{Review} Wish You Were Here by Renée Carlino (@renayz @AtriaBooks)

​Charlotte has spent her twenties adrift, floating from interest to interest, job to job, and guy to guy, searching for a spark but never quite finding it. All she knows is that she won’t discover it working as a waitress at a pies-and-fries joint in Los Angeles or living with her fun but aimless best friend in a tiny apartment in the Arts District.

Then Charlotte collides with Adam, a gorgeous and soulful painter who seems just as lost as she feels. Their instant connection turns into a midnight drink… and a whirlwind night of champagne, Chinese food, and the kind of conversation that only happens in romantic comedies. But the next morning, Adam gives Charlotte the cold shoulder, leaving her confused and hurt—and wondering if the few odd moments between them the night before were red flags in disguise.

Months later, Charlotte hasn’t been able to shake Adam, so she decides to find out what happened the morning after their magical night together. This fateful decision rewrites their wild love story, but what Charlotte doesn’t know yet is that the ending has already been written.

​Charlotte Martin has no idea what to do with her life.  She’s languishing her days away working in a diner with her best friend. They share everything – a dead end job, an apartment and a less than desirable track record in love.
 
Until one night on the way home from drowning their sorrows at a local bar, Charlotte encounters a man who manages to do the impossible.  He captures her heart with just one look.  The night that they share changes her life forever. But in the bright light of day, he walks away and leaves her with nothing but her doubts.
 
She numbly goes on about her life – unsuccessfully dodging her family’s plea for her to get herself together and to finally settle down.  But she can’t seem to forget the man who touched her body and painted her soul on the side of a building.

You know when you’re looking at someone and you can’t help but smile at how oblivious they are to their own charm? That’s what was happening to me, and it was making me feel… happy. Euphoric. Something indescribable. It was like we already knew each other, like we had met in a previous life.
 
I smiled at him; he smiled back. There was some sort of affinity between us, but I didn’t know where it was coming from, exactly. I didn’t know this guy half an hour ago, but now I needed to know him.

​Adam Bramwell seemingly had it all.  A loving family, a successful career as an attorney and more money than he could ever spend.  A tragic twist of fate causes him to reevaluate exactly what he wants out of his life.  He left everything behind to become an artist and he ended up finding his soulmate. 
 
If only he could remember how to find her.

“This is crazy.”

“Just go.” He shooed me away, but he was smiling while he did it.

I couldn’t laugh even though he was trying to be funny. “What if . . .”

“What if there is a 9.0 earthquake right below us in the next minute? What if the sun explodes tomorrow? What if heaven is real? What if God is a woman? What if the moon landing was a hoax? What if Donald Trump is an alien?”
​
“No one really questions that last one,” I said.

Wish You Were Here took me to a place that I never expected.  I thought it would be a great second chance romance to get lost in for a few hours.  But what I experienced was a life changing read that shattered my heart into the smallest of pieces and then put it back together again.
 
It’s just another reason why our “Best of” list every year always has at least one book written by Renée on the very top.  Just remember to read this one in a place where you can feel all of the emotions because it will take you under and not let up until the very end.  And you’ll wonder if you will ever be same again…

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