My third Katherine Center romance and I am NOT disappointed. Love all the relationship navigations, life altering/changing hurdles that create so many opportunities for Sam to crash or rise. What You Wish For is moving and beautiful. So many characters shined off the page with their personalities, triumphs and fortitude that may have wavered a few times, but they finished strong and resilient.

BEST BOOK REVIEWS: What You Wish For by Katherine Center

Wonderful book for those who love libraries and living a life filled with joy… Can you really have one without the other?!

What You Wish For by Katherine Center is a how-to manual on choosing joy in your life dressed up and tied with a beautiful bow of a story!

Katherine Center “centers” the story around Samantha Casey, a school librarian, who sets the bar in the stars for creating a magical library for her students.

Not to mention giving us a little insight into all the responsibilities a librarian has (besides reading books) to ensure we can easily & promptly check out just the perfect book we need anytime.

My love for libraries… and librarians… has a whole new level now!

Then, there is Duncan Carpenter, the new school principal, that has a connection with Samantha from a previous school.

These two characters are on a “creative see-saw” as one of them lives a joyful creative life… while the other is stressed and on creative lockdown. But the see-saw stays in motion as each character experiences the upswing or goes to the ground.

I found the story to be very insightful in exploring the challenging balance of maintaining safe & secure learning environments while nurturing creativity & freedom. Though this story is set in a school environment, the issues could easily resonate within any group or community setting.

And the writing stayed on point to equalize the pros & cons of each side as both characters moved forward… Keeping the tension taut and our understanding of “which side is right” reflective of both approaches.

What You Wish For is a perfect “switch it up” solution if you are experiencing stress in your life or struggling to break out of a cycle of behavior that is keeping YOUR creative potential on lockdown.

What is my biggest takeaway from this book?
Be brave… Choose joy…

It's inspiring. It's refreshing. Read it.… ✨😎✨

What You Wish For by Katherine Center
2020 New Book Releases | July
Contemporary Fiction
T.I.M.E. Favorite Books | Book Club Favorites ✨😎✨

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All my reviews can be seen at This Is My Everybody | Books & DIY Home Ideas | Denise Wilbanks at www.thisismyeverybody.com ... Including my video tutorials for DIY home ideas inspired by recommended books to support you in bringing your favorite books to life in your life and home.

You can see my full review & additional features for What You Wish For by Katherine Center at https://www.thisismyeverybody.com/books/best-book-reviews-what-you-wish-for-katherine-center


✨😎✨A big thank you to Katherine Center, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in my review are my own.

Definitely entertaining. It's kinda a grab you and pull you in story.
Samantha moved and reinvented herself. Duncan shows up at her new school. They've both changed, but this time they end up together.

I plan to read some of Katherine Center's other books!

I love all of Katherine Center’s books and this one is no different. I love how her storylines are so different from everyone else’s and yet are still enjoyable. If you are looking for a book with depth and happiness than this would be an excellent choice!

Acclaimed author Katherine Center is back with her newest love story that will have fans of her jumping for joy! With favorites like How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire, Center’s new book, What You Wish For, might just be her finest work yet!
This book has a fun enemies-to-lovers romance set in a colorful and creative elementary school, which makes this book even more endearing. Brimming with unforgettable characters, witty dialogue, and a kind and funny narrator, this might be my favorite Katherine Center book to date! I loved the characters, I wish I had Sam’s wardrobe, and I loved the redemptive arc that Duncan had. Plus, who can resist a book with a failed security dog named Chuck Norris??
I also really loved the simple message of choosing joy and making an effort to love life to the fullest. While this book is fairly light-hearted, Center does touch upon real issues like school shootings, grief, and epilepsy. She handles these topics with care, yet shows that despite life’s hardships and traumas, a person can still overcome and live life without being plagued by their pasts, presents, or futures.
If you’re a fan of Katherine Center’s other books or are just looking for a sweet rom-com, then this book is for you! And for those who haven't read any of Center’s prior books, this is a great one to start off with!!

Thank you NetGalley, St-Martin’s Press and Katherine Center.
This is the third book I read from this author and she has become one of my favourite. I will read anything she writes.
I loved everything about this story: the characters, the plot, her writing.
When you start reading one of her books you are totally sucked in the story and you just want more.
Highly recommend. 5 stars 🌟

Joy is everything.... I have to agree with Max, the founder of the school where Sam has found a great job and a home. Samantha is the librarian at one of the most respected school in the country. She loves the kids, the community, the school and her boss, Max. But tragedy challenges this small town and Sam's love interest from her past comes to town to run the school. Everything changes including this man, Duncan. He is not the fun loving man she fell in love with years ago, but rather a strict disciplined man who obsesses with safety for himself and the community. Can Sam help him find joy in life? Can she find the joy within herself to move beyond her fears?

