Review: Fool's Paradise by Lilliana Anderson (Cartwright Brothers #5)


Note: An advanced reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author.

Who is this guy? Men like Toby Cartwright didn't exist. Not in my world, anyway. Women like me didn't attract men like him. And if they did, they certainly didn't get to keep him.

FINALLY!!! Gah! I've been waiting for Toby Cartwright's book ever since he first entered my consciousness in the Cartwright Brothers series starter. He was the quietest among the five brothers--the one everyone leaned on, the eldest who took his responsibility to his mother and his younger brothers seriously, to the point that he put his life on hold while everyone else lived theirs to the fullest--and yet he was a scene stealer in the each of the first four novels. Okay, maybe he simply stole my heart from the get-go, and I was itching for the poor guy to have the same kind of happily-ever-after that his brothers got with their women. No, scratch that. I wanted Toby to have an even more wondrous happy ending. Why? Because he absolutely deserved it after everything he sacrificed. Yeah, I'm totally playing favorites her but I don't care. I happily embrace my favoritism towards the intense Toby Cartwright.

Saying Blair Page is good at her job wouldn't do her justice. The thirty-four-year-old is frickin' fantastic at what she does, her success rate when it comes to finding people incomparable to anyone else in the private investigation business. Her latest mark, however, doesn't seem all that difficult to find, which makes her wonder why forty-year-old Toby Cartwright's family didn't bother to go looking for him on their own. The man is unlike any other guy she's ever met before. She's drawn to him like a moth to a flame, and Blair doesn't seem to be all that afraid to get burned if it means being able to be with him even if it's only a one-time thing. But things don't go according to plan, and soon, Blair and Toby find themselves aligned against a common enemy. This could very well be the last stand for either one of them, but for two people who may not have feared dying before, meeting each other has led them to realize that they finally have something to live for. The question is: who will be left standing in the end?

I was prepared for Toby going into Fool's Paradise; what I wasn't ready for was to be taken by the spitfire softie that was Blair. I didn't think anyone would be good enough for my (yep, he's MINE) Toby, but Lilliana Anderson created perfection in the flawed but endearing woman that is Blair. She was THE one for Toby. These two came into each other's lives with their own sets of baggage, but there was never any judgment that went on. I absolutely adored them together. They clicked in every aspect that two people in a relationship are supposed to click. Does that mean that they had an ideal coupling? Nope, but where they had missing pieces, the other simply slotted into place, as if those spots were waiting for them to come all along. We still get the usual suspects--aka the Cartwrights, from the matriarch to the latest generation--here, although it didn't feel as if they were as prominently featured as in the past books. That doesn't mean, though, that this falters in any way, shape, or form. If anything, Fool's Paradise was the perfect series ender, one that brought everything full circle, in the absolute best way possible. Five-plus stars. ♥

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Read my reviews for the Cartwright Brothers series:


 Fool Me Twice (book one) - five-plus stars - My Review

Fools Rush In (book two) - 4.5 stars - My Review

Foolish Games (book three) - five-plus stars - My Review

Fool's Errand (book four) - five stars - My Review

Fool's Paradise (book five) - stars - My Review (posted above)

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Release Date: 31 December 2018

Date Read: 30 December 2018

Learn more about Lilliana Anderson.

Pre-order Fool's Paradise on Amazon.

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