New Orleans, a city of mystery and magic, of secrets and dreams, and a history drenched in both love and the deepest of heartache. When ballet dancer Clara Campbell arrives in New Orleans, lonely and homesick, she is immediately captivated by the story of Windisle Plantation and the tragic tale that is said to have transpired beyond its gate. Legend has it that it is abandoned by all living … living souls, but to Clara’s great surprise, it is not a ghost she hears through the stone wall surrounding the property, but a flesh and blood man. A scarred stranger with a pain deeper and darker than the churning waters of the Mississippi river that flows beside his self-imposed prison.
The ruined man behind the wall hides himself from the world. The last thing he expects is to find a friend in the selfless girl who speaks to him through the cracks in the rock. The girl who keeps returning week after week. The girl who makes him wish for things he has long since given up on. The girl who strikes both fear and hope within his wounded heart. But there can be no future for them, no life beyond Windisle, for no one knows better than him that monsters only live in the dark.
The Wish Collector is the story of shame and triumph, of loneliness and love, and the miracle of two hearts connecting despite the strongest of barriers between them.
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Stunning. Eloquent. Heart breaking. Poignant. Ethereal. Heart warming.
The Wish Collector turned out to be a mash-up of several themes that the author was able to not only keep track of, but was able to turn it into something beautiful. Jonah was damaged. His brother came to him, asked him to choose, and warned him that the path he was on would lead him nowhere good. Jonah didn’t listen and his life became one of tragedy. Burdened by his sins, riddled with remorse, he became a recluse, hiding from the world and holding his scars close to the vest. That is until Clara burst into his life and brought back the light.
“Do you know why it’s called the weeping wall?”
“It’s said that the wall weeps tears for the heartbreak and tragedy that came to pass behind it, for the spirits still trapped within.”
I’m the wrong person to ask if I believe in spirits because I do and I don’t, depending on the day. Or my mood. But I was so intrigued by the story of Angelina and John. I loved how it served as the subtext for the romance that was building between the main characters. Clara was equally curious and her determination to find out the truth led her to the weeping wall, which led her to Windisle, which led her to Jonah. The story of the ghosts was sweetly romantic and utterly tragic. A slave and a soldier fighting in the civil war for the south, in love and striving for a hopeless future with each other. How can your heart not break and yet hope? Did their tale give me a strange sense of foreboding? Yes. I was sure my heart would be broken some more. And it was.
“Love makes a place for itself even if there isn’t one… Love carves into the hardest of places.”
Clara had such a pure heart and I think she was the perfect foil to Jonah’s doom and gloom. Here was this guy who had isolated himself from the world, falling for the sweetest girl of all, who continued to drag and pull and force him out of his self-imposed exile. Yes, he was once an arrogant s.o.b., but I truly believe he learned his lesson – the hard way. He suffered such a huge loss and he had punished himself enough. I loved how the spark of life Clara brought to him drove him to a world of goodness. She inadvertently showed him the path of righteousness and I was thrilled that he found new purpose.
If you love angst and feels and slow burning romances, you’ll love this story just as much as I did!
The Wish Collector is pure magic. Mia Sheridan completely swept us off our feet. This is a story that will stay in our hearts for a long, long time.
As an author, I often don’t get much time for reading for pleasure. But this week I was able to read The Wish Collector by the lovely Mia Sheridan. I adored it – beyond words. it captivated me and I could barely put it down, even to sleep. I ignored the book I am writing to finish it. Emotional. Beautifully written. One of my top favs for the year, hands down. Grab it. Read it. Love it.
One of my favorite books of all time. So many layers to this beautiful love story. I laughed, I cried, and none of my predictions were right!!! (Which is hard to do) Seriously in love with this work of art.
What a beautiful story! So original. I loved the blending of past and present.
