Look, nobody warned me that this book was going to make me sit in the pediatrician's waiting room staring at a poster about hand-washing and seriously evaluating every major decision I've made since 2014. Jude Deveraux, I came here for a comfort read, not an existential crisis.
But here's what surprised me. As You Wish looks like standard romance from the outside - three women, a pretty house in Virginia, some magical wishing - and it IS that. But it's also sneakily smart about the way women at different life stages think about regret. And I wasn't ready for how much that would get under my skin.
Three Women, Three "What Ifs," and the One Who Made Me Want to Throw My Phone
The setup is straightforward: Olivia (sixties, finally married her first love after four decades apart), Kathy (forties, married to a man who's passionately in love with someone else - ouch), and Elise (twenties, discovers her husband has a pregnant mistress). They're gathered at this house in Summer Hill, Virginia, sharing regrets and wishes. And then, because this is Jude Deveraux and she can do what she wants, those wishes start coming true.
I expected to connect most with Kathy, because she's closest to my age and her whole "I gave up my career identity for this marriage" thing hit a little too close to the bone. But it was actually Elise who wrecked me. There's something about watching a twenty-something realize her entire marriage was built on a lie that just... yeah. Even though I'm past that stage of life, the raw shock of it translated.
And Olivia? Olivia's story is the one that made me think about my own parents' marriage in ways I did NOT sign up for during a Tuesday afternoon.
Susan Bennett Knows What Sardonic Sounds Like at Forty-Something
The narration is the reason this works as an audiobook and not just a fine beach read. Susan Bennett doesn't do voices in an over-the-top way - she shifts her entire energy for each woman. Olivia gets this warm, weathered quality, like she's telling you stories over wine and she's already forgiven herself for most of it. Kathy gets this dry, sardonic edge that absolutely nailed the "I'm too smart to have ended up here but here I am" vibe. And Elise - Bennett starts her kind of breathless and naive and slowly, slowly adds steel underneath as the truth comes out.
It's subtle work. The kind where you don't realize you always know exactly who's talking until you stop and think about it. AudioFile gave Bennett Best of 2018 Romance for this and honestly? Earned.
Thirteen Hours Is a Lot of Nap Times
Okay. Thirteen hours and forty-five minutes. For a mom audiobook, that's a COMMITMENT. I'm used to wrapping things up in a week, and this one took me closer to two. At 1.25x it's more manageable, but there are stretches in the middle - especially when the mechanics of how the wishes actually work are getting set up - where Deveraux is taking the scenic route through Summer Hill when I needed the highway.
It survived my pause-resume lifestyle though, which is saying something. Three separate storylines I could keep straight even after Sophie's nap got cut short by the dog barking and Lucas needed Lego help and Emma had a crisis about her spelling test. Came back every time and knew exactly where I was. Survived 47 pauses and still made sense. That's not nothing with a 13-hour book juggling three timelines.
But around hour 8, I got a little impatient. The magical realism is charming but requires patience while the rules of wish-granting get sorted. If you want romance front and center at all times, you'll be checking the progress bar.
Who Needs This and Who Should Keep Scrolling
If you're a woman of any age who has ever thought "what if I'd chosen differently" - so, every woman alive - this is going to hit you somewhere. Especially good if you like your romance with a side of something deeper, that little ache of "what might have been" that makes the happy ending feel earned rather than just handed to you.
Skip it if you want fast-paced banter or if magical realism makes you roll your eyes. This isn't Emily Henry speed. It's more like sitting on a porch with women who've lived some life and are finally being honest about it.
Worth Sitting in the Driveway For
Not groundbreaking, but sometimes you don't need groundbreaking. Sometimes you need three women in a Virginia house telling each other the truth about their marriages, and a narrator who makes each one sound like someone you'd want to have coffee with. Satisfying ending - exactly what I needed.
Made me think a little too much for a comfort read. But in a good way. In a "sat in the driveway for an extra ten minutes staring at nothing" kind of way. Notes on an Execution did that same thing to me - the kind of book that follows you out of the car and into the kitchen and you're still turning it over while you make dinner. My book club will love this (if I ever have time for book club again).
