Synopsis:
Samantha Casey is a school librarian who loves her job, the kids, and her school family with passion and joy for living. But she wasn’t always that way.
Duncan Carpenter is the new school principal who lives by rules and regulations, fueled by the knowledge that bad things happen. But he wasn’t always that way.
Sam knows that because she and Duncan worked together at a California school. She loved him then, but she was invisible to him and everyone else. Even to herself.
So Sam escaped to a new school, a new job, a new chance at living. And she’s found a family that includes Max and Babette, the founders and owners of the private school, and her best friend, eccentric math teacher Alice.
Duncan being hired as the new principal feels like the best thing that could possibly happen to a school still reeling from a recent tragedy. But the worst thing that could happen to Sam.
But the opposite turns out to be true. The fun-loving Duncan she knew has become a suit-and-tie wearing, rule-enforcing tough guy so hell-bent on protecting the school that he’s about to destroy it.
As the school community spirals into chaos, Sam and Duncan must find their way to who they really are, what it means to be brave, and how to take a chance on love -— the riskiest move of all.
Review:
Author Katherine Center was inspired to write What You Wish For when she read Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee which is “about the aesthetics of joy and how the world around us impacts our emotions.” In the book, Lee discussed color and design — “and specifically how painting schools warm, bright colors could change the students’ experiences and outcomes.” Center began contemplating writing about that idea. Education is a topic with which she is familiar and knowledgeable since Center has taught creative writing and English, her husband and sister are teachers, and she’s a parent. As What You Wish For came to fruition, she set the story at a private school. And she chose Galveston at the locale since she writes most of her books on the island and it is a resilient community. Even though it is often in the path of hurricanes, Center marvels that “folks there just keep picking up and carrying on.” Which is exactly what Center’s characters do.
What You Wish For focuses on Sam, a quirky school librarian who boasts pink bangs, an eclectic wardrobe, and an infectious love of books. She ensures that the school library is a welcoming place where all students feel accepted and safe, and delights in guiding them to select books they will enjoy. Sam’s father left when she was eight years old, and her mother died when she was ten. She has found a home with Max and Babette, who are more than employers. They are like surrogate parents and she resides in their carriage house. The couple are “beloved” — “the kind of people other people just want[] to be near.” As the story opens, Max is celebrating his 60th birthday in his typical fun-loving style, savoring every moment that he joyfully interacts with the guests. Until tragedy strikes.
Suddenly, the school needs a new principal and Sam is shocked when Kent Buckley, Max and Babette’s son-in-law, who serves as chair of the school’s board of directors while, ironically, virtually ignoring his own son, Clay, a highly intelligent third-grader, announces that Duncan Carpenter has accepted the position. Duncan was the impetus for Sam leaving her position at a California school and relocating to Galveston. She remembers how charismatic, joy-filled, and exuberant Duncan was — characteristics that endeared him to students, parents, and colleagues. Sam fell hard, but Duncan never noticed her, instead dating another faculty member. Eventually, feeling completely invisible and knowing that Duncan was seriously involved with another woman became too difficult for her. “He was the entire reason I left my old school — it was one hundred percent to get away from him . . . ” She admits that she was the worst version of herself when she was around Duncan. “All the longing and desire and electricity and joy I felt whenever he was anywhere near me seemed to scramble my system. I’d freeze, and get quiet and still and self-conscious, and stare at him, unblinking, like a weirdo.” But in Galveston, Sam has found her voice and become empowered to reveal her authentic self to the world, even though her long-dormant epilepsy resurfaced and caused her to discontinue driving. Still, seizures are rare and she recognizes the warning signs that permit her to get to a private space where no one can observe her as she endures them. As a child, she was tormented and ostracized by the children in whose presence the seizures sometimes overtook and embarrassed her.
The world keep hanging on to this idea that love is for the gullible. But nothing could be more wrong. Love is only for the brave.
