Another delightful book from Nicholas, the plot was really heart-warming and the stories were woven together beautifully.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Nicholas Sparks - rom com and storytelling God!

Automatic buy from this author and I was so happy to be able to receive an early copy of this book.

The wish is yet another book that had me sobbing uncontrollably and I felt a bit broken by the last page. I was hooked from page one and could not put it down despite my soul slowly being destroyed by each page.

Following the story of Maggie Dawes who's life changed forever in 1996 when she was sent away to live with her aunt at the age of 16 for reasons she is not allowed to tell her friends - whom she desperately misses. She befriends Bryce, one of the only other teenagers on the island, and he helps her with her schoolwork, and introduces her to photography - a passion she shares and leads her to become a professional photographer later on in her life. Her journey with Bryce leaves them falling for each other bit by bit however she is sent back to Seattle.
Years later her passion for photography has led her to a life of travelling and co-owning a photography shop, however due to a new medical condition she ends up needing to hire someone to help her who she strikes up a friendship with and ends up sharing her story of that Christmas in 1996.

What.a.book! Even writing this review I can feel my heart heaving.

Thanks again for this early copy even though it nearly ruined me (but yes please to more Nicholas Sparks books!)

Another great book from Nicholas Sparks! I’ve read all his previous books and loved this one just as much. I'll definitely be reading more of his work in the future.

The Wish is the second of Nicholas Sparks’ books that I’ve read recently, the other being recently published Dreamland. I listened to this on audio and enjoyed the narrator. With Nicholas Sparks we always have a second story threaded through the book, this time the same character in a different time line, so I enjoyed the narrator Mela Lee switching between both.

The story follows main character Maggie. She’s a well known photographer with a built up Instagram following and she is dying with cancer. She finds an unlikely confidante in her new gallery assistant who is interested to hear her story. As she tells her life story she reveals one final Christmas wish.

Nicholas Sparks’ prefaces this novel with a warning that you might cry and it is a definite probability. I worked out pretty quickly what was going to happen however that didn’t take away from the emotional rollercoaster of the story.

Next up on my Nicholas Sparks run is The Return.

Classic Sparks, make sure you have tissues because it will make you cry yet you won't want to put it down! Definitely worth a read...and a cry!

Yes I am probably the only person who hasnt read any Nicholas Sparks books until now but I have been converted. This is such a beautiful book and so brilliant.

I loved this story. It had a sad and slow beginning but evolved into a beautiful and poignant exploration of a terminally ill woman finding peace with herself and her past.

Maggie Dawes is a renowned photographer who is dying from cancer. When she takes on a new assistant called Mark, she finds herself drawn to share the story of her life. It is a bittersweet story of teen pregnancy, family misunderstandings, and the man Maggie has never stopped loving.

Mark was a sympathetic and believable character and Maggie comes to depend on him more and more so, when we reach the end of the story, it is a perfectly natural way for the various plot strands to come together. You will definitely need a box of tissues.

Reading between the lines, I felt there was a narrative inside the narrative, about the way that parents and children fail to communicate. It was Maggie's Aunt Linda who, despite being childless, had the most natural empathy with her niece, whilst Maggie's parents seemed to think her a disappointment.

Nicholas Sparks isn't an author I have read before, but will definitely be getting more of his books.

I was sent an advance review copy of this book by Little, Brown Book Group UK, in return for an honest appraisal.

This was a cute, easy read. It reads a little formulaic but if you want a quick read, then I would say pick this one up!!

Following Maggies story, the Wish is a story which is heartbreaking but also heartwarming. A simply beautiful tale of adoption, love, Hope, death and family. The book draws the reader in and I would recommend
Thank you to Netgalley, Little Brown Books and Nicholas Spark for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review

This was a brilliant read and is being featured on my blog for my quick star reviews feature, which I have created on my blog so I can catch up with all the books I have read and therefore review.
See www.chellsandbooks.wordpress.com.

I really enjoyed this book , it was obvious what the story was about but that didn’t ruin the book. I enjoy all Nicholas sparks books and the one was a really good read as well

What a beautiful read.

Thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish and could not get enough of.

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good romance!!
Absolutely loved the characters, the plot -  impossible to put it down.
Certainly recommended!

Don't even know how to describe how much this book has touched me, I've just spent my afternoon sobbing as I finished this extraordinary book, a very sad yet heartwarming story that will stay in my heart forever 💕

I really loved reading this book and was thoroughly enjoying it.

However, I must confess I had a baby half way through reading it and with the stress of labour and a newborn I never finished it!

I am a massive fan of Nicolas Sparks though and will definitely start it again once the carnage of being a new first time mum has finished!

The Wish is Nicholas Sparks’ twenty second novel, and is set to be another New York Times bestseller. It’s a Christmas story which has been released a couple of months before Christmas – perfect for a gift for your mum, aunt or sister.

I heard an interview with Sparks once where he proclaimed that he writes books solely to be made into movies, which made me like him a bit less, to be honest. There is nothing inherently wrong with a book to film adaptation, but for me, being intent on skipping the book part and heading to film as soon as possible seems quite disrespectful to the world of print and publishing.

From the wikipedia page entry for Nicholas Sparks: ‘He has published twenty-two novels and two non-fiction books, all of which have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 115 million copies sold worldwide in more than 50 languages.’ Even with his intent for all of his films to be movies though, so far only 50% have. You’ve probably seen one or two – The Notebook is perhaps the most well known, or A Walk to Remember. The films garner big stars but seem to avoid critical acclaim – Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling are all main characters in the adaptations. Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden star in The Best of Me, which has achieved a rottentomatoes rating of 12%, at time of writing.

The books, and the films, are something to laugh at perhaps not all unkindly. There are some recurring themes in Sparks’ stories – love and loss, a strong religious and/or military background, and a fantasy of being whisked away or rescued by a Man. There’s also usually a massive change in plot direction which no-one sees coming, mainly because it comes so far out of leftfield you have to rewind a bit to check that’s what you just saw. The ghost best friend, the last sacrifice heart transplant, the military widow who’s stalked by the last man who saw him alive (and cheerfully settles into a relationship with him but it’s okay because the dead guy was actually her brother).

Enough about the films, this is a book review, after all! I do think it’s interesting that they are clearly popular enough to keep getting made, but apparently no one really likes them. I know plenty of people who do like them, and fair play to them. I like watching the films because you know what you’re going to get and you also get to look out for the twist.


The blurb on The Wish:

“What if the person you needed most, turned up when you least expected them?

Maggie hasn’t told this story in years. More than two decades ago, she fell in love. She was sixteen and far from home, waiting to give her baby up for adoption. Bryce showed Maggie how to take photographs and he didn’t judge her for the way her belly swelled under her jumper. They had the perfect first kiss. Theirs was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love.

Now, as Maggie sits by the Christmas tree in her gallery telling her story, surrounded by the photographs that made her famous – the photographs Bryce never saw – her new gallery assistant asks her a question. If she had one wish, what would she wish for this Christmas?

Maggie always thought she knew the answer to that question. But before she can say ‘I’d go back to that winter with Bryce’, she stops herself. It is all she has ever wanted but suddenly here, on this dark night under the twinkling stars, there is something else she wants. She wants to find her baby.

A heart-wrenching and uplifting story about discovery and loss, The Wish is a reminder that time with those precious to us is the greatest gift of all.”

I have to say, if I’d read the blurb before I read the book I would have been confused about where that story went. The bit about her wanting to find her baby happens riiiiiight at the end, the rest of the book is all about her 9 months in a small town, on a small island, learning photography and being tutored by a handsome boy called Bryce.

Whatever you think of Sparks, he can write a story you want to read. He’s good at writing women – Maggie is thinking a lot about being pregnant as a teenager, and her thoughts seem to fit with her character as a teenage girl, if that makes sense. She worries about her hair and her spots, she’s trying to keep her life on track while dealing with the disapproval from her parents, the loss of her friends who don’t seem to care about where she’s disappeared to, and it all feels quite natural.

