What You Wish For tells the story of bright and colorful Samantha “Sam” Casey and Duncan Carpenter through their troubled past that brought them together.
Sam and Duncan showed us that there were so many memories that would haunt you, so many injuries and traumatic events of your life that would come back and hurt you, but
Book: What You Wish For by Katherine Center
Series: Standalone
Publication Date: July 14, 2020
(Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review)
**While this book has already been out I did receive it early so thank you again NetGalley!**
Tags: Women’s fiction, romance, PTSD
Links: Goodreads | Ebook | Paperback | Hardback | Audio
Read: September 14, 2020 to September 14, 2020
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, guided by the knowledge that bad things can happen. But he wasn’t always that way.
And Sam knows it. Because she knew him before—at another school, in a different life. Back then, she loved him—but she was invisible. To him. To everyone. Even to herself. She escaped to a new school, a new job, a new chance at living. But when Duncan, of all people, gets hired as the new principal there, it feels like the best thing that could possibly happen to the school—and the worst thing that could possibly happen to Sam. Until the opposite turns out to be true. The lovable Duncan she’d known is now a suit-and-tie wearing, rule-enforcing tough guy so hell-bent on protecting the school that he’s willing to destroy it.
As the school community spirals into chaos, and danger from all corners looms large, 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—which is the riskiest move of all.
With Katherine Center’s sparkling dialogue, unforgettable characters, heart, hope, and humanity, What You Wish For is the author at her most compelling best.
What You Wish For tells the story of bright and colorful Samantha “Sam” Casey and Duncan Carpenter through their troubled past that brought them together.
Sam and Duncan showed us that there were so many memories that would haunt you, so many injuries and traumatic events of your life that would come back and hurt you, but there would always be people to support you and be there for you.
I gave What You Wish For five stars because while it started off slow and nearly made me put the book down, I continued the story and truly found something much deeper through the words spoken and started to fall in love with this story.
Sam Casey lost someone close to her, the principal and founder of the school she works at as a librarian. It wasn’t until there’s a new principal hired where she discovered that Duncan Carpenter is the new principal, but a different man. And now, she wants to know where the old Duncan she knew in the past has gone and she’s made it her mission to find the old Duncan somewhere in this new, cold, and reserved Duncan.
This was a powerful story that I discovered was something I was not realizing I was looking for. While I found Sam a little hard to get used to in the beginning, her story and her past made me realize the hidden meaning behind her actions. Her connection with Duncan, even though they knew each other in the past, sparked the pull they felt toward each other no matter how many times they pushed each other away.
Their story was so strong in this even though it seemed like you were slowly anticipating for them to be with one another. But in truth, they had found each other with their pasts being the problems that were in the way and they were the ones to discover that it was ok to let one another in.
Their slowburn romance only built their slow to come friendship more powerful throughout this book and only made me eager to find out what would happen to them. Their connection toward each other and even their understanding of each others’ pasts were something that they understood about each other made them being together much stronger.
While Sam and Duncan were hard to deal with at first, I found their story to be a powerful love story that had so much realism to it and so much deeper meaning to that you never realize could be in a story.
What You Wish For is something that I never expected for myself to discover that I would love as much but then I fell in love with Sam and Duncan’s story no matter how slow or how serious the topic and theme was of this book.
This book held a powerful message behind my very first Katherine Center book and I’m glad I got to read this.
Thank you again to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I hope you guys have a great day, please like and comment down below if you enjoyed this book as well or if you plan on reading it!
Loves,
Veronica Chen