Book Review: Wish You Were Here by Beth K. Vogt

Kissing the wrong guy days before her wedding leads Allison to become a runaway bride. But can it also lead to happily ever after?

Allison Denman is supposed to get married in five days, but everything is all wrong: the huge wedding, the frothy dress, and the groom.

Still, kissing the groom’s brother in an unguarded moment is decidedly not the right thing to do. How could she have made such a mistake? It seems Allison’s life is nothing but mistakes at this point. And pulling a “Runaway Bride,” complete with “borrowing” her best friend’s car, doesn’t seem to solve her problems.

Can Allison find her way out of this mess? She prefers to be the one in control, and giving it up is not going to be easy. But to find her way again, she will have to believe that God has a plan for her and find the strength to let Him lead.

Wish You Were Here is fun and full of humor—sure to be a pleasure to inspirational romance readers.

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I adore Beth Vogt. We met last year at the ACFW conference, and had become acquaintances on Facebook. But when I announced the Bell’s Palsy a couple month ago, she became one of my biggest cheerleaders, leaving me notes on my Facebook wall nearly every day reminding me that she loved me, God loves me and that I’m beautiful.

Tears often filled my eyes when I would see her notes – and even though I’m completely better now, she leaves me notes several times a week, never failing to bring a smile to my face. When her book released, I was as happy for her as just about anybody and squealed with childlike glee when the book arrived on my doorstep.

But I was also gripped with fear.

[Not really, but doesn’t it sound so much better than “I was a bit scared”? ;)]

What if I didn’t like it? I adore Beth, but I’d recently read a book by another author I like a lot, but the book just didn’t do it for me. What if this one was the same way?

As it turned out, I worried needlessly!

I’d promised Beth I’d send her stream of consciousness notes as I read, but I didn’t. I was too engrossed to do so.

Oh, wait. You want an actual review of the book? 😉

It has llamas.

Do you need anything more than that?

Okay, fine :D.

I loved Allison and Daniel from the beginning and could see how Allison and Seth were all wrong from each other from the get-go. Beth creates a cast of characters you’ll love, including a cat [achoo!] and llamas you hate to say good-bye to when you turn the last page.

I lived in Colorado as a very young child and remember very little of it. I visited Denver for a week last year, but didn’t see much but the hotel room since I had no car. Regardless, she made Colorado come alive for me helping me to ‘see’ the setting though I’d never been there.

I felt Allison’s pain – both at wanting to call of the wedding and wondering whether it was the right thing to do. Her confusion when it came to Daniel and whether he was the right guy for her.

Daniel is a wonderful character, willing to sacrifice his own happiness for the woman he loves. Willing to forgo the family money to make his own [very successful] way in life.

Allison’s sister and aunt are not-to-be forgotten and her aunt especially livens up any scene she’s in. Allison’s best friend is fabulous.

I don’t know what Beth has up her sleeve for her next book, but I do know that she’s on my to buy list regardless of our friendship.

Overall Rating: 9 out of 10

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital copy of the book in exchange for my unbiased review [and, yes, I purchased a hard copy too].