YVONNE’S SHORTIES #295 – What You Wish For // The Song Of David

Time for another round of Yvonne’s Shorties! This time around two romance reads; one that failed to hit the mark completely and one that ended up being a new all time favorite.

Title: What You Wish For
Author: Katherine Center
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
First published: July 14th 2020
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Finished reading: May 8th 2022
Pages: 320

“I know all about darkness. That’s why I am so hell-bent, every damn day, on looking for the light.”

I’ve been meaning to read What You Wish For ever since it was published back in 2020… I enjoyed her previous two titles, so I had high hopes this was going to be yet another winner for me. And while there were things that I did love, as a whole this story wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be and I ended up having mixed feelings instead. A lot of this probably has to do with the main character Sam. She came over as immature, self-centered and a bit over dramatic; the whole ‘something is wrong with me and I can never love again’ was very frustrating and then I’m not even talking about the pathetic obsession for Duncan and the repetitive nature of her statements (Duncan wasn’t like this before? Really? We got the message the first time around, no need to repeat it a kazilion times afterwards!) I also wasn’t too sure how credible the whole situation with the new principal sweeping in and making such drastic changes would be… I mean, wouldn’t the parents protest as well? I didn’t really feel the romance either; it seemed rather forced and I can’t say that I was rooting for them to be honest. I also felt that PTSD and epilepsy, once introduced, didn’t really get the attention it deserved. Things that did work for me: the library, the dog, the little boy Clay, the island setting. All in all it wasn’t a bad read and I might just not have been in the right mood for this one, but the fact remains that this is my least favorite Katherine Center book so far.

Title: The Song Of David
(The Law Of Moses #2)
Author: Amy Harmon
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
First published: June 13th 2015
Finished reading: May 14th 2022
Pages: 260

“Millie told me once that the ability to devastate is what makes a song beautiful. Maybe that’s what makes life beautiful too. The ability to devastate. Maybe that’s how we know we’ve lived. How we know we’ve truly loved.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I consider Amy Harmon to be one of my absolute favorite authors and I’ve loved every single book I’ve tried so far. The Song Of David is one of my final pending backlist titles and already book number sixteen by this author; in a way I’m sad to be running out of new stories to read while I wait for her newest publication, but after loving the first book there was no way I was going to wait long before meeting up with the characters again. And I’m glad I didn’t, because I loved The Song Of David even more than the first book! The story is told switching between Moses’ POV and tapes where we hear David ‘Tag’ telling his side of the story. This might seem strange for a book focusing on Tag, but it works and it was fantastic to be meeting up with Moses again. I loved the idea of the tapes and learning about how Tag and Millie first met and how their connection blossomed… And I also appreciated how this story shined a light on different topics including blindness, autism, mental health and cancer; The Song Of David is a love story most of all, but it gives you so much more than that as well. The characters will win you over almost instantly, and your heart will go out for them as the story evolves. Do they make mistakes, take stupid decisions and do other things that might make you feel frustrated? Yes. BUT. Life isn’t perfect, and this story shows life as it is, flaws and all. The Song Of David might just have earned its place in my top five favorite Amy Harmon books, although it’s hard to choose favorites between so many fantastic stories. Can you guess already that I can highly recommend both The Law Of Moses books?!