Sunday, July 19, 2020

What You Wish For by Katherine Center

I enjoyed this contemporary romantic novel. What do you do when someone you knew a long time ago resurfaces in your life but is so very different? And what do you do when that person is bent on destroying everything you hold dear about the school in which you are the librarian?

Center did a fine job developing realistic characters. Samantha has issues but she has learned to live with them in a very good way. How touching that the founders of this private elementary school took her under their wing. And then there is Duncan. We know from Samantha's previous experience with him that his current hard line personality is not who he has always been. We wonder what happened to him and we hope Samantha can somehow help him find his way back to his real self. Other characters added so much to the story, like Alice and her crazy math jokes and t shirts, Clay, the student who knew so much about the ocean, and Chuck Norris, the dog who defied all the training Duncan tried to force on him.

Center has good insight into human character and situations and how to overcome obstacles to living life with joy, especially in the face of uncertainty or tragedy. There are some serious issues in the novel and how they affect people but the bottom line is living to find the joy in the midst of it all.

You can read an excerpt here.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Katherine Center is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several novels. She studied creative writing at Vassar College and the University of Houston. She lives in Houston with her husband and their two children. You can find out more at http://katherinecenter.com/ Photo: Skylar Reeves.

St Martin's Press, 320 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)

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