Max is your classic millionaire asshole, and I couldn’t stop giggling when I heard the male narrator’s voice (Will nailed Max's hot, smug vibe). Anna has dreamed of being a genie since she was a kid and ends up working for Max for 3 long years until, poof, a magical entity grants her wish. Suddenly, she’s Max’s wife, though she doesn’t remember the last 7 years, while Max is torn between not knowing her and his body definitely wanting her. I was cracking up when he just smiled for her, like, dude, you’re totally falling for her! Max says the swooniest yet filthiest things, and I was melting😮‍💨🤌🏻. The spice? Fluffy, but the audio took it to a whole new level—I was blushing like a tomato🥵. Where can I find my own Max?! Most of the story is from Anna’s POV, and I wish I got more of Max's thoughts, but the chemistry? 👨🏻‍🍳💋 Fate definitely has a way of pulling destined souls together, and this book was my favorite of the series. Highly recommend!

Many of us believed when young that closing our eyes while blowing out birthday candles might make our wishes come true. That conceit is nourished and amplified in Sarah Ready's newest book. Anna's grown-up life is not what she would have wished for as a child, but she still lets her imagination run wild, especially when she's cleaning house for Jewelry company scion, Max Barone. How perfect it would be to be married to him and have him love her. This imaginative tale takes us from Geneva to Paris to the Côte d'Azur, and it's replete with luscious gastronomic and cultural delights. All of Ms. Ready's books are a bit far-fetched, but they all manage to persuade the reader that maybe the unlikely could be possible. This latest in her "Ghosted" series imagines how wishes can come true if they're meant to be, especially where true love is involved. I liked this book less than Fated, its immediate and truly captivating predecessor, but it was still a fun romp through make-believe.

I am so excited we finally get Max’s story!

Wished is the 4th book in the Ghosted series but it can be read as a standalone.

Anna is a romantic, believing in love at first sight. She knows first hand the feeling the moment she saw Max Barone. Unfortunately he doesn’t even know she exists, let alone her name. One night while cleaning Max’s estate, she makes a wish based around love. The next morning she wakes to her wildest dreams but not everything is as she wished. This story follows Anna and Max as and their relationship through a parallel wished universe and followed what could have been or what could be.

Perfect if you like:
Magical Realism
Opposites Attract
Insta Love
Strangers to Lovers
Billionaire Romance

I listened to the audiobook and I think the narrator did a great job transitioning between characters with different tones and accents. I would have loved to hear this book as a duet with the narrator that covers the epilogue. It felt like a little tease.

Wowza. The spice is this book felt hotter than the previous books in this series! Maybe I am bias because I love a grumpy bossy Max. I was not expecting that!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing for allowing me to be an ACL for this book!

I loved this book!!! I feel like it’s so relatable. Everyone has made a wish that has been crazy and impossible and our main character, Anna is no different. Except her wish is that she was married to her hot boss who barely knows that she exists. What could possibly go wrong? I loved the character development and how the story progressed in general. Highly recommend this one.

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

aesthetic: 🏰💍✨💖🌹💭👗💑🎧

tropes: wish fulfilment/fantasy, marriage of convenience, opposites attract, unrequited Love, love at first sight, fake relationship becomes real, second chance romance

Thank you to NetGalley and Sarah Ready for the opportunity to listen to this beautiful piece of artwork. This audiobook was a delightful, whimsical story about love, wishes, and the unexpected twists that come with them.

Anna Benoit, the hopeless romantic, and Max Barone, the enigmatic owner of the chateau, are compelling characters whose chemistry is undeniable. The concept of waking up married to someone you've secretly admired from afar was both intriguing and heartwarming. Anna’s journey, navigating this upside-down world where her wish has come true, was full of moments that made me smile and question what it means to truly get what we want.

Max's gradual realization and the dynamics between them kept me hooked (ifykyk🌚). The pacing of their romance, mixed with a touch of magical realism, made this a very enjoyable listen. I especially appreciated how Anna’s character grew throughout the story, finding clarity in her own desires and dreams.

I give this audiobook 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fun, romantic story with a twist!🤭

Wished is a fun, romantic book full of magical realism, which means this has a lot of my favorite genres mixed together. While Wished is the fourth book in a series, I think it would work just fine as a standalone. I’ve now read or listened to books two, three, and four, and I absolutely want to go back and read book one!

Anna is working as a maid in Geneva, Switzerland. Her job includes cleaning the mansion of Max Barone, heir to a jewelry empire. (We meet Max in book three of this series, but you really don’t need to know about that.) As you might imagine, she’s pretty much invisible to Max, a young and handsome billionaire. She’s just the maid. But Anna is besotted with Max. One day she’s cleaning and makes a wish that she and Max were married and in love. She doesn’t realize that she made the wish while cleaning a gorgeous heirloom necklace that is reported to have magical powers. Nothing happens right away, but the next morning she wakes up in a luxurious bed and finds out that everyone in the household thinks she is Mrs. Barone and that she and Max have been married for seven years. And so begins the adventure.

