“I’m telling you. I know all about darkness. That’s why I am so hellbent, every damn day, on looking for the light.”

“I bite and scratch and claw my way toward happiness every day. It’s a choice.”

Just like all of the Katherine Center books I’ve read so far, What You Wish For is full of heart, love and characters you care about.

One of the many elements I enjoyed about this book is just how much profound character development occurs in the book. Sadly that’s is rare to see in books lately.

The author has a unique ability to handle tough topics in a way that is digestible for the audience.

This book felt receiving a hug around your soul- and I think we can all use that right now.

This book is a solid 4 stars for me! There were a few parts that felt very slow to me and the part where she jumps off the pier just felt totally out of the blue and didn’t fit.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars

After having read and enjoyed both How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire earlier this year, I was definitely looking forward to Katherine Center's latest release, and who could resist the beautiful cover art?!

Samantha, a school librarian, loves her job, the school, the kids, her colleagues, and those in the community around her. But that hasn't always been the case. Sam has spent her life running from her past, and hiding a critical aspect of herself from pretty much everyone. Her comfortable life is about to be shaken, when the school's principal dies suddenly. As the start of the new school year approaches, a new principal is brought in. Duncan Carpenter is a by the book administrator, who is bound and determined safety should be the school's number one priority above all else. However, Sam knows he hasn't always been this way.

I definitely have mixed feelings about this one. While the premise was there, I found the plot to be somewhat underdeveloped and repetitive. My first thoughts were it was trying to pack too much into one story. However, in typical Katherine Center fashion, it's more than just a romance. It certainly delves deeper into much heavier issues facing society, showcases how tragedies can shape us is different ways, while focusing on the central topic of choosing joy. I absolutely love that Center is willing to take on tough topics, and yet manages to craft a witty, heartwarming story. While I typically love and connect with the main characters in her books, in this one it is the secondary characters that really shine. I couldn't help but love young Clay Buckley, a sponge of knowledge who would rather spend time in the library to playing sports (much to the dismay of his father); Babette, a grieving widow who provids a strong maternal presence in the novel; and Alice, a certified math nerd who is brutally honest, but has Sam's back no matter what.

It was definitely still an enjoyable read, but I'll honestly say it was a bit of a let down for me. likely because I absolutely loved and connected with the main characters so much more in Things You Save in A Fire and How to Walk Away. If you're not aware, the author uses secondary characters from her previous works as central characters in her new books, which is something I really like. However, she makes it so you don't have to have read the previous book in order to enjoy the stories. If you're a fan of Katherine Center or female characters crafted in resilience than it's definitely worth checking this one out.

Content Warnings: spousal loss, parental loss, parental abandonment, gun violence, school shooting, chronic illness, missing child, past trauma

I really enjoyed both How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire, so I was super excited to read What You Wish For! I loved Sam as a character--she was so interesting and real and easy to relate to. I connected with her and Babette immediately at the beginning of the book, and was hooked from there. I loved the description of the school library!It sounded so fun and Sam was a perfect school librarian. It got me all nostalgic for library days and read ins when I was in elementary school.

I did NOT like Duncan for the first half of the book--to the point where I was wondering why everyone loved this book so much. But THEN I kept reading....and fell in love with their story. I could not put this book down and absolutely loved the last third of the book. There are so many important themes in this book--family, love, grief, forgiveness. It's beautifully written, and I will continue to count Katherine Center as an auto-buy author.

So many great passages:

"“I wasn’t a stranger to grieving, to the way it drowned you but didn’t kill you—only
kept you submerged for so long you forgot what air and sunshine felt like. I knew that grief set its own timeline, and that the only way out was through.”"


"And she also knew, as I was starting to understand in a whole new way, that it was always better to dance than to refuse."

When Sam moves to Galveston Island, Texas and gets her new job as a librarian at a dream school, she completely reinvents herself. She went from the mousy, shy librarian to the colorful, vibrant librarian and she is well loved at her school. She feels like she finally has the family she has been missing since a very young age. With the tragic death of the school’s beloved principal, and surrogate father for Sam, at the end of summer, the school board hires Duncan to fill Max’s gigantic shoes and holes in everyone’s heart. The only problem is that Duncan is Sam’s unrequited love, and she has no clue what to do.

