Book Review: Don't You Wish

When plain and unpopular Annie Nutter gets zapped by one of her dad's whacked-out inventions, she lands in a parallel universe where her life becomes picture-perfect. Now she's Ayla Monroe, daughter of the same mother but a different father—and she's the gorgeous, rich queen bee of her high school.

In this universe, Ayla lives in glitzy Miami instead of dreary Pittsburgh and has beaucoup bucks, courtesy of her billionaire—if usually absent—father. Her friends hit the clubs, party backstage at concerts, and take risks that are exhilirating . . . and illegal. Here she's got a date to lose her V-card with the hottest guy she's ever seen.

But on the insde, Ayla is still Annie.

So when she's offered the chance to leave the dream life and head home to Pittsburgh, will she take it?

The choice isn't as simple as you think.

 

I really didn’t know what to expect before reading Don’t You Wish, but I did know the idea behind the story sounded really awesome. And now I can officially say I’m glad I read this book!

Annie Nutter makes up one-fourth of the Nutter household; her dad is a crazy inventor, her mom is tired of her husband’s not-so-original inventions, and her younger brother runs around burping in people’s faces. To top it all off, Annie’s just a plain Jane, with braces and pimples. After she’s embarrassed on a bus ride home by her high school crush, Annie catches her mom sobbing over an article in a magazine. As it turns out, the article is about a billionaire doctor, who happens to be her mother’s ex-boyfriend. Annie’s mom sincerely wishes she had the fortune and luxury that Dr. Jim Monroe could’ve provided her, but she insists she would miss her kids. Annie’s theory? She and her brother may not be the same people if her mom chose that life, but they may have the same souls.

That night, after one of Annie’s dad’s inventions goes terribly awry, Annie wishes she could be pretty and live a life filled with luxury. So when she wakes up and sees that she’s not in her room, her clothes are made by top-of-the-line designers, and her face is an updated, more beautiful version of the old her, she ecstatic! But the façade of a perfect life is only surface-deep. Her new parents—the mother from her old life and Dr. Jim Monroe—are about to divorce, her new brother is an asshole, she can’t trust her best friends, and she’s actually at the top of the social ladder, which means she has to be a bitch to everyone. But that’s what Ayla (the girl whose body Annie is in) does, not Annie. As Annie strives to set things right in her new life and get back to her old life, she realizes she wouldn’t trade her old family for the world. With a little help from her new boyfriend, Charlie, they find a way back to her old dimension. Charlie has a family of his own to look after, and a sister who was paralyzed in a car accident. So, what if Annie and Charlie never meet in her old life? What if they never see each other again? And even if they do meet in the other dimension, will they actually know one another?

Overall, this was a thought-provoking book, and I was teary-eyed in several places, especially the ending. I won’t ruin it for anyone, but I just loved it. Toward the end of the book, I thought, This should be made into a movie! So I was excited to see it was optioned for a feature film in “About Author” section. :)

**ARC courtesy of publisher via NetGalley