Review: What You Wish For
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the gifted ARC of What You Wish For. Available now.
Please note: some minor spoilers are in this review!
Rating: 2.5 stars
Steam: Kissing only.
I’m a huge fan of Katherine Center and her books, she’s one of my favorite “women’s fiction” authors! How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire were both Five star reads for me.
That being said I wasn’t as in love with What You Wish For as I hoped! Center’s writing in this one is just as delightful as her previous works, I gobbled up the book in two sittings. But I really struggled with the pacing of the story and parts of the plot.
Some of Sam’s behaviors were kind of bothersome considering what happens in the book, a lot of scenes she just came off as very selfish. I did like that she was living with epilepsy, I always love seeing characters living with chronic conditions but I would be curious to hear if the epilepsy representation was accurate or not. I love love loved the scene where she had to take care of Duncan following his surgery. Such a great forced proximity moment and so delightful! There were a lot more little moments I really enjoyed too, but the pacing was so strange. It would jump from months at a time and then the last 25% of the book was all in one night??
I enjoyed the first 75% of the book, minus a few moments, but I honestly hated how the ending was set up. The pier scene really made me kind of hate Sam, she came off totally inconsiderate and her reaction to Duncan telling her more of his backstory was infuriating. And sooo much happened back to back, it was unbelievable and not fun to read. The whale coming in was just kind of bizarre.
Since I read this without reading Happiness for Beginners first (I know, I know) it did make me want to go back and read that story immediately! Maybe I would have liked this one more if I read them in order?
What You Wish For was a miss for me. I still highly recommend Center’s books, but I would suggest starting with one of her other works.