As You Wish by Jackson Pearce

Title: As You Wish
Author: Jackson Pearce
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 298
My Rating: 4/5

Viola just wants to be accepted and loved. No, she is not a loner and she have friends but she just feels that there is something missing inside of her. Ever since her boyfriend/best friend broke up with her because of his sexuality, she yearns for a chance to belong.

With a powerful wish inside of her, she somehow summons up a jinn. Like a genie, he will grant her three wishes. But fearing that she will wish for something that will not make her happy, she holds back on making any wishes.

Jinn on the other hand is desperate for her to quickly make her wishes. That way, he can return home to Caliban where he can not age, unlike here on Earth where he will continue to grow old like a normal human.

As the two spend more and more time together with each other, their feelings grow stronger and stronger. Except if Viola is to make her three wishes, Jinn will disappear altogether. Can their love possibly last?

With so many 5/5 ratings for this novel, I had very high expectations for As You Wish. In the end, I didn't end up giving my 5/5 as I hoped, though As You Wish is an adorable read nonetheless.

In this story, you will get two perspectives, one from Viola's and the other from Jinn's. I was most surprised when I first read Jinn's side of things. Being so used to the typical, mysterious male in most YA novels, I thought Jinn would have that sexy and dark tone of voice or something along those lines. Instead, he sounded more normal than anything! No offence to Jinn but sometimes his thoughts were like a girl's. I did however find myself liking him as a character because his emotions towards Viola were sweet and caring.

When it came to Viola though, I couldn't find myself caring for her so much as the protagonist. She is alright; I didn't outright dislike her or anything. She's more like, meh. If she was a side character, she would definitely blend into the background. All of her actions and thoughts were very lulling and non-exciting. I can relate to her though and I think many other teens could also. I'm sure many people out there had that want for belonging at one point in their lives so I understood her and her thoughts quite well throughout the story.

I really liked the idea of Jinn's home world, Caliban. It sounded very perfect but at the same time, somewhat of a curse if you put things into perspective. The idea of never aging and being practically immortal could definitely have been put to good use in the novel. A lot of great ideas could have been pulled out of this imaginary world of Caliban and get incorporated into the story but unfortunately did not. Pearce wanted to focus more on the romance between Viola and Jinn rather than adding in heavy context.

What the novel lacked in my opinion was the "wow" factor that made the reader desperate to continue on reading non-stop. It was not intensely amazing as I hoped it was but I still enjoyed it. As You Wish is a fluffy and lovable read with its own charms. I definitely recommend it. If you want to have a glimpse of it, check out here.

Review copy provided by HarperCollins.