I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed the authors writing style and highly recommend.

I found this book pleasant but not quite my speed. I am a fan of natural and geographic-based tales but found that I could not quite dive deeply into the setting as I would have liked. The characters were sweet yet a tad generic. The kind of book I would read for fun on the beach yet cannot say I would recommend for a book club.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.
Set in the 1950's, the book talks about Corin Dunbar, who is left to live with her aunt in a town called Paradox, after the demise of her mother. Her aunt Jessie, who is unmarried and extremely religious is running a cattle ranch near Paradox. The story is told by Corin in her old age.
I like the way the characters and the setup are portrayed in the story. There are various layers to most of the characters and the storyline. It is well written and amazingly engaging. The intertwining of the characters of Ark and Corin is also perfectly done, showcasing their upbringing and how the story takes on after their paths crossed.
A lot of topics have been covered in this seemingly simple love story and discusses sexism and racism and a lot of difficulties experienced by the women of those times. I enjoyed reading the story.

It has taken me a while to get around to reading this book but I am so glad that I did. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It is so unlike most books that I read in this genre. I loved the characters and so many unexpected situations. It beautifully depicts life in the 1950's. I was unaware that the western movies of that era were filmed in Utah and I found that interesting. The main character, Corin Dunbar, is very strong and endures,with grace, so many things that are very difficult. I found myself rooting for her the whole time and wanting to give her advice to help her out. I highly recommend!

"I wasn’t looking for Marilyn Monroe when I bumped into her, even though I knew she was in town filming River of No Return with Robert Mitchum."

When I read this opening line I was expecting to read a historical fiction based on Hollywood with Marilyn Monroe being part of the plot line. While Marilyn Monroe only makes this one appearance in the whole book, Hollywood does play a part by being directly/indirectly involved in the different story threads- running parallel and then merging- of the diverse and interesting characters that make up the town of Paradox, Utah in the 1950s and 1960s. Behind the glamour of the Hollywood studios who come to Paradox to shoot their famous westerns lie the bitter truth about the struggles, prejudices, racism and sexism that exist in the town and it is here that we find Corin Dunbar, Noah (Ark) Stevenson, Yiska Begay and Dorothy Wittering try to rise above these prejudices in their own way.

A very well written, emotional and compelling book. I loved reading it and would like to see this made into a movie.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Prestwicke Publishing and the authors Miriam Murcutt & Richard Starks for the e-Arc of the book. The book was published on 3rd February, 2021.

In a Town Called Paradox is a great story, but it definitely moves at a slow pace, Sometimes that's ok for me, but this time it just doesn't work. I needed less description and more action.
The premise is great and at another time I might have enjoyed it more.

What a fun read with compelling characters and a beautiful description of the 1950's when Western films were all the rage. Corin is sent to live with her aunt in a Utah town named Paradox. Paradox has been transformed into a small town to lure the Western stars of Hollywood there. Corin gets caught up in the drama of the romance and the sinful nature of Hollywood. A fun read.

I am late to the party here.
This book was so well researched just as everyone says. If you enjoy small town and rural fiction especially. The descriptive writing just blew me away. I love anything to do with the southwest and this book delivered for me. The way the authors set the tone for the characters really allows you to get a feel for the inside of their emotional journey and sets the pace for how well you can connect to these vast cast of characters. The character development is honestly what pulled me in from the first page. I just loved it.
Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for the free e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Bringing Hollywood to Paradox in the 1950s was a life saver for its economy, but the many different movie stars and directors bring their own set of ambitions and trouble to the town's inhabitants. Told by Corin Dunbar, a local rancher, this is so well done that I cannot recommend it too much. Excellent read!

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, and was a bit suspicious of a book with two authors - I'm not sure I've ever read one, except perhaps a memoir or biography. However, I liked the cover and the first line of the description, and found it was good. It started off interesting enough, about a small town that built a fake western town to entice Hollywood, but then about halfway through switched directions and really engaged me. It was quick paced, and brought up a number of important themes. Probably too many themes, as it didn't go into depth on many of them. It was neat to read about old movies getting made in the background of the story. The only other main critique I have is that it perhaps would have been smoother to be narrated completely from an omnipotent perspective. I think the authors were trying to give some depth to characters' rationales and provided tidbits from different perspectives, but this made the story a little jumpy.