Mia Sheridan is bar none one of my favorite contemporary authors. I have read just about everything she’s written because her craft is stellar and her stories draw you in without fail, particularly when she goes all historical. This book also manages to pack an emotional punch given its setting in New Orleans in the backdrop of civil war, which conjures a forbidden imagery all its own. Then you wrap it all in a cloak of the arts (ballet, mind you!) and there’s no match for it. This is my first must-read for 2019! You did you thang, Mia!
Equally heartbreaking and uplifting—a riveting, unforgettable read. Absolutely brilliant. I am finding it difficult to express with mere words just how much I adore this book. It touched me in a way that only a few books before it have. It left my heart aching, filled with sadness and despair, love and hope. So much hope.
Mia Sheridan knocks it out of the park, again, with The Wish Collector. Exhibiting her signature style of sweeping romance, emotional character growth arcs, and love overcoming societal standards, The Wish Collector took me on an intense ride through the past and present and made my heart soar at the beautiful imagery and entrancing love stories.
Mia Sheridan’s The Wish Collector was a magical tale, taking us on a journey through legend and myth, love and regret, and ultimately a story of grace and redemption. Layering two stories, to bring two souls rest and two others love and acceptance, The Wish Collector, threaded the otherworldly feeling only New Orleans can provide with the romance and tolerance Ms. Sheridan continually displays in her work.
One of the best reads of the year! Mia weaves a tremendous tale of love, loss and growth with every piece of romantic glory we love and adore!
I always thought that Archer’s Voice will forever remain my most favorite Mia Sheridan book. That the sheer awe and beguiling enchantment I felt while reading this fantastic story could never be surpassed. But I was wrong. The Wish Collector is an extraordinary book filled to the brim with romance, tragedy, mystery and magic. It’s an epic tale of love and loss, hope and despair, defeat and triumph. This heartachingly beautiful story has completely consumed me – body and soul. Mia’s exceptional talent shines on every single page. She is hands down in a class of her own. Her powerful words manage to seep through my skin while igniting my bones and making my heart flutter like the wings of a hummingbird. Mia knows how to brilliantly spin a compelling and unique story and breathe life into her intriguing characters. This book is my favorite read of 2018!
Clara Campbell is a ballerina who has recently moved to New Orleans. But getting settled in a new city without her beloved father is harder than she thought. When her elderly neighbor tells her the legend about Windisle Plantation and the tragic love story that is said to have transpired beyond its gate Clara is immediately captivated by it. Especially by the weeping wall surrounding the property where people go to ask for their utmost wishes to be fullfilled. Everyone believes that Windisle Plantation has been abandoned since years and is haunted by ghosts. But when Clara goes there she is surprised to find a man talking to her through the cracks of the stone wall. He seems utterly broken and carrying deep pain and self-loathing inside himself. Jonah Chamberlain is hiding his scars from the world and living a lonely and withdrawn life as a recluse. Until a beautiful and selfless woman offers him her friendship and makes him yearn and wish for things he has long ago given up on.
Clara is one of my favorite female heroines ever written. She may be a delicate ballet dancer but she was a brave and strong woman. I loved her kind and compassionate heart, how she always put other peoples’ well-being first. I also admired her for being passionate about things she cared about and for her endless curiosity and openness. Clara was able to make Jonah realise his worth and break the thick walls around his heart thus making him fall madly and deeply in love with her.
Jonah was such a complex and multi-faceted hero. What made him even more endearing to me was that he wasn’t perfect. I adored every single of his flaws, admired each and every scar on his body bearing testimony to his courage. It took the unconditional love and support of a special woman to change his perspective and to give his life a new purpose and meaning. This man had so much to offer and I was glad that Clara was the recipient of his affection and protectiveness.
The Wish Collector is conveying a very important message: that true love can be found in the most unlikely places and under the most uncommon circumstances. We just have to keep our hearts and minds open. Love overcomes all obstacles, it transcends time and place. Love is everything!
I equally enjoyed the romance between the two couples (Clara and Jonah, Angelina and John) as well as the riddle that needed to be solved and the mystery that was about to be uncovered.
