This was a sweet story from start to finish. At first I wondered if I’d be confused because it seemed there were several relationships going haywire but then it all made perfect, beautiful sense.⁣
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Marnie Owen Wish & Co, a gift buying service where she buys the most beautiful gifts or experiences for people based on who they truly are.⁣
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When there’s a mix up between two gifts and two women, a can of worms opens and almost brings her business to the ground, when she’s on a mission to broaden her horizons. ⁣
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Luke is sweet and kind, so thoughtful, owns his own business, but is deeply lonely, until his world is flipped upside down. ⁣
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Luke and Marnie form a beautiful relationship after meeting in interesting circumstances.⁣
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This story is about family, secrets, mistakes, honesty, taking chances, and so much love; and it was enjoyable from start to finish: like a warm hug. ⁣
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This is a weird one for me because I liked it, but I didn't love it. I enjoyed most of the time spent reading this, but I couldn't escape the thought that it just felt WAY too long. I feel like I would have liked this one so much more if it had been a little more succinct. It felt like we just kept going through the same scenes of Marnie buying presents for Brian and feeling guilty about it over and over and over again and it just got really old by the halfway mark. While I didn't dislike this book, I definitely think my enjoyment would have been a little bit greater if this had been like, 75-100 pages shorter. Womp womp

CW: cheating, abortion

This book is mainly about the implosion of a marriage that the main character kind of causes, and its effects on all the character in the book. All these characters get their own POV which I thought was great, but there is a clean main character: Marnie, and a clear love interest: Luke.

This is a book with lots of heart, that will give you the warm and fuzzies, great for curling up with. Note: there is an infidelity plotline in this book (not for the main romance) if you believe cheating is absolutely unforgivable, this book might not be for you.

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+ I thought the main character's job was very interesting, and cool: professional gift giver. I loved all the discussions and dilemmas the main character had about her job.
+ The romance was actually quite cute. It is kind of insta-love, but it does also develop over time. And the love interest Luke was quite a sweetheart. I loved how considerate he was, generally. Though I did think he was a little too judgmental and obstinate when it came to one specific topic.
+ There are a lot of flawed characters in this book, most of them make mistakes, big and small, and I liked that the author didn't seem to be biased against any of them. They all had heart and their own redemption arc. And what's also cool is that none of the characters stay the same from the beginning of the book to the end. They all change and grow for the better.

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- I had a tough time getting through the beginning of this book. The main character goes through some great growth through this book, but at the beginning, her priorities and obsessions were difficult for me to read. I also found the looming implosion of the marriage very stressful. It felt like watching a car crash in slo-mo.

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for the eARC!

Thanks to Penguin Random House & NetGalley for a digital advance reader's copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

This heartwarming Australia-based rom-com took me into the world of a professional gift buyer. It begins on the day Marnie Fairchild is wrapping two gifts: one for her best client Brian Charlesworth’s wife Suzanne, and one for his lover. What could possibly go wrong?

Even though I could guess where this story was going, sometimes an expected and comforting read is just what’s needed amongst the mysteries, thrillers, and historical fiction I frequently read. The characters were likable, especially Marnie. What a great profession – choosing just the right and often one-of-a-kind gift for someone, then wrapping it in a package that’s as lovely and special as the gift itself.

So the mix-up of the two gifts launches the story, and soon Marnie finds herself developing a relationship with Luke, an attractive woodworker who turns out to be the son of her best client (see Brian, above). And then Marnie learns Fairchild & Sons, the historic building that she has been yearning to move Wish & Co. to, is finally going to be sold at auction. No matter that Marnie charges top dollar for her services to her high-end clients, her budget may limit her from winning the bid in the upcoming auction. The plot thickens when Marnie offers to help Brian win back his wife after the mix-up/fiasco, using her exceptional gift giving skills. Questions of honesty, authenticity, and illusion contribute to the now rocky relationship between Marnie and Luke.

Author Minnie Darke sums up the situation: “What did Marnie want? The trouble was, she wanted so many things. She wanted Luke to love her, and she wanted Suzanne to be happy. She wanted Brian to win back his wife, and she wanted Fairchild & Sons to be hers. She wanted no secrets, nor any more lies. But all her wants were tangled up together like a messy ball of several different kinds of string. If she pulled too hard or too fast on any one thread, she would only make a mess somewhere else.”

If you’re looking for a well-written, feel-good rom-com, I recommend "With Love from Wish & Co."

With Love from Wish & Co. is one of those pleasant surprise type reads. It fits well in the romance genre but it's also a neat tale about love and the different relationships one might have in life. I quite enjoyed this book and the unique feel it had about it.

