Be Careful What You Wish For!

Don't You Wish
By Roxanne St Claire

Rating: 5


“Yes you are pretty, and when you pictured perfect, you came damn close...but the part of you I like the most is inside.” 


Annie Nutter is a typical teen facing everyday problems.

Your stereotypical jerks and jerkinas, the impossibly nutty family, average looks - Annie's dealt with it all. 

But she can't help wishing her life were different. A different school, different friends, different family... different Annie. Maybe then her life would be perfect. 

But, as the cliched line goes: "Be careful what you wish for!" 

When she gets transported to a parallel universe, Annie (now Ayla) at first thinks it's all a dream - life is too good to be true as an heiress to a fortune, with a hot boyfriend, Queen Bee status and everything money can buy. 

But when she doesn't wake up and reality hits in, Annie's in for the ride of a lifetime!

Annie struggles with the 'impersonal' and 'Queen Bee' persona that she is meant to have, daring to be different in a crowd where simply wearing jeans is a big no-no. She befriends the cute nerd Charlie, who manages to see her - Annie - as more than a combination of wishful thinking and the 'blessed gene pool selection'. Rather, as a person with a unique soul. 

Will Annie ever get back? 
Will her life ever be perfect?

And are Annie and Ayla so different after all?

My thoughts on the book:

As Annie theorised to her mother before the twist in fate occurred: "Does your soul stay the same?" 

This book delves deep into what makes a person. How everyone has a unique human value simply because they are human and how sometimes, we don't need to switch universes to have something truly perfect. 

I loved this book. I could read it again 100 million times and it will never be enough! 
This book really made me ask myself that question: If faeries appeared in your garden/you had a Freaky Friday incident/you switched universes...would the people closest to you believe you? 

That made me get up and start organising "If that ever happened" questions with my parents, who deemed me "sleep-deprived and over-dramatic" and refused to consider this scenario. 

Well. Now I know how screwed I would be if I were in Annie's position, right?! 

I recommended this to any girl - and any guy for that matter - who likes those stories that feel real, connect with you and leave you wishing that the acknowledgements page (which I screamed in frustration at!) didn't appear so soon! 

I don't normally squeal this much at 9:23pm, but I am having a little happy dance inside, having read and thoroughly enjoyed a book such as this.

A big thanks to Netgalley and Random House Children's Books for giving me the chance to read it and to Roxanne for such a beautiful book.