Review: Wishful Thinking by Alexandra Bullen

Wishful Thinking by Alexandra Bullen

If you could wish for a different life, would you? What if that life changed everything you thought was real?

Adopted as a baby, Hazel Snow has always been alone. She's never belonged anywhere--and has always yearned to know the truth about where she comes from. So when she receives three stunning, enchanted dresses--each with the power to grant one wish--Hazel wishes to know her mother. Transported to a time and place she couldn't have imagined, Hazel finds herself living an alternate life--a life with the mother she never knew.

Over the course of one amazing, miraculous summer, Hazel finds her home, falls in love, and forms an unexpected friendship. But will her search to uncover her past forever alter her future?

In the heart-pounding, luminous sequel to WISH, Alexandra Bullen asks the question: If you could wish for a new life....would you?

Review:

Having never read the prequel/companion novel, Wish, I wasn't sure what to expect with Wishful Thinking. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it and am definitely looking forward to reading Wish now more than ever.

Hazel Snow (isn't that such a great name?) was a main character I immediately connected with, even though I couldn't really relate to her, and wanted the best for. Her life had not been easy so far and things only become more complicated when she is presented with her birth mother's identity on her eighteenth birthday. From there, Hazel's life changes drastically. Upon receiving three magical dresses Hazel wishes she had gotten to know her mother. And so our protagonist is transported back in time.

This was such a surprising twist in the story and made everything just that much more surprising and enchanting. Hazel will learn some startling things about her mother and her past in general over the course of one fateful summer. Landing in Martha's Vineyard the year of her birth, Hazel meets a variety of fantastic characters. Rosanna, Jamie, Luke, and more. The way each of the characters is connected to Hazel was fantastically orchestrated and Alexandra Bullen keeps the reader on their toes with a variety of unexpected twists in the plot. Hazel will get to understand, and befriend, her mother in a way she never could have otherwise and I loved watching her relationship grow with all the different characters.

Martha's Vineyard was the setting for the majority of the novel and I loved reading about all the different sights Hazel visited and all the beauty of the island. This was truly a tale of self discovery, as Hazel learned a lot about herself that summer, but she also made some of the strongest friendships of her life and even found romance. Luke was such an endearing guy and it was terrible how things were never easy for him and Hazel.

The plot of Wishful Thinking was one of the most original I've read in awhile and made me wonder what it would be like to go back in time... and to see my parents when they were young. Wishful Thinking also forces you to wonder: "If you could wish for a different life, would you?" Hazel is forced to make some difficult decisions with her three wishes, but, in the end, I feel she made all the right decisions.

I am so glad I had the chance to read this bittersweet and original sophomore novel and I am looking forward to reading the first book in the series, Wish. I definitely recommend picking this one up!

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars

January 1, 2011/Point/243 Pages/Young Adult/Book Two (Companion Novel)

Source: Publisher (ARC)

Other books in the series: Wish