Marnie Fairchild works as a gift buyer. Her clients don't always have the free time to shop for presents for their family and friends so Marnie does it for them. And she has a knack for finding the perfect gift for the recipient. But she has a major oops when she mixes up Brian Charlesworth's anniversary gift for his wife with the present intended for his mistress. That's a very big mess up and couldn't come at a worse time as Marnie is trying to secure funds to purchase the shopfront once owned by her grandfather. Hope Marnie comes up with a plan to rectify her mistake before word gets out to her other customers.

The story alternates between a few characters in addition to Marnie. Her career was fascinating to me and I couldn't help but contemplate what exactly constitutes a good gift. Does it matter if you have some outside help? This is one of the rare times I'd toss a romance into consideration for a book club selection. There's lots of things regarding the story and characters to pick apart and discuss.

Not saying it's a tearjerker of a read but it has some heart for sure.

I really enjoyed reading this book! I enjoyed the characters and their relationships with one another.
Sometimes you need a light, pleasurable read and this one is just that kind of book!

I was very pleasantly surprised by With Love From Wish and Co. The plot sounded a little hallmark-y (and don’t get me wrong, I do love a good, cheesy hallmark movie!) but I found this book to be full of depth with very relatable characters. This was one of my favorite rom-com novels I have read in awhile! I need a sequel!

This is the ultimate second chances story ever. You have multiple storylines with multiple age groups woven deftly throughout the book that intertwine to make one amazing story. Each storyline is a second chances story, but each is unique to the age groups and individuals involved and all wrap through the same family. As you start to read, it seems like a simple story about a young woman named Marnie, who owns a gift giving business, but you find that she is trying valiantly to gather the funds to buy her grandfather's old building to restore it and give it a second chance at life. However, things take a turn in the story and you end up not only following Marnie's story, but Brian and Suzanne's, Marnie and Luke's, Luke and Ivy's as well as Brian and Luke's. There is just so much depth to this sweet romance that you absolutely must read it. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading and ended up staying up all night with these characters to see which direction their lives ended up going. A few tears were shed, a lot of smiling was done and tons of pleasure was had. I highly suggest that you pick up this book for your own enjoyment as well!

Marnie is the owner for Wish & Co, a business that focuses on gift-buying for wealthy clientele. When Marnie makes a crucial mistake, it upends her business plans. Her best customer, Mr. Charlesworth now finds himself fighting for his marriage after his wife receives a present meant for his mistress. Though this mistake may cost Marnie her future business plans, she also develops a connection with Mr. Charlesworth's son, Luke.

This is definitely more women's fic than it is a romance - there is much more focus on the Charlesworth family and Mr. Charlesworth's attempts to win back his wife.

Ultimately this was just ok for me - probably 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. I can't say exactly what I didn't love about the book - the character's weren't particularly loveable and I don't love a cheating story line. I didn't hate it, it just didn't really compel me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House/Ballantine for the eARC in exchange for a review.

Minnie Darke is a immediate read for me as far as authors go. I've enjoyed all of the books I've read by her. This one was no different. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the cover. With the storyline in this book, there had to have been better options. This truly would not have drawn me to this book if I didn't already like the author.

This book centers around Marnie Fairchild. Marnie caters to the wealthy with her gift buying service. Many of her clients appreciate that she not only buys for their families, but also "special friends." All goes along fine until the day it doesn't and she begins to doubt herself and what she is doing. But the book is actually about so much more than this. It's about relationships and how they present themselves. It deals with what drives us as people and how our childhood can shape us and lead us to chase things later in life.

I enjoyed the storyline. There were parts where I wanted to lecture the characters for being too stubborn, but for the most part it all flowed quite well and I found it to be a lovely story with some subtle messages.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Light And Fluffy But Tackles Serious Issues As Well. This is one of those books that is centered as a romantic comedy - and never really strays from that, despite tackling serious issues of trust in various forms: infidelity, love languages, being the black sheep of a family, etc. Some bits are truly laugh out loud funny (yet of the cringing variety), including the scenes where the central plotline is first revealed. Other scenes are romance of the level Nicholas Sparks even often fails to pull off. (Including the one in the garden, all I'm saying there.) Ultimately this is a story of a woman discovering just what she wants and being in a position to make it happen, and that is the ultimate feel-good here, even above the pair of romance stories embedded within. Very much recommended.

With Love from Wish & Co is a cute book about a professional gift giver. Everything she has built her career into is at stake when she makes a huge mistake mixing up a couple of gifts.

Meet Marnie: She's a hard working and likable character in the business of gift giving and her biggest client is Brian Charlesworth. Unfortunately, she mixes up a gift for his wife and his mistress in a big way. She has big dreams to buy a historic but run down (estranged) family building, but her dreams are at stake when she starts losing business.

