Paradise Found - Mary Campisi

Love Shows Up In The Most Surprising Places...

Seven months is a long time to spend hiding from the world. But when a freak accident takes celebrated author Matthew Brandon's sight, he's no longer interested in a world he can't see--or a woman who thinks she'll be the one to save him from his self-imposed exile.

Except psychologist Sara Hamilton is hiding, too--from her own memories and emotional wounds--and flying to California to talk sense into Matthew is just a favor for a friend. If the arrogant, self-important writer--so like her own ex-husband--refuses to "adjust" to his blindness, she won't take it as a personal failure.

But neither of them is prepared for the way a battle of wills can become a union of hearts, or that sometimes the things you can't see are the only guideposts on the road to paradise--a place Sara and Matthew discover is somehow possible, if they find it together...

Paradise Found is a contemporary romance. It's a genre that, although I enjoy, I seldom read and when I do it's usually authors I have enjoyed in the past like Susan Elizabeth Phillips or Rachel Gibson. But every once in a while someone recommends an author and that's how Campisi's books found their way into my TBR pile.

It's the story of Matt, a famous author although the way he is described it seems more like he is a super star, and Sara, a psychologist hired to help him come to term with the fact that he is blind after a ski accident. Matt doesn't really want a psychologist; he just wants to be left alone with his blindness. When Sara first comes to him he mistakes her for a prostitute which doesn't exactly help their relationship. Sara also has some baggage; she was abandoned by her husband while pregnant and eventually lost the baby. I thought giving her this tragic past was unnecessary, I would have preferred to focus only on the present relationship and fortunately Campisi doesn't keep reminding us of it at every turn.

Matt and Sara eventually build a relationship that while not exactly doctor / patient, is, on her side, an attempt to help him. But as they spend more time together the attraction between them grows and they eventually embark on a romantic relationship. I did like the part of two adults, with a past and one with a disability, getting to know each other and falling in love. Especially when Sara realises that Matt is not ready for a commitment and has to choose whether to continue with him in a situation she doesn't want or cut her losses and leave. However, I felt that while the potential was there the story never fulfilled it, it could have been a more intense read or a humourous one, the fact that it never really decides where to go and that it loses itself in the usual plot devices prevented it, in my opinion, from being a stand out read.

Grade: 3.5/5