REVIEW: Wished by Sarah Ready

In Wished by Sarah Ready, As a housekeeper in the wealthier part of Geneva, Switzerland, Anna Benoit has seen some beautiful homes. But Max Barone’s huge family chateau is leaps and bounds above the rest. As is Max himself. She might not have carried on a conversation with him yet, but Anna knows her attraction to him, and the many things it seems they have in common have to mean something. After a mix up with a family heirloom and a hasty wish made with good intentions, she wakes up the next day only to find herself in Max’s ginormous bed and supposedly married to him. There’s some confusion on both their parts as they sort out fact from fantasy. But one thing neither Anna nor Max can deny is that there’s something drawing them together, over and over.

“Look,” I say, “this can’t be a dream. People don’t share dreams.” I step forward and pinch his arm. Hard.
“Ouch!” He yanks his arm away from me.
“Exactly,” I say. “This being a dream is as likely as time travel or switching bodies. Those things don’t happen.”

Max isn’t sure what happened between one day and the next but he’s certain Anna had a hand in it all. Not that that’s a bad thing. Because Max can’t remember the last time he was so happy–or when the thought of caring about someone passionately didn’t cause him to want to run far and fast. But Anna makes everything seem brighter. Given that they’re not sure exactly what’s going on after her wish, Max is trying to keep a clear mind and roll with whatever is thrown their way. Anna’s conscience, though, about wanting them to be married and it happening without Max’s approval first, weighs on her. They’ll soon be at a crossroads. And they’ll have to choose whether to keep going on this path they now walk together, or if they should part ways and see if fate brings them back together in the future.

“I know my own mind. I know what’s real and what isn’t. This is real.” He holds my gaze for a long moment. “This is real.”

Wishes turned out to be tricky things in Sarah Ready’s newest magical realism romance, WISHED, where a housekeeper and her rich boss have their lives upended with unexpected love and passion.

‘There are infinite choices in love.’

CW: View Spoiler »alcoholism, domestic abuse, child neglect (all historical). « Hide Spoiler

I have had so much fun reading each book in Sarah Ready’s Ghosted series. They are imaginative, layered with complex emotions and situations, and each story has been uniquely its own. WISHED was a spicy yet sweet boss/employee romance that played around with the idea of free will, doing what’s right, opposites attract, and if fiery attraction can turn into true lasting love. But the goodness didn’t stop there. The multiple settings Anna and Max explored–Geneva, Paris, and Saint Tropez–were like additional characters in the book, creating even more depth in an already lovely story.

Without giving away the source of magic realism in this particular romance (I can say it has to do with Barone family history), housekeeper Anna and jeweler extraordinaire Max woke up the day after Anna wished to be married to Max, well, married. There were varying degrees to what each of them remembered from their “real” life before the wish. So, of course it made for some awkward moments. But overall, it was them sorting out what was true, what was sort of forced upon them, and whether Max and Anna were really feeling that undeniable connection or if it was part of her wish.

WISHED can be read as a standalone, but I think where Max was a fairly big part of the previous book, Fated, it would be a better reading experience to start with that one first. Otherwise, there wasn’t really a huge cast here. It was mainly Anna, Max, her family and one of her neighbors (Dorene was awesome!), and a couple of Max’s employees. That made this a rather intimate book where we could dig deep into their relationship and swoon over how romantic and fun the give and take was between Anna and Max.

QOTD: If you could have one wish granted, what would it be?

Book Info:

Publication: Published: October 1st, 2024 | Swift & Lewis Publishing LLC | Ghosted #4

When Anna Benoit wishes she’s married to the enigmatic owner of the chateau she cleans, she wakes up in a topsy-turvy world where she’s Max Barone’s wife.

Anna is a romantic who believes in The One and Love at First Sight. Why? Because it happened to her. The second she saw Max Barone she fell desperately, hopelessly in love.

It didn’t matter that they were from completely different worlds—he owned a jewelry empire, she cleaned houses—love had no barriers.

Except one.

Max didn’t know Anna’s name, much less that she existed.

Then one day Anna made a wish. Suddenly she was in an upside down world where everyone believed she and Max had been happily married for years. It was passion. It was romance. It was love. It was everything she’d ever wished for.

Wasn’t it?