Book Notes: "Wish You Were Here" by Beth Vogt

Wish You Were Here: A Novel by Beth K. Vogt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, my high hopes for this novel were happily answered!

My attention was caught by the high concept premise of "Wish You Were Here" - a bride deserting her groom at the altar - but Beth Vogt kept my attention by telling an interesting story about what happens *after* her heroine's impulsive escape.

Vogt doesn't spare her heroine any of the squirmy moments bound to follow such a public disaster, but even when she was under pressure, I enjoyed spending time with Allison Denman. She spends the first half of the novel trying to figure out why she did what she did - she's sure it was the right thing to do, but it takes her time to read the state of her own heart, and I liked the realism of that. The second half of the novel she's busy falling in love with the hero, and, well, I'm a romance fan, so I enjoyed that part too.

I also liked how there was a lot more to the story than just the love story. The hero and heroine have family, friends, and jobs. They have pasts that affect their present, and the Colorado setting is almost its own character.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I also appreciate how a couple of difficult subjects - self-harm and pornography - came up in the plot, but never took it over. You hardly ever see things like that in books unless they're a main plot point, but in this story, things like that came up the way they often do in real life: tangentially. I don't know that I've ever seen that done before, and it added to the realism of the story for me.

I enjoyed this story so much that I hate to mention any complaints. I only have two, and they're mild. First, the ditched fiancé didn't quite ring true to me. But that might just be because he was a man who was almost entirely lacking empathy - or maybe he was just profoundly emotionally stupid? Anyway, I either didn't like him or didn't believe in him, and I can't quite figure out which it was. Secondly, the number of injuries that occurred in the plot stretched my credulity - but only a bit. And having a lot of incident in a novel is so very forgiveable, because it means that the story is the opposite of dull.

That's it: this story was the opposite of dull. It was dramatic without being sad, it was sweet without being saccharine - it was just *fun*. Recommended, and I'm really looking forward to the next one.

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-Jessica Snell