A review by phyrre
Twenty Wishes, by Debbie Macomber
3.0
I hadn't read Debbie Macomber before and really didn't have any expectations going in. The beginning was slow. Very slow. A lot of characters were thrown at the reader all at once, and not only was it hard to tell them all apart, but I really didn't care about any of them. The book opens with a meeting of a widows club on Valentine's Day, so I was thinking, great, this is going to be depressing. Thankfully, it wasn't. Instead, the widows agree to make a list of twenty wishes that they want to fulfill, with the whole idea being self-care and moving on with their lives instead of dwelling on the past.
I found the actual idea of the book to be inspiring. The list seemed like such a great idea (I even considered writing one myself, because I'm a sucker for lists), but I felt like the execution of the story fell short. The ending was predictable. There were really no twists or anything unexpected in the plot, what little of it there was. By a quarter of the way in, I already knew the ending, basically. The characters were mostly forgettable. They felt flat to me and uninteresting, and I found that, for the most part, I really didn't care if they finished their lists or not.
Overall, I think this is a decent read if you're looking for something really simple and straightforward, something with a good message and some positive, maybe inspiring vibes. It's definitely got that going. Just don't expect much plot-wise or character-wise.
I found the actual idea of the book to be inspiring. The list seemed like such a great idea (I even considered writing one myself, because I'm a sucker for lists), but I felt like the execution of the story fell short. The ending was predictable. There were really no twists or anything unexpected in the plot, what little of it there was. By a quarter of the way in, I already knew the ending, basically. The characters were mostly forgettable. They felt flat to me and uninteresting, and I found that, for the most part, I really didn't care if they finished their lists or not.
Overall, I think this is a decent read if you're looking for something really simple and straightforward, something with a good message and some positive, maybe inspiring vibes. It's definitely got that going. Just don't expect much plot-wise or character-wise.