Jane Costello – The Wish List

I had this book sitting on my shelf for quite a while because I didn’t have time to read it right away, but I always had the feeling that I would love it – it was my safe bet for times I would need a light and fluffy read. And now I’m more than happy to be able to say that I did indeed love it!

Emma is soon turning 30 – the new era in her life, the big 3 in sight. When she finds the list she once wrote with her friends when they were teenagers, Emma realizes with dismay that she hasn’t achieved half of the stuff she had always dreamt of achieving, and neither did she dare to do anything out of the usual. With only six months left of her twenties, Emma decides to take matters into her hands now – to finally check off one or another point left on her list. After all, how hard can it be to fulfill her childhood dreams..?

I honestly love this book so much! Thinking about it a while after reading it – without the feelings of the immediate high still working in me – I have to say that there is one tiny issue I had with the story itself; however, the positive points outweigh so much that I still rate it five stars!

Something that struck me as unusual was that the chapters are very short – some of them only as short as two pages, most of them around four or five. At first I didn’t know if I would like it or not, but I ended up loving it! Even with no time on hand you can still grab the book for a few minutes and read a few chapters!

As for the story itself, I really liked that Emma has an overseeable friend group. Sometimes, especially in ‘chick-lit’, I find it really hard to keep all the relevant characters apart, especially because they are not always very distinguishable… With Emma, her friends Cally and Asha, and her sister Marianne, this was fairly easy, not just because they are ‘only’ two friends and a sister, but also because the three of them have their own stories, too – however, the focus is on Emma of course. Cally seems to represent the exhausted but loving single-mum-type; Asha has an affair with a married man which is quite often the focus when the friends meet, and Emma’s sister Marianne is a professional model. Actually, Asha’s relationship is the issue I had with this book. I didn’t like her having an affair with a married man, even though Emma and Cally always try to make her leave him…

Despite this, I loved the premise of the book. I love it when characters are finding lists they wrote a long time ago and then try to accomplish whatever is left on them – this usually makes for a good story, and this is also the case with Jane Costello’s The Wish List. I also loved the writing style in this one. It was my first book from Costello and I’m fairly sure it won’t be my last. The writing style reminded me a lot of Sophie Kinsella (whom I love), but it wasn’t like the two of them were copying each other – Jane Costello’s style is unique, but just as funny! Therefore, I would agree with what Cosmopolitan says on the cover: If you like Sophie Kinsella, I’m fairly sure you’ll also like Jane Costello! There’s a lot of exaggeration, many misunderstandings, and quite a few hilarious encounters which make for the funniest read! To top this off, you also get a great romance, so what’s not to love? If you need a good laugh, you certainly won’t be disappointed with The Wish List!