I love how Katherine Center's books combine compelling women and those they love facing challenges with hope and growth. What You Wish For is a hope-filled book that arrives at a time when many of us are struggling to find hope and choose joy. Samantha is a school librarian in Galveston, TX whose small and unique private school experiences the sudden death of its founder and principal and a new principal who has a much different approach. While I could foresee what the characters' background situations affecting their decision-making and traumatic reactions, it didn't diminish my love for the characters and their stories. I was personally encouraged by the messages of seeking moments of joy and choosing joy when possible and how to do this in ordinary and extraordinary life and world challenges. I also loved the setting of Galveston, TX and the school, especially the perspective of the librarian. Overall I really loved this book and am thankful for books like this, at all times, but especially now. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the E-ARC, which did not affect my review because despite having an E-ARC, I still purchased my own physical copy because I loved it so much.

Katherine Center is one of the few authors that I count on. I can always pick up one of her books and know I will absolutely love it. And once again that was the case! Every book of hers has a message and this one was choose joy which in a time of a pandemic is especially true. Thank you Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for letting me read this book!

I really enjoyed What You Wish For by Katherine Center. The story is well written and interesting. The characters are well developed with great personalities and relationships.

Ughh. I so wanted to like this book. I LOVED the authors last two books but this one fell far, far short of expectations. Between the stereotypical librarian lead (I'm a librarian, I hate this trope) and the saccharine, predictable storyline, I had to force myself to finish this.

After relocating from California, Sam is happy with her comfortable, colorful teacher life she’s built on her Texas island. Until the day Max, her boss, landlord, and father figure passes away leaving her world gray and upside down. Soon she discovers that Duncan is his replacement, who also happens to be the reason she left California.

What You Wish For engrossed me from the very first page and kept my attention to the very end. I could not put it down. Sam, Duncan, Alice, Babette and Clay were lovable, enjoyable and endearing characters that only increased my enchantment with the story. Fear is a powerful emotion, which Sam and Duncan learn how to use in a positive way throughout the novel. I’ll be recommending this one to many for years to come!

This was the first book I have read by this author, so I wasn’t sure of what to expect. Having read it, I will certainly be reading more books by her in the near future.

Samantha Casey is the librarian at the fun private school in Galveston, Texas. She loves the principal and his wife, who also happen to be her landlords.

As events unfold, another principal comes to the school. That person is Duncan Carpenter, who just so happens to be the individual who was behind Samantha’s move from a California school to Texas.

While she is personally disturbed by his coming, she is sure that his quirky and lovable antics will soon put others at ease. Turns out Duncan has changed and not for the better.

As he institutes changes, the school starts to fall apart. Samantha leads the charge of teachers to try to oust Duncan before it is too late.

I laughed so much as I read this book. It also had very serious events and situations which were very sad. The author was able to convey it all while writing a book that kept me glued to it until I was finished.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.

What You Wish For by Katherine Center is the story of Samantha “Sam” Casey, a school librarian at the Kempner School, who hides from the world an embarrassing secret. Very few people know that she suffers from epilepsy but her boss and parental figures, Max and Babette Kempner, helped her see joy and create joy in her life. When Max suddenly dies, he leaves big shoes to fill. The staff at the school do their best to carry on until Kent Buckley, the Kempner’s son-in-law and school board member, announces he has hired a new principal and it is someone Sam knows! Duncan Carpenter was the guy she liked at a previous school when she was a mousy, quiet staff member and he was the exuberant, fun-loving teacher. But the man who arrived looks like Duncan, but he sure doesn’t act like Duncan. He begins by making major changes at the school and Sam will not stand for it. She immediately goes into action to get Duncan to leave or get him fired. What caused Duncan to change so much? Can Sam get to the bottom of it and show Duncan that the school doesn’t need his changes?
I LOVED this book. This amazing story grips you in from the opening chapter and never lets you go until the final sentence. I loved Sam. She was vulnerable and introverted. Even though her tendency was to hide from embarrassing moments, she found the strength to be front and center when the situation called for it. I also loved Duncan. When he is first introduced and he is not the man Sam remembered, I knew there was a reason behind his behavior. Sam and Duncan’s personal stories are heartbreaking, and I wanted to reach through the book to hug both of them. I loved each of the beautiful people who made up the staff at the school, even Sam’s quirky, math-obsessed friend, Alice. Katherine Canter provides a story with lovable and relatable characters to tell a story of survival and finding joy as joy is the cure to many negative emotions and situations. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll find that creating joy in your laugh helps chase away the negativity that surrounds you. Great advice for the world we live in now. I highly recommend What You Wish For!

What You Wish For
is available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Unfortunately, I already obtained a hard copy prior to getting this arc. Thank you.

There are a very select few authors who’s books are pure magic for me and Center is most definitely one of them. There is something in the way that she tells a story that is just really special to me and I think it’s the combination of humor, wit, heart, emotion and fantastic characterization that just knocks it out of the park for me every single time.

