I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan of magical realism -
the genre of fiction where the world is completely like
ours, but with small twists to magic. THE SECRET INGREDIENT
OF WISHES by Susan Bishop Crispell, however,
worked for me. The charming way the characters interacted
with each other won me over. A few things were a little
too convenient, but overall, a delightful read that would
serve well as a companion on a rainy day with a big mug
of hot chocolate.
Rachel, our heroine, has the power to grant wishes, but
not like a genie, and not in a way she can always
control. And there have been lots of consequences to her
"gift", as people wish for things all the time that have
negative effects on their lives. Like someone saying "I
wish my mom wasn't my mom" in a fit of anger; being in
Rachel's presence is a big risk. At the beginning of our
story, she's run out of gas while fleeing a particular
mess and finds herself with the tantalizing ability of
having a fresh start. Until she realizes her gift doesn't
have an off-switch.
I'm honestly going to ignore the things that didn't work
for me, because I have a feeling they're genre specific
and I'm not super familiar with magical realism's rules.
So let me tell you what did work. The relationships
between the hero and heroine, the way the town reacted to
the magic, the nuances of different ideas about hope.
These all worked. I also really appreciated the way the
novel dealt with ideas of family and the pain that family
sometimes inflicts on others. There's sticky situations
in this book, lies and assumptions that for too long have
gone unaddressed. The unravelling of those takes time and
pain.
If you're in the mood for a story of someone finding
herself, coming to grips with who she is, dealing with
the past, and choosing to live a life not powered by
fear, I'd recommend THE SECRET INGREDIENT OF WISHES by
Susan Bishop Crispell.
26-year-old Rachel Monroe has spent her whole life trying
to keep a very unusual secret: she can make wishes come
true. And sometimes the consequences are disastrous. So
when Rachel accidentally grants an outlandish wish for
the first time in years, she decides it’s time to leave
her hometown—and her past—behind for good.
Rachel isn’t on the road long before she runs out of gas
in a town that’s not on her map: Nowhere, North Carolina—
also known as the town of “Lost and Found.” In Nowhere,
Rachel is taken in by a spit-fire old woman, Catch, who
possesses a strange gift of her own: she can bind secrets
by baking them into pies. Rachel also meets Catch’s
neighbor, Ashe, a Southern gentleman with a complicated
past, who makes her want to believe in happily-ever-after
for the first time in her life.
As she settles into the small town, Rachel hopes her own
secrets will stay hidden, but wishes start piling up
everywhere Rachel goes. When the consequences threaten to
ruin everything she’s begun to build in Nowhere, Rachel
must come to terms with who she is and what she can do,
or risk losing the people she’s starting to love—and her
chance at happiness—all over again.
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