4 Wine Glass #ARC #Review of Wish You Were Mine by Tara Sivec

Title: Wish You Were Mine
Author: Tara Sivec
Format: ebook, 272 pages
Expected publication: November 14th 2017 by Forever Yours
ISBN: 1478920165
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Source: NetGalley
Reviewer: Crystal
Rating: 4 out of 5 Wine Glasses

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Story of Us and Fisher’s Light comes a new, standalone novel—a heart-wrenching story about first loves and second chances that will make you fall in love all over again….

Five years. I would’ve stayed away longer if I hadn’t received the letter. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about her, haven’t missed her smile, haven’t wished that things were different.

The last time I saw my two best friends, I vowed to not stand in the way of their happiness, even if that meant I couldn’t be a part of their lives. Cameron James and her emerald-green eyes were too much of a temptation and I couldn’t stay and watch them together. Cameron deserved better than me. She deserved him.

But now that I am back, things are different. I’m not going to stand by and watch the woman I’ve always loved slip away again. I’m done living my life with regrets and I’m ready to tell her the truth. And I’ll do whatever it takes to show her that I always wished she was mine.

Crystal's Thoughts:
Tara Sivec composes a heartfelt story of love, loss, and second chances in her newest contemporary romance release, Wish You Were Mine.

Cameron James fell in love with her best friend Everett when she was just twelve years old, and she wished upon a star every year for Everett to love her back. But when Everett left for Doctors without Boarders almost five years ago, Cameron stopped wishing and learned to live her life without him. Until their other best friend and third musketeer to their life-long group passes away... Now Everett is back, and in order to save her family's camp, she must pretend that they're a happily married couple. Is it really pretending though when she's wished for this exact thing for so long?
Everett always knew that he wasn't good enough for Cameron, but that never stopped him from wishing otherwise. Now he's returned home and he's determined to be everything that Cameron needs, whether that be her best friend again or something more...

I am such a sucker for a second-chance, best-friends-turned-lovers romance and Wish You Were Mine was a compelling one. The story alternates from past to present, from the time the Cameron is seven years old, all the way into her mid-twenties. It also has rotating view points between Cameron and Everett, which is always fun. Cameron's family runs a camp for current and veteran military family. For the children who's parents have either been deployed, been lost in combat, or returned and suffering PTSD. I thought that this was an amazing endeavor and a wonderful setting for the book. Both fascinating and unique.  Additionally, the characters were just as intriguing. Cameron and Everett have a deep-rooted history, and when they meet again all of that raw sexual tension is strung tight. The charge between them was palpable, and when they finally give in to it - whoa mama, who knew a stable could be so darn hot?! The plot is brimming with deep emotion. I couldn't turn a page without my heart pounding in some way. Between the push and pull of Cameron and Everett, the loss of Aiden and the letter he left behind, and the drama of the camp, I was constantly on edge.

I only had two complaints with this story. First, there were many inconsistencies throughout the book with the passage of time and the character's ages. I'm hoping they were so abundant because this was an ARC of the title, and it still needed another pass through editing before the final finished copy. Also, one thing that really irked me while reading was the number of times the word "skank" was thrown about. Was there no other derogatory term for women that the author could use between characters? That is one of those words that I cringe at to begin with, but it was overused here.

All in all though, Wish You Were Mine was one-of-a-kind story that I enjoyed beginning to end. If you're a fan of sweet romances, hot chemistry, and an upheaval of feelings, then you'll want to pre-order this book today.