Wish Hunter

Wish Hunter: (The Savannah River Series Book 1) by Jordan Riley Swan and Hero Bowen. Story Garden

Nadia Kaminski is a wish thief, using her position as a marriage counsellor to steal wishes from her clients. She comes from a family of wish hunters and they currently owe a huge debt of wishes. But Nadia has never used her own wishes and wants to use one of her own to resurrect her murdered husband. In order to do that, she needs to steal an untracked wish to find a way to clear the debt. An opportunity that fulfills this requirement happens along and she steals a wish from Miles, a famous rock star. Unlike most victims, Miles realises what she’s done and comes after her. What follows is a back and forth where they are enemies and allies at various times as they encounter others involved in the risky wish business and it’s not a matter of fun and games at any point.

This book was enjoyable for what it was. A paranormal story set in Savannah, Georgia with a Polish immigrant family with quite a few secrets. There’s some interesting intermingling of Polish folklore and the paranormal. That said, the world-building for me wasn’t as complete as it might have been. I don’t really get the whole idea of wishes and the limits imposed. I’m not sure if this is part of the Polish folklore or not. The black market that exists seems to be more plausible but it kind of gets lost in some of the illogic of the wishes.

Nadia’s family is quite an interesting bunch. The grandmother seems almost like a mafia boss, except it’s about the whole wish business. The mom seems to be locked into whatever the grandmother dictates and seems to spend most of the time chasing after men. There’s an absent sister who is a local power and is alienated from the family, particularly the grandmother. Nadia seems to be in need of therapy herself for wanting to bring her dead husband back to life over a year after his death. While I understand her grief, I can’t see how she thinks her plan has any chance of success, In any case, the late husband seems to have a bit of a dark cloud about him that will eventually be revealed.

The relationship with Miles is a curious one, sometimes seeming like it’s supposed to be the beginning of a romance. To me, there’s more potential for a good friendship where they look after each other and not so much romantic chemistry. They do seem to understand each other once they get past the initial issues of her having stolen his wish. It will be interesting to see where this part of the story goes in the future installments.

This is the first in a series so the story isn’t wrapped up by the end of the book. It’s a fun read and the Savannah setting adds to the mystery. Overall I give this three stars.