RETRO REVIEW: Just One Wish

From Goodreads:
"Seventeen-year-old Annika Truman knows about the power of positive thinking. With a little brother who has cancer, it's all she ever hears about. And in order to help Jeremy, she will go to the ends of the earth (or at least as far as Hollywood) to help him believe he can survive his upcoming surgery.

But Annika's plan to convince Jeremy that a magic genie will grant him any wish throws her a curveball when he unexpectedly wishes that his television idol would visit him. Annika suddenly finds herself in the desperate predicament of getting access to a hunky star actor and convincing him to come home with her. Piece of cake, right?

Janette Rallison's proven talent for laugh-out-loud humor, teen romance, and deep-hearted storytelling shines in a novel that will have readers laughing and crying at the same time."

~~~~~

I was at my tiny local library the other day. They don't have any of the books on my to-read shelf, so I decided to randomly select something from the YA section. Janette Rallison's name tickled my brain--I'd recently read Son of War, Daughter of Chaos, which I really enjoyed--but it had been a long time since I'd read any of her other works. I picked up Just One Wish and My Unfair Godmother and read the latter just before starting this blog. (It was delightful, by the way, and I highly recommend it.)

According to Goodreads, I have read Just One Wish--six years ago! I seemed pretty impressed with it, but only gave it three stars. On this re-read, though, I had to give it another star. Madcap it may be, but the depth of the message adds a thoughtful quality to the story, something I don't think I caught the first time around. Or maybe I've matured as a reader. We'll go with a little of both.

Annika's determination to help her little brother with his pre-surgery positive thinking is admirable and believable, but what I love most of all is her confidence. She knows herself, she reads people well, and she uses her skills to her advantage, especially when her poorly thought out plans look like they're about to fail her. She doesn't always know what to do, or how to respond to a situation--she *is* a teenager, after all--but she doesn't stop trying. She never gives up. I will always admire that in a character.

This story made me laugh a lot--and the ending made me tear up just a little bit. But it was so well done that I couldn't be mad. There's no emotional manipulation here--just sincere belief and storytelling. I love it.

Gentle Reader Alert: I found nothing of concern.