Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles

One horrible accident on one fateful night changed it all for two teens, Maggie Armstrong and Caleb Becker. Maggie spent the last year in and out of hospitals and physical therapy, trying to assimilate into the fragments left of her life after her leg was run over in a hit and run accident. She’s self-conscious about her limp and wants to escape her small town home in Paradise. Caleb spent the past year in a juvenile detention center, charged with maiming Maggie, but he’s getting out early for good behavior. After a year apart, they now have to face each other again. But they’re not as different as they think they are; they’ve both been scarred by the accident physically or mentally and they each hold the key of forgiveness that could heal the other.

Leaving Paradise is a delicate and beautiful, if tragic, love story. Elkeles weaves this story so well, picking realistic characters with commendable hidden strengths and yet debilitating weaknesses and creating from that a bond from which Maggie and Caleb’s story flows. I can’t help but meditate on the tragedy of it all, that being at the wrong place at the wrong time could ruin so many lives. Maggie and Caleb have to constantly struggle in the present with dirty little secrets or poor self image while simultaneously trying to accept eh scarring events of the past. It’s just so sad to me that they’re losing their uphill battle ultimately even through private gains such as finding self esteem and discovering true love. So even if the ending is horribly upsetting to me, I recognize that some of the best stories have to be tragedies because that’s just the way of the world; accidents happen and love, no matter how sweet and pure, may be lost, but life goes on.

Elkeles’ storytelling skills will make readers think with the authenticity of her tales. Leaving Paradise will be enjoyed by fans of Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell, Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt, Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott, and Elkeles’ latest and slightly more satisfying novel, Perfect Chemistry.

Rating: 4.75

Review copy from personal collection