A WISH AND A PRAYER is book four in the Blessings series by novelist extraordinaire Beverly Jenkins. As with all of the Blessings books, it picks up where the prior book left off. Bernadine, armed with her billionaire checkbook and her crack staff, continues to build up the town of Henry Adams. Jack waits patiently for Rocky to give him a chance while Jack's son Eli hopes for the same with Crystal, who seems to be interested in bag boy Diego July. Preston's relationship with his foster parents, Colonel and Sheila Payne, is up and down, mostly up, but he has a chance to find his biological family.

And of course, before it's all over, somebody's whitewashing Ms. Jefferson's fence.

Jenkins is an amazing storyteller. I love that her books always teach me something. This one had me ready to re-read Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and looking up vintage motorcycles. There's always a history lesson or two as well, even though this is a contemporary read, but the lessons are intertwined so flawlessly, many readers will barely notice.

Henry Adams is depicted with such realism that it fosters dreams of one day visiting such a unique and inviting place. The cast of characters remains as quirky as ever, with no sense that the story ever has to end, kind of like a predominantly black, not quite so innocent and definitely wealthier version of Mayberry RFD.

As it is after having visited that original environs, there's always a sense at the end of the story that everything has been set right, the world is once more as it should be. Because of that, I always come away wondering how long the Blessings series can go on. I know there's at least one more, but I'm hoping for more than that.