Book Review: I Wished For You – Amy Huberman

I was recently, very kindly sent this book for review by Penguin Ireland.  As you know I am something of a bookworm and love nothing more than curling up on the sofa with a good book so I was pretty excited to receive a package recently with several books tucked inside.  On pulling out this particular one out I faced a bit of a dilemma, because it didn’t really look like my kind of book.  I knew I wouldn’t do a review justice, but luckily I was in the office at the time, and on reading out the blurb to my lovely friend Kate she said she’d love to review it for me.  What a gem.

A couple of weeks later an email dropped into my inbox with her review inside – now that’s what I call good service!  Over to you Kate…

“Being close friends and sharing an office with Rosie means I get to see and hear about lots of the fun and exciting things she gets invited to and sent to review. So when she asked if I fancied reviewing a book that she had been sent, I was straight in there to grab a piece of blogging action!

Being a member of two book clubs (yes I know, I am a geek), I read a wide variety of books and unfortunately one of the side effects of this is that I have become super critical of ‘chick lit’. I used to love nothing more than losing myself in ‘girl meets boy, slight twist where girl loses boy and then the predictable happy ending’ type book but now I find myself questioning every detail and mentally giving the book a score out of ten. Then along came ‘I Wished For You’ by Amy Huberman.  It is the story of Grace who seems to have her relationship sorted with the lovely Robbie until he unexpectedly goes down on bended knee. Grace’s reaction results in their break-up and the rest of the book focuses on her trying to rebuild her life with the help of Verity, an ex-Hollywood costume lady and vintage clothing expert.

To be fair, the start and ending of the story is quite predictable but the middle is a very humorous and honest look at how it feels to make a complete mistake and let the right man go. The frequent references to 1950’s Hollywood glamour adds a really interesting twist to the book and although it is completely unbelievable at times, it is one of the very few books I have read recently that has made me laugh out loud. There was lots to love about the book; the detailed descriptions of Grace’s outfits; the overbearing (and quite frankly scary) sister and the spot on observations of close friendships to name a few. Overall I would recommend this book if you want an easy read that gives you a bit more substance than the usual chick lit. In true book club style I feel the need to give the book a score… 8 out of 10.”

Well, having read that review I’m now thinking I might have to steal it back from Kate! I guess it just shows you can’t judge a book by its cover! If you want to find out more about the book you can do so here.

I recently popped another book in the post that wasn’t quite right for me to a friend and blog follower, so keep an eye on my Twitter for any other books I might be sending out for review! And of course if you’re a fellow bookworm don’t forget to sign up to my Bloggers Book Swap.

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