A solid ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ book with an engrossing plot, heartwarming and real characters with flaws and all, cutesy love story, and well-placed humor to lighten some of the harder parts. Thoroughly enjoyed and a pretty quick read for those needing to escape for a few hours.

What You Wish For is such a cute contemporary story full of positivity. Katherine Center most definitely knows how to write relatable, fun loving characters that just make it so hard to put her books down.

I absolutely loved the slow burn relationship between Sam and Duncan. Some of it was cheesy and unbelievable but I didn’t love the story any less for those brief moments.

Overall, I highly recommend this one. I fell in love with this author’s writing last year and most definitely will pick up whatever she writes next!

Thank you in advance to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really love Katherine Center as an author, and I would say that this book did not disappoint. It was a great balance between laughter and romance and kept me interested throughout the entire book. I finished the book within 2 days, and really enjoyed it. The characters were relatable and were easy to connect with.

While the storyline was a bit lacking at times and a bit cheesy or corny, the boom still put a smile on my face at times. Some lessons on life can be seen in this book and may stick with a reader for a while. Not my favourite book by this author, but looking forward to the next.

Samantha Casey is school librarian for a private school in Galveston, Texas. Passionately devoted to colorful, fun, and expressive, Sam could not be any different than new-to-the-school strict and rules-bound principal Duncan Carpenter. Years earlier, Sam knew Duncan in another school when she was colorless, dulled-down, and controlled and he was flamboyant, joy-filled, and colorful. As Duncan enforces discipline with an onslaught of regulations intended to enforce safety and security, Sam is the person designated to challenge him and encourage him to see the world as the school community does. The time they spent together challenges them to face their deepest fears and greatest longings. Far from being a straightforward romantic adventure (albeit an exceptionally well-written and joy-filled one), this story is trademark Katherine Center is speaking directly to the reader's heart, encouraging whole-hearted embrace of confounding, baffling, marvelous life in all its mess. I loved spending time in Sam's world, now cannot wait to visit Galveston, and enjoying the complex and believable characters. A wonderful read -- never wanted to leave this story world!

Samantha Casey loves her job as school librarian at Kempner Elementary, she loves the kids and she loves her co=workers. When tragedy strikes, leaving the faculty reeling, no one is sure how they will manage to move forward. Then Duncan Carpenter is hired to be the new principal. Samantha knows him from her former job....a job she left because she had unrequited feelings for him. Samantha's first instinct is to pack up and run...until he shows up and is nothing at all like he used to be. Now he is threatening the very core of what their school is and has always stood for. So, she has to choose between running away or staying to fight for what she believes in.

I loved this book. I say that with every book I read from this author, but this one really resonated with me, partially because the main character had epilepsy, which my daughter also has. I loved Samantha's spunk and tenacity. Her fiery spirit made me smile, and the parts about the seizures made me cry. If you are looking for a really good story to get totally immersed in, then I think you should grab a copy of this book, settle down in your favorite reading spot, and enoy the rest of your day.

Thanks to #partner @NetGalley for the digital ARC of Katherine Center's What You Wish For in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on Tuesday, July 14.

Katherine Center’s What You Wish For is devoted to the pursuit of joy. That doesn’t mean it’s always a joyful novel--in fact, it opens with a tragedy that broke my heart. What it does mean is that Center is exploring, on every page, what we can do when it’s tough to be joyful, when our lives seem to be out of our control, when the world seems to be against us. How do we find joy then?

Elementary librarian Samantha Casey has not led an easy life, but she’s finally found her happy place. She loves Kempner School, which is pretty much an educational utopia. She has a best friend, Alice, who is both incredibly nerdy (math t-shirts!) and insanely cool. By moving to Galveston, she’s escaped the horror of an embarrassing and unrequited crush on Duncan Carpenter, a brilliant teacher and free spirit from her last school. And she has Max and Babette Kempner, the founders of the school, her mentors, and her (unofficially) adopted parental figures.

All of this changes in a moment, in the first scene of the book, when Max, the beloved principal of Kempner School, dies. Suddenly, that firm foundation Sam had found shifts, and she’s left to try to scramble her way back to security, especially after the unexpected reappearance of a very changed Duncan in her life.

