Wish You Were Here

Hello,

You may be wondering, back so soon? Well yes! Especially when I’ve finished a book in 2 days and can’t wait to share my review with you all, that and the fact that I was emotional wreck by the time I finished it that I need to share it all with you!

“You know when you’re looking at someone and you can’t help but smile at how oblivious they are to their own charm? That’s what was happening to me, and it was making me feel…happy. Euphoric. Something indescribable.”

This is the tale of Charlotte, a twenty-something year old with no idea what her future holds. With many odd jobs and odd men, the one consistent in her life is her best friend Helen, who she lives and works with at a diner.

“If you asked me seven months earlier how I would have described myself, I would have said fickle, indecisive, directionless, shallow, selfish and utterly, obliviously ignorant of other people’s feelings.”

Then after a drunken night out, she quite literally bumps into Adam. Good looking and with Chinese in hand, Charlotte decides to spend some time with him (with much encouragement from Helen). To Charlotte’s surprise, it feels like she’s known Adam all her life.

“It was like we already knew each other, like we had met in a previous life. Memories that didn’t exist began exploding in my mind like fireworks.”

As she spends the night with him, Charlotte begins to wonder if her luck with men was finally changing. Except when she wakes up, she’s in for a shock and after being kicked out by Adam, Charlotte finds both her pride and her heart hurting.

“This is the thing about one-night stands that I hate. In the end, everyone is just pretending.”

After a visit to her a family, a revelation that her brother has made her a match.com account, Charlotte feels that life can’t get any worse. Until she notices a good looking, baseball player called Seth has been messaging her, keen to meet up.

“But all of that was changing…I wanted to change. To learn from his example.”

Despite being unable to get Adam out of her head, Charlotte meets Seth but is still not sure about opening her heart up again. But Seth isn’t one to give up so easily and slowly but surely, her heart begins to thaw.

“It doesn’t always feel like this, it doesn’t always feel easy or right, so when it does feel this way, you have to seize it.”

Suddenly, everything changes…Helen brings news that rocks Charlotte to the core and when she receives some more news, Charlotte must make a decision: start a new story with Seth or continue the one she started with Adam?

“When a person is ready to fall in love, it happens fast. There’s no looking back or in between to find empty space where water can put itself to freeze, to crack the two of you apart. There is no void. There’s no weighing of options or analysis of pros and cons. Everything is reduced to feelings and emotions and actions that don’t need explanation or justification.”

This is the story of a journey that changes Charlotte’s life, a journey that brings her joy, love, pain and wisdom.

“Love is a wordless secret; it’s an inside joke. Only the two of you have to understand it.”

Remember I said I was an emotional wreck? Well let me explain. Romantic, heart-warming, sexy. 100%. However, it’s powerful and moving in so many ways and heart-wrenching to the point it gets you right in the feels.

“I’m afraid you’re going to flee before I have a chance to say good-bye.”

This was my first read of Renée Carlino and I can guarantee without a doubt that it won’t be the last.

I love the fact that Charlotte is so relatable, at least to me that is but I think we can all take something from this. Charlotte doubts herself in every way, from the way she looks to what she thinks she deserves. But Charlotte shows us that we can get past that and make something of ourselves, we all deserve love, if not always in the ways we imagine.

If this romance novel is right up your street then you can find it on Amazon:

Amazon

 Until next time,

Keep reading,

D x