⭐⭐⭐½ stars Susan Meissner’s A Map to Paradise serves up a moody 1950s Malibu setting, a missing screenwriter, and three women bound by secrets. Blacklisted actress Melanie hides out in a beach house with Eva, a quiet housekeeper, and June, the screenwriter’s cryptic sister-in-law. When Elwood disappears and strange things start happening, the women are drawn into a web of buried truths and shaky trust. Meissner nails character development—each woman has potential, and the emotional undercurrents are there. But the storytelling felt off this time. The POV often wandered, the structure was clunky, and there were too many long flashbacks that pulled me out of the moment. Some elements just […]