about this book in our Community Forum.

What book or books are you reading this week? (01/16/2025)
I have to look - how can I forget? LOL!! In the past week and a half I read: GOOD BAD MOTHER by Anya Mora A MAP TO PARADISE by Susan Meissner BEACH VIBES by Susan Mallery - not my usual genre, but I enjoyed it - there was some tension and a bit of a mystery Currently reading: THE FISHERMAN'...
-Elizabeth

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Reviews

Media Reviews

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This information about A Map to Paradise was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Susan Meissner Author Biography

Susan Meissner is a USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction with more than three-quarters of a million books in readers' hands and translations in eighteen languages. She is an author, speaker and writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. Her novels include The Nature of Fragile Things, which earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly; The Last Year of the War, named to Real Simple magazine's list of best books for 2019; As Bright as Heaven, which earned a starred review in Library Journal; Secrets of Charmed Life, a Goodreads finalist for Best Historical Fiction 2015; and A Fall of Marigolds, named to Booklist's Top Ten Women's Fiction titles for 2014. She attended Point Loma Nazarene University in California and makes her home with her husband and ...

... Full Biography

Name Pronunciation
Susan Meissner: MICE-ner

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