Anna is faced with a dilemma - she knows it’s because of her wish, not what Max would really want. So what should she do? And can she even un-do her wish?

The story moves from Geneva to Paris and St. Tropez and back to Geneva, so we are treated to descriptions of some really beautiful and famous places.

Note: there are some explicit spicy scenes.

I wasn’t feeling well so instead of bouncing between the ebook and the audiobook, I mostly listened to the audiobook and that was an excellent choice. Most of the book is narrated by Amanda Ronconi, with the prologue and epilogue narrated by Will Watt.

Thank you to Swift & Lewis Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book and to listen to a review copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

WISHED narrated by Amanda Ronconi and Will Watt is well performed with both narrators well suited for their characters. Amanda Ronconi narrates most of the book and her narrative voice for both Anna & Max draws the listener in from the beginning. She is so expressive with Anna and all the emotions she goes through. Roncini also expresses the roughness of Max during particular situations then she seamlessly switches his tone to something smoother & inviting.

Will Watt’s slow & drawn out pace nicely pulls Max into the story both at the beginning & end. He is just as expressive with his tone at the beginning as Roncini is throughout her narration. Both narrators provide an excellent flow and movement from one character voice to the next.

While I truly enjoyed the audio, I am glad I also had the book available to read as well. I found having the book was beneficial for understanding the French word & phrases & understanding the history behind the jewelry.

Still, I recommend listening to this book just as much as reading it. Either variation of the book brings out its captivating and magical story. One to get lost in and enjoy.

I really wanted to like this one! I thought the blurb was cute, and the premise was cute, but it was hard for me to get into and into the plot. A maid makes a wish about her boss, who she doesn’t actually know, to get him to fall in love with her because she has a crush on him, to make her life better, turn his completely upside down, and essentially change the entirety of the world in the process. She doesn’t take into consideration what HE wants or feels, whether or not he wants to or could love her back, only her own feelings. While they do end up in a whirlwind relationship, and trying to figure things out, it just came across as creepy. Had the roles been reversed this book would have been stalker romance 101. I wasn’t a bit of a fan of this one, though I wish I would have been. I just wish that it would’ve happened a bit differently with the wish and that they could have spoken or known each other BEFORE the wish came to be. Or that he would have KNOWN anything about what was going on after the wish had been made.

I love the way Sarah Ready writes, the way she describes moments, objects and places - I truly find myself fully immersed in the story.
Wish was no exception!

📖 Wished by Sarah Ready
📚 book 4 • Ghosted series
(can definitely be read as a standalone, though for a bit more of Max’s story, we do meet him in Fated)

⭐️ rating: 4.75/5
🌶️: open door, several scenes

💭 overall thoughts:
Anna has been cleaning billionaire Max’s chateau for years, and while he barely knows she exists, she fell in love at first sight.

Finding a magical necklace on his desk, she makes a wish to be married to him, he fires her thinking she stole it, and they wake up in this new “reality,” as husband and wife.

Before the wish, Anna felt she really knew Max, seeing how he lived, while he knows absolutely nothing about her. While working together to get back to their previous life, their connection grows deeper and deeper.

I loved how this novel showed that wishes aren’t always what they might seem, and how we may not even know what we’re meant for. What’s real in life, what matters, and what parts of life are what we make them.

My favorite in the series is still Fated, though I loved the whole thing!
I think it’s a complete series now, but I’d love to see more magical realism from Sarah 🥰

As with each of these books, there was a bit of a twist I didn’t see coming. I thought I had it figured out, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I hadn’t 🙃

read if you love:
💫 magical realism
💰 billinonaire jewelry business owner mmc
🫧 house cleaner fmc
🙃 opposites attract
💭 wishes + dreams
🥹 insta love & pining (for her)
💖 single 1st person pov
(though the prologue/epilogue is Max’s pov)

🎙 audiobook thoughts:
I don’t believe I’d heard either narrator before, and I think they both did a fantastic job! Amanda Ronconi did a wonderful job embodying Anna.
We only get 2 chapters from Will Watt (aka Max), but I loved the accent and tone to his voice.

Thank you to NetGalley & Sarah Ready for advanced copies.
All opinions are my own.

Be careful what you wish for, because it can be way more than what you wanted, but exactly what you needed!

I absolutely LOVED this book. The faced paced, insta-love hit the spot. The development of the storyline had me wrapped from the beginning right up till the end. Their love, the tension, and the perfect amount of spice! The love they have is to dream of.

