The Synopsis:

What she needs is a miracle. What she gets is a genie with rules.

Lacey Linden has gotten good at hiding the truth of her life—a depressed mom, a crumbling house, and bills too big to pay. In school, she’s a girl with a ready smile and good grades, but at night, Lacey spends her time dreaming up ways to save her family. On a get-cash-quick trip to the flea market, she stumbles over a music box that seemingly begs her to take it home. She does, only to find it is inhabited by a gorgeous “genie.” He offers her a month of wishes, one per day, but there’s a catch. Each wish must be humanly possible.

Grant belongs to a league of supernatural beings, dedicated to serving humans in need. After two years of fulfilling conventional wishes, he’s one assignment away from promotion to a new job with more challenging cases. His month with Lacey is exactly what he expects and nothing like he imagines. Lacey and Grant soon discover that the hardest task of all might be saying goodbye.

I purchased this book on my own and was not required to write a review. Therefore, comments and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

Now that my heart has been ripped from me, I shall try to find words that accurately describe this stunning story.

At first look, this may appear to be a sappy high school romance with some feel good scenes, and as much as I enjoy YA Romances, I’m so glad that this book was more than that. Lacey and Grant are certainly the main characters, but the story is centered around repairing the brokenness of Lacey’s family, not their impossible romance. And to me, that was so much better.

I admired how Lacey handled her complicated life. She is a character who is self-reliant and a “get-it-done” girl who always puts her brother and her mother first, even if that means she has to give up the rest of her childhood so her 8-year-old brother can have a good one. She denies herself so many things that other teen girls take for granted and she battles realistic fears. I genuinely grew to love her and her family alike.

Grant is easy to love. He is patient, understanding, and cares deeply for this family that is so broken. Despite the fact that he’s a genie and literally has a timer for how much longer he has with them, he opens himself up to them and goes above and beyond what is wished of him.

Also, my close experience with family and friends being in the military (my sister is in the Navy and my two best friends are Marines), made me immensely appreciative of the honor and respect given to our military in this book. There are several distinct scenes that have the sole purpose of honoring our fallen heroes.

I loved everything about this book really, but the last thing I’ll mention specifically is the fact that Lacey and her brother Henry loved their step-father just as much as their real dad. And I believe that is huge in today’s literature. So many books and movies portray step family members as symbols of hate, and that’s simply not fair. There are many step families that have problems, sure, but there are also many that are blessings. So seeing the good image given to a step-dad for once in a YA book, pleased me more than I would have thought it would.

I Wish definitely receives a full 5 out of 5 stars from me along with a warning that there is a decent amount of cursing and several kisses, but nothing more.

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & noble | Litsy

Rated:

About Elizabeth Langston

Elizabeth Langston lives in North Carolina, halfway between the beaches and the mountains. She has two twenty-something daughters, one old husband, and too many computers to count. When she’s not writing software or stories, Elizabeth loves to travel with her family, watch dance reality shows on TV, and finish more books on her To-Be-Read pile.

Elizabeth has two YA magical realism series: I WISH (“genie”) and WHISPER FALLS (time travel romance). Elizabeth also writes YA contemporary romance as Julia Day.

Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Website