What You Wish For: A Novel by Katherine Center

July 14, 2020

NetGalley 

Fiction, arc, contemporary women

St Martin’s Press 

320 pages

ISBN: 9781250219367

7/12-7/22

Rating: 3/5 

 

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from NetGalley and St Martin’s Press in exchange for an unbiased review. 

 

Samantha Casey is the librarian for the Kempner School on Galveston Island living with Babette and Max Kempner, the school’s founders. Her mother died when she was 10 years old and didn’t really know her father. She worked hard to break free from her mundane past to allow her colorful, quirky side to shine. The school thrived with its unique teachers who loved their jobs. Everyone’s life is dramatically altered when Max collapses at his 60th birthday party. No one expected the lively, beloved principal to leave them that night especially not Babette. 

 

While Babette was struggling through the grief of losing Max, Sam tries her best to help and support her. This upsets Babette’s daughter, Tina who seems to resent Sam for living in the Kempner’s carriage house. Trouble begins when Tina’s husband, Kent Buckley decides to replace Max with Duncan Carpenter as new principal. Everyone wanted Babette to take over but her loss was too great to take on such a responsibility. Everyone pitches in to resume school while grieving for Max. 

 

No one knows what to expect when Duncan Carpenter takes over. Samantha realizes that she knows him from a prior job where his care free nature enamored her. She felt her infatuation with him to be unhealthy that she moved to Galveston Island. She tries to allay everyone’s fears by explaining the Duncan she worked with was fit to run the school. The Duncan she knew was light hearted and fun. 

 

Samantha is horrified when Duncan Carpenter introduces himself and begins to change everything that made the school special. His main focus was safety at all cost. What happened to the Duncan she knew? Will she be able to remind him how to enjoy life like he once did for her? 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3408584020

 

https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/850883586