The Secret Ingredient of Wishes

It was the pie on the cover. That, and wishes. I'm a sucker for a book with a pie in it and wishes. And I was in the mood for a bit of romance.

Well, it was a silly toy of a book, with all kinds of crazy plot points like a main character who can grant wishes, who wishes away her little brother, who ends up in a town called Nowhere, who lodges with a woman who binds secrets. It would have made a pretty good episode of Twilight Zone once upon a time, but readers expect more of their books. Oh well. At least it had lots of yummy pie.

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway AS WELL as received it from netgalley! Whoops! Anyhow, I just wanted to say my review will reflect my true opinions about the book.

Rating: 3.5 *

When I started the book I was immediately swept up in the story. The characters are lovely and the writing is cozy. There were a few moments I was confused– wondering why a character ended up in a room or something– but, this might have been fixed since I received an uncorrected ARC. This was a quite fun read.

I really liked the concept of the wishes and secrets but, I didn't think the story delved into it much. I thought could have been done to explain the powers to the reader yet, at the same time since the main character was so confused it made sense that the reader was in the dark too.

I also didn't like the ending– I'm sorry! It was nice, cute, and had a final tone but, I thought there were strings that still needed to be dealt with.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

3.5 Stars

This was a super charming little book...



This one had Sarah Addison Allen feel to it. Rachel Monroe has a secret, she can make wishes come true. Sometimes with disastrous results. When one accidentally gets granted, Rachel decides it's time to pack up and leave town. She lands in Nowhere, North Carolina where she meets a great cast of characters hiding secrets of their own.

I enjoyed the heck out of this one. It was light-hearted, and easy to read, but also had some “feels” dotted throughout. The secondary characters were interesting and well written. Especially CATCH the old lady that takes Rachel in. All those descriptions of pies that they baked made me super hungry! I wish we would have gotten some recipes for them included in the book.

That said, I did have a few things that had me lowering my rating. I wasn't crazy with the romance between Ashe and Rachel. One, Ashe is actually still married to Lola for 90% of the book. He is getting a divorce, but for me, he seemed way too hung up and hurt by her still for me to buy that he would want to start something with Rachel. The other issue I had, is that it had a rather abrupt ending. Now I don't know if there is going to be another book to follow this one, but there were a TON of loose ends left.

Overall though I would recommend this one to anyone who enjoys a sweet and charming small town story, with magical elements.