Wish I Might by Coleen Murtagh Paratore

I love Willa Havisham! The plucky young heroine of the Wedding Planner’s Daughter Series is a fun character that I became attached to while reading the first few books. When I noticed another book about Willa, I had to pick it up. This may be my favorite of them all!


Summary: Wish I Might, the fifth book featuring Willa Havisham, is an excellent addition to the series. It’s summer, and Willa is looking forward to it – mostly. Her perfect boyfriend, JFK, will be away at a baseball training camp in Florida for a month, and Ruby Sivler seems determined to steal Willa’s best friend. But life at the Bramblebriar Inn is just as wonderful as Willa could want. Her mom and Sam, who she now calls dad, are still happily in love, and the Inn is booked with guests and weddings.

Things start to get strange when a handsome boy shows up and claims he’s Willa’s half brother. Willa has always wanted a brother, but is Will who he says he is? And how should she tell her mother about him?

In Wish I Might, Willa is back at her best – trying hard to stay positive even when she’s worried. Even when she’s stressed about JFK not returning her calls, Will’s relationship to her, and how her mother will react to the news, she still stops to appreciate the little things and finds ways to help others. Willa is a great role model for any of my students. The fact that she’s an avid reader and aspiring author doesn’t hurt, either. I hope to see more books about Willa in the future.

Wish I Might also does a wonderful job of integrating other books (books that Willa is reading during the story), and gives a list of recommended books at the end. I may have to recommend some of Willa’s “skinny punch” books to my students this year. (If you want to know what a “skinny punch” is, you have to read the book. I promise, it’s worth it!)

Themes:
Secrets
Friendship
Family
Service to others

Age Appropriateness:
10 and up

Areas of concern (content):
Foul Language: none
Nudity/Adult Content: none
Violence: none