It’s a real pleasure today to be joining the blog tour for A Wish For Wilma by Audrey Davis, the third and final book in her Cranley Wishes series, and sharing my review. Independently published on 12th June, this lovely book is now available for kindle (free via Kindle Unlimited) and in paperback via Amazon in the UK and US. Many thanks, as always, to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the author for providing my e-copy for review.
I think there might have been a point when Audrey must have despaired about me ever reading one of her books – having met her, and won a signed copy of The Haunting of Hattie Hastings, I repeatedly failed to read it or share a review (sorry Audrey!). And then, in July 2020, she published A Wish For Jinnie (you’ll find my review here). It honestly didn’t look like the book for me at all – but I absolutely loved it, the whole idea behind it and the way it was delivered, its wonderful humour, and found it the perfect escape from real life at a time when I really needed it. I really hoped she’d write a sequel featuring Jinnie’s friend Jo and, lo and behold (or maybe that should be “abracadabra”?), in 2022 A Wish For Jo came along – with more of everything I’d so enjoyed about the first book (here‘s my review). Should you read the books in order? Yes, I think they’d work best that way – and especially now we have the third and final book, the story of Jinnie’s grandmother Wilma, a wonderful character whose interventions I’d so enjoyed in the earlier books. My goodness, I was really looking forward to this one…
Getting old might not be the bee’s knees, but Wilma Cooper isn’t ready to hang up her boots yet.
She’s a lot to look forward to in her golden years, not least the arrival of her first great-grandchild.
When blast from the past Gus Brown appears on her doorstep, Wilma’s over the moon to rekindle their friendship.
But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Wilma finds herself playing host to a rather unusual house guest. There’s a baby boom in town, but not all babies are created equal…
As Wilma grows closer to Gus, a happy ending looks on the cards. Until an unexpected caller threatens to throw a major spanner in the works.
With a wish up her sleeve and madness in the air, will Wilma find a second chance at love?
In the hallway of the home Jinnie now shares with the lovely Sam – still coming to terms with finding out that he’s an all-powerful Djinn – there’s a firmly locked cupboard. And inside, there are two lamps – never ever to be touched again. Until, that is, there’s a bit of a crisis and grandmother Wilma comes to stay – and, left alone and finding the kitchen cupboards don’t need her re-arranging skills, turns her attention (and the silver key she’s unearthed) to that forbidden cupboard, with contents that could really do with a bit of a polish. First time around, they get away with it – but genies Dhassim and Aaliyah (returned to their lamps by Sam, when he discovered his unexpected powers) have unfinished business. And when a much smaller lamp appears in the cupboard, and Sam finds himself doing some unexpected time-travelling when they make their intentions clear, it’s only a matter of time until chaos ensues.
Wilma, rather unexpectedly, has a new man in her life – Gus was a friend of her and her husband, and when he turns up to do some tasks as a handyman, no longer married (and Wilma’s been on her own for a good while now), she finds her heart beating a little faster. As their friendship grows – and the second chance relationship between them is just so perfectly drawn – things become more than a little complicated when she discovers that the occupant of that third lamp is destined to become part of her life. And then she finds that someone else is determined to make sure there won’t be a future for the developing romance between her and Gus…
I’m just so totally delighted that the author chose to tell Wilma’s story – she was a wonderful source of some of the humour in the earlier books, but with a touch of poignancy about her too, and it was an absolute delight to get to know her better. And she’s so very real – her strong opinions, her tea-cup readings and crystals, her battle with the fags, and the real affection she’s held in by her family. And when things become a touch surreal with her unexpected visitor, it’s no real surprise that she takes it entirely in her stride – and Sam and Jinnie, although awaiting a new arrival of their own, are there in support to help her manage the situation and sort out the rest of her life.
The whole book sparkles with humour throughout – I don’t think the author has ever written any better – but the laughter is balanced with those moments of real poignancy that she always handles so beautifully. Wilma herself is just wonderful – entirely real in every way, and I absolutely loved her – but there’s also a perfectly drawn wider cast of characters, already familiar from the earlier books, all getting on with their lives and playing their parts in the story. And one element of the book that I particularly enjoyed was Wilma’s developing relationship with Gus – she entirely captures the particular issues and challenges around second chance romance later in life, and made me completely invested in their future happiness. And then, of course, there’s the magic – I really don’t want to take away the delight of discovering that part of the story, but the new arrival is a quite wonderful character, and the source of such mayhem in all their lives.
There’s such lovely warmth to this book – it’s clear that Wilma has the same special place in the author’s heart as she immediately had in mine. The storytelling is simply perfect – all those delightful small details, the many laugh-out-loud moments and wonderful one-liners, and the more gentle emotional touches. And the story itself is an absolute joy, the perfect escape from reality – the pages turned so quickly that it was such a pleasure to read it from cover to cover in a single sitting, although I really didn’t want it to end. Just wonderful – and this is a book (and series – do read them in order for maximum enjoyment!) that I’d thoroughly recommend to all.
About the author
Audrey Davis is a Scottish-born former journalist, now resident in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Her newspaper career saw her cover events in Northern Ireland and the Falkland Islands, as well as working for a London-based movie magazine writing reviews and carrying out interviews.
She self-published her debut romantic comedy novel A Clean Sweep in June 2017, following an online Open University course in Writing Fiction.
Audrey followed up with a short, darker prequel A Clean Break before beginning work on a rom-com novella trilogy with a ghostly twist – The Haunting of Hattie Hastings. Again, reviews across the board were excellent, and it was combined into a standalone novel in November 2018.
A Wish For Jinnie – part one of the Cranley Wishes trilogy — was published in June 2020, and her fifth book – Lost In Translation – in January 2021. The follow-up to Jinnie — A Wish For Jo — was published in June 2022.
All her books are available as Kindle ebooks and paperbacks through Amazon.
Apart from writing, Audrey enjoys travel and spends a lot of time in Edinburgh. She is an avid cook, watcher of scary movies and reluctant gym-goer.
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