This was just the most wholesome romance ever. No raunchy sex scenes in sight; just plain (but not so plain) old wholesome content that makes you feel all of the things. As a teacher, it’s rare when books with teacher main characters are done well, and this one did it well. I’m off to hurriedly add all of Katherine Center’s other books to my TBR!

Thank you St.Martin’s Press for a copy of What You Wish For by Kathrine Center for review.

What You Wish For is a really cute story. I thought it was a little predictable plot wise but there were a few things I really loved. One was chronic illness representation. Sam has epilepsy and while I have no personal experience with that, a lot of her fears and anxiety are similar to those that I have with IBD. Duncan also has PTSD and I liked that it wasn’t an easy fix for that character to deal with those issues either. On top of that I liked the discussion between safety and fun in schools and different ways the characters chose happiness and joy despite everything else.

I really love a book that can discuss big and complex issues in a realistic and even at times joyful way. I think that is what this book did well.
Content warnings for PTSD, discussion of past violence, chronic illness and past trauma and death of a close family member.

This story, at the beginning, seemed as though it was rather predictable. While the ending was what I originally thought it to be, the entire story has some twists and turns that made it an interesting read. The characters were relatable and lovable. A fun read!

If you need some cheerful, heartfelt, entertaining reading fare, look no further than this beauty from Katherine Center. It's part romance, part women's fiction, with some scenes that make you laugh out loud and others that make you cry.

Sam is our storyteller, and she's someone you want as your friend. One of the messages is the power and importance of family, yet Sam is a semi-orphan (her mother is dead, and her father is completely out of the picture). When she flees California, believing that the man she has a tremendous crush on (her fellow teacher Duncan) is getting engaged to someone else, she winds up in Galveston, where she meets Max and Babette, who become surrogate parents to her. The picture is made further complete with Nina, Max and Babette's daughter. Only in this case, Nina is the older sister Sam hoped she would never have. In Max and Babette, Sam finds love and acceptance. When Sam's recurring illness makes an embarrassing appearance, Max helps her manage her response. It helps that he's the principal and co-founder of the school where she works as a librarian.

When Duncan reappears as a coworker at Sam's new school, she is dismayed to discover that he is nothing like the Duncan she left behind. The clues and hints as to what caused Duncan's change are not subtle, yet Sam never picks up on them (nor does anyone else). He does not want to reveal himself to Sam, but she proves to be an irresistible force.

There is a backstory to Duncan that involves Sam as well, and I was disappointed that Katherine Center didn't pursue it more. When Duncan touches on this, Sam asks a cursory question or two. If it were me, I would have JUMPED on that tidbit like a dog with a bone.

You will love the supporting cast, particularly Nina's son Clay. Like Sam, he searches for a connection, and in Sam, he finds it. Clay grabbed my heart and did not let go, as did Babette and Duncan's sister and her family. I want more of them.

I wish Duncan had been better developed, but he's dreamy, and you certainly understand Sam's obsession with him. You will not stop cheering for them to be together.

This is the second book I've read by Katherine Center after "Things You Save in a Fire" which I loved.

"What You Wish For" is another winner. Samantha (Sam) is a librarian at a middle school in Galveston, Texas. When tragedy strikes, a new Principal, Duncan is hired, one whom Sam has worked with in the past. Sam is thrilled as she knew him to be fun-loving, kind, and intelligent and she had a secret crush on him.

She's surprised to find he's a totally different person - cold, unfriendly, distant and setting all kinds of rules for teachers and students alike. What could have caused the change?

Both Sam and Duncan have traumatic events in their pasts, which play a huge part in the story. The story line is beautiful and the message of looking for joy even when things are not going well resonated with me.

