I received an ACR from Netgalley

Elizabeth did not receive a flower and a wish for the fiftieth anniversary of meeting Tom. She goes to visit him and learns he is dying of cancer. They try to complete as many wishes as possible.

This is another dual time line book. It goes back and forth from the past when Elizabeth and Tom first got together and present day. It is a love story about second chances and wishes. I didn't care for the dual time line but understand it was key to the story. I couldn't really get into the past portion of the book but really enjoyed the present portion of the book.

This is a lovely romantic story that takes you away through decades of love lost and then found. The author alternates chapters between "then" and "now" which makes you want to keep reading about how the couple fell apart and how they reunite. It is a great way to forget what is going on around us and just enjoy the story.

Little Wishes by Michelle Adams fulfilled all the wishes I have for a good story. Wish 1: a good location. This one is set in Cornwall and London-two of my favorite locations. Wish 2: conflict, conflict, conflict! Boy did this story deliver! Wish 3: a great love story. The love between Thomas Hale and Elizabeth was a great one! Wish 4: community and family. Wish granted in this story, too.

The premise of this book is simple: for 49 years, Thomas Hale has left a crocus and a wish for first love Elizabeth. As the story unfolds, the story gets complicated but the love simply remains.

This is not a happy ending so if you like a “happily ever after” love story this is not for you. But I loved this story and the characters so much!

Thank you to #netgalley and #williammorrow for the advanced e-copy of #littlewishes!

Little Wishes written by Michelle Adams is a poignant and powerful novel that reminds us that true love endures regardless of a lifetime apart. Elizabeth and Tom meet when they are young, fall in love and have a short but secret romance. Many obstacles and interferences keep them separated. Each goes on to live their lives, but every year on the anniversary that they met, Tom leaves Elizabeth message with "little wishes" of things that he would like them to do together. This is a tale of love, secrets and lies, redemption and caregiving. There are parts of the book that may be deemed as depressing....but I fell in love with the characters and their enduring love. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the Book Club Girls for the ARC!

It would be a mistake to dismiss this as just another now/then with not quite lost first love book (one I almost made since I managed to be reading three of them at the same time). While it is indeed that, the author includes many gems about life, missed opportunities, and love (I was especially touched by her description of being a caregiver) that make reading this worth it.

“Little Wishes” starts with a short-lived love affair between Elizabeth and Tom, who are separated for various reasons, and move on with their lives. Except that Tom leaves a small gift for Elizabeth once a year, along with a note containing a wish about how their lives would be if they were still together. When Tom's gift fails to appear on year 50, Elizabeth decides its time to find him. Will they have a second chance at love?

I received an advance reader’s edition from Net Galley.

Did not finish. I was looking forward to what I thought was going to be a light-hearted book, but in the first chapter I found out that the main character had a long-term romantic relationship of the heart with a married man and that she was also "technically" married, whatever that means. I couldn't move forward with the book after finding this information out.

A bittersweet love story spread out over 50 years. Tom and Elizabeth had a brief, ill fated romance as teenagers and then reconnected after 50 years. The book alternates between the past and present and the story of their tragic love unfolds. I found the story of their reconnecting after 50 years to be more interesting then the past. Both stories were slow and meandering in development and neither ended up very happy. The wishes that Tom sent Elizabeth, which should have been the focus of the book, hence the title, only played a minor role in getting them to reconnect. Overall it was a sad story that while I did enjoy, seemed to fall a bit short.

Do you ever wonder about those that you were close to, after you drift apart? What if they left little messages every year? Michelle Adams explores both of these questions in her heartbreaking new book, Little Wishes.

First of all, I love the idea of leaving little notes for the other to find as that's super cute and I’d love that myself! Secondly, would you investigate when they stop all of a sudden? I absolutely would! I love this premise so much and I wish more books had this.

Whilst those little notes (or wishes) were tender, we also have heartbreak where Elizabeth finds that Tom is terminally ill. This actually made me cry. Elizabeth is headstrong, but also cares tremendously and is willing to grant all the wishes Tom left for her. With the flashbacks, we see Tom as a young and fragile man who saved Elizabeth’s mum from drowning in water. This is where Elizabeth meets Tom and has had an attraction to him since, despite being engaged.

The story swung between the past and present in a way that made sense logically and story-wise, and it made me feel a connection to the story that may have not been there otherwise. The writing was well suited to the tone of the book, and it matched the imperfect events and characters, even though they are near realistic, and I do love that in a good contemporary. I also really enjoyed the full suite of emotions that were used, and it really felt like this one was written from Adams’ heart!

I enjoyed the double trope presented in this book, both the fate/star-crossed lovers trope as well as the missed/second chance trope. Both were executed really well, and it didn’t make the book feel cheesy at all! I was also really glad the tropes weren’t presented as cheesy because it would’ve taken the meaning away from the book. It also kind of felt a little bit like Romeo and Juliet, with the parents not liking Tom and Elizabeth hanging out with each other.

