---
product_id: 8379780
title: "Leaving Paradise (A Leaving Paradise Novel)"
brand: "simone elkeles"
price: "VT5785"
currency: VUV
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/8379780-leaving-paradise-a-leaving-paradise-novel
store_origin: VU
region: Vanuatu
---

# Leaving Paradise (A Leaving Paradise Novel)

**Brand:** simone elkeles
**Price:** VT5785
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Leaving Paradise (A Leaving Paradise Novel) by simone elkeles
- **How much does it cost?** VT5785 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/8379780-leaving-paradise-a-leaving-paradise-novel)

## Best For

- simone elkeles enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted simone elkeles brand quality
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## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![Leaving Paradise (A Leaving Paradise Novel) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31kMzFkVPgL.jpg)
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![Leaving Paradise (A Leaving Paradise Novel) - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31hcFPbfiRL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    It rang true, and I can't wait to see what happens in Return To Paradise
  

*by M***B on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 27, 2010*

Plot Summary: One horrible night changed so many lives.  Caleb Becker has spent over a year at a juvenile detention facility for hitting his next-door neighborhood, Maggie Armstrong, while driving drunk and fleeing the scene of the accident.  Maggie has changed from a confident athlete to a solitary, friendless girl with a permanent limp.  Caleb gets out of jail just when Maggie is finally ready to return to high school, and she's not ready to forgive Caleb for changing her life for the worse.  Caleb and Maggie just want their old lives back, but everyone has changed, and in the end, they discover a powerful connection within each other.This is, without a doubt, one of the most authentic young adult books I've read in a long while.  This is how teens think, feel, and speak, and I'm not sure how an adult like Simone Elkeles manages to channel her younger years, but it's impressive.  There's a scene halfway through the story, where Maggie's mother gets up and dances with someone at a festival, and Maggie is ready to die of embarrassment.  She's convinced that everyone is laughing at her mother, and by extension, her too, and it's such a quintessential teen moment, because the adult me knows differently.  Nobody cared but Maggie, but in a teen's mind the world revolves around her public perception.  Thank goodness most of us grow out of that, because it's an uncomfortable way to live.This is one of those stories that is deceptively simple, short, and sweet on the surface.  It makes for a fast read, but there are complicated emotions roiling underneath the narrative that alternates between Caleb and Maggie's point of view.  I think the power in this book is that Ms. Elkeles took a realistic scenario that could happen to any teen, but twisted it so that the guilty and the victim end up finding their salvation in each other.  If only there was a kind of cosmic justice that really did work this way.The silver lining is that they both turn into better people because of what happened.  Caleb went from being a thoughtless, carefree `popular,' into someone who learned that a person's core is more important than the outside fluff.  He comes back from prison with new eyes, and sadly for him, he sees his former friends, girlfriend, and family in a new light.  Maggie was messed up before the accident due to her broken family, but she comes out much, much stronger than she was before.While I admire Leaving Paradise, it had one big flaw from my perspective, and that was its predictability.  There weren't too many surprises along the way, and even though I savored how it all played out, the few twists were kind of obvious.  I could see them coming from a mile away, and I wish I had been surprised.The good news for everyone who read this book with me is that the sequel, Return to Paradise, will be released very soon - September 1, 2010.  Leaving Paradise came out in 2007, and I can't begin to imagine what the wait has been like for people who read this three years ago, because Ms. Elkeles did not provide a tidy conclusion.  Here's another bit of news; on the author's website it said that she's not writing a third book in the Leaving Paradise series, so book two will provide the conclusion to this story.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Feeling cheated here!
  

*by C***E on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 25, 2009*

First thing, this book was almost perfect!  Strong characters you can relate to and feel for, good story, and a mystery you didn't see coming until towards the end.  Simone Elkeles did a fantastic job with Leaving Paradise.  So why did I feel cheated? Don't read any farther unless you're ready for the spoiler alerts.I was all prepaired to hate Caleb. Drunk driving, he hits Maggie, his old friend and twin sister's best friend and drives off.  He appears to have a chip on his shoulder when he gets out of a juvenile DOC. He feels that because he has already served his time he owes no one.  Until he runs into Maggie and sees how she's been reduced to a shadow of her former self. Now, events lead up that keep throwing them together, and each going through their own personal demons, they find strength in each other. I thought that after everything they've been through, they would stay together in the end. It seems that they can be stronger together than apart. But Elkeles has Caleb running off with with a stranger at the end, leaving both Paradise and Maggie. I just don't get it. I know he's had enough of his family, but he's been barely home to decide he's had enough and leaves his parents and his sister. He said he started "feeling" when he's with Maggie, and then he just ups and leaves her? Elkeles gives hope for two families, and where's the hope for Caleb?  One of the innocents in this story who turns out to have paid the most, aside from Maggie.  I don't see what the purpose was of having Caleb run away in the end. What does that prove? How does that help Caleb be better off? So now things look good for Maggie and Leah, I have visions of Caleb selling drugs some where in the streets of Chicago because he ran off before he could even finish high school?  The story was 99% awesome, and then literally, the last three pages just bring everything down.  I still don't know what happened!!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Leaving Paradise
  

*by P***E on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 25, 2010*

Taken from [...]My Thoughts: Wow! Wow! Wow! As you may have noticed I'm a huge Elkeles fan! I adored The How To Series and this was just as great! We meet Maggie who was hit by a car driven by Caleb. Maggie has always had a thing for Caleb and of course Caleb was too blind to really notice her. She was his twin sister's best friend and the girl next door. Caleb was popular, hot, and had the girlfriend everybody wanted. One night during a party Maggie was at the wrong place at the wrong time and all bets were off. Ever since that night, Maggie has suffered. She has a limp now and had to spend months in recovery trying to get past the accident and still has the scars to remind her. Caleb had spent the last year in juvie trying to make up for his sins.Caleb and Maggie get back out in the real world, school, work, and just basic life. They are bound to run into each other. Maybe even more than they realize. Nobody really understands what either of them has gone through and because of this, their relationships with other people are hurt.I really loved this book. Love is an understatement here. I can't wait to read Return To Paradise. I instantly fell in love with Caleb, maybe it was his tough outer-shell but I knew deep down he had to be a sweetheart. Caleb, his having spent time in jail appealed to me even more because he had that bad boy aroma that I always tend to like. I also really liked Maggie, there was something soft about her that made her a wonderful character. Throw in all the side characters and Leaving Paradise is a real winner and a treat to read.Overall: Loved it. From the first page I was instantly hooked, and stayed up way past my bedtime to keep reading. The attic scene was sweet! If you haven't picked this book up, run out and buy it now!What I'd Give It:5 cupcakes all the way!Cover: Really like it a lot. I like the hand holding and the tattoo on his arm. Totally fits the book.

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*Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu*
*Store origin: VU*
*Last updated: 2026-01-29*