Mia Sharidan truly outdid herself with this book. I could gush about it’s perfection for hours. It’s one of those reads that makes you shake your head in pure admiration because you can’t fathom how an author can come up with such an amazing story and cry tears of happiness and joy because you have the privilege of reading it. I never want to let this story and its characters go. I bow to queen Mia for this accomplishment and give The Wish Collector 5+++ well deserved stars.
Beautifully penned lines fill this emotional love story that will make you believe in the power of forgiveness. Set in muggy, humid New Orleans, the Mysterious Windisle Plantation is at the center of it all. It’s Weeping Wall pulls in hopeless and desperate people to leave their wish notes when all else fails.
“He used to stand in the spotlight, now he’s dancing between the moon beams ”
Ohhhh my poor achy-breaky heart Mia!!
Mia braids myth & legend with reality to create MAGIC. It seeps though the wall as Tears Of Angelina. On the outside is Dancing ballerina Clara Campbell and trapped inside the Windisle Plantation is disfigured Jonah Chamberlain.
“For now they were just a boy and a girl, sitting on opposite sides of a wall, a layer of thick stone between them, but their hearts connected nonetheless. And for now, he would enjoy the moments they had.”
He’s the last standing male of his lineage. This guilt ridden, self confessed monster resides comfortably in the darkness and has no desire to come to light.
“I’m a monster Clara. I’m the monster behind the wall”
Until Clara’s love holds his hand & shines her love on him.
There is so much warmth in the story. It spills all over the pages, and captures my heart.
“He wouldn’t let her fall. Though in all honesty, it was far too late for that. She’d fallen. Somewhere along the way, she’d already fallen.”
Mia’s name is almost synonymous with sensitivity and she treats every plot with her signature tenderness.
I fell in love with Zachary webber voice, his slow rendition of Jonah’s turmoil tore at my heart.
Virginia Rose brought Clara to life with her delicate lilt and beautiful modulation.
It was an Audible fans dream to listen to these two.
5 stars for Jonah’s beautiful heart
This book was a slow burn delight! I loved the atmosphere, the characters, and oh, the swoon! It was Phantom of the Opera inspired, and I could relish in it all day!
As always Mia Sheridan delivers a heartbreaking story that pulls you in and keeps you captive wanting answers. My heart and soul went out to Jonah and his need to keep himself in the dark. Clara was just the sweetest and instantly felt the connection with Jonah even though she hadn’t physically seen him.
Their story is more of a romantic suspense as they are drawn together over an historical event that happened in the Windisle Plantation some centuries ago. I felt I was more interested in this side of the storyand perhaps that was the writers intention to interweave an historical romance tale in a modern day mystery. It’s not until later in the book that Jonah and Clara’s love story really unfolds and is very much a slow burn.
John and Angelina’s story was completely different, a forbidden love that had to be kept in the dark. A one true love that transcends time and ended abruplty we without recourse…
Wasn’t too certain about one characters relavance, red herring perhaps?
A beautiful story of love, betrayal, lies, corruption, predjudice, tragedy and courage !
Audible Review:
What a beautiful story!! The best retelling of Beauty & The Beast that I’ve read!! Such a powerful, emotional and magic story!! The greatest love story ever told.
Zachery Webber & Virginia Rose did an awesome job on the narration!!!
A great twist on Beauty and the Beast by a wonderful writer. This captured me from the first few pages and never let me go.
“I . . . I was wondering how many lifetimes we might get to be with the ones we love. I was wondering—hoping—that there’s something after this. Another life, another chance.”
Incredible! What an introduction to Ms Sheridan’s books, I was enchanted from beginning to end. Her version of Beauty and the Beast intermingled with the Phantom of the Opera was sheer brilliance. This was a poignant story of two couples, told from present and looking back to the civil war 150 yrs earlier. Her narrative was evocative, I found myself questioning life back then, is there an afterlife, did I believe in curses?