Marnie finds herself completely entangled in the Charlesworth family as she develops a crush on Brian's son, Luke. This relationship picks up at about the half way point of the book at which point the focus of the book completely changes. Marnie is caught between holding secrets from this father and son duo that compromise both her business dreams and her relationship.

While I enjoyed the book I think the change in focus between the different parts broke up the continuity and the pace. There were times when I had to force myself to keep picking up the book and other times where I wondered how it would all resolve. Ultimately, for a book in this genre I felt that it was about 100 pages too long.

The nice thing about this book is that all of the characters struggle internally with moral dilemmas, but they also have redeemable characteristics which make them both relatable and forgivable. I would rate it between 3-4 stars.

This one turned out to be much lighter and heavier than I expected. Lighter because there is a lot of laughter and love and just people being awesome. Heavier because it touches on topics and feelings that are sure to make any reader feel it tug their hearts.
My favorite part of this book is that it tells a story where it's very clear that everyone has a lot more going on inside their hearts than that which they show to those around them, even their loved ones. They all react to the events in very different ways and have very valid reasons to view things as they do. I loved how it shows that the only way to understand each other truly is to talk about things. Even the 'unlikable' character turns out to have hidden depths that don't exactly excuse his actions but definitely shine a softer light on them.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Dell for the emotional read!

It’s not often that I really like the main characters right away, but I did with this book. Marnie Fairchild has her own shop in which she is a gift buyer for people who don’t have the time to shop for the perfect gift. She researches the recipient and always finds the perfect gift. Her most important client is Brian Charlesworth. She has searched for the perfect gift for his wife on their 40th anniversary, as well as a birthday gift for his mistress on the same day. Brian’s son Luke doesn’t work for the family business, which has greatly disappointed his father. Luke and Marnie meet and are very attracted to each other. Marnie has a dream of purchasing her family’s building, which was a historical shop that was heavily damaged in a fire. With Luke’s love of working with wood, they have a common interest in the shop. As their friendship develops, she feels guilty about her connection to his father but cannot bring herself to break the confidentiality of her business. Things are going well, until the gifts for Brian’s wife and mistress are inadvertently switched. This sets off a chain of events that endangers Marnie’s business and her relationship. What will survive this crisis?

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Wish & Co. by Minnie Darke was a unique book. So, here’s the down low on this book. I liked it, but it was an odd book. Firstly, our lead protagonist Marnie makes a living by buying gifts for wealthy clients that match their family dynamics. Rich men hire her to purchase presents for family events. My issue is how you can make enough money buying and wrapping gifts. It doesn’t make sense financially. But even worse, she bought a birthday gift for one man’s girlfriend and a 40th anniversary present for his wife, which occurred on the same day. What could go wrong? Secondly, Marnie has no life except working 24/7 fondling her beautiful wrapping paper, so when the sh*t hits the fan for her best client, and the ladies get the wrong gift, her clients drop her like a hot potato. Now, she has to figure out how to play matchmaker so the “cheater” can win his wife back, and with the help of his son, she makes a miracle happen with the help of his son Luke and bonus...romance blossoms between Marnie and Luke. The only problem, this romance takes up the last 1/8th of the book and happens at hyper-speed. Marnie makes a plan to get lecherous Brian reunited with his wife, Suzanne. Snooze. For the record, Marnie purchased a Smeg stand mixer in crazy colors for his wife’s 40th wedding anniversary gift. Personally, a kitchen mixer for 40 years would have me kicking my hubs out the door. I have given you the lowlights of the story, and there are some decent parts, but this is the impression left on my brain. I would love you to read it and tell me what you think. #romance #giftmixup #cheatingspouse #infidelity #adult #illegitamechildren #fiction #womensfiction @netgalley #howdoesshemakeenoughmoney #netgalley #Wish&Company
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I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Dell Books for the opportunity to read this book. Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022.

#bookaddict #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookstagramer #bookshelf #booksbooksbooks #readersofinstagram #reader #booklove #bookreader

I've grown to really enjoy Minnie Darke's sprawling and charming stories. This was one where I didn't necessarily always agree with the character's choices, but found the overall story really moving. I loved reading about the perfect gifts Marnie finds, about the changes in Brian and Suzanne, about Luke and his developing relationship with Marnie. Great characters, and you get a sense of the time passing and the growth happening.

*** BOOK REVIEW***
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Title: With Love from Wish & Co.
Author: Minnie Darke

With Love from Wish & Co. kept my attention to finish it but overall it wasn’t anything I loved. The story was fine but I didn’t feel anything for the characters. Actually the characters only cared about themselves and what they wanted and not how their actions affected anyone else.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dell for a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review

Marnie Fairchild runs a boutique that includes a gift-buying service for those without the time to do so themselves. She has a knack for understanding the gift recipient and choosing the perfect gift. Coming from a line of entrepreneurs, Marnie is looking to purchase the space that her grandfather once used for his shoe business. That said, an uncharacteristic mistake by Marnie may place her potential new boutique space, as well as her business and budding relationship, in jeopardy.

