As You Wish

February 1, 2018
Three women sharing a house in Summer Hill, Virginia, use a time-traveling service to rewrite their pasts.After a therapist conspires to bring Elise, Kathy, and Olivia together to bond over their failed marriages, they spill their secrets in a cheerful cacophony of dialogue: Elise has just fled her cheating husband, Olivia has divorced and remarried, and Kathy doesn't know it yet, but she's about to join their club. All three stories are juicy and entertaining. Halfway through, the book takes a sharp turn when the women discover they can go back in time to the moment before it all went wrong by drinking a special tea made from, according to the potion maker, "herbs that help you relax." In three weeks, they'll return to the present to see the results. Olivia, a 60-something newlywed, is mourning the years she wasted with her philandering ex instead of marrying her current husband when they met 40 years ago. Twenty-something Elise regrets marrying the man chosen for her by her controlling parents and has a recurring fantasy that her gardener will carry her away on the back of his horse. (A wealthy white woman falling for her Mexican gardener is a cliche, but to Elise's credit, she looks up from Alejandro's shirtless torso long enough to learn he has a degree in botany, and he schools her in the process.) Alongside the budding romances, the friendships are in full bloom. Kathy, in her 40s and the curviest woman of the three, worries that the two skinnier women are judging her, but their stories reassure her that heartbreak comes in all sizes--and she goes back in time to change how she feels about herself.With three stories told two ways, this third book in Deveraux's Summerhouse series (The Girl from Summer Hill, 2016, etc.) is emotional, imaginative, and gloriously silly.

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April 2, 2018
Deveraux’s pleasant latest in the Summerhouse series (after Return to Summerhouse) follows three women who meet through a mysterious therapist and bond over disappointing marriages and wasted years. After a loveless first marriage, Olivia, 60ish and widowed, has finally married Kit, her one true love. Elise’s controlling parents arranged her marriage to Kent, a man with a jealous mistress. Kathy has the perfect husband on paper, but he wants a divorce. Chance brings the trio together as weekend housemates in a quaint Virginia cottage where Dr. Hightower, a therapist, gives them an opportunity to rewrite their past with help from Madame Zoya and her magic time-travel powers. Each woman can choose any three weeks from the past to revisit, while retaining full knowledge of the present, and while there she is allowed to make changes that will give her another shot at love. Olivia and Kit rekindle their teenage romance and chart a fresh course; Elise stakes out a new career and is literally swept off her feet by the dashing Alejandro; and Kathy’s newfound self-esteem prompts a face-off with her father and spurs a new romance. Each journey satisfies their common goal: “Change the man, change your life.” Deveraux’s charming novel has likable characters and life-affirming second chances galore.

February 1, 2018
Olivia is finally married to her true love; her only regret is the misunderstandings (and the government) that separated them when they first met in the 1970s. Elise escaped an institution in the trunk of a car; she regrets her parents bullying her into marrying appropriate Kent instead of poor Alejandro. Kathy is married to studly Ray, who she wishes would just leave her for his pregnant girlfriend, which might finally lead to a role in her father's advertising firm. The three are gathered by the mysterious Dr. Hightower in a house in Summer Hill, Virginia, for a therapeutic retreat. Readers expecting a sequel to Deveraux's The Girl from Summer Hill (2016) will recognize Olivia, but they may be surprised by the magical shift the story takes. This is actually a follow-up to Return to Summerhouse (2008), in which women are granted three weeks of time-travel to fix their lives. Though Elise's story is the most romantic, it is Olivia who faces the biggest upheaval, especially in how she views herself. Fans of Deveraux's romances will be pleased with three happily-ever-afters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2017

At the glorious old house featured in The Girl from Summer Hill, three generations of women talk about love. Olivia, in her sixties, has followed up an unhappy marriage by wedding her longtime true love. Forty-plus Kathy's business-partner husband is fixated on a woman from his past. And young Elise, swayed by her wealthy parents, has married a man with a mistress. With a 200,000-copy first printing.

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