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A review by bookish_notes
How to Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake
4.0
This book is enchanting and hauntingly beautiful. I stayed up late reading How to Make a Wish and I don’t regret a second of it. The story is about Grace Glasser, a girl who wants to graduate, go to a top music school, and do what she loves – play piano. But her mother, Maggie, drinks and never quite stays in one place too long as she goes from one boyfriend to the next. Maggie is never quite the mother she should be for Grace. And Grace is stuck in the mother role looking after Maggie. It’s been this way her whole life, just the two of them together, and she’s become a bit resigned to it. Then, she meets Eva Brighton. Eva’s running from her own demons, but the two girls try to find a way to get through their struggles with each other’s help.
This is really my first true f/f YA I’ve read and I was wary that the book wouldn’t have a happy ending because of the dark themes in this book. But luckily, the ending is uplifting and although the story has ended, I wouldn’t mind another book about Grace and Eva. Just them figuring out their life and being super cute and loving. I liked reading about Grace’s friendship with Luca and how Luca’s mother seems to always be ready to look after Grace. In a way, I guess I also kind of enjoyed the small moments with Grace’s ex-boyfriend too.
This book had me weeping and the message is a powerful one. How to Make a Wish is a story about loving yourself for who you are and to chase after those dreams. And it’s okay to be happy when you get what you want. This is an absolutely wonderful book, and definitely one that I would have loved to read when I was in high school as a teenager.
***Thanks to HMH for providing me an ARC through NetGalley***
She loves that word. Just. Everything is just. It’s just one drink, Grace. A birthday is just a day, Grace. It’s just sex, Grace. My entire life is one gigantic just.
This is really my first true f/f YA I’ve read and I was wary that the book wouldn’t have a happy ending because of the dark themes in this book. But luckily, the ending is uplifting and although the story has ended, I wouldn’t mind another book about Grace and Eva. Just them figuring out their life and being super cute and loving. I liked reading about Grace’s friendship with Luca and how Luca’s mother seems to always be ready to look after Grace. In a way, I guess I also kind of enjoyed the small moments with Grace’s ex-boyfriend too.
This book had me weeping and the message is a powerful one. How to Make a Wish is a story about loving yourself for who you are and to chase after those dreams. And it’s okay to be happy when you get what you want. This is an absolutely wonderful book, and definitely one that I would have loved to read when I was in high school as a teenager.
…Because what the hell do I want?
Life with Mom has never been a matter of want. It can’t be. It’s a tangle of needs and necessity, paycheck to paycheck, the future like a distant city on a map in the middle of some foreign land. All those wishes pressed into my fingertips were just that – wishes. And no one really expects a wish to come true.
Do they?
***Thanks to HMH for providing me an ARC through NetGalley***