Make a Wish by Helena Hunting | Audiobook Review

Make a Wish (Spark House Book 3) by Helena Hunting

Narrated by Stella Bloom and Jason Clarke

3rd in a Series but I read as a standalone. 

I was so excited to get an Advanced Listening Copy of a Helena Hunting novel from NetGalley, that I didn’t notice it was third in a series.  I noticed while reading the story that there must have been previous books about the sisters but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of Make A Wish by Helena Hunting, it stood just fine on its own.

Make a Wish begins with a flashback to over eight years ago. At 19 Harley began nannying for Gavin and his baby daughter, Peyton, whose mother died in childbirth. A year-and-a-half later, after a particularly rough night with a teething Peyton, Harley almost kissed Gavin. He moved two hours across the state to be closer to his in-laws right after, and Harley blamed herself. She stopped nannying right after, worrying about her lapse of judgement.

It’s now 7 years later, and Gavin has just moved back to town with his 9-year-old daughter. Harley runs birthday parties at her family’s hotel, and they show up to one. Her heart immediately gets involved because she loved that little girl and was still attracted to her dad. She’s 28 now and not in his employ, but she is still mortified about what happened.

Make a Wish is a slow burn, where Gavin and Harley use Peyton as the excuse to get together, and sometimes it felt like he was in it more for the amazing care Harley provides his daughter than for himself.

Gavin’s mother-in-law now lives almost two hours away, but she was Peyton’s main caregiver for the last 7 years. She’s strict and judgmental, but she loves her granddaughter. Gavin was still listening to her and letting her boss him around because he felt so guilty that their daughter died in childbirth. I felt bad hating her, but that made her a great ‘villain’ in this story.

Likes:

• I love single parent books so much!
• Peyton was adorable and stole the show.
• Stood alone fine (but made me wish I read the others because I liked this so much).
• Gavin was such a great dad.
• Had I read the first two books, I would have enjoyed catching up with the other two sisters.
• Harley losing her parents at a young age made her a really nice fit for Peyton and Gavin, as she knows loss.
• Told mostly from Harley’s POV with only about ¼ being from Gavin’s.

Dislikes:

• Peyton acted much younger than 9 years old.
• The relationship revolved a little too much around the daughter.
• Not quite as funny as I expected from previous Helena Hunting books.
• It took too long to hear his feelings about what happened that night before he left town. I wasn’t sure if he even remembered.

The Narration:

You can’t go wrong with Jason Clarke and Stella Bloom! I love both of them and they fit the characters well. They also both did young Peyton’s voice adorably well. I did, however, notice that they both narrate all three books in the series, which is why I didn’t immediately pick up the first in the series, When Sparks Fly. I wouldn’t be able to binge this series because I can’t have the same voices narrating different characters in a row.

The Down & Dirty:

Rating: 4.25 Stars, 3 Flames, 4.5 Narration

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