I felt this story one of nothing special. Very little depth to the characters or plott. Had no feeling of its Hawaiian setting

I requested Paradise from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review only to find out I had purchased it on Amazon a couple of months ago when I went to place this review. It obviously sounded like a good read if it interested me twice.

Since the book is really a novella, there isn't a lot of page space to waste on developing the background, but we get enough info to set up Ginger, her 2 best friends/employees and husband. Despite the author stating she used pigeon English and Hawaiian words in spots and immediately provided the translation (which I appreciate, especially in an ebook, instead of having to look the words up in a glossary) it wasn't really necessary from the context and how few of them there actually were. I think we could have gotten more a flavor of the islands.

The mystery was fine with more of a twist with the second. You pretty much know who did the first right from the start. What we don't really learn was if murder was truly meant and what the exact motive was. I would have liked more of what was really going on at the dinner party.

Ginger has two paranormal abilities. As we know from the blurb she sees ghosts, but she also sees people's past lives when she touches them. Of course, anyone who believes in this tends to think they were someone important, not a mere scullery maid or prostitute. In Paradise, that's exactly the case except for one person. I didn't understand why the author added this element. I didn't think it was necessary or added anything to the story. Those that were formerly great didn't really reflect the same traits now so it didn't enforce anything or make it seem like their actions were an innate part of themselves.

Good for a quick, light mystery read.