ARC: Saving Wishes by G.J. Walker-Smith

Add to Goodreads

For Charli Blake, being seventeen is a tough gig. 

She's been branded a troublemaker, her reputation is in tatters and she's stuck in Pipers Cove, a speck of a town on the coast of Tasmania.

Thankfully, it's temporary. Her lifelong dream of travelling the world is just months away from becoming reality. All she has to do is ride out the last few months of high school, which is easier said than done thanks to a trio of mean girls known as The Beautifuls. 

When Adam Décarie arrives in town, all the way from New York, life takes an unexpected turn. His arrival sets off a chain of events that alters her life forever, convincing her of one thing. Fate brought him to her.

Saving Wishes is the story of a girl who doesn't quite fit the life she's living, and the boy who helps her realise why.

My thoughts

Charli lives alone with her brother Alex in Pipers Cove, a town where everybody knows everything about everyone, and where one rumor can all but destroy your life. All Charli has ever dreamed getting away and explore the world. A few months before graduation where she'll finally be free, she meets Adam. He has come all the way from New York to visit his cousin, and it might just be fate that has brought them together. As Charli and Adam fall in love, she can only think about being with him which would mean going back to New York with him and out all her travelling dreams behind her. But Charli will have to decide which dream to pursue; love or travelling. 

This was a true coming-of-age story about finding yourself, following your dreams and how first love plays into your decisions. I really liked this part in the book. Charli has always been determined on travelling the world, but when Adam enters the picture she is blinded by her love for him and can't imagine a future without him. But their dreams are so different, and neither of them will ever really be happy if they compromise on them. I liked how the author portrayed this dilemma, and also how Charli had to realize this. 

It took me quite awhile to get into this book, and even when I did I never really connected with any of the characters. I also think everything was a bit too rushed in the first part of the book. It took me a long time to figure Charli out, because she would just do something strange or react in a weird way to Adam, and it was never explained until much later. So I would just wonder why on earth she did what she did. Eventually, everything was explained, but I never felt like I truly got to understand Charli. I was, however, impressed by some of the choices that Charli made. She faced some really tough ones, and I think she was brave for making the choices she did.    

I have to say that I think Adam was way too perfect. Seriously, he didn't seem to have any flaws at all. How is that even possible? He did everything perfectly, said all the right things, and was just all around perfect. While I must plead guilty of often swooning over fictional guys, I never once swooned over Adam. Actually, he kind irked me, and I don't even know why. There was just something about all that perfectness.

There was a severe case of insta-love in this book, something I've come to dislike a great deal. I don't mind the characters being attracted to each other from the beginning, but talking about fate and love within the first week of meeting each other - and hardly knowing each other - was just too much. I might have rolled my eyes several times in the beginning of the book. 
I really liked how the difference between need and want was questioned. Charli claims that she needs to be with Adam (does that sound familiar?), but Alex tells her that she shouldn't need Adam she should simply just want to be with him. 

Overall, I really liked some parts of it, while other parts just didn't work for me. If you like stories about finding yourself, about having wanderlust, about love and family, Saving Wishes might be for you.

A copy was provided from the publisher via Netgally in exchange for an honest review.

☆ ☆ ☆