BOOK TITLE: Wish
You Were Here
ISBN: 9781847562838, 9780007443239
AUTHOR: Victoria
Connelly
GENRE: Fiction
NUMBER OF PAGES: 259
FORMAT: ePub,
digital.
SERIES / STANDALONE:
REVIEW BY: Dhivya
Balaji https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/20539669-dhivya-balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: A
colleague recommended this book highly and lent me her ‘eReader’ for my
reading.
REVIEW:
Wish you were here is a novel that is,
at best, practical. That much cannot be said for many books these days. Much
like the protagonist of the novel, Alice Archer, the story starts plainly
enough, but then manages to dazzle as it progresses. Plain old Alice Archer has
a full time day job, where men never notice her, and a house on rent that is
big enough for one person. Alice also has a sister, Stella, who is her exact
anti theses. Alice is plain, frugal and responsible. Stella is gorgeous,
carefree and spends a lot.
When Stella breaks up with a
boyfriend, he leaves with her the tickets for a weeklong vacation in the island
of Kethos in Greece. She invites her sister for the sake of company and Alice is
glad for the change of scenery. In the island, she stumbles upon a beautiful
villa where the gardener is a handsome hunk. She soon engages in holiday
romance without knowing the secret the handsome hunk was hiding. They enjoy a
whirlwind of romance but due to a twist in circumstances, they are unable to
meet each other and Alice suspects he has a family with a wife and few kids.
In Greece, she does something for fun
that makes her life turn about. At home Alice deals with the problems in the
forefront. Namely, her sick father, selfish sister and men who have now started
noticing her. Once she gets back to England, Alice finds herself thinking with
longing about Greece. And back in Greece, Milo is pining for her. Over the
course of the next few months, Alice and Milo are unable to think of their own
selves.
A change of circumstances forces Alice
to rethink her decision. She has had enough of the wish she made and decides to
revoke it. But it means going back to Greece, and meeting Milo. How she manages
to reclaim her life from the downward spiral and if or not Alice manages to
settle in the love of her life forms the rest of the story. In the tale of
love, family and life, the reader is taken on a roller coaster of two different
locations, different people and totally contrasting lives.
Praise must be given for the language
and the humour of the whole book. It is filled with individual scenes that are
noteworthy and some quite memorable. If the lead people are both wishing to
each other, “Wish you were here”, the readers would wish at a few moments,
“Wish I were there”. And this is one beautiful piece of work in that aspect.
Though the book is a onetime read, there are a few worthy pieces to quote. Wish
you were here is beautifully written, and is quite relatable.
WHAT I LIKED: Good
character sketch, nice location switch, and relatable story line, clear and
concise language with no dreary descriptions.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: Predictable
end, and certain clichéd unnecessary twists that make the reader go “Can’t you
see even that?”
VERDICT: A
perfectly content tale that does not disappoint.
RATING: 4.1/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Victoria Connelly was brought up in Norfolk and
studied English literature at Worcester University before becoming a teacher in
North Yorkshire. After getting married in a medieval castle and living in
London for eleven years, she moved to rural Suffolk with her artist husband and
ever-increasing family of animals. She has had three novels published in
Germany – the first of which was made into a film.
EDITIONS
AVAILABLE: Kindle, paperback, digital.
PRICE: Rs. 467.99 for kindle edition
BOOK LINKS: http://www.amazon.com/Wish-Were-Here-Victoria-Connelly/dp/1847562833
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