A sweet read with complex characters and situations, this was a light read that was a welcome break after some rather intense reads. Marnie is a driven businesswoman with big future goals for her business. Along the way, she finds herself drawn to Luke. Known only as a person she bought gifts for, Marnie finds him attractive and intriguing; however, they butt heads over her business model. There was a lot of issues going on simultaneously in this book, and while some felt a bit far-fetched, others really drew me in.

This was a quick, entertaining read that was quite enjoyable.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Dell for the ARC. All thoughts in this review are honest and my own.

With Love From Wish & Co is a whimsical tale of a young entrepreneur with a unique business. Marnie has built a successful business purchasing and wrapping gifts for exclusive clients. Unfortunately, she gets caught between a given client's "giftees." And this unfortunate circumstance coincides with a property becoming available that has a hidden special meaning for Marnie. Toss in an unexpected friend/romance and you're in for a real treat.

I loved this book and had a hard time putting it down. I truly look forward to reading more of Minnie Darke's work.

BOOK REVIEW: With Love from Wish & Co. by Minnie Darke
2022 Publication Date: August 16

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T.I.M.E. Favorite Books To Read
T.I.M.E. Best Book Club Books
T.I.M.E. Best Books By Genre | Contemporary Romance
T.I.M.E. Most Anticipated Books Of 2022

CONNECT WITH A BOOK | T.I.M.E. SIMPLE LIVING TIP
Hold fast to your dreams... And hold faster to your love...

T.I.M.E. BOOK REVIEW:
Minnie Darke? Can I be the President of your Fan Club? Where do I even start on how much I loved this book?!

Let's start with three circles... In this story, Marnie, our protagonist, is a professional gift buyer. And she teaches us how to find that sweet spot where three circles — represented as the person, the occasion, and the relationship — overlap and reveal the perfect gift. And this book falls right in that sweet spot where my three circles overlap for the perfect gift of reading.

Here are my circles...
Circle 1: Strong female character lead (flaws are OK and even welcomed... but a willingness to take responsibility for their own life and actions is a non-negotiable)
Circle 2: Multi-dimensional and unique story elements that create a pathway to a new understanding of humanity
Circle 3: Thru the story, we learn a simple living truth... Something that helps us to connect the life we would love to the life we are living

Over and over again in this story, these three circles overlapped for a perfect gift of reading. Each time delivering a little treasure to apply to living a simple life... creating a simple home... streamlining a simple business.

With a sprinkling of the "universe" working its' mystical balance of cause and effect, the story unfolds with themes of family, love, legacy... and the choices we make each day in our life, home, and business.

Perfect for readers who have a big dream... and would love to take a peek down the road to know which path to take...

Just what you need to assure you that a "cursed moment" could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you.

Keep your focus on the circles... And wish the best for everyone involved... Where the circles overlap will reveal a clear path for you...

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy... Wishing you a perfect gift of reading... ✨😎✨

Pages: 414
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Sub-Genre: Hidden Identity Romance
Time Period: Present Day
Location: Alexandria Park (Australia)

IF YOU LIKE THIS BOOK THEN TRY…
Book: Nothing But The Truth by Holly James
Movie: Working Girl

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Marnie Fairchild is the mastermind behind Wish & Co., a successful gift-buying service catering to wealthy clients with hectic and often "complicated" lives. Her best customer, Brian Charlesworth, comes to her with a special request — an anniversary present for his wife Suzanne… and a birthday present for his mistress, Leona.

And the dates are the same...

Marnie is no stranger to dealing with the complicated relationships of her clients and prides herself on being discreet and staying focused on finding the perfect gift for each recipient.

But the universe deals her an unexpected card when she is distracted by the sudden opportunity to bid on the shopfront that once belonged to her grandfather — a lifelong dream of hers.

On the same date too...

Against her better judgment, Marnie makes an uncharacteristic mistake that jeopardizes her business and puts her at odds with Brian. As she scrambles to save Wish & Co., she finds herself drawn to Brian’s son, Luke — complicating things even further.

With Love from Wish & Co. is a charming contemporary romance about following your heart, learning from your mistakes, and the power of second chances.

BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION:
The importance of staying focused on what's important in life.
The power of taking responsibility for your own actions.
The value of second chances.

BOOK QUOTE:
"The thing about gifts is that people want to feel seen. They want to feel known." — With Love from Wish & Co. by Minnie Darke

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All my book reviews can be seen at This Is My Everybody | Simple Living | Denise Wilbanks at thisismyeverybody.com/blog/what-book-should-i-read

♡ Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.