Review: Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes

Title:  Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
Author:  Denise Grover Swank
Genre:  Romantic Suspense; Women Sleuths
Publisher:  CreateSpace (print version)
Release Date:  July 9, 2011 (print version)
File Size/Pages:  587 kb/372 pages
Source:  Bought

My Rating:  5/5

Summary:  For Rose Gardner, working at the DMV on a Friday afternoon is bad even before she sees a vision of herself dead. She's had plenty of visions, usually boring ones like someone's toilet's overflowed, but she's never seen one of herself before. When her overbearing momma winds up murdered on her sofa instead, two things are certain: There isn't enough hydrogen peroxide in the state of Arkansas to get that stain out, and Rose is the prime suspect.  Rose realizes she's wasted twenty-four years of living and makes a list on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt: twenty-eight things she wants to accomplish before her vision comes true. She's well on her way with the help of her next door neighbor Joe, who has no trouble teaching Rose the rules of drinking, but won't help with number fifteen-- do more with a man. Joe's new to town, but it doesn't take a vision for Rose to realize he's got plenty secrets of his own.   Somebody thinks Rose has something they want and they'll do anything to get it. Her house is broken into, someone else she knows is murdered, and suddenly, dying a virgin in the Fenton County jail isn't her biggest worry after all.

Review:  Rose Gardner is a 24-year-old girl who works at a DMV, and still lives at home with her Mama.  Despite her age, Rose has lived a very sheltered life, until she sees a vision of herself dead; this vision, and other events, leads Rose to come up with twenty-eight wishes on the back of receipt that she wants to fulfill before she dies.  This story, in my opinion, was very suspenseful; I never knew where Swank was going or what she was going to reveal next, but it just made me love this book even more.  I was rooting for Rose the entire time, and for the little time the book that her mother was alive, I felt sorry for the way she was being treated; even the way her sister treated her at some points.  I was very shocked and happy at how everything played out with her and her neighbor, Joe.  Another element I loved about this book was that it was a very Southern story; and with being from the south, you learn to appreciate a good Southern novel here and there.  Overall, this was by far one of the greatest books I've ever read.