As You Wish follows three American young women who accept roles as au pairs in Seoul. Lydia wants to climb out of her shell. Jenny is running away from a disastrous break up. Selene is hoping to find her birth mother. The book follows their individual stories as well as those of the three families. The three become fast friends, especially when they make wishes about their futures - under a full moon. Ms. Cross-Smith interjects many Korean culture references which makes the book really come alive. A fun, light read!

A charming premise. Lydia, Jenny, and Selene are au pairs in Seoul. They become friends as their employers are a tight-knit group. While in Jeju, the three women each make a wish at an enchanted waterfall. However, not everyone is happy with the results.

This was cute and I liked learning more about K-pop/Korean culture from an expat perspective, I thought the characters seemed way younger than 20s so there was an immature (and wholesome) vibe that detracted from my overall enjoyment.

Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

As You Wish has an appealing premise - Lydia, Jenny, and Selene are au pairs in Seoul for 3 close families. During a combined family vacation, they learn of an enchanted waterfall and make a wish under a full moon. Lydia wishes for confidence and to be seen, Jenny wishes to be immune to love, and Selene wants to find her biological mother.

While reading, I struggled to connect with the characters, and I think it comes down to them being one-dimensional. I identified with each of their needs and wishes, but the characters lacked depth. This fit a "cozy" type of writing and aligns with the K-drama characteristics of romantic storylines, idealized characters and predictable plotlines. The author includes music Playlists and frequent references to Korean foods and phrases.

If you're a fan of k-dramas, you'll likely connect with this book more than I did and enjoy the style.

📚✨ Book Review: ✨📚

OMG besties 😭💫 this book was like a K-drama meets Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and I devoured it in one sitting!! Let me tell you why you need to read this magical little gem 💖🇰🇷🌕

Three girls, one enchanted waterfall, and a whole lot of ✨ drama, self-discovery, and swoon-worthy romance ✨

👩‍🎨 Lydia: Our aspiring starlet 🌟 who just wants her main character moment—but why is the only guy who’s not into her the one she can’t stop thinking about? 😩🎨
💔 Jenny: Freshly heartbroken and sworn off love…until her host mom’s HOT younger brother enters the chat 😏🔥
📷 Selene: On a heartfelt quest to find her birth mom, and the quiet photographer helping her might just be the key to more than she imagined 🥺💗

The vibes? Immaculate. Think:
🏞️ Jeju Island magic
💫 Full moon wishes
🫰 Found family & female friendship
💌 Soft romances with real stakes

But what really got me?? That twist where Jenny realizes her wish is actually the thing holding her back 🥹💔 The way this book handled personal growth and friendship??? Chefs kiss. 👩‍🍳💋

✨ TLDR: It’s sweet, it’s sparkly, it’s secretly deep—and it made me wanna hop on a flight to Seoul immediately ✈️💖📖

Read if you love:
🌙 Magic realism
👯‍♀️ Strong female friendships
💌 Flirty-but-feelsy romances
📍Korea travel vibes

Okay now someone please adapt this into a Netflix K-drama, I’m begging 😭🎬

This was a sweet, dramatic read that showcases three au pair’s lives as they navigate disappointment, friendship, a waterfall wish, and a new culture.

THOUGHTS 💭
🇰🇷 This book was a love letter to Korea and Korean culture. I visited Seoul last year and it’s now one of my favorite cities in the entire world! I loved being thrown back to my visit with mentions of foods and words and sites and music.
🇰🇷 Our FMCs Lydia, Selene, and Jenny needed each other. They all came to Seoul looking for something and I enjoyed reading about their adventures and friendships.
🇰🇷 By having three FMCs with interconnected storylines, a lot of really good tropes were represented!
🇰🇷 By the end, our characters found their own heart-felt, hard-fought HEAs; whether or not their wishes had anything to do with it is up to you. ❤️

Thanks so much to Leesa Cross-Smith and Tiny Reparations Books for the ARC of this book!

I had high hopes for this one but really struggled to get past the discrepancy between the emotional maturity and dialog of the main characters and their supposed ages. It felt like a mismatch and their thought processes and behavior felt much younger than mid-twenties. It was jarring and made it difficult to enjoy the aspects of the book that were lovely, such as the setting.

As You Wish is a coming of age tale about three girls who are working in Seoul, South Korea as au pairs as they try to start a new chapter in their lives. One night, on a vacation getaway with their host families, the girls make a wish at a magical fountain on Jeju Island. Lydia, who has always been timid and insecure, wishes to embody Main Character energy. Jenny, still reeling from a breakup with her ex, wishes to never fall in love again. And Selene, who is half Korean and was adopted at birth, wishes to find her biological birth mother.

