All my wishes were granted in one book by Sophia Money-coutts
The Wish List
I am a firm believer in lists. I wouldn’t get through the working day without one.
If you can plough on with your daily tasks without having to constantly consult a hierarchy of tasks, I salute you. But for me, if it’s written down, I can’t forget to do something because it’s staring me in the face in black ink.
My mother is also a list lover. Hers on the other hand are to do with achievements and controlling the path of life.
As a kid, she always encouraged us to write down our goals. It has something to do with informing the universe of your plans. And who wouldn’t want the universe on your side?
I’ve done this many times when it comes to career and life goals, and occasionally it works. It feels like a more permanent promise to yourself and it’s this belief that led me to read Sophia Money-Coutts’s latest release, The Wish List.
The story follows Florence Fairfax, a 32-year-old bookloving Londoner.
She’s perfectly happy with her life. She lives with her sisters Mia and Ruby in Kennington, works in a bookshop – which is great because she’s mad about reading – and sleeps soundly with her cat Marmalade by her side.
She’s content with her life but her stepmother Patricia has other ideas. She believes Florence has been single for too long and needs a boyfriend, so she organises for her to visit a love coach named Gwendolyn to help make this happen.
On Gwendolyn’s orders, Florence compiles a list of everything she wants in a boyfriend. He must like cats, have the sexual capabilities of James Bond in the bedroom, be ambitious and understand her ‘counting’ habit.
Days after her boyfriend checklist is down on paper, tall, blond and handsome Rory walks into the bookshop. He’s everything Florence is looking for on paper but what if her focus on the list has clouded over a potential love interest right under her nose?
Sophia Money-Coutts is the kind of writer I’d like to be. She’s quick-witted, razor sharp and beyond entertaining. Reading her work is so enjoyable.
I adored all of her characters in The Wish List. They leapt off the page and performed their parts so well in my living room as I flicked through page after page.
Florence is someone a lot of us can identify with. She’s settled in her life but has those little insecurities and habits that can occasionally tick a day the wrong way if she lets it. I’ve had moments like that too.
Florence’s sisters are a hoot too. Ruby especially is a work of hilarious literary art. If I were to meet all three sisters, I’d love to enjoy a bottle of wine, or three, with the trio. And let’s not shy away from the male characters. Rory, the blond who enters the bookshop to sweep Florence off her feet, is written so vividly, I can imagine him smugly roaming the streets of London in head-to-toe tweed. And Zach from the bookshop? I think I have a bit of a crush on him myself.
A great read for romance fans, The Wish List grants all your reading wishes like a fairy godmother.