This was a lovely book, but also a bit sad and heartbreaking. It's about revisiting your past and it never being too late to set things right. There are two time periods about 50 years apart and you begin to understand what kept these two young lovers apart. The present has a lot about dying and caring for a dying person which was well handled but still very emotional.

I thought it showed a particular time in history where a woman was expected to marry well and not for love. For a man to get a job and provide for his family and not have dreams. Two people, Tom and Elizabeth fall in love and life takes over. Family and interventions by others, lies and lost opportunities. 49 years of possibly being together, but pride and fear kept them loving one another from a far, but not reaching out in when opportunities presented themselves. As the story moved along, I got frustrated, but when it was all revealed in the end, was just heart wrenching and heartwarming with love and wasted time.

Little Wishes is a devastating but ultimately hopeful story about lost loves and second chances. I loved every second of this book, even as I was fighting back tears. The alternating timelines work perfectly to tell Elizabeth and Tom's story, and it's one of the most beautiful books I've read in a long time.

What happens when you find your true love but you are already engaged to be married? Do you follow your heart or do you settle that your path is set?

This is a book about true love, missed opportunities, and second chances. The characters are likable but they lack realism. They give up too easily, believe the best and worst of the wrong people, and forgive too easily.

Little Wishes is a story of true love that spans fifty years and a lifetime of wishes. It jumps from current day to 50 years earlier when Elizabeth and Tom parted ways. I love the main location in coastal Cornwall, England with the beautiful descriptions of the quaint town and it’s local structures. The story unfolds gently, mostly through Elizabeth's memories and evokes a heartwarming yet heartbreaking feeling. You will definitely feel the emotions of this book. Highly recommend Little Wishes to anyone that loves a good romantic sad love story.

Loved this heartwarming love story! I loved that it involved mature protagonists and the whimsical nature of the story!

This was an incredibly sweet book. I didn't know the male figure had cancer, or I probably would have avoided it - but I muscled through, given how sweet it was.

I received it as a Book Club Girl Early Read ebook back in September 2020.

If you want to fall in love with a couple of characters, I do recommend this book.

I enjoyed the sweetness and warmth and felt the characters had come to life!! You will wipe some tears with this but feel the happiness too!! #LittleWishes#Netgalley

Review coming soon. Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC; the opinions are mine.

#LittleWishes #NetGalley
Pub Date 11.17.20

This was a sweet, but sad, book. I liked the love story and the duel timelines. I wanted there to be more and I was sad when the book was over.

What a fascinating book. I was impressed by the storyline and the characters were all well written and complex. Where there are complex storylines combined with intriguing characters the reader experience is magnified tremendously. To have a book that is well written as well as entertaining is a delight. Reading is about escaping your world and entering another one. Here I forgot about my own life and was immersed in the world created by the author. I would recommend this book.

This was a sweet love story between the two main characters, Elizabeth and Tom. The novel alternated between current time and the characters’ earlier lives. Although the storyline itself was somewhat predictable, it was still a heartwarming story about first love and the circumstances that kept Elizabeth and Tom apart for 50 years. The ending was both happy and sad. Sometimes I felt frustrated at the characters for not trying harder to seek each other out, both in the beginning before their separation and at various times over the years.

All in all it was a nice romantic tale about true love and second chances.

I received this as an ARC from Net Gallery. Thank you, Net Gallery. Little Wishes by Michelle Adams is a story of love spread over 50 years. It’s the love story of Elizabeth and Tom. Elizabeth is the daughter of the local doctor and Tom is a local boy working to help support his family in a little English village outside of London. Their love story begins when Tom rescues Elizabeth’s mother. Due to unforeseen occurrences their love story does not happen as they had dreamed. Elizabeth’s favorite day is the day she fell in love with Tom and for 49 years on that day Tom puts a flower and a note with wishes that he would like to do with Elizabeth. When she doesn’t receive anything from Tom on the 50th year, Elizabeth goes to London to find Tom and see what is wrong. She reconnects with him and their love is still as strong as it was 50 years earlier. They live out the “little wishes” Tom has put on her doorstep every anniversary and rediscover their love for each other. This is a love story that lasts over time and when they reconnect it is a very special love between two people who truly loved each other. This is a beautiful story I think you will find heartwarming and special.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this advanced reader's copy.