Katherine Center does here what she does so well in each of her novels: she creates a world for her main character and then shakes it up. Readers get to watch what happens as the character tries to find firm ground again while realizing that false comfort won’t work.

What You Wish For, with its school setting, checked all my boxes: I loved the discussions of the place of joy and color in a school (and in a life) and the focus on reading what makes you happy (former English teacher here!). I was so happy to see Duncan, a secondary character from a prior Center favorite, Happiness for Beginners, reappear. I reveled in Sam’s struggle to love and connect with others, particularly her consideration of when that connection is worth the risk inherent in reaching out.

I absolutely loved Max, who is wise and kind and the principal and dad we all wish we had (I think I marked every single thing he said in the book!). Most of all, I was hungry to see a character who realizes that finding joy can be difficult but that the search is definitely worth it. That’s a message we all need always, but particularly right now.

I really enjoyed Katherine Center’s Things You Save in a Fire, so when I saw this one I eagerly requested it and it did not disappoint.
Samantha “Sam” Casey is the librarian at a quirky, fun elementary school in Texas. When the beloved principal dies unexpectedly, they bring in Duncan Carpenter, who used to work with Sam at another school years before. Sam had a huge crush on him and nervously awaits the fun, goofy man. But even though it is the man she knew, he’s nothing like his former self - he’s serious, cold, and obsessed with implementing extreme safety measures. Together with the school board president, Duncan is hellbent on turning their sweet, carefree school into a cold, colorless “prison”.
What happened to the Duncan she knew and crushed on? What could’ve caused him to change so much?
With themes of surviving loss and trauma, as well as the intricacies of allowing yourself to be vulnerable, this book had more of an emotional punch than I expected. I read it very quickly, I had to know how the story resolved itself, and I wasn’t disappointed.

What You Wish For by Katherine Center is a story that captures you. Katherine Center’s books are well written with quality characters who are interesting and well thought out. There is an interest level of the storyline that pulls you in.

Samantha Casey has always felt she was the key element in breaking up her parent’s marriage with her epilepsy. That guilt and fear never left. Now as a librarian in a new school in Galveston, Texas, she has found her mojo. The school is full of light, beauty and learning. Her library is out of a dream and the owners of the school have almost adopted her. She is feeling happy and loved and then the owner died.

Duncan Carpenter is the new principal hired after the beloved principal and owner died. Samantha had known him from the past and had a crush on him. Now knowing he was coming with his colorful fun personality, she was nervous. Only when Duncan came, he was different - all grey - all safety - all hard edges and no fun. It is up to Samantha and the other teachers of the school to help Duncan find himself and to save the school.

What the story is really about is joy. Finding and working for joy and then understanding joy is fleeting, yet cumulating. What You Wish For by Katherine Center is a wonderful story that leaves you smiling.

This book was enjoyable and I really liked it. I did find certain parts of the plot really unrealistic, but I just went with it and enjoyed the story. I loved all the main character's relationships, with Max and Babette, her friend Alice, and her students! This wasn't my favorite Katherine Center novel, but still enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this advance copy.

I really enjoyed this book, as I did her previous book. The plot moved slowly at first and I was a little frustrated when characters didn't do some things, but it all came around in the end. I loved that the main character was a school librarian among all the other teachers.

I have loved everything that Katherine Center has released recently and this is no exception. Sam is a beloved school librarian that has a tendency to run when life gets too complicated. She has finally found a little nook in the world where she has made a home and found a “family”. She is content and ready to start a new school year when tragedy strikes and her first instinct is to flee.

As the school community bands together to save their beloved institution and what it stands for, Sam struggles to stay grounded. Katherine has a way of taking some heavy topics and bringing them to light in a very readable and understanding way.

This was another great read! It is very well done.

What You Wish For is the first book I’ve read by Katherine Center, and it pretty much knocked my socks off. By turns funny, sad, introspective, and joyful, it was like opening a box of chocolates and realizing I actually liked all the different flavors. (Which never happens, there’s always something weird, right?) And like a good box of chocolates, I devoured this book in just one day.

