How to Make a Wish
by Ashley Herring BlakePublisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Release Date: May 2nd 2017
Genre: Young Adult, GLBT, Contemporary
Synopsis:
All seventeen year-old Grace Glasser wants is her own life. A normal life in which she sleeps in the same bed for longer than three months and doesn't have to scrounge for spare change to make sure the electric bill is paid. Emotionally trapped by her unreliable mother, Maggie, and the tiny cape on which she lives, she focuses on her best friend, her upcoming audition for a top mu-sic school in New York, and surviving Maggie’s latest boyfriend—who happens to be Grace’s own ex-boyfriend’s father.
Her attempts to lay low until she graduates are disrupted when she meets Eva, a girl with her own share of ghosts she’s trying to outrun. Grief-stricken and lonely, Eva pulls Grace into midnight ad-ventures and feelings Grace never planned on. When Eva tells Grace she likes girls, both of their worlds open up. But, united by loss, Eva also shares a connection with Maggie. As Grace's moth-er spirals downward, both girls must figure out how to love and how to move on.
This book follows Grace during the summer in which she is trying to cope with her mother who is constantly changing her boyfriends and making them move all over the town. Grace comes home from piano camp and finds her mother moved them in with her new boyfriend who happens to be the father of one of Grace's exboyfriends, that didn't end well.
Grace is an interesting character in the book. I find her at times to be a little to much in her own head and she needs to talk to others about her issues. I feel like she really needs to see a therapist because she has real issues that need to be dealt with. Grace was handling a lot of issues on her own and being a real adult way before her time. Grace needed to have someone solid to lean on and she does have friends, but we get to see how deep these friendships go in this book. The author does a great job keeping Grace as a teenager mindset throughout the book.
Eva is going through so much grief in her life, but trying hard to make the best of it. Eva is looking for the solution to getting passed her grief as well as finding a way to keep going forward. I loved how Eva's grief was dealt with in this book. It really shows that everyone can go through grief differently. I feel like the relationships between Eva and Grace's mother was an interesting one that developed in the book. I could see how the two where able to relate over grief of losing a loved one. It also shows that there is no time limit on grief.
Things I loved about this book is that a difficult topic is dealt with really well. The author made one of the major topics no big deal, Grace explained herself very well and people just accepted it. I feel like if others in society can just accept things at face value the world would be a different place. I loved that adversity wasn't brought up a lot during this book and it was more everything is accepted, which is how it should be.
The author takes a lot of harder topics and does a great job with them. I felt very connected to the story as well as the relationships the author created with the characters. The author keeps the story moving along at a great pace and pulls you in enough to keep wanting more.
I would suggest reading this book at the beach over the summer. It was a great book to get sucked into reading a longer period of time. The book flowed very naturally and was an easy read. The story stayed very steady and kept me wanting to keep reading.
I received a copy of this book from The Fantastic Flying Book Club for the purpose of providing an honest review this does not effect my opinion of this book.
Grace is an interesting character in the book. I find her at times to be a little to much in her own head and she needs to talk to others about her issues. I feel like she really needs to see a therapist because she has real issues that need to be dealt with. Grace was handling a lot of issues on her own and being a real adult way before her time. Grace needed to have someone solid to lean on and she does have friends, but we get to see how deep these friendships go in this book. The author does a great job keeping Grace as a teenager mindset throughout the book.
Eva is going through so much grief in her life, but trying hard to make the best of it. Eva is looking for the solution to getting passed her grief as well as finding a way to keep going forward. I loved how Eva's grief was dealt with in this book. It really shows that everyone can go through grief differently. I feel like the relationships between Eva and Grace's mother was an interesting one that developed in the book. I could see how the two where able to relate over grief of losing a loved one. It also shows that there is no time limit on grief.
Things I loved about this book is that a difficult topic is dealt with really well. The author made one of the major topics no big deal, Grace explained herself very well and people just accepted it. I feel like if others in society can just accept things at face value the world would be a different place. I loved that adversity wasn't brought up a lot during this book and it was more everything is accepted, which is how it should be.
The author takes a lot of harder topics and does a great job with them. I felt very connected to the story as well as the relationships the author created with the characters. The author keeps the story moving along at a great pace and pulls you in enough to keep wanting more.
I would suggest reading this book at the beach over the summer. It was a great book to get sucked into reading a longer period of time. The book flowed very naturally and was an easy read. The story stayed very steady and kept me wanting to keep reading.
I received a copy of this book from The Fantastic Flying Book Club for the purpose of providing an honest review this does not effect my opinion of this book.
My Rating: 4/5
Ashley Herring Blake is a reader, writer, and mom to two boisterous boys. She holds a Master’s degree in teaching and loves coffee, arranging her books by color, and watching Buffy over and over again on Netflix with her friends. She's the author of the young adult novels SUFFER LOVE and HOW TO MAKE A WISH.
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I've heard such good things about this book - and the author's books in general! I admit, I am not a YA contemporary fan, especially the tough-issue contemporary novels. I'm glad you enjoyed this book! It definitely sounds like a good summer read!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful weekend, Kristyn. =)
Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!
Yes this one has two larger issues going on and a few smaller issues, but it ended up being great! Thank you for stopping by!!
Deletethis book looks wonderful. I'm glad the author handled some difficult subjects well
ReplyDeleteYes I really enjoyed how the author approached everything! Thank you for stopping by!
DeleteI have this coming up soon and it sounds great!! Love oohs that handle difficult topics well. Great review!!
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it! Thank you for stopping by!
DeleteLove.
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by!
DeleteGreat review.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI don't read a lot of Contemporary YA but this sounds promising.
ReplyDeleteThis one was interesting read! The author really kept the story moving! Thank you for stopping by!
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