As You Wish – Jackson Pearce

“All I’ve learnt in today’s Shakespeare class is: Sometimes you have to fall in love with the wrong person just so you can find the right person. A more useful lesson would’ve been: Sometimes the right person doesn’t love you back. Or sometimes the right person is gay.”

Viola feels invisible. Ever since her childhood friend and young sweetheart broke up with her and came out of the closet she has felt broken, not belonging and invisible. She wishes that she could belong, could be seen, and then a jinn turns up. The jinn will grant her three wishes and he has his own feelings to consider, the longer she takes wishing the longer the Jinn is contained on earth and Jinn’s don’t like earth, not at all.

When Viola spends days thinking about what to wish for, she and Jinn encounter experiences they didn’t believe were possible. When her first wish is granted they both realise that sometimes one wish is more than you need, even when you think you could do with all the wishes in the world.

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Awww... As You Wish was a true romance and just what I needed to curl up with on the sofa on a Friday night! It was amusing, well written and sometimes just damn “awww” in places.

I enjoyed reading this story it was very cute and the plot flowed really well. I did think it was a bit clichéd in places and the ending was a bit obvious but it was a true love story and the ending of those quite often are! I knew from the start what was going to happen but because there were a few twists and turns and strange outcomes along the way it didn’t disappoint.

The characters were interesting... though I didn’t engage too much with Viola; I actually engaged more with Jinn and Lawrence and sometimes found Viola’s character a little annoying. I guess she could get away with a lot of it though as she had not long since been rejected by her best friend and long term boyfriend as he was gay... that has to be a slap in the face! But she was going about getting over it the complete wrong way. I don’t think it was even the getting over it that she was upset about and I think she had to become happy with herself before she felt normal. I’ve been in that situation so I can kinda forgive her but sometimes she did seem a little selfish! I was glad that she did actually get to that happy place and it didn’t really involve a boy... not too much anyway! I don’t want to spoil it for you!  

I think this book prides itself in having very good secondary characters. Lawrence was awesome and I loved him so much! It was so sweet that he wanted Viola to be happy and he actually put her happiness before his! He was amazing and if I could have a gay best friend it would totally be him!

As well as Lawrence there was Ollie, although you don’t actually see much of her in the book I really liked the way she was present and the role that her character played, especially towards the end of the book. I loved her character so much and I was really pleased about the out comings of her little storyline.

If you want a cute, happy, quick read to fill your time then I really recommend As You Wish. It’s a great debut of a fantastic author but I think I ruined it by reading it after Jackson Pearce’s second book, Sisters Red. I really think As You Wish would be a great book for younger readers and would happily recommend to younger teens in the YA age range.

As You Wish was Jackson Pearce’s first YA book. It was published in the UK by HarperCollins in September 2010. My copy was acquired from my local library.

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