When Lily Jacobs was born, she inherited Fazire – a genie. Her family had three wishes and they’d only ever used one so Fazire was stuck in the human world. This worked since he’d become a member of the family anyway.
Even with a genie, Lily's young life wasn’t perfect. To escape the kids making her miserable at school, Lily buried herself in romance novels. One day, when the teasing was just too much, she used one of her wishes. She told Fazire she wanted to find a man like in her books and she made the most complicated wish Fazire had ever heard. Her wished-for man had to be impossibly handsome, virile, fierce, rugged and ruthless (amongst a dozen other things).
He also had to think she was beautiful and he had to love her more than anything in the world.
Nathaniel McAllister wasn’t born to a life where there were such things as genies granting wishes. His life was filled with drugs, crime and neglect. He was running errands for a gangster before he was in his teens and, even though life and hard work led him to wealth and respectability, he always knew, deep down, he was dirty. When Nate met Lily he knew he was no good for her but as virile, fierce, rugged and ruthless as he was, Nate was no match for the pull of sweet, innocent Lily.
Unfortunately, Lily’s wish included that she and her hero go through trials and tribulations to test their love. And Fazire wasn’t only a good genie, he loved Lily – so he gave her exactly what she wanted.
Every time I reread this book, I get a little bit wistful. It's never as good as it was the first time I read it, when I was filled with wonder, but it gets close enough. I swear Kristen Ashley is my absolutest bestest writer evaaah. To think this woman self-published so many of her book just makes me appreciate her more.
I have to start by saying something about the moral issues in this book. I never would have agreed with what the characters did in this book in real life. But this is always the case with Kristen Ashley. Her men are Alpha men, and my feministic views could cause me to be appalled at some of their behaviour in their books. But the point is, they aren't real men. This is fantasy. This is a book, one that I love, and I don't wanna ruin that just because the guys may not have behaved appropriately. For me, the most important thing is that they don't go too far, such as maybe rape or hitting in the books. Since they don't, thank God for that, and they apologise whenever they do something very extreme, I accept it, and actually have grown to love it in the books. But if you can't, maybe Kristen Ashley isn't the writer for you. And that's okay.
But ohmigosh, once you grow to accept Alpha behaviour in books, they can be awesome. Three Wishes is filled with drama, heart-break and of course humor. I could reread this book a thousand times, and never get enough of it. I just, THE FEELINGS. I don't know what it is about Kristen Ashley, but she always makes me love her books, no matter how much I don't want to. Along with her humor, she always gives us some deep stuff to think about. It just amazes me how she does it EVERY. FREAKING. TIME.
“However, at fourteen years old, she didn’t understand that all those terrible troubles the heroines in her books went through in real life hurt.
That the words were just words on a page, but in real life, the pain was immense. Trials and tribulations to prove your love were exactly that, trials and tribulations.”
Three Wishes is a book that can be pretty drawn out. Sure, there were some unnecessary scenes, but to my opinion they only made the book better by giving it and it's characters more background. Seriously though, for me Kristen Ashley's humor alone is good enough a reason for me to read those passsages, nevermind the emotional connection it allowed me to form with Lily and Nathaniel. And ohmigosh Tasha! Wasn't she adorable?!?!
Was Three Wishes the best KA book I've ever read? No, probably not. But it has it's own charms and quirks that I love. I would certainly recommend it to everyone, because at the end of the day it is a KA book, and they are on my auto-recommend list.
Oh, and for those wondering if there ever will be a next book in the Genies series, this is what Kristen Ashley had to say about it on her site:
''Three Wishes has a small but devoted following who I know hanker after another tale of genies in a bottle making wishes come true. Although creating a genie series is not on the schedule right now, I never say never. So if you enjoyed my genie Fazire, don’t despair. He or one of his compatriots might get their story told.''So never fear! There may be a next book in the series. I so, so, so hope it's about Tasha or Jon.
''Every family needs a genie.''
No comments:
Post a Comment