The Story for the Week (again) is “go buy these books!” Run…don’t walk…to your nearest bookstore. Or click here, and Buy Now. 🥰 Books 1-12 of The Wishing Tree series are available now (#8 reviewed below). The final book releases on October 13.

Full Book List:

• Book 1: The Wishing Tree
• Book 2: I Wish… by Amanda Prowse
• Book 3: Wish You Were Here by Kay Bratt
• Book 4: Wish Again by Tammy L. Grace
• Book 5: Workout Wishes & Valentine Kisses by Barbara Hinske
• Book 6: A Parade of Wishes by Camille Di Maio
• Book 7: Careful What You Wish by Ashley Farley
• Book 8: Gone Wishing by Jessie Newton
• Book 9: Wishful Thinking by Kay Bratt
• Book 10: Overdue Wishes by Tammy L. Grace
• Book 11: A Whole Heap of Wishes by Amanda Prowse
• Book 12: Wishes of Home by Barbara Hinske
• Book 13: Wishful Witness by Tonya Kappes

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Book Review

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4 Stars for Gone Wishing by Jessie Newton

The Wishing Tree Series Book 8

168 pages
Publisher: AEJ Creative Works
Publication Date: September 1, 2022
Purchased on Amazon

Publisher’s Description

Wishes in branches tied with string. Someone’s hopes. Another’s dreams.

Loretta Thompson is a people-person. She loves meeting new people and learning about their lives—and she has a special gift which makes everyone she meets feel like she’s their best friend.

She periodically cleans rooms at the Wishing Tree Inn, and she’s always been fascinated by what she can learn from the things guests leave behind. Her love of imagining the lives of lost objects leads her all over the country returning the misplaced items she finds at the inn.

Along the way, she discovers a love of genealogy to match her whimsical imagination and the adoration of the camper she drives all over the country. After returning the last of her lost items, she picks up a couple of women she met years ago on one of her quests.

Sally Redwood was a genealogy center coordinator before she needed a hip replacement, and since she has no family where she lives, Loretta picks her up and takes her back to Linden Falls to help her heal.

And Lois Bryant has just lost her husband and needs a fresh start. She tells her children she’s going to Vermont, and while they’re not happy, Lois’s spirits are refreshed and her mind is eased the moment Loretta pulls up with that silver camper in tow.

Back in Linden Falls, all three women tie a wish to the tree, each hoping and searching for different things. Loretta isn’t sure why she’s bothering with the string and paper, because the one wish that did come true turned out to be a disaster.

When her amazing next-door neighbor of over 20 years moves and Loretta gets a new…grouchier neighbor, she marches down to the tree to remove her wish only to find it gone.

Of course.

Sally’s wish is answered just as terribly, and when Lois’s actually brings her estranged sister to town, Loretta vows she’ll stop wishing altogether…

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Main Characters:

• Loretta Thompson – cleans rooms at the Wishing Tree Inn, she is drawn to return items that are left at the inn in part because she doesn’t feel settled in Linden Falls
• Lois Bryant – lives in Cleveland, recently widowed, her children are not happy with her desire to leave the home she shared with her husband
• Sally Redwood – lives in St. Louis, recently had a hip replacement, was the coordinator at a genealogy center until her surgery, loves a good barbecue; almost immediately sets her sights on finding the best barbecue in Vermont
• Gus Adams – Loretta’s new neighbor
• Alex Harmon – a farmer who Sally met when she inquired about buying a pig for a pig roast
• Red Morford – works the postal counter at the drugstore, lost his wife and son years ago

Gone Wishing by Jessie Newton is book number eight in the amazing Wishing Tree series, and it’s a great addition. A story of new friends and new beginnings, Gone Wishing tells the stories of Loretta, a lifelong resident of Linden Falls, and her friends Lois and Sally, who she met through their shared interest in genealogy.

Loretta hasn’t felt settled in Linden Falls since a horrible loss when she was younger, so when she finds lost items in the rooms she cleans at the Wishing Tree Inn, she heads out in her camper to return them. During one of these journeys, she proposes to Lois and Sally that she pick them up on her way back and they spend the summer in Linden Falls.

As a recent widow, Lois needs a change of scenery, and Sally went through a hip replacement six weeks prior and doesn’t have family to worry about her. Both women are thrilled to take Loretta up on her offer.

The summer the three women spend together in Linden Falls provides each of them with the friendship they need in this particular moment in their lives, and it brings peace for Loretta in a way she has not experienced in a very long time. It may or may not settle her nomadic spirit, but she discovers that home doesn’t have to be such a sad place.

I will say I struggled to keep Lois, Sally, and the three male characters straight at times. Loretta was first introduced in one of the previous books, so that wasn’t an issue. But even when I was writing the character list, I had to look back at my highlights to keep all of the characters straight. They are all about the same age, and their voices sound very similar throughout the story.

Another thing I found surprising and difficult to keep in my head is that all of the characters are in their 40s, but I kept thinking they were older, likely early 60s. Sally just had a hip replacement, which isn’t explained but is uncommon for a woman in her mid-40s. Lois is a widow, also not as common. When they mention dating in their 40s, I literally scrolled back in the book to see if I missed something.

This was the first Jessie Newton book for me, and it won’t be my last.

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