I am impressed with Simple Wishes, by Lisa Dale. Admittedly, I haven't heard her name before doing this review, but I won't hesitate to recommend her. Simple Wishes and Seeds of Affection are her two titles, though I am unsure which came first. Lisa Dale grew up in rural Northwestern New Jersey before attending McDaniel College in Westminster , Maryland . She worked briefly in publishing before going back to school to get an MFA in fiction at Fairleigh Dickinson University . Lisa resides in New Jersey with her boyfriend.
Adele Matin moved to New York years before to escape a lonely childhood and small hometown life. She built a life for herself and appreciated the anonymity the city gave her, until one horrible mistake brought all that contentment crumbling down at her feet. Fleeing to the rural cottage she inherited from her mother in Pennsylvania , Adele determines that the situation is only temporary, and as soon as she is back on stable ground she'll go back and resume her life again. However, her extremely attractive green-eyed artist neighbor, Jay Westvelt, is proving that living in the country has its perks. As Adele begins to soften and dare to hope for a normal life, secrets from her mother's past resurface, making her want to flee once again and get swallowed up by the big city. Can she get over the past to truly move on? And can Jay convince her to stay with him and take the risk to love someone?
It's pretty rare, even for the most gifted of writers, to genuinely and effortlessly invoke powerful emotions in the reader. Lisa Dale throws you into the characters heads and hearts, making you feel their pain, their joy, and their triumph. There wasn't a dead spot in the whole book where I lost interest and, this is saying a lot because I'm a quick reader, I had this done in no time as I couldn't put it down. The setting was superb and I adored the secondary characters greatly. I especially liked the little bit of Korean culture she snuck in there, too, through Beatrice's character. Lisa Dale was very good at dropping bombshells throughout the storyline, as well. I think in this genre, you always root for a happy ending, even when you know it's coming. But this book makes you stand up and shout, growl with frustration, and almost needs an applause at the end.
Simple Wishes, by Lisa Dale, is a well-written, emotionally packed, blissful read and unlike others of its kind.
Kelly Moran,
Author and Reviewer
