Monday, 11 March 2024

Book ~ "What You Wish For" (2020) Katherine Center

From Goodreads ~ Samantha Casey is a school librarian who loves her job, the kids and her school family with passion and joy for living. But she wasn’t always that way.

Duncan Carpenter is the new school principal who lives by rules and regulations, guided by the knowledge that bad things can happen. But he wasn’t always that way.

And Sam knows it. Because she knew him before - at another school, in a different life. Back then, she loved him - but she was invisible. To him. To everyone. Even to herself. She escaped to a new school, a new job, a new chance at living. But when Duncan, of all people, gets hired as the new principal there, it feels like the best thing that could possibly happen to the school - and the worst thing that could possibly happen to Sam. Until the opposite turns out to be true. The lovable Duncan she’d known is now a suit-and-tie wearing, rule-enforcing tough guy so hell-bent on protecting the school that he’s willing to destroy it.

As the school community spirals into chaos and danger from all corners looms large, Sam and Duncan must find their way to who they really are, what it means to be brave, and how to take a chance on love - which is the riskiest move of all.

Four years ago Sam was working with Duncan, a fun loving teacher, who she had a crush on but he didn't know she existed. When rumours fly that he is going to propose to someone else, she knows it's time to quit and start her life over. 

She heads to Texas and settles into a cute town. She gets a job as a librarian at a private school and moves into the owners' carriage house and they treat her like family. When the school hires a new principal, Sam is shocked to discover that it's Duncan but even more shocked to discover that he is no longer the goofy teacher ... he is now strict and security conscious and wants to change the way the school operates. Sam, along with the rest of the staff, are determined to fight so they can keep the school as it is.

This was a cute story. I liked the writing style (it's a quick read) and it's written in first person perspective in Sam's voice. A thing that bugged me was there was a lot of nose flaring! And I can't imagine giving up my life and moving across the country to start over because my crush is supposedly getting married. As a head's up, there is a bit of swearing.

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