Wishtress, by Nadine Brandes (Book Review)

 

“She didn’t ask to be the Wishtress.”

She didn’t even have the choice. Myrthe was born with her Talent, unlike all the other commoners that had to go to the Well. At twelve-years-old, her Talent started to show and now—at seventeen, Myrthe is being used for her wish giving tears, but just wants to be see as a person. Then, Myrthe uses a rash wish and gets cursed: the next tear she sheds will end her life. She now must go to the Well in hopes to break the curse, before she cries a single tear. 

Bastiaan’s very rare Talent helped before, but will it in his new quest in finding the Wishtress and handing her over to the new king? But before he hands her in, Bastiaan wants a wish for himself. He gains Myrthe’s trust be promising to take her to the Well, but plans to get what he wants and turn her in to finish his orders…until he starts falling in love for this girl with the heart of stone…

“Joy. As suddenly as a hiccup but as subtle as a blink. Yet it was there. Unbidden and beautiful. I threw my arms wide and laughed. Laughed. In the face of winter. In the face of my curse. In the face of death.”

POV: When you read a novel that completely melts your heart>>

I’m speechless—and I think I’m still crying. Every time I hear someone mention this book, my heart strings get pulled. After reading some other of Nadine Brandes’s novels, I was really excited to hear of this book but I had no idea how much I would end up loving it. 

Okay, let me try to fit this into a few lines—One of the coolest parts of this book was the “the story within the story” you could say. It’s a beautiful romantic fantasy, but it was absolutely packed with spirituality. It’s this story of forgiveness between the main characters (Nadine Brandes bringing in that amazing theme yet again!), but also this battle of the two different “Wells” as they are called, which I really just thought was so clever on the authors part as to the battle of light and darkness. The ways she brings faith into her books is really just the cherry on top for me as to why I absolutely love her books. 

My favorite was the super cute romance, which I completely adored. As I’ve talked about, I despise fluffy, fiery romances—so I won’t go through all that again, but this book wasn’t like that in my opinion. It was just really sweet, made my cry quite a few times, and was very realistic, which filled my satisfaction tank.

I absolutely loved the characters (well most of them *Blares out a ton of spoilers*), and their development I was content with. Bastiaan I loved so much, and surprisingly in this book—I actually like both main characters. 

*Trying to put together the cons about this book is so hard* I do wish that the beginning was a little less slow (it’s a good 40 pages before anything really starts moving), and the beginning was a little confusing. I do love it when authors make it challenging and not always “easy breezy reading” you could say, but in this book it was a little confusing. 

The ending was a little rushed, but it is over two hundred pages so I can see why she did have to wrap it together quick at the end. I do believe that a sequel would make a good addition, but I really loved this book as a stand alone. 

“You’re a human, not a resource. A person. A girl who makes my heart beat fast…”

So, yes. Absolutely, definitely, 100% yes, I would recommend you give this book a try. I know there are quite a few differing opinions on this book, but it can’t hurt to give it a try to form yours. I don’t know if this book really just got on my “feels” or what, but I really love it. I loved this books plot so much, and I reread parts of this book all the time. I’d suggest this book as a YA novel, and I’d rate it a 10-10; cause yes, I really just wish it was longer. 

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“The Well is hope. And hope never fails.”