I had a difficult time working through this one and ultimately did not finish around halfway. I struggled to get into the writing, and I did not connect at all to the characters, who felt generic and did not have a lot of depth to me.

Esme's Wish by Elizabeth Foster was such an interesting read! The world of Aeolia was very intriguing and it was fun to learn about the secrets surrounding Esme's mother. Esme herself was a curious, vibrant, and relatable character and I loved that about her. I'm hoping to read book two soon, and hopefully it will be just as enchanting as this one.

Thanks to Netgalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. 3.5 stars rounded down. The fantasy elements were fun but the plot was really predictable and just not exciting

Esme was so and so, as a character. But i really liked the magic and dragons in the story.
But it was somewhat entertaining even though.

I did not have time to get to this one due to taking a degree. Also lockdown confused matters. I would look out for this as it seems like I would enjoy the story.

First off, I have to say that this is one of the most gorgeous artwork ever in a middle-grade book (although it looks like a contemporary young adult one).

I'll count this as a children's book where people who enjoy young adult will like this one.
It might not be my favorite but for a debut in a series this is quite solid and am curious to know about the rest.

Esme's Wish is a sweet and imaginative fantasy novel that's a bit of a throwback to the classic YA style of about ten years ago. Today's YA novels tend to be more intense: stakes are higher, conflicts and resolutions are more jarring, and young adult characters are more nuanced and complex - oftentimes even feeling too adult to faithfully represent young people. YAs from a decade ago now feel like transitional novels between middle grade and adult fiction, where the characters are in their later teens, but still act like the innocent children they are and face struggles that are tamer - as is the case here. It reminds me of the kind of book we were prescribed in school, although they would never have stooped to something as dangerously imaginative as a fantasy YA if there were perfectly good pseudo-literary fiction novels with which to bore us out of our skulls.

In all, I did enjoy it, as I saw it's innocence and simple nature as a palate cleanser to the stuff I usually read, and I'm intrigued to see where the story goes next.

With her debut novel, Foster creates a story blended of eastern mythology and western fantasy. Ariane Silver never came home seven years ago, and everyone in Picton has moved on. Except for Esme. She just can't create her own closure; she needs to know what happened to her mother.

Picton is a picturesque coastal town clearly inspired by the Mediterranean coasts. When Esme goes in search of her mother at their cottage home, she literally dives into a parallel world under the sea. It gets even more Greek from there when she encounters statues of Poseidon, sirens, and stygians.

Esme discovers Ariane was working on a compendium when she disappeared from the parallel world as well. As she searches for clues in Ariane's work, Esme's understanding of the world is shaken as she travels by dragons and boats that propel themselves. Esperance is a world reminiscent of any good western fantasy.

This is a quest story blended with the best of Odysseus and Arthur. There is a holy grail, there are dramatic challenges. East meets west quite seamlessly and may have become a new favorite subgenre for me. Easy four stars to this debut, and now my TBR pile is teetering precariously with yet another series I'm eager to read.

This is such a good book! It's beautiful, and it talks about some important things, like grief. As Esme's mother has presumably drowned, Esme is still sad about that. I don't blame her to be fair. Losing a parent is hard. Then her father marries another woman and Esme is against the wedding.
I loved the book, and everyone should read it. And I am sorry for this incoherent review.

This is a really good book. It's full of twists and turns and will keep you turning the pages to see what happens next. I will read the next book in this series. Thank you BooksGoSocial via Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Esme's Wish by Elizabeth Foster is a beautiful novel, a beautiful gift to YA literature. The story follows Esme, whose mother was lost at sea, who found it unbelievable that her mother, who loved the sea could be taken by it. She finds clues in her mother's paintings and realizes that there is another world that she visited and is convinced her mother must be alive in that world...so she follows her there and is amazed by it. But the search is not as easy as she hoped.

I absolutely loved this story, it was beautifully written and I was able to see everything in my mind's eye as the author's language drew vivid pictures of the worlds she created. I couldn't wait to continue on to read Esme's Gift.

Thank you to the author, Books Go Social and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

this was a great start to a series, this book was a strong start to esme's story and I really enjoyed this. The characters were great and I enjoyed reading this.

Esme's father is getting married again. Her mother is missing, assumed dead because she was on the sea, and he's found a new wife. Esme speaks against the marriage but no one cares. Then her dad and the new wife go on their honeymoon. That's when Esme finds the sister of the new bride is coming to stay with her. The first day she takes down all her mother's artwork and puts up other pictures...

BooksGoSocial and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published and you can get a copy now.

Esme doesn't have friends (her mother was her friend) but it doesn't take long to find some. The boy takes her to the island where her mother was going all those months ago. They search the whole island and find nothing. But then she sees some caves and wants to search them.

This is where fantasy drops in on the story. She finds a water passage and she falls in. She expects to drown but she finds she breath in this water. When she finds land again, it's the land in her mother's pictures. She's mesmerized by the thought of retrieving the pretty pearl her mother painted. The only problem is that there are monsters guarding it. When she gets there, there's no pearl just her mother's necklace. She grabs that and almost makes it out when one of the monsters scratches her leg.