Sam Casey’s idyllic life in Galveston, Texas, gets upended when her principal/friend/surrogate father passes away abruptly. Max Kempner founded and ran the private elementary school where Sam works as a librarian, and he was the heart and soul of both the school and their community. When Max dies, he leaves a large hole both at home and in the school, and while everyone else is still reeling from shock, his hotshot son-in-law Kent (who is Chairman of the school board) seizes the opportunity to make some changes at Kempner Elementary.

To institute these changes, Kent brings in Duncan Carpenter, a ‘rising star’ from Baltimore whom no one else knows. Except Sam starts to wonder… she knew a Duncan Carpenter when she was teaching in California a few years before. But she’s sure it can’t be the same guy - not only would this be too coincidental, but the Duncan she remembers (and who Sam had a major crush on) was a goofy, fun-loving teacher who started traditions like Hat Day and Friday dance parties. Duncan’s character was far closer to Max’s than Kent’s so she can’t imagine that her Duncan Carpenter and the new principal will be one and the same.

As it turns out, he is and he isn’t. While Duncan did work with Sam in California, he’s no longer the man she knew then. Instead of wearing crazy ties and colorful pants, this man shows up in a gray three-piece suit. Instead of shaking hands and introducing himself to his new staff, this man makes a speech about ‘revolutionizing’ their school and then walks away. Instead of praising the beautiful murals around their building, this man announces he will be painting all their walls gray in order to improve visibility. This new Duncan has abandoned his penchant for mischief and play in favor of an obsession with school safety and security. And sadly, with all the school violence in the news in recent years, it’s not hard for the reader to guess why.

While Sam doesn’t catch on to Duncan’s traumatic past as quickly as I did, she does feel certain that something of the old Duncan must be in there. Although the faculty is doing everything they can to resist Duncan’s strictures, Sam slowly starts to befriend the lonely man. She starts visiting his office to complain about his rules, at which point their conversations turn toward other topics like Sam’s clown socks. They start to build a rhythm, and their chemistry together is obvious. It only gets stronger when Sam learns that Duncan was involved in a school shooting, which is at the root of his new security vigilance. Armed with this understanding, Sam and two close friends develop ‘Operation Duncan’, a plan to help Duncan remember who he used to be and find joy in life again.

In a year as difficult as 2020, I especially appreciated the way the author is able to address the dark realities of the world while also emphasizing the joys of life. Sam struggled with epilepsy as a child, and its recent resurgence in adulthood. When she has her first adult seizure, it has a profound impact on her - at first making her fearful and insecure, but with wisdom and assistance from Max, she is able to use that seizure to propel her into a new way of interacting with the world. The Sam we meet dresses colorfully, acts silly, and makes a conscious choice to embrace positivity in the face of doubts and fears. While her struggles are different, certain things she says clearly strike a chord in Duncan. He will never fully return to who he was before the trauma, but with the help of good friends and a therapist, Duncan is more capable of balancing the need for security, and free expression.

If I have a complaint about the book, it would be that Duncan’s old self is a little over-hyped. Sam remembers a lot about him since she had a crush on him back in the day, but each time she calls up a new list of his exploits they get more outlandish, to the point that I wondered how anyone could possibly have time to do everything that the old Duncan did. However, it’s a minor flaw that made me smile even in its absurdity, and in no way detracts from the story.

Ultimately, What You Wish For is a charming, uplifting book not only about love, but also about choosing joy in the wake of tragedy and hardship. It’s a good read any day, but especially right now.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
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This was my first Katherine Center book and I am now fan. I definitely need to check out her other novels ASAP!

The writing was beautiful and the storylines were page turning. Some of it was a little predictable, like the storybook ending. Sometimes these endings make my eyes roll, but I liked it here.

I loved Sam, a quirky librarian who loves her job? Yes please! Was not a fan of Duncan at first, be he inevitably grew on me.

Thank you to the author, publishers and netgallery for the gifted arc of What You Wish For, in exchange for an honest review.

*** 3-3.5 Stars ***
Expected Publication July 14th 2020

Samantha Casey is a librarian at an elementary school in Texas. The school loses the principal very suddenly and the replacement principal turns out to be someone from Sam's past.. someone she had a crush on. Of course people change and Duncan isn't what Sam remembers. His playfulness she remembers is gone and he is more of a dictator in his way of running the school. Will Duncan ruin the school Sam works at and will they get along?

