The Secret Ingedient of Wishes by Susan Bishop Crispell

[HillaryGutierrez]

When I picked The Secret Ingredient of Wishes, I was really just looking for something light. After reading the basics about the book, I thought it would be the perfect easy read. I imagined it being a mellow, easy-going, lighthearted love story about a girl who could grant wishes. I could not have been more wrong.

This book is heavy from the beginning. In the first couple chapters, it introduces you to the main character’s tragic past. My heart was breaking for Rachel and the guilt she has had to live with since she was a child. Instead of embracing her gift, she tried to hide it and lock it away, which as we can usually foreshadow, doesn’t work out. After accidently granting a wish for her best friend’s daughter, she flees town in hopes of finding a place where no one knows her and she can escape her reality for a little (or long) while.

When she ends up in Nowhere (yes, that’s the name of the town), an old lady named Catch takes her in. Before long, she begins to feel like maybe she finally found a place she belongs. Catch has a magical gift as well and, unlike Rachel, she embraces it.

The love story is a little hard to grasp. Ashe is in the middle of a divorce. Although you want him and Rachel to get together from the very beginning, it is very drawn out. Sometimes Ashe seems over his ex, Lola, and other times he is still very sad and angry. Considering everything Rachel has to go through and overcome, it just seems wrong and unfair that she should fall for a guy who is seems pretty unavailable.

There are a lot of unexpected surprises that add great depth to the story line. It turns out that Rachel arrived in (and can’t leave) Nowhere for a reason; the town isn’t done with her yet.

This book is very well written and gives very in-depth characters. Rachel feels so real, she could be my next door neighbor.
Although the book left me wanting more, I found it to be a good read.