What you wish for is a lite read with hope and heartfelt warmth. I would recommend it, but it was a bit of a slow start for me.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin Press for the advanced copy.

I am ashamed to say, I almost gave up on this book. I got about a quarter of the way in and I was annoyed by the repetitive comparison of old Duncan to new Duncan. I am so glad I stuck with it! All of the things I love about Katherine Center's writing came to life when Max gave Sam the hat with paper flowers. All of Katherine's books contain some element of the ugliness of the broken world we live in but she uses her beautiful words to inspire the reader with hope and encouragement. I can't say enough good things about her writing and ability to stir up all my emotions with her storytelling.

This is just plain a real feel good book; one I needed to read. Yes, it’s “women’s literature “, but not of the love story, random sex scene tripe. The setting, Galveston, on the island, in a small funky school grabbed me from the beginning. Character development was so well done, making connections, making you love/hate various characters. The message of hope, of redemption, if community, just plain worked for me.

I absolutely loved this book, every book I read of hers I just cannot put it down. I think this is my most favorite one yet.

I really enjoyed this new-to-me author's style of writing. She writes in the first person so you immediately get absorbed in the character. In this story, two people who briefly knew each other in the past, meet again at a school they are both working at. Both of them have been damaged by life, but while Sam, the librarian, has been trying to make her way forward with the help of wonderful friends that act as family, Duncan, the principal, has been beaten down by what's happened to him. I don't want to give any spoiler alerts so let's just say it was very life changing.

How these two characters make their way to each other is a joy to follow. I really liked the cast of supporting characters in this book too. Will definitely be reading more of this author's novels. I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

Samantha Casey LOVES her job as a librarian and her life in Texas, until Duncan Carpenter, the new principal arrives.

Samantha knew, Duncan from a previous job, he used to be fun and full of energy, now he is hard and all about rules and regulations. The Duncan she knew and loved has lost his spark and has been replaced with a man who is in every way the opposite of the man she knew.

Duncan quickly makes changes to the school making everyone unhappy and frustrated. They want him fired. Then events unravel changing dynamics, and revealing secrets.

The cast of characters mesh well and move the story along in easy manner, making it flow with ease.
There are some sensitive topics involved but overall you walk away form this book with some joy and happiness, which is something we need with the state of affairs in our world.

I have loved all of Katherine Center's books but unfortunately, I was not impressed with this one. I thought the characters/plot was very unrealistic and I did not connect to any of the characters. I could see if you were a teacher that this may be a book that sparks your interest, but I did not care for it.

After uprooting her life because of a going nowhere crush, Samantha finally feels like her life is on track. When tragedy strikes and fate brings her crush back into her life, her flight or fight instinct takes over. Her crush is completely different though and now they're enemies, maybe. Sam thought she had it all figured out but even though her wardrobe now is full of color, she still is emotionally hiding in the corners.

It made me wish I didn’t have to try so hard with everybody all the damn time. It made me miss my mom —again, as always. It made me wish I had somebody— anybody— in my life who would love me no matter what.

What You Wish For, is a standalone Chik-lit told in first person from our heroine Samantha's point of view. When we first meet her, she dresses in drab colors and tries to just blend into the background. As an elementary school librarian she develops a huge crush on a fourth grade teacher, Duncan. He dresses is zany rubber duck ties, wears flamingo pants, and takes every opportunity to juggle. When he starts dating and there are rumors they are going to get engaged, Sam decides she can't bear it and decides to uproot her whole life and move to Galveston, Texas. A bit much, reaction wise, but I went along with it. At Galveston, Sam comes into herself with the aid of an older couple who established the school she now works at and she feels like she has herself on track.

That was my takeaway: somehow, for some reason, Duncan Carpenter had become completely deranged, and I couldn’t leave until I understood why.

Four years later tragedy strikes and through a whimsy of fate, Duncan becomes the new principal at Sam's school. She's frantic at first, thinking he's married and probably has a gaggle of children but excited for her school to get such a fun guy who will be great for the school. Except when Duncan shows, he's in a three piece suit, completely rigid, and can only speak of keeping everyone safe, making their school into what Sam deems a prison. Sam at first was going to quit because she didn't want to get sucked into her crush again but then decides to stay to fight the changes Duncan wants to make. It's a hardcore crush to enemies story plot.

This moment would change everything. I didn’t know how, exactly, but I knew it would.

I think Sam was supposed to come off as a Mrs. Frizzle (Magic School Bus) and while aesthetically she makes the cut, Sam more often than not came off as immature and lacked the gravitas to deal with some of the issues brought up in the story. The chatty, conversational first person pov gave the story a lighter tone and when issues like grief, abusive marriage, and school shootings were incorporated, the emotional depth was missing for me. One of Sam's big hang-ups is her epilepsy and while it is understandable that there could be emotional baggage, Sam thinking Duncan wouldn't want anything to do with her because elementary children made fun of her in school for it and her father told her he left her mother because of it, felt a bit childish. It was so forced how she pushed Duncan away because of it.

