While reading "Little Wishes," I kept thinking about my own past. In the book, Elizabeth is in love with Tom but ends up marrying James. He convinces her it's the right thing to do with her father's support and can give her financial support, but she wants to follow her heart with her true love, Tom. As I look back on my own life, I remember my mother saying, "Everyone is here for the rehearsal dinner. You need to get married; you can also get a divorce later" which I did within nine years. Books that give us pause like this bring back a lot of memories. Like Elizabeth's mother, my father had Alzheimer's Disease. I could understand her frustration. Overall, I enjoyed the book although at times, I felt like I was drifting into another world and it wasn't always easy to stay focused. At first, I thought I was reading a similar book with the lover returning one day of the year to meet up. But this book was different with its own love story.

Little Wishes by Michelle Adams is great fictional story that kept me interested from beginning to end.

This book has several positive points:

1. I love the main location: Cornwall, England. I have always loved anything and everything Cornwall. The quaint structures, atmosphere, the coastal location, the days-of yore tied into contemporary. All of these things have continually drawn me to this area. So, anything a book has that included in its premise, I am hooked.

2. This book has wonderful main characters: Elizabeth Davenport and Tom Hale. The full character cast were well-developed, realistic, imperfect yet likeable, and complex. Everyone has insecurities, secrets, flaws, hopes, dreams, and the dreams to be needed, loved, and

3. I love a good stars-crossed, push-pull possible missed-chance romance. If it is done right, it evokes a heartwarming yet heartbreaking feeling all the while being realistic and interesting. A tall order. I feel Ms. Adams pulled that request off effortlessly. Well done.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow/Harper Collins for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication.

What a lovely book! I enjoyed reading Little Wishes so much. It was well written, great character development, and the author handled the two different time periods really well. Thanks for allowing me to read this title!

I loved the romantic premise of this book and thought I would love it, but unfortunately, the writing didn't work for me. The problem is that there isn't enough character and plot development to give it the realism for a reader to be engrossed. The setting isn't evoked using all the senses. The narrative moves along briskly with quick descriptions and dialogue instead of drawing the reader into the mind and workings of each character (or even just developing Elizabeth's character and mind to move the narrative along). The plot had some weaknesses for me as well - a central conflict and discovery (between James and Elizabeth) gets wrapped up and explained in a few sentences - this should have more emotion and depth. Some of the plot resolution was brief and hard to accept (such as the tie-in with the art customer who Elizabeth later spots with Tom, or the explanation of the history between the Davenports and the Hales). To me, the book is missing an emotional connection with the reader and because of this weakness, the novel doesn't become a compelling story or elicit the anger, sorrow or disappointment that it should.

This a sad but charming book of true love separated and reunited on the Cornish coast. It's historical fiction with a modern day conclusion.