I also became invested in the characters – I wanted Maggie’s prognosis to be wrong, for her and Bryce to end up together and to meet her child, for the boy who got her pregnant then vanished to be revealed as having had some kind of comeuppance. To know if that happens, you’ll have to read the book.

What I will say though, is that Sparks writes real world, non sugar coated plots with a sprinkle of fantasy romance. He pulls no punches and commits to what he set out to do.

Clearly I also started casting the actors for the film, if it ever gets off the ground. Noah Centino for Bryce, who’s 17/18 in the flashbacks. Maybe Haillee Stenfield for Maggie

although she might be slightly too old to play her in flashbacks and in present day, but that could be fixed by clever stage make up. Laura Dern as her kind but stern ex nun aunt, caught in a quandary of her own (I’d like to read that novel, Sparks, if you’re listening).

If you’re in for a heart string tugging Christmas story that you know is designed via algorithm and mathematically plotted stats to make you care about these people and cry at the end, you’re going to like this book. If you don’t like these stories, don’t read them. This will make a great present and actually, I think it would be interesting for a book club pick too.

Thanks to Netgalley as always and Little Brown Book Group for the DRC.

This was a bit of a hard read for me. I struggled to get into the story. The premise I understand and its a nice read. Not a story for me it hit to hard to home and is an vee emotional.

Follow Maggie in The Wish, a Christmas story of love and loss which is full of heartbreak but is also exceptionally heartwarming. Maggie Dawes, diagnosed with cancer at thirty-six, is spending her last Christmas doing the things she loves. She is a renowned photographer with her own gallery in New York City, but at the age of 16, Maggie was sent away to live with her aunt in Ocracoke, North Carolina. Unable to run the gallery herself she employs Mark, Luanne, and Trinity to help.

Beautifully told by Nicholas Sparks this tale contains lots to enthuse about. Adoption, acceptance, family support, love, and death are all key elements. Don't miss out as this is a really fabulous read.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Little, Brown Book Group UK, Sphere via NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

Sparks has only gone and done it again.

All the feels wrapped up in a simply beautiful tale.

The alternate timelines and the details which they both contain make for a highly realistic and emotionally charged story.

I couldn't put the book down.

There was a desperate need to find out how it all ended.

And I can say with absolute honesty that when I got to the last page I felt completely satisfied.

Sadness mixed with hope.

The Wish is a must read.

Wow! The Wish is another must read from Nicholas Sparks.
This is a truly immersive and thoroughly enjoyable story. I was swept away by Maggie and Bryce's romance and adored the innocence and ambition of their relationship.
Aunt Linda was a character i just wanted to hug but Maggie's parents and self involved sister were characters, well written but irritated me; which seemed the intentional effect.
The story is gripping, emotional and thought provoking; it was one that I wanted to finish so I could devour the whole story but didn't want the enjoyment of reading it to end.
Highly recommended.

"What if the person you needed most, turned up when you least expected them?
Maggie hasn't told this story in years. More than two decades ago, she fell in love. She was sixteen and far from home, waiting to give her baby up for adoption. Bryce showed Maggie how to take photographs and he didn't judge her for the way her belly swelled under her jumper. They had the perfect first kiss. Theirs was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love.
Now, as Maggie sits by the Christmas tree in her gallery telling her story, surrounded by the photographs that made her famous - the photographs Bryce never saw - her new gallery assistant asks her a question. If she had one wish, what would she wish for this Christmas?"

What a beautiful, heartwarming, emotional and atmospheric book, I absolutely loved it.

The storytelling, as always from Nicholas Sparks, is divine and I snuggled up with this book, with a comfy blanket, a pot of tea and lost myself in another world with Maggie and felt everything she did.

This book would make a perfect Christmas gift for a loved one, or even for yourself.

I could easily see this being made into a film, and would watch it endlessly, as I do with The Notebook, another wonderful book by Nicholas Sparks, keep them coming.