You Wish

You Wish by Mandy Hubbard

Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 272
Realease date: August 5th 2010
Summary (from Goodreads): Kayla McHenry's sweet sixteen sucks! Her dad left, her grades dropped, and her BFF is dating the boy Kayla's secretly loved for years. Blowing out her candles, Kayla thinks: I wish my birthday wishes actually came true. Because they never freakin' do.
Kayla wakes the next day to a life-sized, bright pink My Little Pony outside her window. Then a year's supply of gumballs arrives. A boy named Ken with a disturbing resemblance to the doll of the same name stalks her. As the ghosts of Kayla's wishes-past appear, they take her on a wild ride . . . but they MUST STOP. Because when she was fifteen? She wished Ben Mackenzie would kiss her. And Ben is her best friend's boyfriend.



My review: 

Okay, you're probably thinking that the cover for this one looks like it's for 7-year-olds, but it's not.  I think the whole boyfriends-girlfriends problem gives that away a bit.  Believe me, I was a little skeptical too as I started the book.

I'm happy to say that I was very impressed by Mandy Hubbard's writing.  There was just the right amount of humor to keep it a light book, but not too fluffy that there wasn't a real point in writing it.  The plot made me want to know what was happening next all the time.  I wanted to know what the next problem entering Kayla's life would be. My only problem was that it seemed to be just a little bit too cute in some bits, like it would be something for younger young adults.  It seems like a good one maybe for newbies to the young adult genre to look at; it's not very intense in romance and is just a sweet tale.

As for Kayla as the main character, I liked her a lot.  She was easy to relate to, because of all her ordinary high school problems.  There's nothing particularly weird or abnormal about her, and she has always been okay with that.  I'm glad of her reaction when the wishes start coming true, which is freaking out.  It seems like the most regular and expected thing to do that is completely easy to relate to. She is definitely a favourite character of mine, though I did find her to be slightly annoying at times.

All the wishes I found were really good.  Each one of them was something that made me laugh, especially the guy named Ken stalking her and calling her Barbie.  That seemed like a good thing to wish for when she was into that sort of thing, maybe, but when she's16, not so much.

I haven't read anything else by Mandy Hubbard before, but she's got quite a few that might be worth looking into, including her debut, Prada and Prejudice, Ripple, and But I Love Him. I look forward to reading more from her!