Product Description

From the bestselling author of The Sunday List of Dreams and Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral comes a poignant, funny, and uplifting novel of a woman at midlife whose search for happiness within her marriage—and within herself—turns a whole town upside down.

After twenty-eight years of marriage to her husband Lucky, Addy Lipton feels anything but happily married. In fact, just thinking of their garage, filled to the brim with Lucky’s useless junk collection, drives Addy dangerously close to plowing her car through it. But when Lucky wins a trip to paradise—aka Costa Rica—Addy has a faint hope they may be able to turn things around. Or maybe they won’t. Either way, Addy never gets the chance to find out.

On the morning of their departure, Lucky fractures his back tossing their luggage into his truck. Now, with the man she feels she barely knows anymore parked indefinitely on her couch, Addy can’t see their already shaky relationship surviving much longer. It’s time to make some big changes—and some drastic choices.

With the love and support of her devoutly single sister Hell and her workout friends, the Sweat-hers, Addy begins a crusade to revive her dreams—and she takes the women of Parker along for the ride. Soon the men will realize they’ll have to step up to the plate to keep their wives and lovers happy. And Addy will have to decide if the paradise she’s creating in Parker is big enough for two....

Filled with small-town characters and big-time soul searching, this sparkling and inspirational tale will hit you where you live—and show you that just as happiness can get buried beneath the jumble of years, it can be rediscovered…if you look hard enough for it within your heart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107715 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Released on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780553805307
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Radish's latest warm-fuzzy (after The Sunday List of Dreams) tracks the troubled marriage of Lucky and Addy Lipton. Lucky's Kingdom of Krap—the garage littered with dismantled appliances, an old car and every other project Lucky never finished—has brought Addy nearly to the breaking point in her stale marriage, but it's the last straw when their planned trip to Costa Rica (with its possibilities for romantic rejuvenation) doesn't happen. What ensues is a summer of separation, discovering personal desires and strong female friendships (it is, after all, a Radish book). As the summer gives way to fall, Lucky tries to win his wife back, while Addy is torn between living alone or giving the marriage another go. Girl-power readers will get a kick out of the hokey girl get-togethers, and women will surely connect with Radish's empowered femmes. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Addy Lipton is a woman on the brink. When her husband, Lucky, wins a trip to Costa Rica, they view it as a chance to re-create the magic in their relationship. But Lucky literally breaks his back lifting their luggage, and Addy can’t help but see this as a metaphor for her collapsing marriage. She decides to revamp herself minus the ailing Lucky, and her pursuit of self-fulfillment sets the small town of Parker, Pennsylvania, on its ear as Addy becomes the poster child for the women trying to find paradise, or at least a partner who truly shares and listens. High jinks ensue as the town separates into pro-Addy and pro-Lucky camps. As Addy changes, so does Lucky, giving the town and Lucky hope that Addy will want him back. Radish’s many fans will not be disappointed with her hardcover debut as she delivers her message of sisterhood for all women while encouraging men to find their common bond with women and themselves. --Patty Engelmann

Review
“Kris Radish sings the praises of sisterhood by creating an enticing world of women helping women to become the empowered individuals they were meant to be.”—Booklist


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

I loved it!
SEARCHING FOR PARADISE in Parker, Pa by Kris Radish
Rating **** (4/5 Stars)

June 28, 2008


Addy and Lucky Lipton have been married for nearly 30 years. And neither can say they are really happy. Addy is going crazy, angry at all the junk Lucky has collected over the years and has accumulated in the garage. She calls it the "kingdom of krap". She doesn't feel a connection to him at all, and is on the verge of kicking him out.

When Lucky wins a trip to Costa Rica and asks Addy to go with him, they are both secretly hoping that this may revive their sinking marriage. But that morning as they are about to head on out, Lucky hurts his back so badly that he becomes bedridden and needs Addy to help him with the smallest of things. Addy is angry and frustrated, does not want to even deal with him anymore, can't even face him in the mornings, and decides she needs to make a change in her life.

With the help of her best friend and sister Hell (short for Helen) and their friends known as the "Sweat-Hers", a group of gals that all work out together, Addy makes some changes in her life and makes demands upon her husband. But it's not only Addy that produces some changes. It looks like the entire town is in on the act!

While Addy goes on her crusade to create a life that is a little more livable, a paradise in Parker, Lucky becomes closer to next door neighbor Bob. (He's Bob #1; the other neighbor on the other side is Bob #2). Bob has been divorced for some time and has gone through some drastic changes himself. With Bob's help, Lucky makes some of his own drastic revisions to his lifestyle, which will shock the hell out of the ladies of Parker, Pa, if not just Addy Lipton. The two men begin to "talk", unlike any conversations ever held between two men who are not gay. They start cooking lessons, dress a lot nicer, get their hair and nails done and basically, Lucky becomes a new man. And while this is all going on, Addy is busy with her female friends, wanting desperately to start a new life, because she feels that no matter what Lucky says or does to win her back, she is done with him. She's ready to move on.

SEARCHING FOR PARADISE was my introduction to author Kris Radish, and I am hooked! Her writing style reminded me in part of one of my favorite authors, Lorna Landvik. They have the same type of quirky characters living in a small town, with that same feel that I get from Landvik novels. All the characters are fun and unique and likable. The pace of the book is fast; there is a lot of humor despite the downer theme of a marriage on the rocks.

One major subplot includes Addy and Lucky's son's search for his biological mother, which compounds upon Addy's stress while she deals with her failing marriage. It also adds another dimension to the overall story, and demonstrates how far from perfect Addy's life has become. Not only is she dealing with the future meeting of her son's birth mother, but also a bedridden husband and a possible divorce. Frankly, she cannot wait to get rid of him! She can no longer stand to be in the same room with him.

The friendships that Addy shares with her sister Hell and all the other "sweat-hers" leaves a warm and fuzzy feeling. The feeling isn't overly sugary sweet, but I felt it was just the right amount that made me want to be a part of their group, to be one of them.

I can't say enough about SEARCHING FOR PARADISE, a very fun and enjoyable read that I think may be one of my favorite reads in 2008. Addy's search for a paradise leads her to a possible new future, with the whole town routing for her. While I wasn't sure whether sometimes she may have been a little unfair to Lucky, it is hard not to cheer her on, making every page up to the very last worth reading. - Courtesy of LoveRomances And More - M Lofton

Sweet and Fun
You know from page five how it's going to end, but that doesn't make Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA any less enjoyable. I'm sure anyone who lives in a small town, where your business is everyone's business, will identify with this story, which shows how the troubles of one married couple transform an entire community. But even I, who consider life in a small town completely unappealing, found this novel enjoyable and fun to read.

Could barely finish it
After 28 year of marriage, Addie has had enough of her sexless marriage with her overweight, junk collecting husband. Of course she never bothers to tell him how she feels, and they separate. She says some really nasty things about her husband's weight despite the fact that he was kind and an excellent father. Addie goes to work out with her friends and they have man-hating frenzies. By the last 50 pages I was hoping that the husband would run away quickly from this superficial witch and that Addie would die. I can't remember disliking a main character this much. I skimmed the last 25 pages; it was horrible.