Review: Three Wishes by Kristen Ashley (@jessicadhaluska, @KristenAshley68)

Three Wishes by Kristen Ashley
Published by Indie
Published on: April 8 2011
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 409
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased

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When Lily Jacobs was born, she inherited Fazire – a genie. Her family had three wishes and they’d only ever used one so Fazire was stuck in the human world. This worked since he’d become a member of the family anyway.
 
Even with a genie, Lily's young life wasn’t perfect. To escape the kids making her miserable at school, Lily buried herself in romance novels. One day, when the teasing was just too much, she used one of her wishes. She told Fazire she wanted to find a man like in her books and she made the most complicated wish Fazire had ever heard. Her wished-for man had to be impossibly handsome, virile, fierce, rugged and ruthless (amongst a dozen other things).
 
He also had to think she was beautiful and he had to love her more than anything in the world.
 
Nathaniel McAllister wasn’t born to a life where there were such things as genies granting wishes. His life was filled with drugs, crime and neglect. He was running errands for a gangster before he was in his teens and, even though life and hard work led him to wealth and respectability, he always knew, deep down, he was dirty. When Nate met Lily he knew he was no good for her but as virile, fierce, rugged and ruthless as he was, Nate was no match for the pull of sweet, innocent Lily.
 
Unfortunately, Lily’s wish included that she and her hero go through trials and tribulations to test their love. And Fazire wasn’t only a good genie, he loved Lily – so he gave her exactly what she wanted.

Lily Jacobs inherited a genie from her mother, who inherited him from her mother.

If you’re thinking that genies aren’t usually passed along bloodlines, you would be correct.

When Sarah discovered the last gift her husband sent from Europe before he went missing (during WWII) held a genie, she immediately bequeathed her wishes to her infant daughter Rebecca, who didn’t make use of any of them until she was an adult and several years of trying to have a child proved fruitless.

Rebecca and her husband didn’t wish for a beautiful, intelligent girl or a strong, handsome boy. They simply wished for a child to love.

But the genie, Fazire, had come to love these people, his family (even if he had yet to recognize either feeling or attachment—genies are notoriously arrogant creatures), so the child he created for his Becky and her Will was perfect.

He made her bright and funny and very, very talented.
He made her sweet and thoughtful and very, very caring.
He made her generous and kind and very, very loving.
He decided not to make her beautiful, at least not at first, because she should know humility and not grow up with conceit.
Though, she would become a beauty, a splendid beauty beyond compare.
Just . . . later.

Though he meant well, Fazire, being immortal and having a limited understanding of humans, didn’t take into consideration that children are cruel . . . and the combination of Lily’s extreme intelligence (she graduated two years early) and her plainness made for an unhappy childhood in regards to her peers.

She spent her free time devouring romance novels, and after a particularly nasty adolescent encounter, teenaged Lily made a rather rash and specific wish. It was a several paragraphs long wish, but it boils down to this:

“One day, I wish to find a man like in my books . . . We have to go through some trials and tribulations. Something to test our love . . .”

Nathaniel McAllister did not grow up surrounded by a loving family or a well-intentioned genie.

His father could have been one of a multitude of men his mother used for drugs and money, but Nathaniel was a remarkably clever boy and he learned quickly how to survive in dangerous environments.

How to steal so he could eat. How to disappear so he didn’t get caught . . . or worse.

When he was eleven, he stumbled into a job running errands for a local crime boss. A crime boss who took him in and with his wife raised Nathaniel as their own when his mother was killed by one of her boyfriends.

Victor saw potential in Nathaniel, potential that was absent in his own spoiled children, but despite his abrupt change in socioeconomic status, despite the genuine love and affection that developed between himself and his adoptive parents, despite how he excelled at everything he did, and despite Victor’s successful transition into a legitimate businessman (the decision to do so directly related to his desire to create something of substance he could proudly pass on to his protégé), Nate never forgot his ignoble beginnings.

SO. We have the unaffected and unaware of her stunning beauty, etc. Lily, the damaged romantic hero Nate, a naïve girl’s wish for trials and tribulations to strengthen and prove their love, and a genie who takes his work seriously . . .

What could go wrong?

THREE WISHES is one of Kristen Ashley’s few standalone novels, and it’s one of my favorites. Lily’s story will break your heart in typical KA fashion, but it only makes her HEA all the more lovely, and Nathaniel McAllister makes my Top Five KA Alphas list (one of the most difficult lists I’ve ever made—b/c I love ALL THE KA ALPHAS). Highly recommended.

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