The Wishing Garden

Savannah Dawson worked in an advertising agency and had a rebellious fifteen, going-on-thirty, year old daughter named Emma. Savannah also told fortunes. It was a gift she had always possessed. So was her optimistic outlook on life. If an awful card turned up on a customer, like the card that predicts a loss, then Savannah would smile and tell the customer that she would probably only the ten extra pounds she had been exercising to get rid of in the first place. But when the cards showed Savannah bad news, she just knew it really was bad news. Her father was dying. So off she went to Arizona to be with him and a mother who hated her!Emma saw the auras of people, but did not believe in magic and such like her mother did. She thought her mother was a dreamer and needed to wake up to reality. Emma could see her grandfather's dark aura, knew he did not have long, and therefore did not want to get to know him. She did not want to care for someone who was about to die, no matter how lovable he was. He was too much like Savannah.Doug Dawson knew he was dying. He was in a hurry to finish his perfect garden before it happened though. He hired Jake Grey to build the perfect bench for it. Jake was thought of (by many) as a crazy man with even crazier dogs. Even Jake believed it! But one thing drove him even crazier, the thought of Savannah.*** There is SO much that I am not telling. I got lost, not only in the lives of Savannah and Jake, but also in the lives of Emma and Eli, and Doug and Maggie. Then all of them must interchange to help each other pull through and learn hard lessons.Author, Christy Yorke, had me shaking my head at Savannah's outlook on life, then at Emma's acting out for attention. I then found myself hopeful for Savannah, pulling for Jake, and weeping at the most tender of scenes. I cannot tell you what a marvel I believe this author to be! Highly recommended reading!

I stumbled upon Ms. Yorke's first book, "Magic Spells", in the library and picked it up merely because a blurb on the cover compared her writing to Alice Hoffman's. Well, Ms. Yorke has got Hoffman beat by a country mile! Her writing is fresh, passionate, sensitive and poignant. I enjoyed every page of this story, which is ultimately about mothers and daughters, and read it again when I got to the end, that's how good the story was. I'm looking forward to her next book with great anticipation.

The Wishing Garden by Christy York is one of the most immediately emotionally engaging novels that I have ever read. It is filled with a large cast of well written characters and while it revolves around the life of Savannah Dawson it also introduces us to a host of unforgettable characters who after reading this book I have come to care for.Savannah Dawson, a divorced mother of a fifteen-year-old girl, ad agent, and part time tarot card reader is called home to say goodbye to her dying father. She is also one of the most unrelentingly cheerful people ever created. This causes problems between her and her reality based angry mother, her angst-ridden daughter and was partially the cause of her divorce. This is a quick moving character driven novel that is a perfect summer beach read.

In San Francisco, single mother Savannah Dawson is a successful advertising executive. Her teenage daughter Emma is going through angst and rebellion that leaves Savannah weary and wondering what happened to her sweet little girl. Savannah also enjoys reading Tarot Cards until she makes a bad selection. Not long after, Savannah receives a letter from her estranged mother Maggie informing her that her father is dying.For the first time in six years, Savannah accompanied by Emma return to Arizona to visit her dad Doug. At her parents' Prescott home, she meets Jake Grey, who is building a special bench in Doug's garden. As she struggles with her nasty daughter, her mean-spirited mother, and her cancer-wracked father, Savannah finds solace with Jake. However, Jake has secrets that make a lasting relationship seem unlikely.THE WISHING GARDEN is a fantastic relationship drama. The story line is loaded with poignancy as the readers see inside the soul of several charcaters. None of the cast is perfect or totally villainous though at first glance the audience might categorize Maggie as such. In actuality, she resents her tossing away her ambitions to support Doug's choices. Even Savannah's ex is fully supportive of her taking her daughter to Arizona. Though none of the characters except perhaps Jake resemble anything likable, all of them seem real and their interplay, including that of the oldest canine, seems spiteful but genuine. Christy Yorke has written a deep character study that will provide much enjoyment to sub-genre fans.Harriet Klausner

This was an incredibly beautiful book, with sentences and sometimes whole passages that took my breath away. Christy Yorke has told a story about the loyalty we all feel toward our family, even when we don't want to. I loved the weaving of the tarot cards throughout the book, and the hint of the supernatural in the readings. A great book if you like beautiful writing and an emotional plot.