“Joy is an antidote to fear. To anger. To boredom. To sorrow.”
“But you can’t just decide to feel joyful.”
“True. But you can decide to do something joyful.”

Duncan was a little hard to get a grasp on at times because we never get his pov but it was pretty obvious why he had a change of personality and I thought Sam should have clued in a bit earlier because of her profession. The use of Duncan being drugged up after a surgery to finally reveal his feelings was somewhat an easy out to progress their relationship and lessened some satisfaction with it for me. The romance is more central in the story, why I would call this Chik-lit more than Women's fiction, but the steam level is lower.

The world keeps hanging on to this idea that love is for the gullible. But nothing could be more wrong. Love is only for the brave.

The secondary characters are more snippets and lean towards shallow but I would love to read about Sam's pseudo adoptive parents, Babette and Max, their romance, and how they created their school; they seemed so delightful. Sam's friend Alice was almost solely defined by her love of math quotes and Duncan's sister and her husband appear so briefly, they might not even be considered secondary. This story had quick readability but it came off immature and lacking depth, especially when addressing school shootings, but I live in America and maybe other country readers wouldn't have the sensitivity I do about it. If looking for a Chik-lit that has a pretty good focus on the romance and wanting a lighter touch to some serious issues, this could be a pick for the afternoon.

While there is an element of predictability in many romances, I found this one exceptionally predictable. Probably a nice escape but I finished wanting more.

Rating: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars

I'm disappointed that I don't have a new favorite Katherine Center book, but this one just fell short for me. As someone that is not a huge romance reader or a huge reader of women's fiction, when I do read those books I find that I like when the romance starts occurring at least halfway through the book, not at the very end. I'd say that this one is definitely more fiction than romance.

Katherine did have representation of epilepsy and school shooting recovery, but I felt like the school shooting recovery was just used as a plot device to justify why a character is absolutely rude to his coworkers. While I appreciate the plot tools that Katherine used to explain how Duncan became how he is now versus how Sam knew him in California, I hate when I absolutely despise a character until after halfway through.

If you find that you prefer romance fiction that is very enemy to lovers and romance doesn't come until end of the book, then I would recommend that you pick upWhat You Wish For . I am still looking forward to her other books as I loved Things You Save in a Fire and How to Walk Away.

4 1/2 stars!

Do you need a book that inspires you to keep moving forward when the chips are down? Do you need a book to encourage you to let love in? Do you need a book to tell you it is ok to be you?

If so, then What You Wish For is the book for you! I didn't want to put this book down. It is a fast read but has a lot of depth.

Every Katherine Center book I have read has left me with something I can use in my own life. This book was no exception. I have a feeling I will be drawing from its wisdom for many years. It is a book that will stay with you.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, St. Martin's Press, through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.

School librarian Samantha Casey’s world is shaken up when the beloved principal is replaced by her former crush - now a safety-obsessed stiff. As they work together and learn about the suffering they’ve both endured, they find that even in hard times, joy is at our disposal. Like all Katherine Center’s books this one is very well written and very enjoyable!

An uplifting romance story that is very sweet and cute. Although at first it seems a simple one, the story evolves to present a serious lifelong medical issue and a social one, too. The main theme of the book is that happiness is a choice and to always choose joy and positivity despite the circumstances. An uplifting story.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

Katherine Center has been a favorite author of mine for a while. I had read quite a few of her earlier books and then I hadn't read anything by her for a while, until her most recent releases...and for the life of me I can't figure out why I stopped reading her. She creates such real, relatable characters and is able to infuse humor into her stories at just the right time while still giving us little moments of truth.

I enjoyed this book as much as I expected I would. I adored Sam. I loved her quirkiness and the fact that she was a librarian in an elementary just warmed my heart. While she is not happy with the changes that occur in her school, I could not end up hoping, and guessing where the story was heading and while it did ultimately get there, the journey is what I always enjoy the most. And let me tell you, this journey is full of life.

At its core, this book is about looking for joy even when all is not well. It's such a fantastic lesson, one that we could all use right now. 2020 has been quite the year for all of us and this book really puts things into perspective. Both Sam and Duncan have had things happen in their pasts that have impacted their life and they need to address this in order to move forward both for themselves and for each other.

Katherine Center is definitely an author I know I can count on. Her books all have little bits of wisdom peppered throughout and leave you with food for thought along with a great story to get lost in and I can't recommend them enough! If you haven't picked this one up yet, I definitely encourage you to do so!