“A delightful contribution to islomania; you need to read this book!”

 —Thurston Clarke, New York Times bestselling author,

Searching for Paradise: A Grand Tour of the World's Unspoiled Islands

“Brilliantly written and dynamic, a hilarious ride to a Caribbean island 'paradise' where X still marks the spot. This is one of the most enjoyable books that I have ever read.”

 —Nancy Koerner, author, Belize Survivor: The Darker Side of Paradise

“Doyle is a witty wordsmith who paints a profoundly touching and hysterically funny picture of life on a paradise island. Experiencing a midlife monkeylala vicariously was great fun and yet inspirational and very wise. I loved this book.”

 —Karen Blue, author, Midlife Mavericks: Women Reinventing Their Lives in Mexico

“Doyle has a winning way with words. . . . entertaining and deeply satisfying. By the end of the book, I felt as if I knew the kids and their families.”

 —Nancy Allen, award-winning author of 13 children’s books

Midlife Monkeylala: Escape to and from a Tropical Paradise chronicles three years of the author’s life on Roatan Island, Honduras, in the early 1990s before modernization. (A monkeylala is a lizard indigenous to Roatan and a popular tropical mixed drink that serve as a symbol for Doyle’s midlife adventures.) Her near-death experiences, life in a primitive village, and directing a school in a Third-World country make for compelling reading. Doyle immerses the reader in a world of rich Caribbean history and culture, colorful characters and tales of duppies, pirates and buried treasure.

In 2009, the author returned to Roatan to determine how this unspoiled island had changed over two decades and to write the epilogue to Midlife Monkeylala. When she returned to the island in 2011 to promote her book, she survived another near-death experience. This sparked the spiritual transformation that she had longed for her entire life and taught her about the genuine nature of paradise.