Publication date: 16 September 2020
Series: Wishing Tree, #2
Warnings: N/A
A Wish in Irish Falls is set in winter in Irish Falls, a cold and snowy Adirondack mountain town in New York state. Tara is the widow of Adam, a town hero, who was killed in active duty three years ago. They met when she was 18 and she was only 32 years old when he died. He was in the army; shot by a sniper while on patrol.
Walker is new in town, standing in for the town vet, who is having some time off work to recover from illness. He too has a broken heart, as his fiancee died several years ago in a car accident.
Tara has decided that it is time to start living again and her new year’s resolution was that this year would be different. She has decided that she owes it both to herself and to Adam to not remain stuck in the past. In Walker’s case though, he is firmly entrenched in the past and not really trying to move forward at all.
When they meet they are instantly drawn to each other, but both believe that they can never love again. Each continuously reminds themselves not to feel anything for the other, as they believe their hearts belong to their deceased loves.
This is a sweet, clean story, that tugs on the heart strings. There is plenty here to create a strong emotional attachment to Tara and I found myself cheering her on as the story progressed, as she slowly began to find her way out of the grief, finding her own personal strength along the way. I was a little less sympathetic towards Walker, as there were times I wanted to slap him and tell him to grow up, but it was more about his manner than it was out of lack of empathy being created for his situation. Overall though, I enjoyed Walker and Tara together.
The supporting cast in this story were really enjoyable too. The author clearly creates the town and the main character’s neighbours, with well rounded descriptions and strong personalities. All of the characters worked in really well together to build an easily imaginable picture of the town and its quirky residents.
All in all, I really enjoyed this story. There were a few points were I found myself skimming a little when the descriptions of how the two main characters were fighting their feelings went on a little too long for me, but that is just my preference – I would rather have regular dialogue than have long sections describing feelings or emotions. But as I said, this is just my preference & it was only in small portions.
Thank you to voraciousreadersonly.com and the author, Jen Gilroy, for a copy of this book, in return for an honest review.
