Ashley Herring Blake

Grace, tough and wise, has nearly given up on wishes, thanks to a childhood spent with her unpredictable, larger-than-life mother. But this summer, Grace meets Eva, a girl who believes in dreams, despite her own difficult circumstances.

How to Make a Wish

what can i say, i'm a sucker for a hopeful story about sad people.

ash (smokedshelves)

trixie

Grace, tough and wise, has nearly given up on wishes, thanks to a childhood spent with her unpredictable, larger-than-life mother. But this summer, Grace meets Eva, a girl who believes in dreams, despite her own difficult circumstances. One fateful evening, Eva climbs through a window in Grace’s room, setting off a chain of stolen nights on the beach. When Eva tells Grace that she likes girls, Grace’s world opens up and she begins to believe in happiness again. How to Make a Wish is an emotionally charged portrait of a mother and daughter’s relationship and a heartfelt story about two girls who find each other at the exact right time.

grace richards

god eva and grace’s relationship is truly, beautifully, real

Julia Lotz

WARUM WOLLTE ICH ES LESEN? Ich bin ein großer Fan des Magellan Verlags und dies war eines von drei Büchern, die ich mir aus dem aktuellen Programm gepickt habe.

HAT ES MEINE ERWARTUNGEN ERFÜLLT? Ja das hat es! Es hat mich sogar an der einen oder anderen Stelle überrascht.

WAS HAT MIR GUT GEFALLEN? Es war eine erfrischende und endlich einmal andere zeitgenössische Geschichte mit einer interessanten Themenkonstellation. Wir haben auf der einen Seite ein LGTBQ+ Buch und auf der anderen Seite beschäftigt es sich mit allem, was es bedeutet, keine Mutter zu haben bzw. auf eine Mutterfigur verzichten zu müssen. Auch Grace fand ich wunderbar sympathisch und vor allen Dingen sehr realistisch dargestellt.

WAS HAT MICH GESTÖRT? Obwohl so gut wie alles an dem Buch zauberhaft ist, kam ich anfangs sehr schlecht in die Geschichte rein. Ich weiß nicht, ob das ein rein persönliches Empfinden ist oder ob sich jeder anfangs schwer tut aber es war schade, um das tolle Buch, weshakb es umso mehr in meine Bewertung eingeflossen ist.

FAZIT. Trotz sehr schwachem Anfang konnte mich Eine Handvoll Lila in seinen Bann ziehen. Grace ist eine tolle und realistische Protagonistin und die Themenauswahl, besonders der LGBTQ+ Schwerpunkt war toll. Ein absolu zu empfehlendes Buch. | ★★★★☆

Magda Silva

Such an incredible story. Not even sure how to describe it. Read it

mia ¿

god it's been so long since a book has almost made me cry... but this one really almost made me cry. the writing was amazing and i really felt so many emotions reading this book, especially in the last 100 pages or so. the themes of learning to stand up for yourself, to deal with toxic family members, and to realize your own self worth really hit hard. and grace and eva were adorable! this book really made me appreciate the relationships i have with my family, and how lucky i am that they support me and i am allowed to pursue my own dreams and interests. truly an amazing book hiding behind that (sorry!) dated-looking cover. 5/5

Grace, tough and wise, has nearly given up on wishes, thanks to a childhood spent with her unpredictable, larger-than-life mother. But this summer, Grace meets Eva, a girl who believes in dreams, despite her own difficult circumstances. One fateful evening, Eva climbs through a window in Grace's room, setting off a chain of stolen nights on the beach. When Eva tells Grace that she likes girls, Grace's world opens up and she begins to believe in happiness again. How to Make a Wish is an emotionally charged portrait of a mother and daughter's relationship and a heartfelt story about two girls who find each other at the exact right time.

Archer

I thought I had notes for my review, but turns out I don't. Oops. This book was AMAZING though. Like holy shit amazing. It was super queer and I shipped Grace and Eva so much. Everyone needs to read it. I loved the way the author developed the characters and tackled the issue of the mom's problematic behavior. The voice was super strong and the characters felt so real.

