Wish Upon a Star by Jennifer Sienes - Book Review & Giveaway

- January 03, 2022

ABOUT THE BOOK

Fairy tales and wishing upon stars are for those who still believe in romance.

Sometimes misplaced trust injures more than ourselves, and doesn’t Elaina Hensley know it. When her oldest daughter is left suffering the consequences, Elaina vows to protect her girls at any cost. Nothing, not even her own happiness, will sway her again.

Or will it?

She’s got this protective self-denial down pat–right up to the moment her best friend’s brother arrives on the scene like a fairytale knight, vowing to slay all her dragons. She must—she will resist.

However, when her worst nightmare comes back to haunt her, Elaina has to admit she needs that white knight on her side.

Click here to get your copy!

Book: Wish Upon a Star. Author: Jennifer Sienes

Genre: Christmas Christian Women’s Fiction. Release date: November 9, 2021

MY BOOK REVIEW

"Wish Upon a Star" is part of the Apple Hill series and it is beautifully written. It is set around the holiday season. Jennifer Sienes did a wonderful job with a difficult topic. Eliana Hensley has not had an easy life. People didn't treat her very well. She is dealing with getting a divorce who is in jail. Eliana doesn't feel comfortable with her daughter talking to her dad. Her pain bleeds through the pages.
Ryan, her best friend's brother, is now in town. He finds himself smitten with Eliana and her daughter.
Ryan fingers out she see herself as damaged. This allowed him to finger out a plan to help her. It is called showing her unending love and patience. He also showed her God.
The emotions throughout the book are very realistic. I felt like I was reading a biography about a family and what they have been through. The characters and the topics are realistic. The book shows how long it takes to overcome trauma and trust.
Eliana overcomes so much with the help of Ryan and God. The ending made me tear up a little.
I would love to see Hallmark make Jennifer Sienes's "Wish Upon a Star" into a film because it is so sweet, full of heart, and has a great message. If you have a women's book club that is geared towards family-friendly and God then this one is a perfect book. I highly recommend Jennifer Sienes book, "Wish Upon a Star."

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Sienes holds a bachelor’s in psychology and a master’s in education, but discovered life-experience is the best teacher. She loves Jesus, romance and writing–and puts it altogether in inspirational contemporary fiction. Her daughter’s TBI and brother’s suicide inspired two of her three novels. Although fiction writing is her real love, she’s had several non-fiction pieces published in anthologies–two in Chicken Soup for the Soul. She has two grown children and one very spoiled Maltese. California born and raised, she recently took a step of faith with her real-life hero and relocated to Tennessee.

More from Jennifer

Do you remember what Christmas was like as a child? I do. Some of my fondest memories come that holiday when I was growing up. There was a deep sense of family and tradition that I desperately wanted to instill in my own children. No small part of that was the innocence that came from being protected by the harsh realities of life. I envisioned growing old with the grands and great-grands gathered around a Christmas tree bursting with ornaments and sharing the customary Christmas dinner.

My future didn’t quite pan out the way I’d envisioned it. What was it John Lennon said? “Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.” Or if you want to keep with the Biblical viewpoint: In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps (Proverbs 16:9)

Although my innocence went by the wayside as I became an adult, I held onto that dream until the Christmas morning my first husband announced he was leaving me. It was then I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. He anchored me in the following months along with my full-time teaching job, two teenage children, and a mother who was dying of leukemia. It wasn’t until October rolled around when my then seventeen-year-old son burst into my bedroom early one morning and said, “I just realized, Christmas will never be the same” that it hit me. I wasn’t the only one affected. For him, the dream died much too early. He was right—when splitting time between divorced parents, things get rather disjointed and complicated. Christmas was never the same for any of us.

But our God is a God of redemption. He takes our brokenness and disappointments and uses them for our good and His glory. Wish Upon A Star isn’t the traditional Christmas story you might find on the Hallmark channel. It’s about a broken family in need of a merciful Savior, and one woman in need of a white knight.

Just like Elaina Hensley, the main character, God had a more perfect plan for my life, too. Without the brokenness we cannot be made whole through Him to be who He calls us to be. In the years since that fateful Christmas morning, He’s given me my own white knight, a godly husband who loves to serve, and the opportunity to follow another childhood dream—to write the stories He’s laid on my heart.