Stealing Wishes

By Shannon Yarbrough
View this Author's Spotlight
Paperback, 232 pages
* * * * -
 (4 Ratings)
Stealing Wishes
Preview
[Loading...]
Price:$14.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
What’s more important? A perfect cup of coffee or a perfect date? Blaine—a photo taking, obsessive compulsive, coffee barista—steals money out of fountains and can’t find a date. Obsessed with the number 32, Blaine blames his lack in love as the reason for his habits. Everyday is timed and in sync to Blaine’s magic number! When his friend Sallie sets him up on a date, Blaine is convinced that Edward, the new love interest, will cure his compulsions. But when Blaine discovers they have nothing in common, complications ensue. Auden, an artsy tattooed coworker, tells Blaine about a local photo contest, so Blaine sets out to capture a winning snapshot. Just as Blaine thinks he has his illness beat, his unvarying world spirals out of control when he skips part of his daily routine, ultimately making Blaine realize that Mr. Right has been in front of him the whole time. STEALING WISHES is a caffeinated romantic comedy with cream and sugar! Every reader will relate to Blaine’s obsessive outlook on life.
Ratings & Reviews | Product Details
 

Ratings & Reviews

Log In to review this item

Review Stealing Wishes

Review by Guest
Your Rating:
Not Yet Rated Not Yet Rated Not Yet Rated Not Yet Rated Not Yet Rated
Cancel
Lulu Sales Rank: 32601
Log In to rate this item
. . . . . Not Yet Rated  

3 People Reviewed This Item

. . . . . No Rating  
Mar. 2, 2009 By Linda Welch
"A pleasure to read"

Blaine has all his little routines; he has his best friend Sallie, his job at the Latte Da coffee shop, his photography, but he’s never had a steady boyfriend. He’s had one night stands in plenty but lately not even those. And then he meets Edward. Edward appears to be everything Blaine could desire, a perfect 10. Blaine and Edward could have a lasting relationship. Blaine could fall in love. But also, there is Blaine’s co-worker Auden. Blaine thinks Auden is attracted to him and although he would like to know Auden better, Auden remains something of a mystery. Should Blaine take the safe road with Edward or take a chance on Auden and risk rejection, the... More > loss of their friendship and possibly the loss of his job – because, Blaine tells himself, if Auden rejects him he’ll be too embarrassed to work alongside Auden. Blaine decides to take the safe route, with Edward.

Blaine calls his obsessive compulsive behavior an illness, yet he think that his relationship with Edward will cure him, that all his little repetitions materialized as a substitute for what has been missing in his life. Now he has Edward, he does not need them. When he becomes disillusioned with the relationship he still sticks with Edward. But when he foregoes his routines things start to go horribly wrong and of course Blaine blames himself - he changed his routine and in doing so changed the way in which life plays out.

Reading Stealing Wishes, I became very fond of Blaine. I felt I got to know him very well, sometimes better than he does himself. At one point I was telling him, “No, not Edward! You really want Auden!” I loved being inside his mind, hearing him muse, seeing his observations through his eyes, the astute comparisons he makes between coffee, coffee making, photography, dating and life (to name a few.) The other people in Blaine’s world are well-fleshed characters, particularly Sallie, and getting to know Auden better, later in the book, was a treat.

This is a charming, beautifully written story and a pleasure to read. For a start, the pace is perfect because it flows, never lagging, nor does it rush you along. The characters, and the plot, immediately engage you. It had me chuckling, sighing, pondering, laughing out loud. Take your time reading Stealing Wishes because you won’t want to miss one word. And then you’ll want to go back and read it all over again. I definitely will.

I wish I could be with Blaine when he turns 33.


< Less
Report as inappropriate
. . . . . No Rating  
Sep. 9, 2009 By LK Gardner-Griffie
"A Sweet Tasting Coffee Drink without a lot of Foam"
Most of us have things in our lives that we can obsess on. In fact, ask any teenage girl and she’ll immediately tell you that her nose it too big or too small, she has too many freckles or not enough, that her eyebrows are too thin or too bushy; the possible list is endless. We can spend hours agonizing and obsessing over features that the rest of the world doesn’t even notice.

In Stealing Wishes, Shannon Yarbrough takes us inside the mind of 32 year old, self-diagnosed, obsessive-compulsive, Blaine, who is a picture taking coffee barista. This light romantic comedy is told in an introspective, narrative style and the... More > reader is drawn into Blaine’s world as he wakes up each morning at 5:32, sets his alarm for 16 minutes later to allow time for a shower and shave, and then sets the alarm for the next 16 minute increment to allow time for eating breakfast. As you might have guessed, one of Blaine’s obsessions surrounds the number 32, the number of his apartment, his current age, as well as multiples of 32, and how he relates everything possible to this number.

Blaine loves his job as a coffee barista, because it allows him to control his environment by organizing all of the items and to set up routines for each type of drink ordered. The off work hours are spent with his camera, taking pictures of people he doesn’t know and putting them in photo albums. They are his memories of moments in his life. His best friend, Sallie, is also his boss, and since they are both single, they frequently go out bar or restaurant hopping together. This all changes when Sallie meets Charlie, they become a couple and then set Blaine up on a blind date with Charlie’s friend Edward.

One of the few things that Blaine and Edward have in common is their enjoyment of the writings of Christopher Isherwood. Will that be enough to sustain the relationship? The park that Blaine frequents on a regular, almost daily basis, is Bachardy park which is exactly 32 blocks from the coffee shop where Blaine works. Since author Christopher Isherwoood had a high-profile, openly gay relationship with Don Bachardy from early 1953 through Isherwood’s death in 1986, it is just one more way in which the life and writings of Christopher Isherwood influence this book.

While not being my usual genre, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Stealing Wishes as it provides a glimpse of a lifestyle outside of my own. It shows modern day relationships as you only learn the first name of any of the characters. The theme of the book is universal as we all contemplate at one time or other what love is, and struggle with the intricacies of relationships, whether gay, hetero, or both.

At the beginning of the book, Blaine tells the readers, “I am a camera (too).” Stealing Wishes represents the word snapshot of the moments of Blaine’s life.

LK Gardner-Griffie
Author of Misfit McCabe < Less
Report as inappropriate
. . . . . No Rating  
Aug. 31, 2009 By Shannon Yarbrough
"Rick Reed, acclaimed author, and his thoughts on Stealing Wishes" The search for Mr. Right has never been portrayed with more quirks and charms than it is in Shannon Yarbrough's STEALING WISHES.

This is a book that is full of heart and hope, filled with the kind of characters you'll want to know…and for whom you will come to wish the very best.

An emotional, engaging read, you'll want to return to the world of Stealing Wishes again and again.
--Rick R. Reed, author of IM and ORIENTATION
Report as inappropriate

You Recently Viewed

[Loading...]
 

Product Details

ISBN 978-0-615-21361-3
Copyright Shannon Yarbrough (Standard Copyright License)
Edition First Edition
Publisher TOSOW Publishing
Published June 9, 2008
Language English
Pages 232
 
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black & white
Dimensions (inches) 6.0 wide × 9.0 tall

Tags

Log In to tag this item

Tag This Item

Separate tags with commas, e.g. "monkeys, beans, fiction"
Cancel
There are no tags for this item.