Stealing Wishes by Shannon Yarbrough
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Book Reviews of Stealing Wishes
Book Review: A Sweet Tasting Coffee Drink Without a Lot of Foam
Summary: 4 Stars
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 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.
Book Review: Feel Good, Quirky, and Eccentric ...
Summary: 4 Stars
I agree with the blurb. I liked Blaine instantly. Blaine, a self-proclaimed man of no opinion, a man searching for life's great metaphor only to find a thousand clichéd similes, and his slapped by reality philosophy made me throw my hands in the air and want to be his friend. I felt comfortable with him straight away and have probably uttered of few of the same words in my day. He is bit insecure and more than a bit obsessive, very melodramatic, and the narrative, just like Blaine's mind, tends to meander off on irrelevant tangents. I found it quite amusing.
The book is definitely not TV sit-com gay, and what I really liked about the story was the initial one of many metaphors. How a photograph compares to our rather unreliable memory. How even a photograph, a still image in time, can be just as subjective as the snapshot in our head. Nice angle, nice message, but the even nicer more romanticised message lies within the title; however, I won't spoil it. For Blaine, for someone who needs routine and logic, for someone who needs a hard and fast record of history, this reality poses some issues. The camera recording every mistake you make in your life is not a nice thought, so there is a lot of inward reflection here, and I like that. I am a reader who likes internal action more than a suspenseful plot with things blowing up. I like to feel humanity, and in Stealing Wishes, we get that, we more than get that. Blaine is honest, even when openly discussing his thoughts on his own sexuality. It's the honesty that endears us to his character. He is just a man, a young man struggling with life, love, sex, and obsession.
Overall, I was very impressed with the subliminal aspects of the story: the symbols, the metaphors, and especially the non-traditional ending. I just had a few issues with the delivery, and that affected the score somewhat. Some structural editing and a bit more character development would have made this near perfect in the genre. If you are looking for a feel-good quirky romance, an eccentric yet insightful main character, some real life truths, and a good dose of sarcasm and existential rumination to boot, this story is for you. I would say it's a gay man Reality Bites.
Book Review: a jittery coffeehouse romance with a light touch
Summary: 4 Stars
Shannon Yarbrough's "Stealing Wishes" is a romance with serious concerns beneath a light comic surface. The novel explores themes of artistic talent and accomplishment, ambition and personal identity within the context of a Midwestern man's search for love.
The novel's narrator, Blaine, is a barista at The Latte Da, a coffeehouse run by his best friend Sallie. As the novel opens, he and Sallie spend their days grinding beans, pining for romance and commiserating on their lousy romantic luck. But not for long! Each finds romance of a sort, and the interplay between them and their various romantic partners drives the novel's plot. The vagaries of their romantic entanglements provide Blaine a context in which to consider personal, philosophical and aesthetic issues surrounding his love of photography, his co-worker's paintings and the pretensions of the cafe's art-college customers. The chapters are short, miming the narrator's short attention span (Blaine is obsessive-compulsive), and the plot clips along at a lively pace. Though the novel seems at first to be a straightforward gay romantic comedy, Yarbrough's characters and plot never succumb to the cliched or sentimental, and the ending is unexpectedly moving.
The novel does have some minor drawbacks: it's difficult to know how to read the narrator's obsessive-compulsive disorder, since it's mostly played for laughs, never presented as a serious concern and affects the character somewhat capriciously through the course of the novel; and while the narration does an excellent job of reproducing Blaine's jittery hyperactive mind, I sometimes wished there were more slower passages with longer scenes, so the characters could reveal themselves to the reader and to each other (the few extended scenes, particularly between Auden and Blaine, do this well). That said, these drawbacks are more than compensated by the narrator's good humor, and the touching, amusing romantic set-pieces throughout the book.
"Stealing Wishes" is a smart, enjoyable novel whose memorable setting and quirky characters stay with you beyond the last page. It provides real insight into gay life in a Midwestern town with warmth, wry humor and a deft touch.
Book Review: Gay Romance with a Poignant Heart
Summary: 4 Stars
With a little more attention to the technical details of publishing, Shannon Yarbrough could have a real future as a writer. Many books about gay relationships have launched successful POD publishing ventures since 1998, but I bet most of them have contained a lot more sexual content and less thoughtful plot development. Sophomore author Shannon Yarbrough has chosen a more innovative, sophisticated route. Stealing Wishes could almost pass for a Rock Hudson & Doris Day movie, or a Lifetime movie script, at least. The sexual trysts are described only briefly and delicately, as if they are happening off-camera. The first-person narrative of the psychodrama developing between a young man with an obsessive-compulsive disorder and his close acquaintances drives most of the storyline. The author has unrolled the plot with a style that is subtly delightful, adding little touches of sympathy, reality, and joy to the characters.
I have never seen a book that began the page numbering with the cover, but as a book review blog editor, I have encountered enough careless, unnecessary, grammatical boo-boos in the books I have reviewed to drive a librarian deeply into madness. Unfortunately, Stealing Wishes has its share of this nonsense, enough to knock its rating down to four stars. Fortunately, this is the only negative thing I have to say about Mr. Yarbrough's second book.
The author has genuinely captured the essence of many of those living in the gay community of a large city. Young adults of all sexual persuasions live through much of the same angst as Shannon's gay and straight characters. He has presented them all blended together, just as in real life. Stealing Wishes may not strike with the powerful punch of the sort of nonfiction tome that a reader might say changed his or her life, but the flow of the characters' conversations displays the depth of thought that went into this relatively short book of fiction. The heartfelt poignancy drips from its pages of light comedy.
Book Review: An easy, breezy read
Summary: 4 Stars
Stealing Wishes is a charming story and I enjoyed the opportunity to read it. It makes for light, easy reading, perfect for the beach or pool-side. In fact, I read the first half at home, then finished it in one afternoon while sitting at a resort pool on vacation.
At first, I didn't like the central character, Blaine, who has a severe case of OCD. His obsessiveness was to the point that he came across as a total nut-case. However, the author writes with an excellent sense of humor, which came through very well in the character, and Blaine grew on me. I also really liked Sallie, his boss and friend, and Auden, the co-worker. Edward, the professor that Blaine was fixed up with, was appropriately annoying. I loved the name of the cafe where Blaine worked!
The story is more slice of life than action. Blaine's angst is mostly self-induced, though around the book's mid-point, a rather dramatic incident occurs and things get really interesting.
This book is safe for all readers. I like romance novels to be a bit steamier, but that is just my personal preference. Also, I have a strong bias against first person pov in fiction, so I almost didn't get past the beginning. Again, it's a matter of personal preference, so I did not let that affect my rating in any way.
I'm not going to say anything about the ending, in order to not spoil it for anyone.
Gay romance novels may not be everyone's cup of tea (or in this case, coffee!), but I would certainly recommend giving this one a try.