Katherine Center has become one of the most popular and well known authors of the rom-com and literary fiction world today. She is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven books over the course of ten years, from her debut novel The Bright Side of Disaster that was released in 2006, and her most recent release The Shippers in 2026. BookPage calls Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.”
Katherine Center does an amazing job as usual in What You Wish For with her witty humor, hilarious inner monologue, engaging dialogue, sweet and pure romance, and powerful character development. She often writes laugh-and-cry books, and this one is no different. It is a heartwarming novel about a school librarian named Samantha Casey, whose life is flipped upside down when her former unrequited crush, Duncan Carpenter, becomes the new principal of her beloved Galveston school.
Sam is navigating through her struggles with epilepsy and grief, while Duncan is going through a very hard time after a traumatic event and shows up as a stiff, rule-obsessed man, completely different from the Duncan Sam previously knew. Sam must confront her past with him and fight for the school’s spirit, which Duncan is desperately trying to squash. The book explores themes of choosing joy, resilience, and love, with sweet and funny characters and a wonderful central romance that unfolds as Sam and Duncan rediscover their true selves.
Center’s writing is powerful and very easy to read. It focuses on the main character’s inner monologue, but she always writes engaging and endearing characters where the thought processes are never boring. Whole pages are dedicated to witty and sweet dialogue, which makes for an incredibly interesting and quick read. Center’s characters are always relatable and fun to read about, reminding readers of their own thoughts and feelings. She always ties important themes into the story, while not making it feel too heavy or sad. What You Wish For is no different, with powerful themes of deliberately choosing joy, resilience through grief and hardships, and finding and choosing love by being vulnerable. It centers on the community at the elementary school and belonging between the staff and the small town they live in. The characters are forced to overcome fear and be bold in their personal lives and in protecting their community.
The romance is wonderful and pure, focusing on the emotional growth between the two main characters, Sam and Duncan. The core conflict stems from Sam’s philosophy of choosing joy and Duncan’s fear and safety-obsessed management as their ideals clash and change throughout the book. The romance is about helping each other heal from past trauma. There are themes of vulnerability and trust as the story emphasizes that true love is for the brave, focusing on emotional exposure and vulnerability and finding love after heartbreak. It balances humor with deeper explorations of grief and trauma and how to overcome and become a better person because of it.
