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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.
I’ve never been as annoyed by any of Katherine Center’s characters as I was by Sam and Duncan. I guessed early on what was going on with Duncan, so his coldness made sense (even if it made me want to punch him). What didn’t make sense was Sam’s continued infatuation with him, even though he was everything she despised.
I seriously thought I’d give this book three stars, until I realized how invested I was in the characters and that I couldn’t put the book down (even though I wanted to throw the book a couple of times). If two annoying characters could keep me that engaged, then change my mind about them in the end, the book deserved no less than five stars.
As with Things You Save in a Fire, What You Wish For deals with some dark topics and traumatic situations. But also like TYSIAF (and most of Center’s other books), the characters don’t stay in their trauma–they how to heal, not forgetting the trauma but not letting it define them.
Thought provoking. Romantic. Heartbreaking. Swoony. Everything I love about Katherine Center’s books.
Rated PG-13 for some swearing and hard topics/situations.
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