"The Wish Stealers" Review and GIVEAWAY!!

Giveaway has ended! Congratulations to Lindsay's Photography! And thanks to all who entered!!

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!
I'm giving away my copy of "The Wish Stealers" to one lucky reader! Please see the end of this post for details!



"The Wish Stealers"
by Tracy Trivas

Source: Contest win, sent to me from Simon and Schuster

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Review:

Griffin Penshine makes wishes every chance she gets. Then a slightly scary womand gives her a "lucky" penny and box, and curses her as a wish stealer. Inside the box are eleven pennies, all stolen from a wishing fountain when the old woman was just a girl. They are all labeled with the original wish, and some even have the names of the wishers. Griffin has to return these wishes to their owners or none of her good wishes will ever come true again, only her negative ones.

This is a really sweet book for middle grad readers. Griffin is a great lead complete with flaws. She isn't perfect, she makes mistakes like we all do, but she learns from them and tries hard to make them right.

Griffin has an arch nemesis at school named Samantha, who always makes fun of her. Samantha is jealous of Griffin's friendship with Garrett, the cutest boy in their class. Griffin's relationship with Garrett is full of the ups and downs of real friendship, including some hints at a first crush.

Griffin learns a lot about wish stealers-those who make fun of others' dreams and try to discourage them. She even finds herself being a wish stealer when she gets really angry with Samantha, even though she later regrets it. But as she tries to give all eleven wishes back to their owners, she learns even more about making your own wishes come true, not with luck, but by working for it.

There are lots of characters in this book and it's great to see it all come together nicely. Each chapter ends with a great quote about wishes. I've never seen chapters end with quotes, I've only seen quotes at the beginning of chapters. But this way was great because yhou could tell how the quote worked perfectly with the rest of the chapter.

Main Characters: 5/5
Supporting Characters: 5/5
Setting: 4/5
Romance: 4/5 (ok, so there's not really a romance, but Griffin and Garrett are soooooo cute!!)
Uniqueness: 4/5
Cover: 3/5
Writing: 5/5

Bottom Line: This was a fantastic book for the young and not so young, with awesome advice for everyone in how to hold onto your wishes and dreams.


GIVEAWAY RULES:

A lot of people showed interest in this book in this week's In My Mailbox post, so I decided to give away my copy to a lucky follower. This is the hardback version of the brand new release, read only once by me :)

I'm sorry to international readers, but this contest will be for the US only. You must be a follower to enter, just leave me a comment with your email address so I can reach you if you win! Winners will have 5 days to contact me after I send the email, otherwise another winner will be chosen. Winner will be chosen via random.org.

Extra Entries:

• +2 Tweet this contest (leave link in comment)
  
• +2 Post link in sidebar of your blog (leave link in comment)
  

Rules:

• US only
• Must be a follower to enter
• Extra entries are optional
  
• Leave a comment with your email address
• Ends March 3
  

Thanks to everyone for entering! Good luck!