Meet Me in Tahiti

The splendor of Tahiti’s culture and natural beauty shines in the otherwise messy third installment of Toffolo’s Meet Me series (after Meet Me in Hawaii). Zoe Tayler, an accessibility focused travel writer with paraplegia, reunites with Finn Doherty, a former gang member and the bad boy of their small English village, Hawke’s Cove, who now co-owns five luxury resorts, including the one Zoe’s been assigned to cover. As teens, Zoe and Finn harbored a mutual secret attraction for each other, both believing their feelings weren’t reciprocated. Then a heated argument in the aftermath of the car accident that paralyzed Zoe destroyed their friendship. Now physical attraction simmers as they explore Tahiti, but as each waits for the other to make the first move, they seem destined to repeat their teenage missed connection. Toffolo overloads her characters’ backstories, which does nothing to prevent them from coming across as deeply unpleasant people. The conflict is similarly overwrought and, though Toffolo has clearly done her research into the lived experience of wheelchair users, the presence of an aggressively ableist secondary character—who both Finn and Zoe nonetheless think of as a “good guy”—mars the narrative. Armchair travelers may get some joy from the setting, but others can skip this. Agent: Amanda Harris, YMU Books. (June)