Book review: What You Wish For by Katherine Center

What You Wish For features feisty Sam Casey, librarian of a hand-crafted, progressive school and all-around awesome human. She lives on an idyllic island in a carriage house on the grounds of a historic mansion within walking distance of the school.

Don’t you love books about beautiful libraries and cool librarians? I know I do.

Sam has “adopted” the principal and his artist wife as her parents, which causes no end of friction with their biological daughter, but Sam takes that in stride.

Everything else in Sam’s life is perfect. Until it’s not.

Following the sudden and untimely death of the beloved principal, the community is plunged into grief. When the new principal, Duncan Carpenter, is announced, Sam realizes he is a figure from her past—the love of her life. Once Duncan arrives, however, things go anything but smoothly for Sam and the school. Both Duncan and Sam harbor secrets and live with long-buried pain that threatens their relationship and their careers.

What You Wish For explores the interplay between desire and retreat, resentment and fear, vulnerability and love.

Aside from Sam and Duncan, the other most compelling character is Clay Buckley, Sam’s soon-to-be third grader student and son of Sam’s nemesis. In fact, more than the story of Sam and Duncan’s relationship, it is Clay who, despite a conflict-ridden home life, infuses this novel with heart. Clay is smart, sensitive, and perhaps even a touch presentient—traits his domineering, selfish father scorns. The climax in which Sam, Duncan, and Clay come together is dramatic and beautiful.

What You Wish For is a story of a true community written with a breezy, inviting voice—sometimes funny, often poignant, always engaging. If what you wish for is a book with heart and soul and second chances, then I suggest you pick up What You Wish For.

I received a copy of What You Wish For from Netgalley.