January Book Club....Wishful Thinking by Melissa H

[claire]

The first book of the year will be on Tuesday 24th of Jan and we are kicking off with Melissa Hills Wishful Thinking.
Looking forward to seeing you all next week.

[megan]

Thanks for the reminder Claire. I am looking forward to it!

[Shirley]

I am having huge hassle at home with my broadband. The connection hasn't been working properly all week. I managed to log in to this site on Sat, but then the connection fell over and I had to stay logged in because I couldn't get back in to log out! I'm going to ring Customer Care tonight and see if they can sort it, but if they can't, I might not be able to get access to this site for the bookclub tomorrow night!! Soooooo annoyed.

[megan]

Oh I hope you can make it Shirley!

[Shirley]

I'm online now (I know I'm very early, just testing the water) and I'm praying the connection stays up until about 9!

[claire]

well while you're on you can get started. What did you think of the book

[Oonagh]

Hello Girls , missed ye all told ye i would be here!!! the book was good1 Very like destinations by Sheila O Flanagan. Not as good as something you should think!!! She has plenty of mor4e good books i n her.

[Shirley]

I'm a huge fan of Melissa Hill's writing, and I was really looking forward to this book. However, I don't feel like it lived up to expectations (and I absolutely hate to say that). Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoyed it - but I didn't think it was up to the standard of her previous three books. The problem in my eyes was that she'd raised the bar so high in the past that it was going to be very hard to better what she'd already produced. The twists in her previous books were amazing, and I was expecting more of the same in this book. It was quite disappointing when there wasn't a huge twist in it. That's not to say that Melissa should be pigeonholed into always writing books with twists, because obviously she has the right to write whatever kind of book she wants to!
I just felt this book was a little rushed and resorted to stereotypes in a way that she previously hadn't done. David was just too typically a bad guy for my liking. When we discovered why he'd been acting so badly towards Rosie at the end of the book, I wasn't convinced at all by it.
Her three previous books were memorable and different, but I think the lack of a unique selling point in this book will make it blend in with a lot of others in my mind.

[claire]

Ok Shirley seems to have lost her connection at home this evening, she won't be too happy about that. I know it's a little early but shall we kick off anyway, with the five of us that are on line now. I think we have all read the book but for me it was a while ago.

Wishful Thinking was my first Melissa Hill book to read and I loved it. It had me hooked from the beginging with the details of the train crash, trying to work who the 'heros' of the story were going to be. I can't remember any names, I think the older woman was Rose and she had a daughter and a son David. The young girl that had the accident and was way over her head in debt and the other one who wasn't sure if she had married the right man.

i'm stopping for now please jump in

[Shirley]

I agree Oons, she deffo has many more books in her.

[claire]

Well maybe because for me it was her first book I really enjoyed it. I have since read Never say Never and I can understand what you mean by twists.

I agree with the David part, it was too simple not really convincing

[Oonagh]

I felt the same really as shirley. I loved the girl who thought she married the wrong fella that was the best story line in the book.

[Oonagh]

Her second vbook is brill a grteat twist in it!!!

[claire]

Yeah I thought so too.

Rosies daughter was a right b*tch!! unbelievable what she did to her mother and thought she had every right to do so

[Shirley]

Which of the three ladies did you like the best, or whose story did you get the most into? Rosie's story kind of annoyed me - I just wanted to shake her and get her to stop making excuses for her children's horrendous behaviour. I enjoyed Dara's dilemma because I think a lot of women go through that at some stage in their lives (they don't all let it go to the marriage stage though!). Louise's story was very relevant to a lot of young women with regard to her financial problems. I did feel that her story was wrapped up in a very simplistic manner, and I wasn't one bit convinced that her friends really did give a crxp about her like her sister was trying to tell her. When I thought about her after the book ended, I could just imagine her being used left, right and centre by her two-faced friends for money, and being forced to continue the good life just to suit their purposes. I don't think she learned anything at the end, whereas the other two did.
I'd have to say that Dara's story was my favourite.

[claire]

what was the second one Oonagh?

[Shirley]

Sorry Oons, you answered my question before I even posted it (about which story you liked the best in the book) - I am only getting to see your posts now! I've been typing up my posts in textpad and trying to connect! It seems ok at the moment, fingers crossed.

[megan]

Hi everyone,

I am online early so I may as well start typing up what I thought of 'Wishful Thinking' because by the time I am finished I am sure that it will be eight o'clock!

