Review: The Wishing Season by Denise Hunter

Another Fun Romance in the Chapel Springs Series

PJ McKinley wants to prove to her family that she is capable of making good choices, despite her past history of less-good choices, especially those concerning men. The Wishing House is her opportunity: she wants to turn the property into an exclusive B&B with a classy restaurant attached. Her competition is Cole Evans, who wants to open the house up to teens who’ve aged out of the foster care system and need somewhere safe to live while they complete high school.


Mrs Simmons can’t decide which is the better plan, so comes up with a compromise: PJ will have the ground floor to open her restaurant, and Cole will have upstairs for his teens, and each of them have a year to prove they should be gifted the house. A potentially awkward situation made even more awkward by the way PJ and Cole met—when she knocked him unconscious—and by their mutual attraction.

Denise Hunter gets better and better with each book. In The Wishing Season, she’s done an excellent job of combining a small-town romance with the spiritual theme about the lies we tell ourselves, without getting preachy. I still think Susan May Warren does this best, but Denise Hunter is catching up.

Basically, The Wishing Season has it all: lovable characters, a compelling plot, secrets and plenty of tension between PJ and Cole, the rivals who find themselves in the middle of something bigger.

The Wishing Season is the third in the Chapel Springs Romance series, following Barefoot Summer (good) and Dancing with Fireflies (excellent). It can easily be read as a standalone novel, although if you plan to read the series it is best to start with the first. Recommended.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Denise Hunter at her website.