Cover Image: When I Wished Upon A Star

When I Wished Upon A Star

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Member Reviews

While I enjoyed the story it seemed a bit of a stretch at times to discern a friendship. It was interesting to see how TV can affect the lives of people over time.

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Thank you NetGalley and Brandon Lane Phillips for accepting my request to audibly read and review When I Wished Upon A Star.

Authors: Brandon Lane Phillips & Jeremy Miller
Published: 09/14/22
Narrators: Max Adler & Kirk Cameron
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs -- Christian

Brandon was a wish kid wth a heart disease. His desire was to meet the cast of Growing Pains. This is the story of his life thus far. Brandon has gone on to become a pediatric cardiologist and lifelong friends with Kirk & Chelsea Cameron as well as Jeremy Miller and his wife and kids.

Brandon points out when he believes God has intervened in his life. He discusses highs and lows that he and Jeremy have had.

This makes a nice car audiobook, a snow day or bible study.

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I grew up watching Growing Pains so I found this memoir where the author was inspired by his interaction with that cast intriguing. I also have a friend his son was recently diagnosed with the same heart defect that the author had. I was glad to see that his heart issues have not prevented the author from pursuing his dreams and have allowed him to help and inspire others.

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This memoir is a touching story that blends “real life” and Hollywood. Most people only wish they could meet their favorite tv star and end up becoming friends. Brandon got to do just that. The way he shows how God wove the lives of two of Family Ties characters is up lifting. Brandon does a great job explaining his medical issues and procedures in a way that anyone can understand. Brandon’s deep faith is at the core of this story and will undoubtedly increase yours.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this audiobook.

I was a fan of Growing Pains when I was younger so this book really piqued my interest. I listened to it over the course of several days. I really enjoyed it. It is a heartwarming story and I loved listening to it in the authors voice. This was just a nice easy read and I would definitely recommend it.

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I always find digging into people’s stories interesting. There are usually things that I can relate to and things that I can learn from. I found Brandon’s story to be a bit of both. I really loved how he was able to see how God was always working in his life - even when he was not able to see it at the time.

My only disappointment with this book is not hearing ‘the story’ at all from Jeremey’s perspective.


Thank you to Brandon Lane Phillips and NetGalley for the advance review copy

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It is a very heartwarming life story all the way around. It’s a bit slow being told. But all in all I think it is something anyone with the heart condition or know someone with it should listen to. I will recommend it to the person I know with it

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When I wished upon a star review
4 1/2 stars

I am fighting with myself on this one for not giving it 5 stars, because I do not like to give bad ratings to memoirs. This story is outstanding and one that should be told, but I believe this memoir brushed over some outstanding feats and focused A LOT on the mundane, uninteresting stuff. Ok let’s get down to the nitty gritty groove of it:


𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬:
Brandon Lane Philips was born in the 1970s with a rare congenital heart disease. He was looking at a short life and was in and out of hospitals from when he was born throughout his childhood. Eventually, through hard work, dedication, and his strong devotion to God, Brandon makes it through medical school, eventually becoming a super specialized pediatric cardiologist. He ended up having as a mentor the cardiologist that performed his first open heart surgery and becoming friends with Jeremy from the hit tv show Growing Pains, helping him on the way.



𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝:
It was a heartwarming story. Reading the story you can’t help but absolutely adore Brandon (Dr. Lane Philips) for his tremendous resilience, passion, intelligence, and remarkable empathy. Reading this book makes you really want to become his friend and Jeremy Miller was lucky to have him as such. The setbacks that Brandon had to go through are remarkable and I’m glad he wrote this memoir.
On the surface, When I Wish Upon a Star is about Dr. Lane Philips overcoming his heart defect and making it into one of the most difficult specialties of medicine to enter (and thrive!). This story is what "When Breath Becomes Air" would have been like if Paul Kalanithi had lived (oh what a better world we would be living in).



𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 (𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥):
The author focuses a lot more on his dysfunctional family dynamics (his absent father) than on the recovery and hardship that came with his heart condition. I am sure this was cathartic for the author but it was a bit less interesting for the reader. P.S. His mom sounds like such an awesome woman, I am so glad parents like her exist.


Also the author refers to his parents as ‘’mama’’ and ‘’daddy’’ which is a pet peeve of mine for adults to talk of their parents this way. It just sounds a bit childish and that is made worse when consuming the book as an audiobook.


𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭:
Yes, but with some hesitations. If you are looking for a story of resilience and hope, this is the book for you. However, if you want something that is going to keep you on the edge of your seat, then I would suggest reading something else. I would, however, HIGHLY SUGGEST that this author do a TED talk.

Goodreads review link: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4938489147?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

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I enjoyed listening to Brandon's story. It's not that common for people to evaluate the events of their own life insightfully, yet when we do, we can often find threads that bind us to others woven throughout our lives. But that's exactly what Brandon has done here.

My main disappointment with the book was that, with Jeremy Miller receiving an author attribution, I'd expected some of the story to be from his viewpoint. Instead, everything is told from Brandon's perspective, although he shares a lot about Jeremy's life. I would have preferred hearing about Jeremy's life from Jeremy himself. So, I felt the co-author attribution was misleading.

Overall, I found the book enjoyable, although a bit repetitive at times.

Thank you to Brandon Lane Phillips and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

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I grew up watching Growing Pains. All of the kids on the show were a bit older than me, and I am a girl, so I always found Carol to be the most relatable. Brandon Lane Phillips found Ben to be the most relatable because they were close in age so when he got a chance to make a wish because of a heart condition he has, he chose to meet Jeremy Miller on the set of Growing Pains. Little did he know their paths were destined to intertwine in various ways over the years. I loved hearing Brandon's story of how God worked through both his and Jeremy's lives to have them cross paths when they needed each other- Brandon as a sickly child with a heart condition who needed hope, and then Jeremy as an adult who needed the same. The intertwining that happened in these two lives could have only been God. This was a heartwarming story to listen to.

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I loved this glimpse into the lives of two seemingly different boys: Brandon Phillips and Jeremy Miller. Their lives may have been different but they were destined to meet and have a profound effect on each other. Through their faith in God and love, they are able to help each other through difficult times and become the people they are today. Highly recommended as a heartwarming, feel good story.

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