They all believe their wishes come true. However, it isn't long before they discover that what they wished for may not be what they truly want or need.

Overall, this was a thoughtful exploration of friendship, culture, and selfhood. The novel's largest strength was the way it immersed readers in South Korea. I liked feeling as if I were strolling with the characters through the different markets, celebrating with them over holidays, and eating all the traditional cuisine. I do think that some emotional epiphanies among the girls were rushed, that some interactions were left underdeveloped. I also had hoped for more from the wishing fountain. It was good as a catalyst for the girls to make life changes but its wish effect, so to speak, fell flat.

Despite that, this was a quick and enjoyable read. A true love letter to South Korea, finding yourself, and discovering kindred spirits in unlikely places.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tiny Reparations Books for the ARC in exchange for my review.

This is a great book. My first of this Author. Plan to read other books. I am grateful that I was able to read this in advance. Looking forward to my book club to read this

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this story.

As You Wish was a slice of life about three au pairs finding themselves, love and magic in Seoul. It was absolutely giving the K-Drama the author meant to give down to the ending.

I love how the story has a magic feel to it even though we really don’t know if that waterfall had any real effect on our girls. The reader can believe whether it is or not but I’m leaning towards not. The story and its characters had a natural growth and feel as the reader goes on with the story. I love a found family and it seemed they found each other with a little help from fate.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️My review: Overall a really lovely story of three very different young women and their lives as au pairs in Korea. Selene is more worldly but searching for her birth parents, Jenny is nursing a broken heart, and Lydia just wants to matter. Their wish under a waterfall seemingly made their desires come true. But when Jenny wants to cancel her wish will the other two friends be able to handle that?

I loved the way we could see into each woman's thoughts and understand their point of view. And I loved their friendship. They spent a lot of time supporting each other in a new country and figuring out their way. The middle of the book seemed to wander some with scenes and chapters that didn't further any of the story lines. I wasn't bored but was eager to have things move along.

The ending was a little abrupt and I'm not always a fan of the "x years later" wrap up. But it does tell the reader where everyone went and how they all turned out. I enjoyed the book, all the drama, friendship, and hopeful wishes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Publishing for an advance digital copy in exchange for my review.

I rate this 4.5 out of 5.

I want to thank NetGalley and Tiny Reparations Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for review.

This is my first book by Cross-Smith and I can say that this book made me a fan. Her writing is so emotive and vivid. From the very beginning of the book, I was invested. Since the book is broken into sections you learn about each of the young women - Lydia, Selene, and Jenny - as their relationship begins to form.

I loved the dynamic between the three women and the friendship that they formed, but I will say that I had the most difficult relationship with Jenny. Cross-Smith wrote her so well because her angst not only lept off the page I saw my younger self in her. I think that is part of the reason I struggled with some of her behavior. She's young, but some of her comments and behaviors felt teenager rather than a young adult, alas that is such a blurred line when it comes to maturity.

Selene was my favorite character. She felt like the character who understood herself the best and knew what she wanted. Plus, the unraveling of her wish was heartwarming, mortifying, and hilarious in equal parts. Of the three story lines I do wish that we had gotten more of hers on the tail end of the story. Cross-Smith does provide a satisfying resolution, but I just wanted more. Specifically, I wanted the vivid imagery of events, and being in the scene to feel the emotion as I did with the rest of the book would have been preferable to the brief description we were given.

Lydia was a well-rounded character, but I identified with her the least of the three characters. However, I was the most emotionally invested in her love story. Cross-Smith truly took me on a journey with that one where the tension of will-they, won't-they kept me on the edge. I will say that while I love Pride and Prejudice, it is mean that her aunt would name her Lydia based on that book especially if you already used the name Elizabeth. This is a personal opinion and a complete tangent of the overall excellence of the book, but there were five Bennet sisters, and if you already used the beloved character name of Lizzie maybe pick Jane? She gets a happy ending too and the descriptions of Jane in the book are more positive.

I do wish that there had been a little more depth to the relationship scenes. Closed-door scenes are fine, but I did feel like there was all this tension in the scenes, but that wasn't always released by what was written on the page.

The one area where this book felt a little less strong for me was the relationship between the girls and their host mothers. I understand that the premise of the book requires that the three central characters have a place to stay and interact with each other in Seoul, but I didn't get a strong sense of the three host mothers as people overall. They all seemed very romantic, successful, and kind. However, they kind of blended. I think that they were a bit too much in the background and there was so much overlap in the main characters working with each of them as au pairs and then in other capacities that I had a hard time keeping their storylines straight at times. There were a few lovely scenes between each of the women and their host mother, but I do wish that there had been a few more. It would have made the overall throughline a little more fleshed out for me.