So starting with first impressions: the minute I read the description of a 'John Rocha' coat and an 'Orla Kiely' bag in the prologue I would have dumped the book if we had not been doing it for the book club. Whenever I read about labels in novels I switch off and think 'Oh No!' not another of those type of novels! However as all those who have read it know, it is NOT one of those type of novels. So I continued reading and thought that the prologue was very good: ir set us up nicely for chapter one when we were brought back in time by four months. In my view this book really needed that exciting prologue.
The first person we meet is Rosie. I liked her and thought it was clever that I was fooled into thinking that she was on the train that crashed ( because of the description of a similar woman reading a romance novel on the train in the prologue.) I enjoyed the description of Rosie's daugher Sophie because the writer did not tell us about Sophie instead she showed us what she is like through dialogue. I also liked the way that Rosie was not completely blind to her daugher's bad traits although she was very soft on her.
The description of Dara's wedding was also clever in that we didn't know that the groom was in fact her husband until the end of the chapter but soon after that first chapter on Dara I lost interest in her. Because we were told so early on how 'Nice' her husband Mark is, it was very obvious to me that she would reject Noah in the end and stick with her husband, which she does. Mark was too perfect and I would have preferred to have worked out his character for myself through dialogue or descriptions of what he did him rather than being repeatedly told how wonderful he is by Dara. And that brings me on to my next point - I found that there was a lot of repetition in this book. Especially in the chapters about Dara. I feel that her story could have been told in three or four chapters easily. So I was very bored whenever I read about her.
The best bit about Louise's story was that she got her compensation in the end. I was very pleased for her and I thought it was a good example of how not to give up and run away no matter how bad things look. However earlier on In Louise's story I felt like throwing down the book many times. She was SO gullable and insecure that I found her hard to take. And I didn't buy her friend Fiona breaking down in tears at the end when she thought Louise had been on the train crash. She was such a cow all the way through the book that I did not consider her a real friend to Lousie at all. Sam was another 'perfect' male and I copped on a little while before the court scene that he would be testifying against her. But it didn't really shock me that much because I never got to know or care for Sam very much. Quite often men are portrayed as either too good or too bad to be true in novels and I find it very hard to believe in them as real people thus I never develop any feeling about them and don't care what happens to them or what they do.
I really enjoyed the last few chapters of the novel when the pace picked up. I was interested to find out what was wrong with Rosie's son David. I liked the way we weren't told too much about him. In fact I think Rosie's story was the best of the three women, then Louise's and Dara's was the least interesting to me. I liked the twist of Louise getting off the train sick before the crash and Rosie not being on the train at all!
Dara's story may have been more interesting had she actually committed adultery and slept with Noah rather than just having a dream about it. But of course I knew that couldn't happen because her marriage had to stay together. It would also have surprised me if Mark had died in the crash but of course he didn't because we had to have the happy ending. Does anyone else ever get sick of those?

[claire]

I liked Louise and when she met Sam I just knew something was not right with him. I felt sorry for her in the court room thought when he walked in. And when the judge said that didn't totally ruin her life, that she was still trying to get on with it and have fun, I thought was fair.

[susanmay]

I thought Rosie's storyline was the most convincing. There are a lot of women her age out there who are dealing with horrible adult children like hers!

[Oonagh]

I forgot about louised. She should have done more with her. I would totally disagree with ya Megan aboiut Dara having an affair I think it was a great story line without putting it in. I just bloody sick to death witn affairs in books. It drives me mad sometimes.

[claire]

Megan have you ever read a Patrica Scanlon book? She doesn't always have neat happy ever after endings

[claire]

Or Oons, that they have the fling and regret it afterwards

[Oonagh]

dont think so really as i liked her as she said no |I cant

[megan]

I have read quite a few Patricia Scanlan novels. My absolute favourite is Francesca's Party and one of the things I most like about it is that she doesn't end up with Mr. Perfect at the end. So yeah I see your point Claire!
Hey it's interesting how different our view points about this book are, isn't it?
Oonagh did you think that Dara might go off with Noah and leave her husband Mark?

[Oonagh]

Hi shirley i thought sheila s last two books were her weakesat of the lot!!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I didnt even finish her lasst one.

[Shirley]

I know where you're coming from with the happy endings Megan. Wishful Thinking was published by Poolbeg, and it seems to be a Poolbeg thing to have a shiny happy ending.
I absolutely love Poolbeg books, but I do find that the tone and even the words used in them can be very similar! Books by Poolbeg that are written in the third person seem extremely alike sometimes.

[claire]

she was tempted but I don't Dara would have done it. I don't think she had it in her to hurt Mark that way

[Oonagh]

Yeah i did did U megan??

[megan]

Hey shirley,

I totally agree with you about Louise's friend Fiona continuing to use her after the story ends, looking for money etc. Louise still hadn't learnt much about friendship.