Review: "What You Wish For" by Kerry Reichs

Dimple is an actress in Hollywood who is "living the dream". With a recurring role on a hospital drama and a steady paycheck she has everything that a woman could want- except for a baby. With no man to make one with and the distinct possibility that there will be no more work for her if she has a baby, Dimple must decide how badly she wants to become a mother. Wyatt is a high school principal and he wants nothing more than a baby to call his own. Despite the fact that he has not met the love of his life he is determined to become a father and is in the process of adopting a child but little does he realize that his road to parenthood will be considerably rocky. Maryn's body is able to carry a baby to term but her ovaries and eggs are no longer in working order since the chemotherapy to conquer her breast cancer has taken over her body. She and her ex-husband froze embryos prior to her becoming sick but since she and Andy are split up, will she have the legal right to use them? Andy does whatever his new wife tells him to do, but when his ex-wife comes to him and asks permission to carry his child to term which one of the women in his life will he make happy and which one will he disappoint? Eva is watching her beloved cousin Wyatt as he desperately tries to adopt a child and hits obstacle after obstacle and she feels guilty. She is physically able to carry a baby to term, but has no desire for children. Does this make her less of a woman?

What You Wish For was a welcome surprise! I was expecting something entirely different, but what I got was an intelligent and well-written fictional book that truly made me stop and think. When reading the "P.S." section at the back of the book I discovered that author Kerry Reichs is a single mother by choice and that this book was inspired, in part, by her personal realizations that families come in so many different varieties today. Gone are the days when families only consisted of a mom, a dad, and 2 children and instead families are now also headed by single parents, single parents by choice, and two parents of the same sex. Reichs really spent some time exploring the different ways that people become parents in What You Wish For and I appreciated her unique perspective.

I had a hard time putting this one down. I was fascinated by each character's different perspective and what they, as an individual, brought to the story. The story is told from five different character's points of view, yet I never found the book confusing. The topic of the book was both timely and interesting and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend What You Wish For to anyone looking for fresh and thought-provoking women's fiction. My thanks to HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a review copy of this book.