This is a great book and I would recommend you pick it up. It has the vibe of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (I mean this as the highest compliment). The sisterhood between Lydia, Jenny, and Selene was so heartwarming I left this book with a smile on my face. The writing is also exceptionally good.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism
Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy

Thank you Net Galley and the publishers for letting me read this book in adanvance!

First of all this book gives plenty of joy , love , friendship and K-Pop! I love the bonds between the girls! I also adored how they made their wishes come true after actually making wishes! Reading this you want to eat Korean food, visit Korea and make a wish with your besties!

This is a beautiful story about friendship, finding yourself and adventure! Told from three POVs, it's the story of 3 different girls becoming au pairs in Seoul and finding a mystical way to wish for their greatest desires. Their lives start changing after making the wishes and it's so sweet to see how everything changes for them! Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for my digital ARC!!

**Features:**
- Set in Seoul, South Korea
- A story about self-discovery and friendship
- Three unique POVs with 3 unique romantic relationships

**Synopsis:**

Seoul is a chance for a fresh start for Lydia, Jenny, and Selene. Each of them has accepted an au pairing opportunity in the hopes that distancing themselves from who they were at home will help them become who they think they want to be. Placed with families who are close, the three young women soon form a friendship of their own. When a group trip to Jeju island leads to the girls wishing at an enchanted waterfall, things for each of them start to turn around. But with new situations comes new problems and in the end, the girls will have to lean on their friendship in order to find what they truly need.

**Thoughts:**

It may sound cheesy, but the power of friendship is truly at the heart of this charming story. It’s not a saccharine portrayal of friendship, but the type of bond that develops between people who find themselves on a similar physical and emotional journey. All three characters add their own gifts and struggles they bring that both challenges and strengthens their bond as a unit. The story rotates through Lydia, Jenny, and Selene’s POV and I loved that each was given the space outside of the unit in which to go on their personal and romantic journeys. Each character gets to experience romance in a way that ties into their overall journey and ultimately feels right for them. Where there is some lust involved, the focus is more about the relationships than the spice.

I have never been to Seoul, but the wonderful descriptions made it feel like I was experiencing the city right alongside the characters. Unfortunately, the dialogue didn’t live up to the same level. A lot of it felt stilted in a way that took me out of some of the moments a little. I don’t like to read the book synopsis until I have gotten through the first 10-20%, and there was a brief period near the beginning that had me convinced it was going to turn into a thriller! Thankfully, it definitely didn’t turn out that way. I was a little worried about the use of familiar themes, but they are handled well in this story and develop in interesting ways. Overall, this was a fun read that would be great for all of the international travelers out there!

A whimsical story about three au pairs. Jenny, Lydia, & Selene all arrive in South Korea with baggage and over the course of their time in the country they learn to let go of the things that were holding them back and to accept the magic that comes their way. The three girls weren’t that distinctive and they all felt like the same person by the end of the novel. Overall this story just felt like a love letter to Seoul and Korean culture.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton | Tiny Reparations Books for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

'As Your Wish' follows Lydia, Selene, and Jenny as they begin their au pair journey to their respective host families in South Korea.

Overall, this was a cute and fun read! I enjoyed how much of the Korean culture was portrayed in this book. I appreciated that it was encompassed more than just food and K-pop music. The language was sprinkled throughout the book as well as subtle cultural nuances on how one interacts with their elders, traditions and customs, etc.

As far as the three main characters, I enjoyed reading their individual stories and how they each developed by the end of the books. I felt that their friendship with each other, and romantic relationships with others, were pretty representative of their age. For example, all three of them had moments of selfishness, inevitable drama from miscommunication, etc.

I recommend this book if you're looking for a light-hearted and fun read about friendship, finding love, and finding yourself.

This book was sweet, but I won't remember reading it 2 weeks from now.

**Thanks to Penguin Group via NetGalley for giving me an arc in exchange of my honest opinion.

I simply enjoyed this book. The story is about three young ladies who are American and they are Paris in Korea. These ladies make wishes for things that they want. What they get is self discovery. I would read this one again.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this. It's probably more of a me problem because I have a difficult time with multiple POVs. I may give it a second chance once it's released and I can get a hard copy from my library.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tiny Reparations Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

this is a magical and heartfelt story about three women who travel to Seoul for the adventure of a lifetime as au pairs. When they visit an enchanted waterfall on Jeju Island and make a wish under a full moon, their lives are changed in ways they never expected. Lydia finds herself desired by everyone—except the one person she’s interested in; Jenny has a sizzling affair that may turn into something more complicated than expected; and Selene uncovers clues about her biological mother. As their wishes start to unfold, they’re forced to reevaluate what they really want and the power of their bond. It’s a beautifully woven tale of friendship, love, and self-discovery that reminds us of the true magic that lies within our connections.