"I wish I didn't have to go home. I wish I was someone else—someone with a future..."
For sixteen-year-old Nina Torres, it feels as if life is nothing but a dead end. Despised by her rich classmates and afraid that she'll become just like her drug-addicted mother, Nina's future seems to get dimmer every day.
There is one bright spot in her life though...
Sitting beside her one night, the only person in the world who cares about her makes a promise. No matter what happens—no matter how much Isaac's wealthy family disapproves—he and his girlfriend Nina will be together forever.
Fate plays a cruel trick on Nina, though, and a visit from Child Protective Services the next morning turns Nina Torres into Irene Hartley, a woman with a future but who will never see her beloved Isaac again.
Nine years later, a blind and incredibly handsome young entrepreneur hires Irene to be his personal assistant. Terrence Radcliffe reminds her so much of Isaac that she can hardly believe her eyes, and she's falling for him fast. Irene knows that fairy tales don't come true, but she allows herself one last wish. She wishes that she could finally say goodbye to Isaac and let herself take a chance on Terrence.
What she doesn't know is that Terrence is also searching for someone: a shooting star who streaked through his life nine years ago, and he won't give up until he finds her...
Chasing Wishes is a powerful contemporary tale of lost love and wishes come true, recommended for ages 17+ due to adult content. (goodreads.com)
So this is my first New Adult book review and I have to say it was a pretty good book. Let me start by prefacing that most of this book takes place in the area that I grew up in so when they reference Christopher's bar and Sailor's that was literally right up my alley, so that was pretty cool (although I'm pretty sure there was mention of a restaurant that doesn't actually exist there).
I'm a big fan of the characters that Simonenko has created for us. Nina, is from the wrong side of the tracks and her life is just... horrible. Her mother is a drug addict and a prostitute, and sometimes operates in her home with Nina trapped in her room with no choice but to listen. Her classmates and teachers not only hate her because of her lack of wealth, they also trow racial slurs around like it's nothing. Isaac is the only person in the school who treats her with any respect or decency. It's enough to break someones heart.
My favorite part of getting to know these characters was the way Simonenko went about connect us to them. She didn't just say "Nina was poor and her mom was a drug addict" she gave us flashbacks, lets us live Nina's past with her, it made all the difference.
I only had one little hiccup, and I can't say it without spoiling a little bit so I'm just going to do it. I looked at a picture of me from when I was sixteen, and I looked at a picture of me now. I can't quite buy that she didn't know that Terrence was Isaac. In mu opinion as soon as she found out that he had only be blind for five years she should have put it together. It also bother me (just a tiny but) that Isaac/ Terrence would constantly listen to the tape of Nina/ Irene's voice and not realize who she was, but I understood that a little more. In his mind she was blonde because when she was first described to him she was wearing a blond wig. However when he found out that she was Latino, he connected all of the dots. I just feel like Nina/ Irene should have figure it out sooner. Other than that this was a pretty good story.
I give it 3.75 stars.
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