Review: Wishful Thinking By Elle Jefferson

Wishful Thinking
Elle Jefferson
Publication date: September 10th 2014
Genres: Suspense, Young Adult

Synopsis:
Seventeen year old James Castle Jr. has rugby to deal with the pressures of high school. Fights with his girlfriend, his dad’s constant blame game and graduation anxieties all work out on the field. Every pass, tackle and scrum works out a kink.

That is until rugby gets suspended.

Without rugby as an outlet he has no idea how to deal with stress or the feelings of fear plaguing him since the break-in at home. James walked in on a burglar who knocked him out and left him with a concussion.  Now, James keeps seeing a little girl with pigtails everywhere. Great, he can add delusional to the list of shit he can’t deal with.

What makes the situation weirder, if that’s possible, is this little girl looks a lot like the new girl at his school, Claudia.
He can’t explain the connection he feels to Claudia, it’s not lust or friendship even, but it’s there.
Everything ties to one event; a hit and run accident he was the victim of fourteen years ago. An accident he doesn’t remember. An accident his father never told him about. An accident that wasn’t in fact an accident. It seems someone from his father’s past is hellbent on revenge and this time they plan to make sure James is dead. James will have to remember the past or else be caught in a killer’s crosshairs.

This book is different in that it is all told from the male's perspective which makes a nice change. Instead of female angst, we get a boy not understanding the why's of female angst.

James is having therapy following his mother's death - official verdict of accidental overdose, unofficial verdict of nothing accidental about it. His relationship with his father is good but also a bit distant. James knows the rules and mostly plays by them.

He has a girlfriend, Summer, who wants to take things further than he is comfortable with although there is no doubt about him wanting to be with her.

The story picks up when a new girl, Claudia, moves into town. She intermingles with all the of the group and you see the different reactions she gets.

Now, onto the nitty-gritty. The thing for me is the whole book leads up to a 'big bang'. James knows it the readers know it.

4 Stars

I've been reading as long as I've been walking, though I never done the two together (I'm rather clumsy). With the birth of my second son I became a stay-at-home mom and found when the little one took a nap I had a WHOLE hour to myself.

I wanted nothing more than to escape for that hour and thus a love for writing was born.