Book Wish Granted

Three Wishes

Title: Three Wishes

Author: Kristen Ashley

Format: Audio Book

Page Count/Read Time: 409 pages/15 hrs 40 mins

Genre: Fantasy Romance

Rating: ★★★★☆

When Lily Jacobs was born, she inherited Fazier - a genie. Her family had three wishes and they’d only ever used one so Fazire was stuck in the human world. This worked since he’d become a member of the family anyway.

Even with a genie, Lily’s young life wasn’t perfect. To escape the kids making her miserable at school, Lily buried herself in romance novels. One day, when the teasing was just too much, she used one of her wishes. She told Fazire she wanted to find a man like in her books and she made the most complicated wish Fazire had ever heard. Her wished-for man had to be impossible handsome, virile, fierce, rugged, and ruthless (amongst a dozen other things). He also had to think she was beautiful and he had to love her more than anything in the world.

Nathaniel McAllister wasn’t born to a life where there were such things as genies granting wishes. His life was filled with drugs, crime, and neglect. He was running errands for a gangster before he was in his teens and, even though life and hard work led him to wealth and respectability, he always knew, deep down, he was dirty. When Nate met Lily he knew he was no good for her but as virile, fierce, rugged, and ruthless as he was, Nate was no match for the pull of sweet, innocent Lily.

Unfortunately, Lily’s wish included that she and her hero go through trials and tribulations to test their love. And Fazire wasn’t only a good genie, he loved Lily - so he gave her exactly what she wanted.

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This book was everything I wanted it to be and more. When I picked up this book I was really intrigued by the fantasy aspect of it. I wanted to experience the magic, but was a little worried that it would over power the story, make things bizarre and strange in various ways, but surprisingly that didn’t happen. The author found the line that she could toe, but stayed on the correct side. Fazire felt more like a natural extension of Lily’s family than a plot device like I feared he would. By writing the story as though it was magical realism, instead of fantasy like it is, it makes everything more believable and makes it easier for the reader to expand their suspension of disbelief. Through establishing early on that because Fazire had been living in the “human world” so long, he has started to take on human characteristics, his character becomes easier to integrate into the story. He is no longer the high and mighty, unfeeling, and uncaring genie, but a baseball loving, sunbathing, and emotional part of a human family. His existence only adds to the story instead of taking away from the “humanness” of the plot.

The only time the magic interferes with the story is toward the end.

Slight Spoilers Ahead … Skip it if you haven’t read the book yet!

Nearing the end of the story, after Lily and Nate make up and break up for the first time, Fazire decides it would be a helpful idea to tell Nate’s adoptive father that he is a genie and I don’t get the point of this. I can understand that once Lily and Nate decide to get married that she should tell him about who Fazire really is, but this part of the story didn’t add to the plot or help move things forward. Then later on, right before their wedding, Fazire figures it is time to tell Nate about himself and the wish that Lily made all those years ago. It creates this weird doubt in the story almost as if Nate wouldn’t have loved Lily if it weren’t for the wish. I think the point was to reassure the readers that this wasn’t the case, that Nate loved Lily wish or no wish, but it did the exact opposite. It would have made the story better if this part didn’t happen the way it did.

Third Person … Yes Please

It has been a long time since I have read a book that handles third person shifting POV in such a seamless way as this does. During the family history section at the beginning of the book, having things in third person allows the reader to jump into all the necessary characters’ heads in order to get the full picture of how our main two characters ended up where they needed to be; the endless flow from Sarah to Fazire to Rebecca to Lily to Nate and back and forth again and again. You never lose track of who is telling the story and every jump in character POV has a purpose. Ashley thought long and hard about who needed to be in charge of the storyline and when in order to play up the tension at some points and pull at your heartstrings at others. Most of the story plays out jumping between Lily and Nate, but almost every main character has their moment to tell their story and contribute to the main narrative. One of the reasons I love Ashley’s use of POV so much in this book is because the readers get to know the background of everyone important. I adore knowing and understanding character decisions when I read a book. This story opens up everyone’s lives and scoops out the core of their personalities so the reader can connect with every single person in their own unique way.

And then there are the characters themselves. The full cast of this book is lovable in their own unique way and from each character’s first introduction, you only grow to love them more and more. You feel for their pain, you enjoy their success, and most importantly you share in their love. Even the characters who are only in the story for a short while, like Sarah and Rebecca, have their charm.

Lily, although her innate perfection can stand out as unbelievable at some points, proves to be more human and vulnerable than her original introduction lets on. Things do affect her and break down her perfect exterior, but her most potent trait is her ability to grow and learn from any downfall she faces.

As for Nate, you feel for his plight from the introduction onward. All you want to see is the sad, angry, broken boy made whole and happy. Some of his decisions are made in haste which makes them hard to understand, but they explain most of his reactions in such great detail that you still connect with the feeling behind them. Of all the characters, Nate grows and changes the most from start to finish and the way that his emotions are portrayed (i.e. the fact that by the end we actually see him outwardly portray emotion) shows his progress in the most subtle yet telling light.

Final Thoughts

I really truly enjoyed every aspect of this story. The characters shined through and the plot keeps your attention throughout the entire story. I fell in love with Nate and Tash in an instant and loved how they drew the story to an end with the genies, the same way the whole crazy thing started.

Now I want to hear your opinions! If you’ve read Three Wishes, did you like it? What did you think of the magic aspects? Did you get frustrated with Nate before the end?

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll write again soon!