This beautifully written novel takes place in Utah in the 1950s. The town of Paradox has just built an authentic looking town to try to lure the big movie studios to film their Westerns there. They are successful and the small town becomes a Mecca for films and tourists. This book is about the life of one of the residents -Corin.

As the novel begins, Corin's mother has just died and her father has sent her from their home in NYC to a small ranch outside of Paradox to live with an aunt that she has never met. Corin decides right from the beginning that she is going to hate Paradox and her aunt. When the studios start filming and she sees movie stars, Paradox begins to look better. Once she makes new friends and is popular in school she begins to really enjoy her life and starts working hard to make the ranch a success and get it out of the red. After dating a boy from school who is now a deputy, she meets and is immediately enthralled with Ark - a young man from England who always wanted to see where the Westerns were filmed. He is also a very intelligent astronomer. The town isn't real sure about him at first but they gradually accept him. Add to the mix, a Navajo who escaped from a prison work crew and you have everything you need for a fantastic character driven novel.

This novel ties a lot of threads together - growing up in a small Amazon village with missionary parents (Ark), growing up with a father who was a veterinarian (Corin), the pitfalls of cattle ranching, the gossip in a small town and how the town changes once the movies start filming, along with the racism and sexism of this time period. Everything is tied together and the novel has a sad but perfect ending. This book was full of fantastic characters as well as beautiful descriptions of the Utah desert. I hated to see it end and to say goodbye to characters that I'd come to know so well.

Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of In a Town Called Paradox by Miriam Murcutt and Richard Starks.

What a beautiful and unique book. I love a good "story-telling story." This is one of those books that you should really hunker in for. Just get cozy and read a good story about Corin and her life in Paradox.

Corin has been sent away by her dad to live with her bible thumping aunt. She's interested in boys, friends, and the constant revolving door of movie stars who come to her town to shoot movies. But life changes dramatically when she meets a total outsider from England. But can their deep devotion to each other be enough to grant them the happiness that they deserve after everything they go through?

I genuinely enjoyed this, and like I said, it's simply a great story. Everytime I thought that we were climbing a climactic moment, the story flowed a different way, and we were right back to story mode. It was a refreshing change from the endless dramas and thrillers that are out there. The characters were very nuanced, and the book also did a good job shining a light on an interesting, albeit ugly part of our history.

Corin is a teenager who is sent to Paradox, Utah, to live with her aunt after her mother dies. Although she is angry at her situation, she is intrigued by the Hollywood stars who come to town to film movies, and eventually by Paradox itself. Corin's coming of age story is well done, but there are a lot of other subplots and the book moved slowly for me at times.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley. My review is voluntary.

I picked up this book not knowing much at all about its contents except that it had a catchy title. It is a coming of age story by Corin, the main character. There were times that I thought this really couldn't be happening to the people in Paradox, but it does. Set in Utah in the 1950 and 60's, these characters are drawn to Hollywood as a near by town of Eldorado is the film set of many iconic Western films. The writers take you into what it is like when the film companies come to town with the first line of meeting Marilyn. No last names needed. i didn't really care for the lengthy accounts of religion, astrology or Indian rights but they were right for the book. It's an interesting insight of growing up in rural Utah in the 60's.

I was attracted to the meeting of Marilyn Monroe. I was attracted to the setting...Utah, red cliffs and soil. I was attracted to to the premise of it being a movie making mecca in the town called Paradox. I did have a connection. My mother and two friends met Marilyn Monroe, Shelly Winters, Alan Ladd and Robert Mitchell in 1953 in the Banff Springs Hotel. They sneaked up the service elevator. My mom said Marilyn was sweet, and Robert Mitchum was, well, exactly as portrayed in this novel. But back to the story. There is a lot of story here and I definitely wanted to read on. There were a couple of false items that I noticed. If you have a pedigreed Hereford bull that is so magnificent that ranchers around want his offspring, well, I don’t think the bull can be pedigreed Hereford if his mama is an Angus. Also, there is mention of elk horns hanging in the sheriff’s office. Elk don’t have horns...they have antlers. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for ARC.

