Review: What You Wished For – Sherry Perkins

Title: What You Wished For
Series: The Will-o'-the-Wisp Stories Book 2
Author: Sherry Perkins
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Mystery
Release Date: December 20, 2018
Pages: 305

Reviewed by: Toni

Member of the PRG Review Team

Strange circumstances brought Morgan Patterson from the sandy beaches of the US East Coast to rocky Northern Ireland. Some called those circumstances destiny. Morgan called it something else. For her, it was just a college senior year abroad. Until, that is, her studies were interrupted when she met the man of her dreams. A man who took her by the hand, leading her into a world where promises were binding things, where nothing was as it seemed, and where wishing for something could get you more than you bargained for — including killed. But it was also a world of enduring love, hidden treasures, and the chance to right the wrongs of long ago. What Morgan called it was her kingdom. A kingdom she was willing to die to protect.

This is a very confusing story, mainly because there’s no reiteration from the first novel to set up the storyline. At first, I thought this was merely my own viewpoint because it’s been so long since I read Book 1, but in attempting to look at it from a new reader’s standpoint, I believe the same is true.

This is what I managed to figure out:

1. Almost everyone except Morgan is fae. Faeries are not to be trusted no matter what they say.
2. Everyone has a secret agenda; they all hate each other, want something from each other, and have with anyone whether they like them or not.
3. Though she’s handfasted to Tiernan and loves him, Morgan leaves him to live with Connor whom she hates. Connor swears undying love and that he’ll protect her while at the same time telling her eventually he’s going to kill both her and Tiernan. Tiernan also swears he’ll kill Connor.
4. Morgan, Em, and Withy are all pregnant by Connor, though Em and Withy, being faeries, claim their babies are Tiernan’s (though it’s known he’s sterile), in an effort to steal his bloodline and his family’s treasure which Morgan already has half of.
5. There’s a lot of talk about debts owed people but never a clear explanation of why, after all this blood, sweat, and tears, those debts are not paid.
6. There’s a great deal of gratuitous use of sexual vulgarisms. These people say them as easily as they breathe.
7. There’s extremely bloody violence. One man is beaten to death while Morgan watches, a secondary character is nearly killed the same way. A good bit of violence is aimed at Morgan herself though she’s six months pregnant. In fact, at the beginning of the book, she recovering from a fight she instigated with Connor in which she didn’t come away in good condition.
8. Action is confined to specific places in the book; most of the time the characters simply stand around talking and saying the same things over and over in different ways.

Not to be a complete downer, the book has a great many good qualities, however. Four stars-worth , because: Ms. Perkins writes in a lyrical, enjoyable style. The novel is well-written with good grammar and descriptive phrases. The research on the area and the fae is well done. The characters are intriguing.

As in my review of Book 1 in the series, At the End of the Rainbow, I’m still ambivalent about the storyline. While some of my previous complaints have been tended to, the main problem now seems to be that the plot isn’t furthered and no situation is resolved. It’s simply more of the same. The ending is the most horrifying display of violence imaginable, making me wonder how this story will end.

At least Ms. Perkins didn’t write her novel in that all-irritating First Person Present tense. Thank you for that, Sherry. I appreciate it.