This was a very sweet story about Elizabeth and Tom and their love story across time and distance. This is a dual timeline story focusing on the present as well as 50 years previously.

Elizabeth is engaged to James, but is charmed by Tom's bravery when he saves her mother from falling into the sea.

Elizabeth quickly starts sneaking away to be with Tom and their love blossoms. She feels she needs to hide her relationship not only because she is engaged, but also because she doesn't feel her father would approve of this relationship.

Elizabeth's mother has Alzheimer's and her father wants to hide that fact from the small town gossip. He is also the town physical and has hired James to be his replacement in his retirement.

Elizabeth experiences as series of tragic hardships in a small timeframe that change her plans for her relationship with Tom. James realized that she doesn't love him, but he tries to change her mind in a series of untruths that change several life paths. Tom leaves the village and isn't heard from again.

Elizabeth and Tom continue to share 1 day a year when he brings her gifts and wishes to set on her doorstep so she knows he will always love her. On the 50th anniversary of this date, she doesn't get anything and sets out to find Tom to see if something has happened to her.

This story is wonderfully written and an was a great escape from reality.. Very well done!

ittle Wishes is about a Cornish woman who receives a crocus and a note on the same day every year for 49 years, from her first love. Each year the note begins with, I wish.... On the 50th year, she gets no flower or note. She figures something must be wrong to miss a momentous year. She knows in her heart that he wouldn’t miss it and she goes to London to find him. It turns out her love is very sick and she vows then and there to make all his own wishes come true.

This book switches timelines between the present day and their first years in love. I found the book incredibly sweet and romantic. The Cornish coast is the perfect location and her cottage sounds idyllic. I loved that she saved all 49 notes she had received. The book moves a little slow, but I guess a 50 year romance will do that!

Thank you so much to @williammorrowbooks and the author for my copy of Little Wishes.

Little Wishes is the story of a love that lasted 50 years. Elizabeth and Tom loved each other in spite of the differences in their station in the small English town where they grew up. Elizabeth was the doctor’s daughter and engaged (because of her father’s wishes) to his young partner, James. Tom was a fisherman whose father was a drunk. In spite of this, they loved each other. James used circumstances to lie to both Elizabeth and Tom to separate them. Elizabeth and James married. Tom left for London and also married.
Each year for 49 years Tom left a blue crocus and a wish for something they would have done together on Elizabeth’s doorstep. When the 50th year came and there was no crocus, Elizabeth decided to travel to London to find out why Tom hadn’t come.
The story plays out going back and forth between the present and the past. It gives hope that true love does last.

What a sweet story of second chances!! Loved the plot and thought the author did a great job setting up such a great storyline about lost love. This was the perfect read for the Bookclub and we enjoyed discussing the chance of finding love when you least expect it. Thank you to NetGalley and the Bookclub girls for this wonderfully sweet book!

I’m not sure how I feel after finishing this novel – sad or happy. I am sad because there were so many years of opportunities that Elizabeth and Tom missed to be together. I am happy that they were finally able to reconnect. The story is told in past and present, which is the only way it could be done. I thought at first that too much was given away, but there were always more surprises, although some more predictable than others. I liked all the characters. At first, I judged them for not speaking out and not being strong enough to fight for the other, but they were so young when they parted and there were so many complications that I ended up feeling sad for them, for all that they missed. This takes place in Cornwall and London, England but could have taken place anywhere. It is a universal story about young love, love lost and making peace with the past, with the message that it is never too late.
Thank you HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eGalley.

(3.3) Net Gallery ebook

Thank you to Harper Collins and Net Gallery for an unedited e-copy for reading

A story of second chances, regret, amends, family, and love told in alternating chapters of then/now. An isolated seaside English small town is primarily “then” and modern day London is most of “now.” Even though you generally know where in time they are, there isn’t a strong sense or identification of time, the the “then,” felt further back in time than the 1960’s, or timeless, potentially by design, or the small town/remote town customs lagging behind reality.