Different worlds? SOLD. The way their love is fated no matter the wish is just what my hopeless romantic self needed.

“Apparently it is absolutely impossible to convince of something if they are convinced something else is the truth.” This hit right in heart. The truth of this statement and all of Anna’s feelings. I just related to her so much.

The narrators, Amanda Ronconi and Will Watt, were phenomenal. I was hooked from the prologue. I’ll definitely need to see what else they have so I can listen!

Sarah Ready definitely got a new fan. I’ll be going back and reading more of her ASAP!

Love. Love. Love.

When Anna makes a wish whilst holding her boss’ family heirloom necklace, she has no idea that it might just come true. After a horrific day, she wakes to find herself in luxurious sheets, with staff, and even more shocking, married 7 years to her cold but ever so handsome boss, jewellery empire owner, Max Barone.

What do you do when you wake up married to the man you’ve secretly been in love with for years - do you play along or do you do everything in your power to rectify the mistake?

I loved everything about this book. The magical hints, Max Barone and his transition from buttoned-up cynic to passionate husband, the inexplicable consequences of wishes and so much more. Much steam, many lovely emotional moments and an ending that made my little romantic heart burst with glee.

I especially adored the prologue from Max's POV. That voice, the enunciation, the meltingly sensual switch from rage to attraction! If only it had been a dual narration audiobook all the way through. I often struggle with listening to higher pitched female voices with certain accents on audiobooks as I am quite audio-sensitive, but I really enjoyed this format regardless.

This was such an interesting read! I've never read Sarah Ready before but I loved the writing. I really enjoyed seeing the different sides of Max and the different circumstances these two were put in. It did take me a minute to get into but that was mostly due to it being different than things I've read in the past. But I truly loved the concept and the execution! Such a good read. The audio was great!

First off, let me say that I’m STILL WAITING to read a book by Sarah Ready that I DON’T like! Hasn’t happened yet! 😮❤️

Meet Anna. She’s a house cleaner and trying to make ends meet. She’s also a hopeless romantic! Unfortunately, she fell head over heels for the owner of the mansion she cleans…at first sight. Several years ago…

Meet Max. He’s the head of the Barone Jewelry Empire. He’s handsome, rich, owns the above mentioned mansion, and has no idea who Anna is! 🫣

🛑🛑 Stop here if you don’t want to know any more. Outline following! 🛑🛑

One day Anna makes a wish, on a certain thing that supposedly holds some kind of magic. 🤔

Next thing you know, she’s LIVING a whole new life! 😮👀

How can this be? This isn’t right! She needs to fix this…

And so it goes…as we go on an adventure with the two of them…and it’s quite an adventure!

It will make you laugh, and it will make you sad…but in the end, it’s one you’ll want to read! LOVE all of her stories!!

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me!

❤️ Unlikely main characters
❤️ Full supporting cast…family, friends, etc
❤️ Strangers to more??
❤️ Love conquers all! 🥰

#Wished by #SarahReady and narrated beautifully by #AmandaRonconi and #WillWatt.

Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #Swift&LewisPublishingLLC for an ARC of the audiobook which is due out in a couple of days on 10/1/24! *** Look 👀 for it then! ***

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Thanks so much for reading! And if you ‘liked’ my review, please share with your friends, and click ‘LIKE’ below… And, let me know YOUR thoughts if you read it!! 📚⭐️

Wished is the fourth in an interesting series of unexpected love. Each had an element of magic in them. Max and Anna have an unexpected connection that is threaded through 2 separate timelines. The story weaves as the loves grows. It is a lovely journey of life and love.

"Wished" is book 4 of The Ghosted Series but reads well as a standalone.  It follows Anna, who is in love with her employer, Max, despite knowing her feelings are unrequited. After making a wish on a magical necklace, Anna finds herself married to Max for seven years, exploring the complexities of their relationship and the wish's impact on their reality.

The book is a perfect blend of romance and magical realism.  The narration evokes a sense of longing and paints vivid and mesmerizing pictures of the beautiful sceneries of Switzerland and France.

I enjoyed alternating between reading and listening to the audiobook, skillfully narrated by Amanda Ronconi and Will Watt with Amanda infusing the characters with deep emotion.

Favorite Quotes:
ᥫ᭡ "..I want to know you in our other life.  I want the chance to get to know you there.  To kiss you.  To bring you flowers.  To take you out to dinner.  To meet your mom and sister. I want the chance to see if you are the choice I would make.." 

ᥫ᭡ "..Love isn't the opposite of hate.  It doesn't have room for hate. It's pure and compassionate and forgiving and full of grace. It's constant.  It's quiet.  It's loud. It's steady.  It's the night sky full of a million blazing stars.  It's the first snowflake landing on your outstretched palm.  It's a hand gripping yours in the dark, holding on  when you're certain you're all alone.  And passion?  It isn't anything to be afraid of when it's rooted in love.."

