Review: Twenty-Eight and a half wishes by Denise Grover Swank

For Rose Gardner, working at the DMV on a Friday afternoon is bad even before she sees a vision of herself dead. She’s had plenty of visions, usually boring ones like someone’s toilet’s overflowed, but she’s never seen one of herself before. When her overbearing momma winds up murdered on her sofa instead, two things are certain: There isn't enough hydrogen peroxide in the state of Arkansas to get that stain out, and Rose is the prime suspect.

Rose realizes she’s wasted twenty-four years of living and makes a list on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt: twenty-eight things she wants to accomplish before her vision comes true. She’s well on her way with the help of her next door neighbor Joe, who has no trouble teaching Rose the rules of drinking, but won’t help with number fifteen-- do more with a man. Joe’s new to town, but it doesn’t take a vision for Rose to realize he’s got plenty secrets of his own.

Somebody thinks Rose has something they want and they’ll do anything to get it. Her house is broken into, someone else she knows is murdered, and suddenly, dying a virgin in the Fenton County jail isn’t her biggest worry after all.

Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes by Denise Grover Swank
Published: June 29, 2011
Source: I received this book from the author/CLP Book Tour in exchange for an honest and thoughful review.
Purchase: Amazon, Barnes and Nobles


My Thoughts:


Rose Gardner has visions of things that would be considered useless, she can’t control them they just happen in the presence of the person who will be affected. But, this time she sees a vision of herself murdered on her mother’s sofa.

Rose decides that she needs to take life into her own hands, she finally stands up to her mother who is  ruthless and controls everything about Rose’s life. Rose decides to make a wish list or bucket list of sorts with things that she would love to accomplish before she dies, twenty eight and a half wishes. You can’t imagine the things that she puts on her list; this girl has not lived at all.

I loved Rose, yes she was kind of naïve and had no clue about the simplest things but that was part of what endeared me to her. She has lived such a rough life and endured so much. When she finally finds her voice and decides that she will stop being a doormat for everyone she finds herself as the prime suspect in her mother’s murder.

The story is nonstop action from here as Rose unravels hidden secrets of her past, tries to live each moment of her life as her last, and figure out who really murdered her mother.

The writing was engaging; the plot had a few twists that I wasn’t expecting although there were others that I figured out early on. This book was definitely a page turner as I wanted to know what would happen next. I loved the story and it had everything that I could want in a book. A strong main character, mystery, and romance.

This is definitely a book you should check out and I look forward to the next book in The Rose Gardner Mystery series.