Grace O'Callaghan

*3.5 ⭐️

How to Make a Wish follows Grace as her irresponsible mother yet again decides to move them into a new boyfriend’s house. Her mother promises that things will be different, but Grace can only wish for so long. Until she finds herself drawn to Eva, who recently lost her mother and is now heartbroken. We watch as Eva and Grace find comfort in each other and grow closer.

If you’re looking for a quintessentially summer book, this is it. It has late nights on beaches, sneaking away into lighthouses, a high school bonfire and a 4th of July boat party. Ashley Herring Blake’s writing just perfectly encapsulates the summer nostalgia. 

Grace is definitely a prickly character, but I immediately warmed to her. She’s closed off from everyone with a few exceptions and it’s clear to see why she’s like this. Even if you don’t like all of her decisions, you have to understand where she’s coming from. Grace is also bisexual and as someone who is also bisexual (and called a Grace) I thought the rep was really well done.

Eva on the other hand, is a total sweetheart. She’s a bit more vulnerable with her emotions about losing her mother. While she is a really lovely character, she grows attached to the wrong kind of people, the kind that know her grief but don’t deal with it in a healthy way. Eva likes girls and is also biracial with a white father and an African-American mother.

Together, Eva and Grace are so beautiful. They both bond over their grief, one for a parent that’s dead and the other for a terrible mother. They don’t have the most healthy and open relationship, but with all the struggle they face they are comforted by one another. I also loved how much they snuck off on little adventures and flirted with one another.

However I think my favourite thing about this book is the look at a toxic mother-daughter relationship. I’ve definitely read books with this subject, but none where it was at the forefront this much. Grace has a very difficult relationship with her mother, Maggie. On the one hand Maggie is an alcoholic with bad taste in men and incredibly irresponsible, but then she shows sweet and caring sides. This leaves Grace defending her mother to others, while secretly knowing that her mother’s behaviour is inexcusable. But it doesn’t make her love her any less. 

The plot of the book, I wasn’t the biggest fan of. Yes it was predictable in the sense of summer romance. But I also knew exactly where it was going to end up so I never really felt intrigued to know what was going to happen.

Basically, I think this is a perfect summer romance book that also deals with toxic relationships. But the reason I can’t quite give it four stars is that it’s already slipping from my mind. I just don’t think it’s that memorable plot wise.

Abi Baker

For a long time, when I was a little younger, I thought that was how every girl saw other girls - this mix between beauty and awe and curiosity, a thin layer of lust just underneath.

trigger warnings: alcoholism, emotional abuse, neglect

Sweet lord, this book utterly struck something within me.

How to Make a Wish follows Grace Glasser, a seventeen year old girl who's never really seemed to have anything permanent apart from her best friend and her love for music. After moving into yet another house with yet another of her mum's less than permanent boyfriends, Grace meets Eva, a biracial girl consumed by grief from the recent death of her mother.
Eva likes girls, always has and always will, and her frankness about it stirs up buried thoughts she's never really had the chance to fully explore. As Eva starts to become a bigger and bigger part of Grace's life, she also becomes a bigger part of her problems, which leads to heavy consequences for everyone involved.

A love story between a lesbian and a bisexual girl with an unexpected happy ending: sign me up.

How to Make a Wish is both heartbreaking and heart making (I know that's not a real thing but). 
It's a sweet love story with massive undertones of mental illness from all three of the main females. It's realistic and raw and it made me feel things.

The severe power and responsibility imbalance between Grace and Maggie haunted me a little after I read this. I've been Grace. I've been the girl who had to grow up too quickly, and be the parent to the parent. I related too much to having a parent who seems wonderful on the surface, but is completely different and full of problems in private. I am Grace and that's why I loved this book. 
The thing is, I also felt some sympathy for Maggie, and that's just a testament to how good Ashley Herring Blake's writing is. Maggie has ruined parts of Grace's life, has neglected her, but yet I feel almost as sorry for her as I do for Grace. 

It's not often I read something I identify with so completely, but that's what this book was for me. Because of that it'll always be special.

How to Make a Wish

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