Author: Katherine Center
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date:
Book Description: Samantha Casey is a school librarian who loves her job, the kids, and her school family with passion and joy for living.
But she wasn’t always that way.
Duncan Carpenter is the new school principal who lives by rules and regulations, guided by the knowledge that bad things can happen.
But he wasn’t always that way.
And Sam knows it. Because she knew him before—at another school, in a different life. Back then, she loved him—but she was invisible. To him. To everyone. Even to herself. She escaped to a new school, a new job, a new chance at living. But when Duncan, of all people, gets hired as the new principal there, it feels like the best thing that could possibly happen to the school—and the worst thing that could possibly happen to Sam. Until the opposite turns out to be true. The lovable Duncan she’d known is now a suit-and-tie wearing, rule-enforcing tough guy so hell-bent on protecting the school that he’s willing to destroy it.
As the school community spirals into chaos, and danger from all corners looms large, Sam and Duncan must find their way to who they really are, what it means to be brave, and how to take a chance on love—which is the riskiest move of all.
With Katherine Center’s sparkling dialogue, unforgettable characters, heart, hope, and humanity, What You Wish For is the author at her most compelling best.
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: Katherine Center has become one of my go to authors over the last several years, and this book did not disappoint. She just knows how to write such hopeful stories.
Samantha Casey is the school librarian at a top notch elementary school in Texas. She is the teacher that every teacher and student adores. When the book begins, she loses her beloved principal and founder of the school in a terrible incident. The school board decides to hire Duncan Carpenter, who Samantha was in love with in her previous school. He was charming, kooky, and so lovable. He was the teacher that everyone looked up to.
When Duncan finally arrives, there is something very different. Duncan is not the happy-go-lucky guy he used to be. He is serious and the exact opposite of what these teachers have been use to.
Center brings us a story that morphs into a much tougher read. You know something has changed Duncan, but you do not know what it is. Once his secret comes out, Sam has an idea, she is going to bring Joy back to Duncan’s life…and it works.
This not a light-hearted book. This is a story of a broken man, and how the one person that believes in him the most, shows him there is light at the end of his very dark tunnel.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Obsessed Bookaholic 