In A Town Called Paradox, by Miriam Murcutt and Richard Starks, was promising, but it just got to be too much for me. I felt confused at times and then found myself skimming some parts. I'm sure many will enjoy this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and IBPA for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

This was not the book for me. I tried to get to at least 100 pages and I struggled to do just that. I couldn't connect. I found it boring, and there wasn't anything in it that I wanted to know more about.

2/5 Stars

I enjoyed this book and read it in one day. It's the story of a young girl, Corin, who is sent from the East Coast to rural Utah to live with her Aunt Jessie after her mother dies. Grieving and angry, she struggles to settle in there, but by the time she is a teen, she's found her place in the town of Paradox, where Hollywood stars and production companies come to make cowboy movies, party, and enrich the town with their money. Through the 1950s and 60s, Corin grows up, falls in love, and explores what it means to be a woman in that time and place.

There are a lot of subplots and other characters; maybe a few too many for such a short book, but each one was interesting. The son of missionaries trying to convert the indigenous people of the Amazon is sent to boarding school in England, pursues astronomy, and eventually ends up in Paradox. A Navajo man escapes from prison and is pursued by the local racist cops. A Marilyn Monroe wannabe spends her teens and early 20s trying to make it as a star by taking bit parts in movies filmed in Paradox. Three generations of corrupt cops rule Paradox. All of these threads eventually come together in the breathless final chapters of the story. I read several reviewers that said they found the ending disappointing or too abrupt, so I was expecting that, but for me, it was satisfying. I closed the book at 3:30 am feeling like it was well worth my late night.

I will say it was rather an unusual mix of longish didactic sections on a variety of subjects (eg., animal husbandry, astronomy, the Yanomami people of the Amazon basin, the criminal treatment of Indigenous Americans by white people) and plot-driven fiction. It worked for me, because I find most of those topics of interest, but I haven't read many other books like that. Usually when fiction authors want to introduce a topic you might not know much about, they intersperse the information throughout in small bits, usually from the mouths of the characters. This author used larger chunks and often as intros to chapters, which has the benefit of allowing you to skim topics that don't interest you and get back to the plot. Like, it's enough to know that Ark is into stars in a big way without having to read every word about all the constellations.

Overall, I'd recommend this book. I liked the focus on what that era was like for women. TW: There is a gang rape scene. I don't like those, but I could see it coming a mile off and just skipped past it. If the author writes another novel, I'm likely to pick it up.

I received this ARC from NetGalley.

Due to her mother’s untimely death, Corin is uprooted as a young teenager from Yonkers where she had an idyllic life as the daughter of a zoo veterinarian to live with her aunt in the red-dirt desert town of Paradox, Utah. Resentful and sad, life takes a turn to the positive for Corin when Paradox becomes a haven for Hollywood studios and their westerns and she blossoms into her own woman in the late fifties and sixties.

Noah, nicknamed, Ark, is the son of British missionaries who send him back to Britain for schooling. He is fascinated by the stars and American westerns. After his parents are killed and he finishes school, he has an opportunity to travel to Paradox where he meets Corin.

There is so much more to this novel than just a depiction of life in the west or a girl meets boy story. There is racism, sexism, free will, human rights, a broad range and depth of human emotions, the organization of the cosmos.

Well written, with vivid descriptive language and character development, there is much to think about here. There may be times when some readers feel that some of the side stories (collecting semen from a bull!) bogs you down, but stay with it, the story is well worth it. As a side note, as someone who as lived in both the east and Utah, I really related to the descriptions of Utah’s dust and its effects; the authors captured it perfectly.

My husband also read the book. Initially, he was wary of the book; he thought it started slow and was just another static story of coming of age in the west. As different characters and dimensions were added, he really, really liked the book.

There was a LOT to digest in this book that I'm not quite sure was well conveyed within the description. The matter of fact and forthright style to the dialog felt a bit detached with some of the storylines... though it kept pace and the story kept my interest. I felt the lack of anger, rage, outbursts and/or an ass kicking or two, and I think some more emotion could have served the heavy matter being unpacked well. There was a lot of description allotted to minor players and I found myself skimming a bit. But all in all, I like the whole way around and back through Paradox that this author brings you and I enjoyed a lot of the characters. I would definitely read more from this author and I'm grateful for having been given the opportunity to read it in advance and share my thoughts.