Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes

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 show more 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.

Also have as a Kindle eBook. show less

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK!! I have to say that it is quite rare for me to read something and not expect who had really done it in the end, so this was sort of a pleasant surprise for me. And while the final reveal did not really make me gasp in surprise, the rest of the book more than made up for it.

Okay, so I must explain. When I read a book, if at some point I do not laugh out loud or groan loudly in frustration or just feel a pit in my stomach because of an evil character it must not be a good book. Or at least it should be categorized as a tame one. But this book was certainly not tame to me. I think I pretty well gave myself a headache by groaning so much. Haha. I was suspecting almost everyone and thinking through all the show more possible endings and just trying so hard to figure it out. I loved every moment of it. I mean there is just this adrenaline rush that comes with reacting so strongly to a book. Well at least for me there is. But on top of my frustration was laughter. I loved that the main character was finally being able to have the courage to live her life. She was experiencing some things that most of us take advantage in being able to do, but she was also doing some things that some of us only dream of doing. And it's not like she really had anything to lose, being the main suspect in a murder and all with no hope of being proven innocent. And even if there was hope, it was a small hope that seemed to have no merit.

All the other books in this series are now on my Wish List, and I am going to read them whether time allows or not, because they are definitely worth it. I cannot wait to see what other situations the author can put her characters in. show less

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 show more 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.

Also have as an Audible book. show less

We had this local author in for a signing at the indy bookstore where I work and so I decided give one of her books a try. This book sucked me in from the first page. It's laugh out loud funny in parts but it has it's poignant moments too. Told in first person POV, it's narrator is a small town girl who everyone thinks is crazy so she doesn't have any friends and she has lived her whole life under her mother's thumb. When her mother is murdered she busts out of her shell. There is a romance here too and it's a pretty nice one. There were a couple of things with the police procedures that I was a bit skeptical about but I let them slide because that was really not the gist of the story.

The narrator's voice is superb. I loved her.

Talking show more to her dog on the way to rescue the hero:

I've shot right on past the Seven Deadly Sins and moved on to breakin' the Ten Commandments. We're surely goin' to hell now.

Can't wait to get in to work today to pick up book 2. show less

I discovered Swank's Rose Gardner mystery series one afternoon while browsing on my Kindle, and fell in love with the main character, a quirky young southern gal who experiences often mundane visions (and awkward habit of blurting them out to the unsuspecting) and lives with a truly overbearing, belittling momma. In the first book of the series Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes, she has a vision of her own death and makes her bucket list of twenty-eight things she would like to do before that vision comes to fruition. When she finds her mother murdered on her living room sofa (instead of herself, as in the vision) – things get interesting.
Let me just say that I love Rose Gardner – her dedication, her kindness, her spunk – and her show more devotion to her flatulent dog, Muffy. show less

Let’s start with the silly part that I’ve obsessing over. Until I read this book, I didn’t consider or know that anyone else considered Arkansas as part of the South. I thought it was part of the Midwest. Not that there’s anything wrong with either place, it was mostly a “well, huh” moment. I do love that it reads like a typical Southern novel, complete with mentions of sweet tea and boys who open doors. Swoon.

I loved this novel. I started it one evening but only made it about 30 pages before I was too tired to make my eyes focus on the print. I didn’t want to put it down. The next day I finished it in one session. I was hooked as soon as there were snooping neighbors and accusations of other neighbors being Yankees.

I show more loved Rose and her transformation throughout the novel; the change between a young woman who had to deal with an abusive relationship to becoming a woman who stands up for herself and is true to herself. I love that she not only has visions, but can’t stop herself from saying them out loud.

And Joe. Oh, Joe. I was on the fence about Joe for a long time. At first I was rooting for him, then I thought he was shady. Then rooting for him again, then thought he was an idiot. And so on…He’s that strange mix of Southern gentleman and bad boy.

I loved the plot as well. It seems farfetched at the beginning, but it hooked me in. It’s almost so out there that it makes sense. There are so many plot twists that will through you. It’s fabulous. There’s sad moments, great family moments and some laugh til you cry moments involving a dog named Muffy.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It’s such a great read. I’m actually passing this along to my mom after I finish this review. I’m looking forward to future involving this character as well as more from this author.

To end on an interesting note, I also love the cover of this book. Normally I’m kind of eh… about covers, but this one is rather perfect. It captures a scene that acts as a catalyst for the entire novel. Well done. show less

Rose is by far one of the most interesting characters I have read of in quite some time. I love that she didn't let herself be dragged down by her history, as many characters would had they been in her position, she always had such a positive outlook on life. Also, she is the sort of character you cannot help but root for and want to befriend in the hopes that some of her positivity will rub off on you. Furthermore, I very much appreciated that Denise was able to give us Rose's history in little bit and pieces (from all sorts of characters, like her sister, aunt, etc.) as opposed to more large information dump- it just made the book flow so much more naturally and made everything seem so much more real.

It becomes evident as you read the show more book that Denise doesn't dilly-dally in her writing, that she writes everything with a purpose, which, too, makes the book flow all the more naturally and makes it a literal page-turner- keeping you engaged (and on the edge of your seat) the entire time while reading it.

However, I must admit that the ending did throw me off a bit. I just felt that so much happened in the last bit of the book that I had a hard time keeping track of everything. When I thought the storyline was going in one direction it would go in the complete opposite therefore resulting in me having to reread a bit of the end (but this could have totally been my fault since I literally read this book in one sitting and therefore was most likely tired/ past the point of comprehension by the time I came to the end).

All in all, I highly recommend this book to those looking for a funnier read, albeit a funnier read with quite a bit of action. I cannot tell you how many times I burst out in laughter while reading this book. Also, I challenge you to not start talking in a Southern accent after finishing this book, with all of the characters constantly dropping their "g's" and saying things like "crappy doodles". show less