ᥫ᭡ "..What I think of myself matters a hell of a lot more than what anyone else thinks of me.  At the end of every day, I want to be able to say that I did my best, I treated others well, I told the truth, I didn't do anything that later on I'd be ashamed of.  I'd return it, love.  Even if it hurt to give it up, It'd hurt worse to keep it."

ᥫ᭡ "..stop tiptoeing around life. Live, Anna.  Steal a car, naked.  Stay up until sunrise, dancing on the beach. Kiss a man who doesn't know your name. Live with passion, love with your heart."

ᥫ᭡ ".. I want to experience every possible variation of love. I want to know what it is to love you in every possible way.  When you're happy, when you're not, when you're still young, when you're old, when you've changed from who you are today and are someone new and the only thing I recognize is that I still love you.  I want to be there for it all.  In quiet love and passionate love and the kind of love that holds on even when everyone else would let go.  I love you without reservation."

Thank you NetGalley, Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC and the author Sarah Ready for the electronic advanced reader's copy and audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This audiobook transported me back to the excitement I felt when I first dove into the series. The blend of romance, fantasy, and suspense was precisely what I had been looking for. The narrative struck a perfect balance between unexpected twists and captivating magical elements, crafting a world that was both mesmerizing and full of surprises. The unfolding mystery kept me on the edge of my seat, eagerly anticipating what would come next.

I found myself deeply invested in the characters. Their emotions felt genuine and relatable, drawing me into their journeys. I genuinely cared about their fates, just as I did when I read the initial book. This emotional connection was something I missed in the previous two installments, where the characters didn't resonate with me as much. It was refreshing to experience that depth of feeling and involvement once again.

Listening to this audiobook felt like a delightful return to what first enchanted me about the series. The blend of magic, intrigue, and, above all, the well-developed characters came together to create a story that left a profound impact. Fans of the earlier books will likely rediscover that same spark here.

I have been enjoying this series of romance with a touch of magical in the story. Anna has been a maid for Max for 7 years and wished for Max to notice her. Her wish comes true and the story is about her and Max figuring out what is real or part of the wish.

The story is entertaining and I love how Max goes from being such an asshole to the sweetest guy.

The story is mainly told in Anna's POV narrated by Amanda Ronconi and Will Watt as Max. I wished we had more chapters from Max's POV. They did a great job bringing all the emotions to life.

Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for the ALC.

Unfortunately, I cannot say I would recommend this book to romance fans.

The Good:
-The author’s prose was lovely. Sometimes I feel like I am reading middle grade fiction when reading romance, but this had a more sophisticated voice.
-I appreciated that there was a deeper theme being explored here. The discussion of how our pay influences us versus having agency over our choices was interesting. The author clearly falls on the “we have agency” side of that discussion and is critical of other literature in which the characters are driven by their past traumas. I do not agree with the author on these points, and I think the best books I have read are where the characters deal with their issues (whether willingly or not) and then make a change in themselves for the better. The MMC did this somewhat.

The Bad:
-The romance did not do it for me. FMC had love at first sight and just basically was quietly obsessed with MMC for years. When she makes the wish and they are together, none of the romantic feelings feel like they come from any particular place on either end other. It was just *bam* they are in love. There is the weight of the 7 year marriage they had in the wish scenarios which affected his feelings for her, but that wasn’t actually *her*. She didn’t actually do the things and live that life. I couldn’t get behind their love story.
-The FMC didn’t really have any character development. She was static through the whole story. She is just obsessed with MMC in a stalker type way. I think this goes back to the author’s commentary that the characters do not need to be driven by past trauma. It didn’t work for me.

The Mediocre:
-The spice. It was good, but since I wasn’t really into the romance between them, it didn’t have the same heart fluttering, toe curling effect it could have had if there had been more tension in the build up and development to the romance.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest feedback.

🩵✨AUDIOBOOK ARC REVIEW✨🩵

Wished

Author: Sarah Ready

Rating: 4.5⭐️

The way this book sucked me in and kept me so invested in Max and Anna’s relationship really was great. It was cute but not just a quick romance story. There were ups and downs that had me questioning if there really would be a happy ending to it, and I loved every second of it. This book is book 4 in Sarah Ready’s Ghosted series but reads well on its own.

Wished, book 4 in Sarah Ready’s Ghosted series gives us the story of Anna and Max. Anna has been Max’ cleaner for the past 3 years and dreams of the day that he will ‘see’ her and fall head over heels in love.

As it is ‘wished’ so it becomes. But it’s not real - or is it?

A feel good romance full of magic and loveliness.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.