The Wishing Season

Chapel Springs Series, Book 3

By: Denise Hunter

Narrated by: Kathryn Lynhurst

In this competition, it's not just the house on the line, it's their hearts.

She has the touch when it comes to food, but PJ McKinley's dream of opening her own restaurant is one building short of reality. So when a Chapel Springs resident offers her beloved ancestral home as prize to the applicant with the best plan for the house, PJ believes she was meant to win.

Contractor Cole Evans is confident, professional, and swoon-worthy - but this former foster kid knows his life could have turned out very differently. When Cole discovers the contest, he believes his home for foster kids in transition has found its saving grace. All he has to do is convince the owner that a not-for-profit enterprise will be good for the community.

When the eccentric philanthropist weighs the proposals, she proposes an outlandish tie-breaker: PJ and Cole will share the house for a year to see which idea works best. Now, with Cole and the foster kids upstairs and PJ and the restaurant below, day-to-day life has turned into an out-and-out rivalry - with some seriously flirtatious hallway encounters on the side. But could their magnetic attraction cost them everything they've ever wanted?

©2014 Denise Hunter (P)2020 Tantor

Good for most of it

It was good for most of it. I liked to hear about cooking and food and Cole’s work with the foster kids and how everyone bonded . It was great until about 1.5 hours til the end . Then it dragged and was hard to finish. The last 15 minutes were good again. So I guess I can’t complain too much especially since it was a freebie.

Foster care love

Cole orphaned at a young age was brought up in foster care and met PJ who opened a restaurant. The two competed for a home and compromised.

Sweet story

I enjoy Denise Hunter’s stories for sweet romance, interesting descriptions , and fun light stories. I really enjoyed this story, both characters were likable, although PJ felt a bit eye rollingly shallow at the beginning, but she grows. There is a bit of a Christian lesson towards the end, there is a suicide as well, although it isn’t described in too much detail. The only thing I don’t enjoy is the constant mentions of the h/h looks and chemistry, it’s easier to gloss over it in a regular book, in an audiobook, you can’t get away from it. There was nothing inappropriate though, I’m just a bit prudish.

Predictable & frustrating narration.

Even though the story was predictable, it was a fun setting. I had enjoyed the previous stories in the series and wanted to complete it. Now I am wondering if I can. I am no feminist at all but the portrayal of the female lead character paints the woman as a dumb weakling who is swayed by a man’s body & looks even after he has stomped repeatedly on her heart. Not to mention fighting feelings for a jerk of a married man. The narrator mispronounces “Vincennes” as vin-sin-us repeatedly. If you are reading about a real place please make sure you get the pronunciation right. Also the phrase is “honed in” not homed in. Petty I know but still irritating.