Both Tom and Elizabeth were both found to be likeable characters to me, in their own special ways. Tom wasn’t giving up on his love for Elizabeth, which is admirable; whereas Elizabeth was more nurturing and showed her heartbrokenness after Tom left. May I add, that 49 years of wishes sent from Tom shows determination and a willingness to connect, and I seriously cannot believe that Elizabeth snubbed him for that long! Speaking of characters, seeing the characters’ lives collide was fantastic with Alice (Tom’s daughter) slowly warming up to Elizabeth, even though most of what she knew was from Tom’s tales. I also enjoyed reading about Elizabeth’s daughter, and how they all interconnect. It was great to see all of the characters in the book end up questing to make up for lost time, and dare I say, they all have been given a second chance!

One of my favourite things about this book was that it was easy to follow through the different time points, and how the characters felt, making it one of the easiest contemporaries I’ve read recently. The characters were likeable, and the storyline was definitely one that evoked many emotions, but that also made me cry at times! This is book that is for anyone who’s looking for a sweet missed/second chance romance contemporary,  but just be sure to have tissues with you when you read this one!

This book just didn’t quite do it for me. While the premise was so sweet, by about halfway through I felt like I was slogging through it. It’s not often I want to put a book down, but quite honestly I was hoping it would somehow get better. Instead I was irritated at the two main characters and all the wasted time, rather than feeling all sentimental. Forty-nine years of so much wasted time and after a bit it felt predictable and never-ending.

I appreciate the sentiment behind the book, but overall the book just didn't do it for me.

I received an ARC ebook version of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Little Wishes, by Michele Adams, is a romantic story that is shared through switching between two periods of time, past and present. It is a beautifully written novel of love, interrupted by social expectations and miscommunications, that persists throughout the years.

Sweet story of first love and second chances. Story alternates between the past and present to tell the love story of Elizabeth and Tom who were separated early on in their relationship. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #LittleWishes #Netgalley #booknerd #bookstagram

I received this copy from Netgalley. I LOVED this book. I was not not sure when I started reading it, but fell in love with the main characters! True & long lasting love still occurs.
Thank you!!

This is a bittersweet, heartfelt story of love between two people, Elizabeth Davenport and Tom Hale, who after 49 years finally reunite under sad circumstances. I enjoyed the author’s style of writing, the beautiful prose which was full of emotion. The story unfolds through dual timelines that thread the past and the present in a beautiful way and eventually reveals what ultimately kept Elizabeth and Tom apart. Their reunion was sweet and though there was sadness for the time lost and for Tom’s diagnosis, there was also hope and love for the time that remained. Thank you very much to NetGalley and the Book Club Girls for this ARC.

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book from the Book Club Girls and NetGalley. This is a sweet story of first love, life, and second chances. It alternates between present day, when they are old and gray, and the past, when they they first met and fell in love. I enjoyed the story and the way it showed that it's never too late - for anything - and that you don't have to be young to be in the midst of a love story. Parts were very predictable or not realistic, though, and it moved just a little too slowly for me - and I'm usually good with slow burners. If you are in the mood for a sweet story, though, this might be just right for you. 3.5 stars.

I really enjoyed this book and thought it was well written. I loved the characters and found them to have depth. I enjoyed that this wasn't a typical romance and I really enjoyed watching the two main characters reunite and get to live out some of their wishes. Man, it really makes you think about missed opportunities and lost love.

3.5 stars rounded up, Little Wishes is a second chance at love story. For forty-nine years, a flower and a wish for a life that could have been has shown up on Elizabeth's doorstep. This year the special day comes and passes with no wish. Elizabeth finally decides to go looking for Tom. Told in alternating past and present viewpoints, the story unfolds in a predictable mix of sweetness and what could have beens laced with a twinge of sadness. The ending is much stronger than the beginning but the story leaves an impression and a lesson learned that life is always too short to waste time. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

A Lifetime love- This was a quieter story of young love that faced many obstacles. Spans fifty years and explores different stages of love and the results of decisions that we make. It didn't hold my interest enough to read for very long without getting restless.

This love story, set on the Cornish coast, is told in alternating chapters of then and now. On the same day every year Elizabeth Davenport receives a blue crocus and a wish for something they had missed in life from her first love, Tom Hale. Each year he leaves the flower and wish, but doesn't try to see her in person. Through a series of lies, misunderstandings and circumstances, they have been apart for fifty years. On the fiftieth anniversary of the date, there is no flower or wish at Elizabeth's door. She worries that something has happened and goes to London to find him. Knowing that life is short, she tries to fulfill as many of the wishes as she can, and in the process reveals a secret from the past. The plot is predictable, but the results are heartwarming.

This was such a bittersweet story. I definitely enjoyed reading this book and it took me through so many emotions. The characters both let pride get in their way of happiness and both definitely regretted those choices in the end. However, Tom would never have had his daughter Alice if things would have been different. This book pulled at my heart and I would recommend this story.