Wish by Alexandra Bullen

Title/Author: Wish by Alexandra Bullen
Publisher/Date published: January 1st 2010 by Point
How I got this book: got it for free from the Sony reader store
Why I read this book: I love the idea of wishing on a beautiful dress

First of all: HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope you all had a lovely time with family/friends/loved ones.

Olivia Larsen is heartbroken after losing her twinsister Violet last summer. Her parents decide it would be best to up and leave in the middle of the schoolyear and move to San Francisco, where her mother was from originally, to live in her late aunt's house. Which is pretty much falling apart.
Olivia feels her parents' absence, both physically and emotionally. At school, she doesn't really try to make friends, in the past she always had Violet to help her with that and without her she just feels lost.
One day she stumbles upon a sewing shop, dropping off a dress to be mended for a party, only to receive another beautiful dress back for it. Feeling particularly alone on the ride back from the party, she wishes for her sister back.. and is shocked to discover her actually inside her bedroom the next morning.

Going back to the dressmaker's, they discover Olivia has two more dresses and thus two more wishes waiting for her. With Violet by her side as her personal coach, Olivia makes an effort to fit in at her new school and start to enjoy herself, making new friends and crushing on a drumming, skateboarding guy in her class.
But magic can't fix everything, with her messed up familylife, keeping secrets from everyone and generally trying not to appear crazy while talkig to a ghost, how will Olivia keep this up?

I really loved this book! Right at the beginning it had me laughing out loud at some of Olivia's thoughts at a party watching a band:

"He stood on the tips of his sneakers for one last earsplitting wail, before dropping dramatically to his knees and bowing toward the back of the stage, in a gesture that said either (A) I'm praying to Mecca; please don't interrupt, or (B) It's time for a drum solo. I'm spent."

Too funny!

Anyway, I thought this would just be a candy read, and while I love those, this book was way better than I expected. Olivia is a realistic 16-year-old, who doesn't know how to handle her twinsister being gone and isn't a natural social butterfly. She's angry at her parents for not being around and I cried when they finally did have a family moment together, it was beautiful.

The guy Olivia has a crush on, Soren, is swoonworthy. He drums and he's a skateboarder and all around sensitive guy with adorable green eyes.. Brings me right back to the time I used to have crushes on guys like that. I even tried skateboarding myself for a while, before I realised I would never manage anything else than going straight forward with it.

All in all, this was a lovely read, if you like YA and a bit of a fairytale mixed in, GO READ IT!
My rating: 5 stars

What would you wish for if you could have anything (excepting world peace and such, you can't wish for that on a dress according to the rules)?