Wishful Thinking by Alexandra Bullen
Release Date: January 1, 2011
Publisher: Point
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 336
Source: Accepted pitch from author
Interest: Summary
Challenge: None
Buy the Book: Amazon
If you could wish for a different life, would you? What if that life changed everything you thought was real?
Adopted as a baby, Hazel Snow has always been alone. She's never belonged anywhere--and has always yearned to know the truth about where she comes from. So when she receives three stunning, enchanted dresses--each with the power to grant one wish--Hazel wishes to know her mother. Transported to a time and place she couldn't have imagined, Hazel finds herself living an alternate life--a life with the mother she never knew.
Over the course of one amazing, miraculous summer, Hazel finds her home, falls in love, and forms an unexpected friendship. But will her search to uncover her past forever alter her future?
In the heart-pounding, luminous sequel to WISH, Alexandra Bullen asks the question: If you could wish for a new life...would you?
Wishful Thinking is a companion novel to Wish. You do NOT need to read Wish to fully enjoy Wishful Thinking. If you read Wish (which I did before and should have my review up sometime next week) you'll just have a little bit more insight in a few things. Like you'll know that Hazel bought a discarded dress at a school fundraiser, that happened to be a dress that was in the first novel... but since I just told you, know you know!
Anyway, I've read both Wish and Wishful Thinking and the latter was my favorite of the two.
I loved the magical feel to this novel! I was truly swept away!
This review might be a little spoilery, I want to talk about a few elements in the novel, I don't think it will ruin the book for you, if you decide to read the rest, but I don't blame you if you don't!
Hazel hasn't had the easiest life. I was instantly empathetic toward her, within the first couple pages. I didn't even know her all that well yet, but I knew that I respected her. On the morning of her 18th birthday she get's an envelope that contains the name of her birth mother... Come to find out, this woman is hosting an art gala of sorts and Hazel plans on being there to meet her for the first time.
It seems like a lot of times in novels... YA especially, the main character had a need to "know" there parents. Can someone name a novel, where a character doesn't know their parents or one parent and is content with that? Does who we are always have to be who 'made' us? This doesn't really have anything to do with the novel... but as someone who doesn't know my bio father and has no desire to, I always sort of feel like a freak when I read a novel like that... but I suppose that is for a different day... back to Wishful Thinking.
Hazel is going to meet her mother. Only when she gets there, she finds out that the woman she hoped to meet, has just succumbed to her battle with cancer. Unbeknownst that she is wearing a wish granting dress, Hazel makes a wish "I wish I had gotten to know her first."... And so it begins.
I loved that Hazel gets transported back in time! Oh... did I mention she gets transported back in time, because she does... and I loved that part! I loved how Hazel breaks out of her shell, and lets herself feel something... besides loneliness.
The cast of characters are absolutely endearing... even mean ole' Jamie! I had this horrible feeling that Luke was her father for the longest time... THANK GOD HE WASN'T. (It would have been like Jace and Clary all over again... but much worse.) They were just fun to read about it. I couldn't stop turning the pages, because I had to know what was going to happen to future Hazel after her experience as past Hazel.
The ending was bittersweet. I would have liked it to have that fairy tale ending, where everything is right in the world, but I liked how Bullen ended it. It's hopeful. And I think that Hazel needed hope.
Enchanting story... awesome characters and on top of that it's amazingly written. And did I mention the GORGEOUS cover! The on the finished cover is foiled... I like shiny. I with the butterflies were shiny too.
Add this one to your reading pile!