9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautiful Ride of Emotions, August 18, 2009
This review is from: Summer of Two Wishes (Mass Market Paperback)
There's nothing like a good story about love lost and then love found to get the heart going. SUMMER OF TWO WISHES by Julia London was heart wrenching, yes, heart-wrenching from the very first page. A beautiful story about love and life, London created a masterpiece in this beautiful story. If you are a romance fan of any kind, I highly suggest SUMMER OF TWO WISHES. This is the kind of book that keeps you up at night wondering about the characters until you finally get a chance to go back to the book and dive back into the world.
We've seen the story before. A woman is married to her true love, he goes away to war and she gets word that he has died there. Practically dead from grief, she finally manages to find solace in the arms of another man and eventually marries him. Suddenly her first love is back, miraculously returned from the grave. What's a girl to do when she's faced with two men, both of whom she loves just as desperately as she needs the air?
Macy has just started to pull her life together. She's barely crawling out of the dark hole that she's been hiding under and finding joy in her new husband Wyatt when Finn returns. Now, overjoyed at his return she's faced with the difficult decision of breaking someone's heart. Whether it's Finn or Wyatt, one thing is for sure; her heart is going to be a casualty as well.
If you couldn't already tell, I loved SUMMER OF TWO WISHES. Admittedly, I was a little reserved about reading the book seeing as how the general premise of the story has been used fairly often. Jennifer Haymore's A Hint of Wicked, the movies Pearl Harbor, Three For the Show, and Too Many Husbands all follow the same idea although each puts a great spin on it. I'm pleased to say that my concerns were wasted as London did an excellent job putting her own twists and turns on the idea, creating an intriguing and suspenseful plot.
Usually I'm able to sit here and type fairly quickly, telling you what I loved or didn't love about a book. In this case, I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what it was that made the book so great because I got so distracted by the story that I never took the time to stop and think, "Oh yeah, this is good." Maybe that's part of what I love. I think that if I really had to pick one thing, it would be the way that London fills the pages with tension. Even something as simple as preparing for a luncheon becomes filled with tension and pulls the reader along. Tension is a wonderful ally to an author if used correctly. It makes the book addicting; it makes you want to read more and keeps you turning the pages. London certainly mastered that. I actually had to convince myself pretty hard that it was not a good idea to take my book to the dinner table with me; I was just that into it.
Another great aspect of SUMMER OF TWO WISHES, just as in many great books, is the characters. London has created characters with a good deal of depth that add layers to the book and give us something to ponder. More than that, however, she has created characters where the reader has to stop and consider who he or she wants the hero to be. That surprised me. I expected a clear-cut idea of who I wanted Macy to end up with, but a quarter of the way through the book I no longer could decide. Both Finn and Wyatt had their good points, but more importantly, each had their flaws. Giving these two guys their own set of flaws really helped to make the story so much more realistic. No longer were we reading a piece of fiction dreamed up in someone's head. Now we were simply reading a retelling of a story that really happened, waiting for the characters to walk through the front door and begin acting it out.
Fair warning time: SUMMER OF TWO WISHES does have adult themes and adult scenes. I would give it a sensuality rating of four out of five.
SUMMER OF TWO WISHES definitely deserves top marks. The characters were great, the pacing was really nice, and it completely captivated me. It's not every day that we get a good Romance with its own fair share of suspense and London gave us just that. I would highly recommend this book to any Romance lover and might even suggest that lovers of any sort of Drama book pick this one up as well. The main plot and subplots are intricate and enough to keep you wanting to go back for more long after you've turned the last page.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
What do you do when you have a second chance with the man you loved and buried?, August 18, 2009
This review is from: Summer of Two Wishes (Mass Market Paperback)
Synopsis:
When she heard that her husband Finn was killed in the line of duty overseas, Mary Lockhart felt like she'd died. Mary struggled to keep his Texas Ranch, but with cattle disease, her inexperience, and bad luck, she had to sell much of Finn's assets. Three years later, she'd picked herself up and created a new life. Mary still loved and missed Finn deeply, but she found stability and happiness with her new husband Wyatt Clark.
Stability and happiness that shatter when Mary receives news that Finn is alive - and coming home. Mary is ecstatic that Finn is alive and can't wait to see him. But under Texas law, she must choose which marriage to keep and which to nullify. Faced with an impossible choice, what does Mary do?
Review:
Macy's in an impossible situation. If you thought that the man that you loved more than anything in the world somehow was gone and you suddenly had a second chance, would you go back to him even if it means hurting the man who helped you find yourself again?
Julia London is careful to fully flesh out each of the three characters so that you can sympathize with each of them. She creates subplots that move the story along to its satisfying conclusion. The book raises issues of loyalty and being true to oneself as well as the unique strain that military families are under. The description of the difficulties that military families face both during deployment and when obtaining their benefits gave the book an additional dimension. Despite the difficult decision that Macy faces, I found the book is an enjoyable and satisfying read.
Publisher: Pocket Star (August 18, 2009), 432 pages.
Courtesy of the publisher.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Kind of annoying, July 27, 2010
This review is from: Summer of Two Wishes (Mass Market Paperback)
I found myself disliking Macy from the start. She seemed so wishy washy throughout the entire book and I found myself liking Wyatt much more than Macy. I found myself just more annoyed with Macy the more I read. I know it was a hard situation for someone to be in but she seemed so... helpless and weak overall. I sure hope Wyatt ends up with the baby in any further books, she would make an awful mother.
It was an interesting storyline, but I really leave this book feeling dissatisfied and a bit annoyed. I hope that Wyatt gets a story.. I'd love to see Macy's reaction when he finds someone he loves more than her and she has to deal with that.
I had to fight to finish this book, I put it down three or four times because I was just so annoyed by Macy.
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