Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Book Review: Wished Away by S.P. Cervantes




Title:  Wished Away (A Broken Fairy Tale #2)

Author: S.P. Cervantes

Age: Adult

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release date: August 2014



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Imagine that you were married to the love of your life and had a happy family. Now imagine everything was destroyed in an instant, making you question who you are and how you can possibly go on once the one person you truly love is gone.

It is a rare thing to find your soul mate, but Jess found true love in Dave when they were only teenagers. They’ve built a happy life together in a small shore town, becoming pillars of the community and making everyone around them envious of the seemingly perfect life they have built together. Jess has always been the life of the party, and Dave was always there to reel her in and keep her safe. But one night, while on duty as the town Sherriff, the unimaginable happens, altering the directions of their lives forever.

This is a story about finding love, having it all taken away, and discovering that moving on doesn’t mean forgetting the past.





My Rating:



Favorite Quotes:



“I will forever remember how perfect his lips feel against mine with our last kiss, and keep that memory locked away for the rest of my life.”


“I feel like I’m walking through life skinned alive and my memories are like a gust of wind scraping across my exposed, raw skin.”


“You’re the pulse that keeps my heart beating.  Everything I do is for you.”  


My Review:


An emotional and intriguing tale.  We start off with a couple in love, epic love, having been friends since the age of six.  But we aren’t allowed to be happy with them for long… half of this novel was simply heartbreaking, as our leading man dies all too soon.  I found this novel to be not only moving, but also interesting and unique - in content as well as the structure of how the story unfolds - as it was told from several aspects and in an uncommon way.  We hear from 2 different narrators - one male and one female - and the story slips back and forth in time as they recount their memories - good and bad - from childhood to his death.  Tricky and unique part aspect is that we continue on with our male narrator while he dies, and after… as he continues to remain while he feels the need to watch over his grieving wife and child.  And her anguish is palpable.  My only complaint with this book was that her sorrow turned into wallowing, and her inner dialog was too repetitive. 

We are presented with the interesting musings, as well as the mental and emotional struggle our hero’s entity faces, in deciding he cannot leave his wife while she remains broken.  He is in conflict about moving on to the next phase, although he is unsure what that next phase would be.  He decides he cannot leave while his young widow and small child grieve, although he also senses this to be incorrect and feels a pull to a better place.  I found this such an interesting concept, as well as the notion that the spirit or entity could not retain his focus and was frequently surprised in the large gaps of time that had elapsed while he retreats to his memories.  This fascinated me.  I found this story quite moving, and was brought to tears several times.  Not only by their past and her grief, but in her reawakening. Our heroine is conflicted yet drawn into a new love with a beautiful, kind, and understanding man, who is similarly grief stricken after losing his wife.  Thankfully, there is much humor and levity provided by interactions with her life-long friends, as well as the excitement and discovery of new love.   Although steamy sex is implied and mentioned, the love scenes were more sweet and tender than steamy.  

Empress DJ




About the Author:




S.P Cervantes lives in Orange County, California with her husband and three children, where she is a teacher. She enjoys spending time with her family, writing, reading, and running, but is always thinking of an idea for her next novel.

S.P. Cervantes is the author of the highly rated New Adult Romantic Fantasy series Secrets of Shadow Hill. "Always and Forever" and "The Prophecy" are the first two book in the series that are available now. The third book in the series, "War of Wizards" will be released May 27, 2014.

S.P. Cervantes also has a contemporary romance series, A Broken Fairy Tale, in with the first book of the series, "Dust to Dust (A Broken Fairy Tale)" released March 4, 2014.


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