PREMIUM

PRIZE OF THE WEEK

By Daneka Hill

Sep 30, 2021

The Wish

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

The first line reads: “Whenever December rolled around, Manhattan transformed itself into a city that Maggie didn’t always recognise.”

Without a doubt Nicholas Sparks writes to make money and appease his fans. The man has a formula and boy can you see it in his latest book. The formula is so obvious I skim read about 80 per cent of The Wish because I knew exactly what the plot beats were going to be.

The Wish is set in December 2019, smack bang in what I’m dubbing ‘the last normal Christmas’.

We follow a New York travel photographer unaware her industry and lifestyle is about to implode. But don’t worry. She’s got cancer and is going to die in a matter of months anyway. Nic really knocked it out of the park with this one.

Unfortunately Nic doesn’t take a creative risk and use the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City as a plot point. This would go against the timeless formula.

If you’ve read other Nicholas Sparks books or watched the movies — mainly Dear John and The Notebook — you’ll know what to expect here. Sad romance, bittersweet endings, drawn out descriptions of ferry rides, and couples who can’t communicate on a healthy level for the life of themselves.

The Wish switches between Maggie’s 2019 Christmas present and her 1995-96 Christmas past. We learn she had a kid when she was 16 and gave it away (the identify of the kid is BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS).

While bundled away to a rural seaside village to have her child in secret, Maggie meets the one true love of her life. We relive this story over the course of her last ever Christmas.

My favourite part of the book without a doubt was the two ex-nuns who run a fish ‘n’ chip shop/post office/general store/engine oil outlet in the village.

A good book if you’re spending less than $5 on it and love reading pages and pages of nothing building up to a pretty average, sad romance.

The Wish by Nicholas Sparks is published by Hachette Australia, RRP $32.99.

HOW TO ENTER

For a chance to win this book, send your name, address, daytime phone number and the answer to this question: What’s the name of the dog in this week’s Man’s Best Friend? to: Country Life ‘The Wish’ Competition, PO Box 8000, Shepparton, 3632 by Wednesday, October 20.