Book Review: As You Wish by Jackson Pearce

So, if you had three wishes to make, what would you wish for. Ixnay on wishing for more wishes, though. That is against the rules. If you could wish for anything else, what would it be? Fame? Fortune? Beauty? A fabulous career? Undying love? Youth? World peace?

That's a tough one. Would you be able to make an altruistic wish for the betterment of mankind? Or would you make selfish wishes? Would you ever consider how your wishes could impact others around you or people you don't know? Would you care?

The business of wish making and wish granting is not an easy job. What if you were the wish granter, but your wish maker refused to make any wishes and you couldn't move on until those three little wishes were granted?

That is the position Jinn, a jinn as it were, finds himself in in As You Wish by Jackson Pearce.

Book Description (from Amazon):
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Ever since Viola's boyfriend broke up with her, she has spent her days silently wishing—to have someone love her again and, more importantly, to belong again—until one day she inadvertently summons a young genie out of his world and into her own. He will remain until she makes three wishes.

Jinn is anxious to return home, but Viola is terrified of wishing, afraid she will not wish for the right thing, the thing that will make her truly happy. As the two spend time together, the lines between master and servant begin to blur, and soon Jinn can't deny that he's falling for Viola. But it's only after Viola makes her first wish that she realizes she's in love with Jinn as well . . . and that if she wishes twice more, he will disappear from her life—and her world—forever.

Jackson Pearce spins a magical tale about star-crossed lovers, what it means to belong . . . and how important it is to be careful what you wish for.

My Review:
Viola is having a hard time dealing with her recent, okay, it's been months, break-up. She was dating her best friend who announced to her one day that he was gay. She was devastated and has not been able to recover. Not only did she lose a boyfriend, she lost that sense of belonging to something greater than herself. She used to be half of a whole, but now she just feels empty and invisible. She is still best friends with Lawrence despite the fact that he broke up with her, but she can't really get over it. She is still in love with him and just wants to belong again.

Her desire to belong is so strong that she unwittingly summons a jinn who tells her that she has three wishes. Once she makes her three wishes, he will go back to Caliban, his home. In the mortal world, he ages, but back in Caliban, time freezes. So, he really wants to go back. The only problem is that Viola is not cooperating. She refuses to make any wishes. That leaves Jinn, as Viola has named him, stuck.

Oh, Vi, Vi, Vi! I wanted to slap her, tell her to wake up and stop wallowing in her own self pity. She was taking absolutely no responsibility for her own life or happiness. While people around her were telling her she could fit in again if she just made an effort, she refused to believe that she had the power to change her life herself and didn't need anyone else. To coin a phrase, she is her own problem and her own solution.

Jinn is a jinn. He is a wish granter. He must grant three wishes his master makes. While waiting to carry out the three wishes, he must obey any direct command of his master's. He must not address his master by any other name. He cannot let anyone else but his master see him. He cannot talk about his race or Caliban. He cannot build any kind of relationships with any humans. He is on earth to do a job, the granting of three wishes. Once those wishes are granted, he goes back to Caliban and the wish maker forgets that he ever existed.

So, when Viola names him Jinn, demands that he call her by her name and starts asking questions about him and Caliban, Jinn finds himself in a very sticky situation. There are three protocols that protect his kind and his home world. And he's just broken all three. He finds that while at first he was pushing Viola to make her wishes, he now wants her to take her time and be careful what she wishes for. He's willing to pay the consequences for breaking the three protocols as long as Viola is happy, but when her first wish results in her dating the most popular boy in school, Jinn finds that what is making Viola happy for the moment is far from making him happy. As a matter of fact, it makes him a little green.

So what did Viola wish for and did she find her sense of belonging? You'll just need to pick up the book to find out.