I was very excited to read Katherine Center's newest book since I loved her last two books and while I did enjoy it, it wasn't quite what I expected and I didn't love it as much as I did her previous books. It was still a great read that I would recommend, but I didn't really connect with the MC as I did in her other novels. However, I did love the storyline about looking for joy and making your own joy in life after bad things have happened, which is something that I've seemed to have forgotten lately. It's definitely an important takeaway from the book!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Once again, Katherine Center has a winner on her hands!
How many of us have ever reminisced about that certain someone who just might have been, "The One?" Would he or she still live up to our ideal?

What You Wish For brings us that very scenario when Samantha is reunited with her perfect crush, Duncan. Unfortunately, time and tragedy has taken its toll on the man Sam had known and loved. Will she be able to break through the emotional barricade he has constructed to rediscover the man she knows him to be? Sam carries her own baggage of hurt and self-doubt. In healing Duncan can she find an end to her self-imposed isolation?

For a plethora of quirky characters including a sperm whale and a worthless guard dog named Chuck Norris, tragedy and triumph hang in the balance. Set in the historical community of Galveston, What You Wish For is a must for your summer reading list!

Samantha is a librarian at an elementary school. She loves her job, her co-workers, and the people that surround her. She wears flowery clothes and loves to make things colorful. This was not always the case. Samantha was at another school which she ran away. Why? Because she loved a fun-loving, charismatic co-worker but Samantha was a wallflower. After the untimely death of the school principal, a new one is hired. When Samantha see the picture on the screen, she could not believe her eyes. It was the fun-loving Duncan, the guy from which she ran away. Unfortunately, life has changed Duncan and he is set to change the fun-loving school. As Samantha deals, the town sets on healing Duncan and making him see things differently. A great book that deals with love, family, heartache, and overcoming challenges. Just a great read! Cannot wait to read more of Ms. Center's books.

Last year I read Katherine’s book ‘The Things You Save in a Fire’ and absolutely loved it, so I had high expectations for ‘What You Wish For.’ While it was an enjoyable read, for me the main characters just didn’t measure up to her prior novel. Sam is the librarian at Kempner School in Galveston, where she has created a family for herself with the school’s principal Max and his wife Babette along with the other staff members and students. Sam is extremely happy until the night that Max collapses and dies at his 60th birthday party.

Along with grieving him as a father figure, Sam has also lost a great boss. Because Max and Babette were the founders of the school, the staff fully expects Babette to take the reins until the chairman of the board (aka the douchebag husband of Tina, Max and Babette’s daughter) makes a shocking announcement. He has decided to hire an outsider, an independent administrator named Duncan Carpenter…and Sam just happens to know someone by that name. In fact the fun-loving goofy teacher she worked with in California who was the reason why she left and moved to Galveston after rumors of him getting engaged had gone around the school. She had nursed a crush on him for over 2 years and had decided enough was enough and that it was time to move on.

The Duncan that appears at Kempner however is not the man she remembers; instead he is serious, formal and determined to turn the colorful and fun Kempner into a locked-down drab fortress with a guard dog. Sam is aghast at the changes in his personality and demeanor, wondering what could have happened to him in the years since she had last seen him. At first she thinks about running again, but she decides to stand her ground and run him out before he can destroy Max and Babette’s legacy.

While the storyline itself was actually really good, where I felt it fell a little flat for me was the characterizations. I just didn’t love the Sam and Duncan as the HEA as much as I expected to, even though they were both sympathetic in their own ways. Other characters like Tina and her husband (douchebag) were the stereotypical jerks though Tina does redeem herself at the end somewhat. I think my favorite character in the book was Sam’s best friend Alice, the hilarious math teacher. If there is an upcoming book featuring her, I would definitely read that one! Overall, I would recommend the book because as it did have a great storyline and I enjoyed the journey even if I wasn’t sold on the main characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the chance to read and review!

I didn’t really care for this book. The main female character seemed like an adolescent mooning after a man she barely knew. Actually all the characters were damaged one way or another. I figured out the whole story before I got to the middle of the book.