Meh.. let me start by saying I'm a big Katherine Center fan, "Things you save in a fire" shook me and gave me all the feels. I remember bawling reading that and couldn't stop turning the pages fast enough. So this next novel "What you Wish for" had big shoes to fill and it just didn't live up to it.

Was it bad? Absolutely not. It was just "Meh" for me.

Part of the reason I think I didn't love this, is I didn't really care for Sam. She was too quirky for me. A lot of detail describing how she dresses in polka dots, flowers, pink bangs, riding a bicycle with a basket. I just cringed picturing her. She was genuine and I appreciated that side of her but she just didn't really grow on me as her character developed. I still think there will be a lot of people who really enjoy this so I'm not knocking it. I definitely will still immediately pick up the next release from Katherine Center because she does tell wonderful stories and I enjoy her writing style.

Special Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Books about books are the stuff of dreams for this bibliophile. I was thrilled when I found out Katherine Center’s new book, What You Wish For, features a quirky young librarian. I loved Sam Casey from the first chapter. The principal and his wife at her school, personal friends of Sam’s, have recently died. The grief is compounded when his replacement is an old friend, Duncan Carpenter, who seems intent on changing much that made the school special. While somewhat predictable I’m comfortable with it here. Sometimes you just need happily ever after, neatly tied up without a lot of plot twists. I highly recommend What You Wish For for lovers of summer beach reads, women’s fiction, and romance readers.
I received an advanced reader copy (eGalley) from St. Martins’s Press through NetGalley. This review reflects my honest and unbiased opinions.

I love this author! This is my second book from her and I loved it just as much as the other. The characters are so lovable and it tackles tough subjects, but also includes romance. I can't wait to read more by this author!

I have read several of Katherine Center’s books over the years. I was excited with the premise of this one as I am a longtime school teacher and know how devastating it is to a school when they are saddled with a leader that does not share their philosophies. I did enjoy the book, but it felt like it took a long time to reveal about Duncan’s school shooting trauma--wouldn’t Sam and the rest of the school staff have Googled Duncan prior to his coming to the school and known? We are living in 2020 where the internet provides us with these kinds of facts and the staff at my school always checks out people that are joining our team. Also, it was so obvious that Duncan had been called away because of Clay’s disappearance and not Sam’s seizure. There was much more opportunity for the staff’s struggle with the changes at the school that would have made the story more believable. The happy ending was too perfect and it almost made me feel like I was reading a Hallmark movie instead of realistic/women’s fiction. What You Wish For was enjoyable to read, but it lacked the substance I was expecting and that was in Things You Save in a Fire and How to Walk Away.

Love Katherine Center. The others I"ve ready by this author are Happiness for Beginners and How to Walk Away and I always leave with a feel-good feeling. She has a theme of always finding joy no matter the circumstances. This one was some conflict, friendships, and romance and difficulty but always finding ways to find joy throughout in the little things. Definitely something needed these days.

Katherine Center has become a must-read author for me. I don’t even have to read the synopsis for her upcoming release to know that I want to read it. She’s a sure thing, a go-to, and a creative soul who never fails to inspire me with the beauty and depth of her characters and their stories.

What You Wish For was just what I needed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a reader, I always need a good book, but this one just came at the perfect time, its message hit home, and the story transported me within its pages and provided the ideal reprieve from the real world.

When I first began What You Wish For, I was almost certain that it was going to be a quirky, fun, light reading experience. I should have known better. While it did have whimsical characters, lighthearted and witty banter, it also had a great deal of depth. Don’t be fooled by all of the fabulous, bold, colorful attires, settings, and larger-than-life personalities that are described in all of their glory, these characters are multi-layered to perfection. They are real, flawed, and ultimately so human and easy to connect with. They jump off the pages and right into the reader’s heart.

If you are looking for a well-rounded novel, look no further. If romance is your passion, get ready for a slow-burning romance that will keep you flipping the pages in anticipation. This book is timely, relevant, and simply overflowing with so much emotion. This book made me think, feel, hope, cry, and overall made me want to fill my life with joy and gratitude.

I spent so much of my time highlighting meaningful passages from this novel that I am going to stencil a couple of them on the walls of my home. What You Wish For is a touching, mesmerizing, lovely, humorous, joyful novel that will not soon be forgotten.

*5 Stars