Simple Wishes - Lisa Dale

Title: Simple Wishes
Author: Lisa Dale
Publisher: Hachette - Forever
Published: 2009
Pages: 365
Genre: Romance/Women's Fiction

Simple Wishes is Lisa Dale's debut novel and does she start off with a winner! The characters in this book are down to earth and real - they each have their own flaws and are so "human" that the seem to jump off the pages and intertwine themselves into your life. Even though I listed this as a romance, it is so much more. It is not your typical hero meets heroine, they fall in love, and live happily ever after book. Adele has so many issues that revolve around her mother she can't see the tree for the forest. Jay has his own hang-ups that makes it tough for him to share himself with others. As a matter of fact, the town's people call him Hermit Jay. Beatrice, who befriends Adele, has secrets of her own too.

Lisa Dale weaves these people's lives together in such a way that makes their relationships believable. Their relationships flow through heartaches, misunderstandings, anger, grieving, and forgiveness. The book deals with the legacy we receive from our parents, differences in culture, and conflicts between mothers and daughters.

Adele moved from her small town to the bright lights of New York hoping to create a new life for herself. However, after one terrible mistake, Adele is running again - back to the cottage of her childhood. There she befriends a Korean woman, Beatrice, who Adele believes is hiding information about her dead mother. As she investigates, "secrets from her mother's past threaten to send her fleeing back to the city."

Jay is an artist and a woodworker. He has secrets of his own. As Adele and Jay grow closer together - they both realize that the values their parents instilled in them might need to be reexamined. The closer Adele gets to uncovering the truth about her childhood, the more her instincts tell her to run. "Can Jay convince her to stay with him?"

Another subplot of Simple Wishes is the story of Kayleigh, a young teenager who Adele befriends. We get to experience her journey through the reality of peer pressure, sexuality, and becoming who you were meant to be not what others want you to be.

The story kept me turning the pages, and I soon realized that I was through the book in one sitting. I just couldn't put it down. I wanted to see what would happen next with Adele, and if she could come to terms with how her mother treated her. I wanted to know if Jay would ever open up and share his story. Would Kayleigh realize the wonderful girl she is before it is too late? It is an emotional journey you won't want to miss.

A couple of my favorite quotes are:

"Beginnings happen in moments...not hours, not days, not months."

"There was something deficient in her personality that kept her from remaining close to people for substantial periods of time. She didn't know what the deficiency was, but over the years, it had become easier to accept it and submit to it rather than to try and figure out what it was."

Rating: 4/5
Pages: 365
Completed: 4/1/09

Simple Wishes - Lisa Dale

http://worldaccordingtobooks.blogspot.com/2009/04/simple-wishes-lisa-dale.html