I was excited to read this one so much as I love Center- she is a one click buy for me. But this one fell a little flat. Duncan we meet in a previous book as a little brother to Helen, so I was even more excited to see what had happened to him. We get a little bit of his sister and BFF/brother in law but not much. Sam and Duncan worked at a old school and she was in love with him hardcore crush so moved away to her new school. Even though they both liked and like each other the chemistry on the pages left me wanting more, it just felt flat. Sam felt a little young and I wanted her to get it together more- along with stop running away. Also, some of the school stuff even for a hippie school was a little too much.

Its a fun and nice Center story but not my favorite and just wanted more. I wanted more scenes like the Whale scene.

Overall, 3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

What a wonderful story about the resilience needed to live a joyful and happy life. Sam leaves a teaching position due to an unrequited love. She starts a new life in Galveston Island in Texas at a private school. After a tragedy which leaves them without a headmaster, the Board hired a replacement. Surprisingly it is the man Sam once lived from afar.

This story takes you through life changes where the characters realize letting a little joy in every day and facing challenges with bravery brings lifelong blessings. A great beach read.

I received a free ARC eBook from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinions.

What You Wish For is Katherine Center at her best, a warm, thoughtful story that explores love and friendship and family. It was a lovely read and doubly (maybe triply!) so now when things are so uncertain. Highly recommended for women's fiction fans.

This was a delightful feel-good book with a good cast of characters and an engaging story. I don't think it would be considered a spoiler to reveal Sam and Duncan are together at the end. I mean it's that kind of book - we KNOW how it's going to end but we're enjoying the journey to the conclusion!

Great beach read.

I am absolute trash for the grumpy/sunshine trope so of course I was very excited to read about the clash between a joyful librarian and a stuffed shirt principal. Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite hit the mark for me. There are things that I find acceptable in a completely made-up context (fantasy, scifi, paranormal) that I’m more likely to bounce off of in a contemporary or historical, and this has them in spades. There are so many boundary issues that I spent a good part of the book cringing. I finally realized that between the utopia of an elementary school with a gorgeous library and fun child-centered curriculum and the idyllically perfect Galveston Island community, this was essentially occurring in some sort of alternate reality, and after that I began to enjoy the book more.

“He had a big, friendly smile filled with big, friendly teeth. He was handsome without trying. He had a magnetic quality that was almost physical. If he was in a room with other humans in it for any amount of time, there’d be a group of them gathered around him by the end. He emitted some kind of sunshine that we all wanted to soak up.”
Me included.
Me especially.”


I really wanted to like Sam, and I respected her zeal for seizing joy and her courage in standing up for the school she loved. But she also had a tendency towards boundary crashing and just utterly random TSTL actions (she jumps off a pier at one point. Yes, really). She reminds me of one of those wacky Hallmark movie heroines, especially when it comes to meeting the new principal, Duncan. Sam had a humongous crush on him when they worked together at a school in California, and it was so bad she actually moved to another school to get away from him (?!?!) when she thought he was getting married. He was charming, charismatic, and generally excelled at being goofy and getting the kids and everyone else around him to participate in his wacky antics. Even moving away, she half-wished she could run into him again to show him that she was no longer the mousey drab person she used to be. Unfortunately, Duncan is now some three-piece suit stiff who seems determined to run the school into the ground.

Sam has had epilepsy since she was a kid, and her frequent attacks led her to being ostracized at school and her father abandoning her family. Even after she went into remission, she preferred to stay in the background. But after a reoccurrence as an adult that left her questioning her worth, Max, the founder and principal of the school, advised her to find joy in the little things, whether it’s wearing a silly hat or dying her bangs pink. She finds a lot of that joy in her job as a librarian at the school, so Duncan’s attempts to secure the school – like painting over the meticulously hand-painted murals for safety reasons – is not just an attack on the school but also an attack on her.

“What is this called? Is this extortion?” He thought about it. “Bribery? Blackmail?”
“I think they call this ‘the kindness of strangers.’”
“Doesn’t feel all that kind.”