This is definitely the kind of book that will make you feel all the feelings, Sam and Duncan both have traumatic events in their past that they’re working through and while there were definitely some heavy issues explored here, the author handles them with grace, sensitivity and humor which is just the best combination ever. They’re the kind of characters that you fall in love with yourself and root for and I was truly sad when I finished and had to say goodbye to them. Highly recommended by me and if you’ve never read a KC book before and love uplifting, funny and warm reads what are you waiting for?!

Thank you to @stmartinspress, @netgalley, and @katherinecenter for the early gifted copy of What You Wish For. It is out today, July 14th!
This was actually my first book I’ve read by Katherine Center. Everyone raves about her work all the time, so when I got the chance to review this one, I figured that was my sign to give it a shot.
I was initially a little hesitant going in—I was afraid it was going to be a cheesy romance. Those just make me roll my eyes. I was happily surprised to find it was not cheesy at all. I really enjoyed the writing style (and often laughed out loud at things the main character said or did). The plot and characters had depth, and I was completely invested in their story. The sub plot of finding joy was a welcome relief from the heaviness we are all experiencing these days.
Now that I have gotten my feet wet with my first book by Katherine Center—I totally get it. You all were right. She’s amazing, and I have been missing out. I will definitely be reading her other books!
4⭐️

Sam is this awesome woman who finds herself "alone" but learns that wherever there is community and fellowship, you are never truly alone.
This book is about opening yourself up to love, life, friendship, everything good that life offers you.
Sometimes in life you truly get what you wish for, and ain't that beautiful!!

“Faced with darkness, I had chosen flowers. And polka dots. And light.” What You Wish For, by Katherine Center.

One of the best bookish feelings happens when you start reading a new-to-you author and realize, early on, that you are going to want to go back and read all of that author’s backlist. I was about one chapter in to WHAT YOU WISH FOR when I started to feel pretty excited at the prospect of reading Center’s previous novels. Then I settled back into my cozy reading chair and really enjoyed the book right in front of me. So much.

WHAT YOU WISH FOR begins when Max Kempner, the much beloved principal of an artsy private school dies suddenly, and the school community is devastated. We zoom in on Samatha, the sassy librarian, for whom Max was a mentor and kind of adoptive father. When Sam hears that the new principal will be a former colleague, Duncan Carpenter, she has a lot of feelings. Sam used to have a serious crush on Duncan, so much so that she eventually left her old school to try to start fresh and move beyond her unrequited love. But when Duncan shows up, he is barely recognizable. The fun-loving, joy-spreading goofball she once longed for has become intense and inflexible, single-mindedly focused on transforming the school into a high-tech fortress that prioritizes student and staff safety above all else. After a series of incidents, Babette, Max’s widow, along with Sam and her best friend, decide to intervene and hatch a plan to try to restore Duncan to his former self. Soon Sam and Duncan are spending a lot of time together and it does good things for both of them.

If you are after a story with heart, but that doesn’t shy away from difficult, even tragic, life events, I think that you will find that Center does that kind of narrative so well. Her website says that she writes “bittersweet comic novels” and I’d say that is the perfect little tagline to capture her style. But Center doesn’t just toss in “hard stuff” to make her stories have more depth, she writes about the hard things in a way that proves that she has actually thought about the nuance of those experiences. It’s a rare book where I laugh out loud, and there were moments in this one where I did. Center has a quick wit. I wanted to hang out with these characters, to believe they were real people. I like imagining where their lives might have taken them after the end of the story.

My only quibbles were that a few plot points felt odd, a little out in left field. I won’t reveal them. Also, at the start, Duncan verged a little bit on a caricature with his level of intensity. It seemed nearly too much to believe. Also, I easily figured out what his “secret” from the past was, long before the other characters did. I found that a little hard to believe in the age of Google, that no one else would have investigated his history a bit and discovered the truth of his experience earlier on. Still, these things did not interfere with my overall enjoyment and investment in the story. I loved it.

If you enjoyed Evvie Drake Starts Over or A City Baker’s Guide to Country Living, this book belongs on the shelf near those two. Heartfelt, funny, warm, hard to put down - this reading experience was a delight.

4.25 stars

What You Wish For is the embodiment of finding joy and holding onto it for dear life in a book. For different reasons both of our main characters, Sam and Duncan, feel that they are too broken to ever be truly happy in life.

Sam struggles with her diagnosis of epilepsy and the fear that no one will ever be able to love her if they have to someday witness her in the midst of a seizure. Especially considering that her epilepsy is the reason her dad left her and her mom when she was just 8 years old.

Duncan used to be the class clown, free spirit, goofball teacher at school. He brought laughter with him wherever he went. And then something tragic happened that turned him into a non smiling, suit wearing, robot human.

Together with a lot of help from some very lovable characters (Max (may he rest in peace), Alice (adds the math puns), Babette (grace in the midst of grief), Clay (whale rescuer child extraordinaire), and even Tina (don't worry you'll warm up), Sam and Duncan find that they can and do deserve to live joyful lives.