I was a little bit of a slow start for me, but it definitely grew on me and I was invested by the final third of the book. I found the present a story a bit more engaging, even though a lot of the intrigue occurred in the past. I felt the interactions between the mature couple and their children were very genuine and real, and I appreciated the love story throughout, but especially at the end.

I especially enjoyed the rugged, sea swept, southern English setting of the Cornish coastline. Its description was excellent and transported me to the salty, windy coast.

Recommended for fans of The Light Between Oceans (living with the repercussions of lies, rugged seaside) and The Switch, by Beth O’Leary, (although this one is definitely more sober and rather than the theme of a new start, is the theme of “it’s never too late”).

I've never read a book quite like this one. From the first page to the very last word I was hooked. I cried so hard almost all the way through it too. It's a love story that is so touching and tender. So heartbreaking and so deep. So much and so little. I would say that I hated to love this book so much but that would not describe how it made me feel. This is the story of true love that spans fifty years and a lifetime of wishes.

"What if I told you I loved you," Tom said, "and that I could love you until my dying day, whether that's next year or next century."
"Sometimes I think you forget the way I love you." Warmth flooded her then as he squeezed her hand. "I was always thinking of you."
"This," he said, flicking a finger back and forth between the two of them. "And maybe we should see it too. Together one last time in the place where we met, so that if there was something we needed to say to each other, we would have the chance that we never got the first time round."
Just before he fell asleep, she whispered, "I'm going to make all these wishes come true, Thomas Hale," but he didn't hear her. Sleep came, and that night he dreamed of being back in their cottage, their first night together, Elizabeth wrapped up safe in his arms.

There are three main characters in this story. Elizabeth, Tom, and James. Elizabeth is engaged to James but she does not love him. Tom has loved Elizabeth for many years but knows she is engaged to another. This story tells exactly what happened between the three. Elizabeth loves Tom Hale with every ounce of her being. He's the love of her life and she is his also. Because of circumstances they are separated shortly after and thus the story is told.

What happened to keep these two apart? Was it actually true love or just a fling? This story will take you on an emotional ride you won't know what to do with. You won't want to get off but you will have to take a few breaks. It's hard to read with such amounts of tears flowing.

Every year Elizabeth awakes and on her stoop is a blue crocus and a note with a wish attached. A gift is often there too. It's the anniversary of her first kiss from Thomas Hale. He pledged his undying love to her as she did him. Then one year there is not flower or wish. Nothing. Elizabeth decides she needs to go find the love of her life and off she goes. What she finds will shake your heart to the core. Will leave you breathless. Will they finally have the life they deserved together or will it be taken away too soon?

You will love Elizabeth and Tom. James I fully detested. I could not stand him. I think it was meant for us to feel sorry for him and possibly forgive him but I sure didn't and don't. He was selfish on so many levels. But that is what makes this story exactly what it is. What makes it play out the way it does. What makes it so heartbreaking and tender. So full of a love so deep you will wonder if it's possible. It is!!

It is told from two different time periods. Now and then. What happened when Elizabeth found Tom and what happened when they first met all those years ago and fell so deeply in love.

I loved this book. Certainly it made me so a whole lot of crying. Weeping actually. But it was one of the very best romance/women's fiction books I have ever read and possibly the very best. I don't read a lot of romance but when I do they are usually good. This one was not just good. It was spot on perfect. Maybe it brought out the romantic in me. Maybe it made me look at the love of my life a bit differently(in a good way). Maybe it was just the love between a boy and a girl, a man and a woman. Whatever it was it's beautiful. It is told in a way that you just can't stop looking. You will feel the emotions. The sand. The water. The lighthouse. All of it.

Thank you #NetGalley, #MichelleAdams, #HarperCollins for this beautiful book. This is my own true feelings about this book.

5/5 stars and a very high recommend for anyone that loves a good yet sad romantic story of love and loss. Then and now.