It’s patently obvious to the reader why Duncan is so security focused, but Sam and the rest of the characters don’t find out until halfway through the book, and that’s due to some particularly egregious boundary crashing. For reasons that only make sense in a romcom, Sam ends up picking Duncan up after surgery and while he’s high as a kite on an amnesiac drug, not only does a nurse reveal that Duncan likes her, she also discovers that he was a victim of a school shooting. She even ends up kissing him, which, to her credit, she immediately regrets. That doesn’t stop her from deciding to save the school by “fixing” him. Through another convoluted chain of events, Sam and her friends end up blackmailing Duncan into doing a joyful thing every day, from juggling at lunchtime to eating an ice cream sundae to getting therapy for his obvious PTSD. I actually found the descriptions of these acts – most of which ended up being “dates” for Sam and Duncan – sweetly endearing, but unfortunately it was just a small part of the latter half of the book.

In one of the big head-scratchers for me, Sam’s militant that Duncan needs therapy but doesn’t seem to think she needs anything other than Max’s “seek joy” wisdom. The way she feels about her epilepsy – and her father’s abandonment – felt particularly toxic to me, and I didn’t feel like there was any pushback in the book about how unhealthy it was. It’s mentioned more than once that since her epilepsy reoccured, she refused to date because she thought she was now unloveable. This briefly comes up as part of the dark moment but then is seemingly hand-waved away. I also didn’t care much for the rivalry between Sam and Tina, Max and Babette’s actual daughter, who’s the wife of the bad guy board director and the mother of the precious oceanographer plot moppet. Sam sees herself as practically an adopted daughter of those two – she even lives in an apartment on their property – but it’s just another symptom of her family issues around her illness. And despite the fact that a good deal of the plot revolved around the aftermath of a school shooting, I never really felt like the severity of the topic was truly addressed. Sure, they agree some changes need to be made at the school but…. that’s it? It’s a complicated topic, and not one that some juggling or dance lessons is going to solve.

“It’s a choice,” I went on, feeling like I needed to make him see. “A choice to value the good things that matter. A choice to rise above everything that could pull you down. A choice to look misery right in the eyes . . . and then give it the finger.”
“So it’s a hostile kind of joy.”
He was mocking me. “Sometimes,” I said defiantly.
“Is that a real thing though?”
“It’s a deliberate kind of joy. It’s a conscious kind of joy. It’s joy on purpose.”


A lot of this review has been about what I didn’t like in the book, but I did generally enjoy the book. My criticisms basically all stem from it being a little too over-the-top and Hallmark-y, but I can easily see why someone would love this book. I loved the message about choosing joy – that joy isn’t necessarily one big thing but a collection of tiny things. It resonated with me and I thought Sam did an amazing job expressing it.

Overall, the book didn’t work for me, but I think if you’re someone looking for a sweet romcom who doesn’t mind ridiculous hijinx, this might just be for you!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I am a HUGE Katherine Center fan, and this book just adds more love for her! I absolutely loved this book! I love the ease of her writing, and the emotion she brings to each moment and character. The only thing I wish there was more of would be more "relationship" between Sam and Duncan. I want more love and attraction. But that's just me. Overall, great story and I can't wait to read what's next for Center!

*Thank you to @stmartinspress for the copy in exchange for an honest review.*

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC! Katherine Center does it again. This is the story of eccentric Sam, and her efforts to save her eclectic school from being destroyed by the new security-driven principal, who just so happens to be her former colleague on whom she had a debilitating crush. As always, Katherine has written very lovable and heartfelt characters. Sam and Babette and Alice and Duncan were all so easy to love. So effortless to root for. This story is full of broken people looking for ways to move on. It shows the different ways that tragedy can shape us, and how much better life could be if we CHOOSE JOY ON PURPOSE. This book had heavy themes, but still managed to feel lighthearted. The banter and tension is top notice. I always take notes when I’m preparing to review a book, but I FLEW through this story without once stopping. There were times that the story seemed to veer a little outside my personal realm of realism and I’d stop to think “No way. Things like that don’t happen” but it didn’t stop me from enjoying the whimsy. This book is just incredibly wholesome from cover to cover.