New from Katherine Center, What You Wish For is out in a few days on July 14! Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Okay first: I didn’t read Happiness for Beginners first and I SHOULD HAVE. It’s not required to understand the story in WYWF, but holy smokes the reading experience would be a million times better. The character backstory you get in Happiness plays a huge role in WYWF.

That being said, I read WYWF in one sitting. As I do with all books by KC. This woman knows how to tug at all my heart strings, I tell ya. The main character in WYWF is a school librarian, so right off the bat I was in love with her - I’m a sucker when it comes to reading about characters in my own profession. The instant connection is real. Sam’s personality and grit and determination throughout the story are just perfection. And I loved the development of her relationship with Duncan - it was so fun to read about characters who had known each other in another life and then, because of how life goes, change during their years apart and have to navigate their new understanding of each other - or lack of understanding!

I can’t wait to get this one in at my library, so I can share it with patrons. I’ll be sharing Happiness with them too, don’t worry 😂 I can’t get enough of KC - already anxious for her next book! In the meantime, I’ll probably do some rereading of a few of my favs.

Sam is a sweet school librarian. I love how she stood up to Duncan and helped unravel his layers. The small private school setting and the close knit community was fabulous. I have loved previous Katherine Center books and this one did not disappoint! I will be recommending this to others and buying it for my school librarian! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book!

🍎REVIEW: What You Wish For by Katherine Center🍎

Note: I have enjoyed many of Katherine Center’s other novels and will read her future ones, but this one was the bad apple.

I struggled with the main character, Sam, often finding her unpleasant to read. There was just something about the way she was portrayed that made it difficult for me to connect with her and her thought process was stressful for me to read. I found her “crush” (obsession) with Duncan a little creepy over cute and almost DNF after the first few chapters due to the high amount of descriptive paragraphs analyzing every action, outfit, and observation Sam had seen/made of Duncan.

With that being said, was there romance? Yes. Did I ‘aw’ a few times? Of course!

I would also like to note that Alice (Sam’s bff) was a wonderful character and had me cracking up many times in the novel. I need her math tshirt collection!

Rating: 3/5 🌟
Pub Date: July 14, 2020


I received a coly from the publisher on netgalley in exchange for a review.

I liked the author’s writing style. The story was fun and easy to read and it was paced nicely.

I didn’t find the lead female relatable. The school settings and the teachers’ love of their job was too idealistic. Anyone who’s ever worked in a school can tell you this would never, ever happen!! I also found the plot to be cheesy and predictable.

3/5 stars

This novel is everything I've come to expect from Katherine Center — well-drawn characters centered around a multi-dimensional female lead, an engaging story that makes you feel all the things, and a happy yet realistic ending. Her books are unputdownable, and What You Wish For was no different. It was a quick, lovely read, and I would absolutely recommend it.

4 stars for this magical novel filled with hardships and joy, and sends the beautiful, heartfelt message of healing, making your own joy, and finding the best in each day.

Samantha (Sam) Casey loves being an elementary school librarian in Galveston, Texas. That is until her beloved principal and dear friend passes away, and is replaced by none other than Duncan Carpenter, a former crush from years back at another school. He’s changed from being a sweet teacher—to a stiff, humorless principal, obsessed with school safety. Sam, and other school staff, decide to rebel against the new changes. That is until Sam finds out what’s changed Duncan, then she, along with teachers Babette and Alice, turn the tide in a new direction—to help him—putting “Operation Duncan” in motion.
I love Katherine Center’s writing and adorable characters. This is a delightful story that sends a beautiful message to its readers—to celebrate life everyday with joy!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Samantha Casey is the school librarian at a small school that focuses on diversity, learning, and creativity. She has thrived in this environment and is now completely different than the once mousy woman she was. When their beloved principal passes away the newly hired principal, Duncan Carpenter, resurrects from her past. She had quietly been in love with him and he is in part the reason she left her last job. However, the Duncan that shows up for the first day of school is not the happy go lucky guy she used to know. This Duncan is a suit wearing, straight-laced, security conscious man and he proceeds to turn their lives upside down.

I loved the community of people that surround Sam Casey in this novel. A with previous insecurity and shyness issues, Sam has blossomed in the “safe” environment of this small town in Galveston, Texas. As the novel moves forward we learn more about just how much Sam has changed and why, especially as she faces her past crush and is deeply disappointed at his new demeanor. The old Sam would’ve run away, but this new Sam ends up leading the charge, fighting for their rights while at the same time searching for the man she used to know.

Duncan was pretty easy to understand. Based off Sam’s memories he’d obviously done a bit of growing up, but there was something bigger behind his actions. I loved how Sam picked away at his armor to find that more fun loving man underneath. What You Wish For was the perfect mix of quirkiness, drama, and I especially loved the heart in which this author embued in her characters. From the start of the book I was invested in Sam, and then when Duncan entered the scene and his demeanor was a direct contradiction to how Sam had described him sealed the deal. I along with Sam wanted to solve the mystery and truly enjoyed the journey of finding out all of these characters secrets.

I received a copy of this ARC from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review and it was honest!