She immediately starts reacting to the scratch so they have to get her to a doctor. It's serious but the doctor saves her. Then she continues to search for her mother. She finds her but she's just barely alive. Now Esme is going home to tell her father. She doesn't know if he will come back with her or not...

The next book will answer that question.

This was a good read with plenty of excitement.

Esme's Wish (Esme Series #1)
by Elizabeth Foster
Esme series is the great beginning young adult book. The idea of a magical world connected to historical Greek gods and goddesses is just the beginning. Esme is a wonderful character that can teach children that they can do anything if they keep trying. The book looks into ideas of learning to rely on yourself but be open to friendship. The friendships she finds in this magical world helps her to understand her own gifts and the story of how her mother disappeared. The cliff hanger in the end will bring more readers to the series. Great job.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book at about 25%. I really enjoyed the beginning but actually stopped enjoying it once Esme visited the magical world. The writing was good and the characters were fine, but I just lost interest in the direction of the story and grew bored.

This was a wonderful MG/YA fantasy read. Fifteen year old Esme's searching for her missing mother, who vanished at sea seven years ago.

Of course Esme goes looking for her mother and stumbles onto magic and portals to other worlds. And dragons.

I liked the world-building and magic system. Aeolia is a very interesting underwater realm.

Esme is a very lovable main character. She's smart and very persistent, never forgetting her goal of finding her mother. She makes fast friends with Daniel and Lillian. Together the three kids must discover the truth behind an ancient myth, must find treasure and outsmart monsters.

‘’A dark shadow swooped overhead.’’

Fifteen-year-old Esme has lost her mother 7 years ago. ‘Lost at sea’ as other people say. While everyone else lives their life, Esme can’t. She grows suspicious of het mothers disappearance. When she decides to look for her mom herself, she finds herself swept into an enchanted world; Aeolia. With new companions, Esme is determined to find out the truth.

Although I am not in middle grade anymore(long time ago), I actually enjoyed this story. For a debut this is well written and quite compelling. Foster’s writing is quite descriptive. It gave me a nice picture of how she has painted(wordplay you can only understand if you have read the book) the world Aeolia, without overly portraying the details. The pace was average, which is okay for me personally.

There were dragons in this story and I really love to read about them. I would of liked them to be a bit more ‘there’ in the story, and the relationships between them and humans to be more explained. In the book it has been said that dragons are really clever, and know a lot faster what is going on than their riders. However, I did not read that in the story, it felt like they were only used as transport. Which is a shame, and something that perhaps could of been executed better.

The new friendship between Esme, Lillian and Daniel, felt very real. For the first time, Esme was capable of trusting and relying on others again, which was written very believable.
I like how there is not necessarily a love triangle in sight.

The description of where I picked this up, said it was great for Percy Jackson fans. Now, I have enjoyed this story, but I feel like it is not comparable to Percy Jackson, because the story and the vibe is just to different…

I did miss the connection between the two worlds. Why does the enchanted world know about ‘our’ world, but our world not about theirs? Do the people from Aeolia not visit the other world? So many questions unanswered.

The story was predictable at some moments, but also had some nice turns. I loved the epilogue, that was a nice touch. Especially because I was wondering what happened to a specific object that I don't want to spoil about.

Middle Grade me would have really liked this book.
I will definitely be reading the second book to see how the story progresses.
For now this book is 3 stars to me.

I was provided an e-arc by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 37%

I really wanted to enjoy this one, especially since I saw so many positive reviews for it, but I just couldn't get into the story. I found it to be really boring and like nothing was happening, and I didn't really connect to any of the characters.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Esme’s Wish is a fantastic middle-grade fantasy. Since the day her mother was presumed lost at sea, Esme has never given up hope that her mother is alive. On a visit to the island where her mother was last seen, Esme accidentally swims through a portal. A magical world called Esperance awaits her. As Esme explores, she makes friends and retraces her mother’s steps. When an ominous danger threatens, Esme realizes that her search for her mother may be linked to saving Esperance.

The story begins with Esme objecting to a wedding and I knew that it was going to be a fun time. I was genuinely delighted with the world-building, which feels similar to a Miyazaki film: imaginative creatures, creepy monsters, and beautiful art. Esme’s Wish is a lovely read filled with the spirit of adventure, portal travel, and true friendship. Written in a gentle and pleasant style, the story flew by. I quickly finished Esme’s Wish and was eager to start the sequel! Esme’s Wish is available now! Thank you to Elizabeth Foster, BooksGoSocial, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very okay read, I jus wasn't in the mood for it.

The whole plot felt intriguing and the fantasy world, very well explored, but it felt like something done before. The characters weren't really dived into, and everything seemed to wrap up so fast.

Even though, you know, this is middle grade book, so maybe I am being too hard on it. I'm just not a fan of the genre, so this wasn't for me. I'm pretty sure people who love fantasy books would love this, the Esperance world and its politics were gripping.

I can say, for sure, this reminded me so much of Alice in Wonderland. due to how she gets into Esperance and everything that happens there.

I won't be continuing with the series, but hopefully somebody will really enjoy these books!