Sam is stunned when Duncan arrives and bears no resemblance to the man she knew. His colorful clothes and silly socks? Gone. His infectiously gleeful approach to education? Gone. His happy, outgoing demeanor? Gone. The man who is introduced at the first faculty meeting of the year wears a drab suit and has a frightening disposition. He is obsessed with school safety, and announces, “We are going to lead the nation in campus safety and security.” As the weeks pass, Duncan demonstrates his determination to transform the historic campus that is decorated in bright colors and boasts a floor-to-ceiling butterfly mosaic in the cafeteria designed and painted by Babette with Sam’s assistance over the course of an entire summer. Duncan plans to replace the school’s security guard, install additional locks, cover windows, paint the walls gray, and essentially turn the school into a fortress. What Sam doesn’t know at the outset is why Duncan has undergone such a dramatic personality transformation. But she is determined to stop him from remodeling the school and, in the process, destroying its spirit and traditions.
What You Wish For is thoroughly predictable, but that doesn’t detract from its charm. Like Center’s other protagonists, Sam is endearing and believable. Readers may recognize traits San shares with enthusiastic librarians in their own lives who inspired them to love literature. She is loved not only by her colleagues, but by her students, and since moving to Galveston she has been learning to love and accept herself. Duncan’s arrival threatens to derail her progress as she becomes increasingly angry and frustrated by his grim determination to turn her beloved school into a lifeless, joyless institution, complete with a guard dog named Chuck Norris. Sam, Babette, and Alice conspire to not only stop Duncan’s actions, but to turn him back into the affable, fun-loving man he once was. They embark on “Operation Duncan.”
Fans of Hallmark movies will love What You Wish For, the theme of which is, according to Center, “joy on purpose.” It is a story about overcoming loss and meeting challenges head-on while finding and relishing the delights that life offers. Employing her recognizable style, Center has created a memorable cast of characters, each eccentric and quirky in his/her own right, but never boring. In addition to Babette, the adored co-founder of the school who knows that “joy and sorrow walk sidy by side” and “being alive means risking one for the other,” there’s Alice, who is constantly attired in shirts bearing math-related quips, there is Kent Buckley. He’s “the kind of guy everybody always called by his first and last name,” who is perpetually talking on his cell phone using a Bluetooth device. He’s intent on making a power grab and turning the school into a state-of-the-art model of safety, even as he makes his own wife, Babette’s daughter, Tina, and son, Clay, miserable. He has ensnared Duncan to assist him. Young Clay, who wants to read for fun as well as knowledge, plays a pivotal role in the story and Duncan is the damaged man of Sam’s dreams. Center’s crisp, frequently hilarious dialogue and her characters’ wry observations propel the story forward at a steady pace.
Center is adept at crafting characters who must overcome tragedy, hardship, or obstacles, and What You Wish For is no exception. In Sam’s case, she must keep her unrequited feelings for Duncan in check, manage her epilepsy, and overcome the emotional damage the disease and losing her parents have inflicted upon her. Center reveals what happened to Duncan and brought about the dramatic change to his personality long after savvy readers will have guessed what transpired. Nonetheless, the manner in which Center weaves the revelatory moment into the story is flawless and moving, and the tale takes on an urgent tone at the point. As “Operation Duncan” gets underway, Center deftly illustrates that Duncan has reached a crossroads. The path he chooses can easily shape the trajectory of the rest of his life. Again, even though readers already know how he will ultimately choose, Center’s expertly-crafted story is enjoyable and emotionally satisfying.
Center says that “sorrows don’t cancel out the joy” and she actively strives to make her stories “funny and wry and wise.” with what You Wish For, she has again achieved her goal. The one surprising thing about the story is the crisis that ends up bringing the community together in a united effort to do a very good deed. As a result, some characters finally make pivotal decisions, others’ beliefs are validated and they recommit to them. The incident ends up healing not only individual characters, but the community itself.
What You Wish For is a fast-paced, escapist romance — the kind of book you read simply for the pure pleasure of reading. It’s success is due to Center’s intriguing, lovable, and empathetic characters, especially Sam and Duncan, and the sweet evolution of their relationship that will have readers cheering. It is about empowerment and making a conscious decision to seek out joy in one’s life, even though “life doesn’t ever give you what you want just the way you want it. Life doesn’t ever make things easy.” It’s an uplifting story about managing loss, sorrow, and challenges, and Center gives her characters an unabashedly happy ending. What You Wish For is an ideal easy read for a day spent at the beach or by the pool.
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