In the third McCallister’s Paradise book, Sydney McCallister works in New York City where she evaluates foundations and gives out grant money to various charities. Unfortunately, she can’t accept every applicant, which angers a lot of people.
Matt Coleson founded New Beginnings to help drug addicts recover from their addiction and to get homeless people off the street by giving them an education and a job. He desperately needs the McCallister grant but didn’t get it. After he curses Sydney out at her office, he thinks that’s the end of it, until she bursts into his office accusing him of vandalizing hers. A tentative friendship blooms between them, but they come from two different worlds—he’s the homeless street kid who rose above the statistics to do good things with his life, and she’s the rich girl who wants to help others.
Sydney and Matt are awesome characters, and I love that their roles were reversed when compared to most romance novels. They both have alpha tendencies, but he’s more beta than most romantic heroes, which was a breath of fresh air for me. Their arguing did grow frustrating at times, but they meshed wonderfully and had chemistry.
Half the book takes place in New York, and the other half is on the McCallister resort island. I liked both parts of the story equally. Even though I’d already guessed what the “big problem” was going to be for the couple, their pain drew tears to my eyes and I couldn’t stop smiling once Matt and Syd made up.
The McCallister family is back and as wonderful as ever. Though I haven’t read book 2 in the series, this book gave enough information above the previous one so I wasn’t lost. All these books are standalones.
I like the author’s writing style, but there were some awkward sentences, so I had to reread a few passages to understand what was going on. I really enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more in the series.
4 Stars
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I love the MacCallisters! Sydney's story is perfect! She's her regular snarky, strong self, and she meets a man who is willing to stand up to her. Beloved characters from previous books are revisited, and the story continues. A lovely story with a few dark spots, this would be a great beach read. Totally enjoyable! ( )