Imagining having to face the racism and hatred, but the limitations and being treated as second class citizens. The burden of being uneducated and having to trust in what you were told. We will turn a blind eye should you have sex with a coloured person, but god forbid should you fall in love with them. Having to live your life in the shadows, your life was in danger because you had feelings for someone with a different skin pigment. As the mother of a white son, who has built a home with his girlfriend who is black…this book was a little to close to home.
Clara was a young, lonely girl who heard a story of forbidden love, with a tragic ending and a riddle. She became so engrossed in the history that she started researching Angelina and John’s story. It led her to an abandoned plantation Windisle and the weeping wall. Where belief was that John and Angelina both roamed the gardens as they’d been cursed. If you slip a wish through the cracks in the wall Angelina grants them. Clara found herself with her own wish, she heard someone on the other side though. She would sit and talk to Jonah, sharing their thoughts and dreams. However, Jonah refused to leave Windisle and face her, but Clara loved to be given a challenge. Would Angelina and John be released from the curse and find peace and happiness?
Jonah was an up and coming lawyer, with a case that would change his life as he knew it. His brother implored him to choose his path wisely, but he ignored him. It was a controversial case and he was the defence lawyer for an alleged rapist and murderer. He won the case, but at what cost, he lost a brother and became the monster who was outcast to live at Windisle. Clara was a breath of fresh air and she cajoled him into pushing boundaries. Would and could Jonah move out of the shadows and face those he’d wronged?
Clara was intrigued with the tragic love story of Angelina & John . It brought her to the weeping wall and she found Jonah.
So much love for these characters and both of their stories!
When i think Mia can’t surprise me again… I’m wrong!
This story is beautiful yes but most of all, unique. Mia’s perfect writing change a bit and we dive in this romance like it’s a FAIRY TALE.
We have both Jonah and Clara’s POV but not only… And it’s not written in the first person singular…
+ There is a lot of Magic… The setting, the mood, the characters, all the details, all the feelings… PURE MAGIC !
=FAIRY TALE !
The book begins with what seems to be a common epilogue… at first… but this epilogue ends… in a totally unexpected way, it will truly BLOW YOUR MIND !
The first chapter takes place years after. Clara is a talented ballerina who’s been offered the leading part in Swan Lake . She moves in New Orleans, where she knows no one. Her neighbor tells her an old and mysterious story. Clara is fascinated by this tale and wants to know more. She goes to the place where all began and meets a tormented and secretful man. But she only speaks to him through a wall, she can’t see him.
This story makes us think about The Beauty and the Beast, The Phantom of the Opera, but also about all those stories taking place in this southern part of the united states with slaves, voodoo, curses… Absolutely MESMERIZING, unsettling. We feel like we are with the characters.
There are TWO love stories. INTENSE, PURE, TRUE.
Both of them begin in DARKNESS and we quickly WISH they’ll find the LIGHT.
The writing is so ADDICTIVE we can’t put the book down and return in our boring lives. Like our heroes we need answers, we need to know the truth and to see them find the happy ending they deserve so much.
Clara is a dreamer with a big heart. She sees beauty where others see ugliness. She believes in magic… Not the Harry Potter kind, but magic created by humans.
Jonah is a ghost, he hides himself and doesn’t expect anything from life. Clara becomes his light but he is so used of the dark…
Together they create sparks, magic is strong between them.
As usual Mia’s writing is pure POETRY, as usual the main characters have a heart of gold, as usual our heartbeat follow theirs, as always Mia shows us there is light and hope everywhere.
This story shows us the importance of perseverance, selflessness, tolerance, sacrifice, forgiveness… and of course the power of love.
New Orleans’ mood is tangible, it’s so amazing!
The second love story is suspenseful, tragic but sooooo beautiful.
I just LOOOOOOOOOOVED this book!
Thank you again and again and again Mia !!!!
“LOVE CARVES INTO THE HARDEST OF PLACES.”
Hauntingly beautiful story about true love.
A unique storyline with twists and turns that’ll keep you hooked until the end. Absolutely loved Zachary Webber and Virginia Rose’s narration. They gave this story life. A must listen.