Book Review: Twenty-Eight and a Half WIshes

Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes (Rose Gardner Mysteries #1) by Denise Grover Swank

It all started when I saw myself dead...

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 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.

Kindle Edition, 374 pages

Published June 29th 2011 by Bramagioia Enterprises (first published January 1st 2011)  

Review

I can see the future, always have but I'm the odd person out in small town Henryetta always have and always will. I'm a people pleaser, I have no life expect it surround my sister and Momma but Momma has always hated me always said that I am demon-possessed.

  

But then one day I get a vision of myself . . . dead. 

Now my world has turned upside down and it seem even the next door neighbor is willing to help me during my rough time.

Rose complied a Wish List To-Do in her life, Twenty-Eight and a half . . . 

Will Rose be able to do all of her item on her wish-list? Or will her Vision come true?

So many of Denise's reader have say that this is the series to read by her and I couldn't agree more, Rose is your average typically girl who only trying to figure out her place in life. The mystery aspect of the book is truly fun to read, even the neighbor next door is really something :-)

I give this 5 Cat's Tails Up, I love the idea and Rose's personality who taking control of her life and finally figure out things that she never thought she would be able to do.

MEOW . . . MEOW . . . MEOW

Rose Gardner is a girl that I typically never read, most of my characters are heroines and fighting great evil, but for Rose her greatest evil is her estrange mother and her visions. Rose is such a people pleaser that it actually make her more of a weak person than strong.

But Rose's life finally takes a change, but was it for better or worst? During her recent vision, she sees that someone is going to kill her . . . specifically the man across from her at her job but why? Then it turns around to where Rose finds her mother dead and she is a suspect in her mother's death. 

Rose newly next door neighbor tries to help out in anyway he can, but Joe is really drawn to Rose and when he find her wish list that trigger a need to help her complete it and start her newly conform freedom. 

I like that Rose compile her own little wish list or bucket list type things, I'm sure we all done it more than once . . . creating a list or a bucket list.

The love story of Rose and Joe, I really like how they gradually fell for each other as they spent more time with one another. Rose becomes more open and discover more about herself and Joe. What I didn't expect but totally love was the idea that Joe was actually an undercover cop. 

I have a thing for the undercover guys that falls in love on the job concept, it makes the story more interesting and more like whoa! Of course Joe didn't say that he was an undercover cop until he was facing the vision Rose has and decided to change the outcome of the vision.

Some of the twist plot for Rose was really unexpected but consider how her mother treated her like the child she never wanted, there was reason behind that and why Rose's father has always seem unhappy when Rose was growing up. 

The secrets finally came out about who Rose really is, she wasn't her father and mother child .. . she was Dora and her father's child. the twist of Violet and Rose's dad tragic love story was such a sad story. . . his own little love affair. Dora was Rose's biological daughter who died when she was only an infant, and Rose's dad went into a huge depression that he couldn't raise her alone expect go back to his first wife and Violet.

Now to review Rose's Wish list from page 27-28, all the items that are crossed off are things I've done or already have.

1. Get a cell phone
2. Commit all Seven Deadly Sins in one week
3. Get cable TV
4. Get my own place
5. Buy some makeup
6. Visit a Beauty salon
7. Get a pedicure
8. Ride in a convertible
9. Drink a glass of wine
10. Drink a beer
11. Go to a bar
12. Dance
13. Get a boyfriend
14. Kiss a man
15. Do more with a man
16. Get a dog
17. Dress like a princess
18. Wear high heels
19. Wear lacy bra and panties
20. Eat Chinese food
21. Go to Italy
22. Learn to knit
23. Ride a motorcyle
24. Fly in an airplane
25. Jump on a trampoline
26. Fly a kite
27. Have a picnic in the park 
28. Play in the rain 

So there a lot of things that we wish to do and create our very own list to do, with item number 13, 14 and 15 being the most obvious and most common. I think it isn't a bad thing if you wait until you meet the right guy or have your first serious relationship. Nowadays I feel that young girls are feeling peer pressure because for one their hormones kicks in. Two you're curious, but that doesn't mean you're mentally and emotionally ready for item 15.

Item 2, 4, 5 16 and 19, I think have a personal wants or personal goals I should say but Committing all 7 deadly sins? That may be hard in my opinion but I'm thinking we all commit a sin without even thinking about it.I would love my own place where I can have my own personal and organized bookshelves but that would require me to have a job .. . too bad that my city is one of the worst in our state, the badly unemployment rate is in Milwaukee/Madison.  

Item 16 is Get a dog, while I don't mind dogs and I do want a Brittany spaniel at some point in my life but I would be happy with cats because I already have a cat. My family and I used to have a dog Brittany Spaniel of course hence my want of a Brittany, but we put him down to end his pain and suffering, considering he was 16 and some months old having arthritis and becoming blind it was a hard decision for my parents and especially for my dad because he was his companion before he met my mom.

Item 21: Go to Italy, I would get myself in a lot of trouble, I have a lifelong list of places I want to go to and Italy is one of them! But the downside is I don't have a passport :-( Even Denise went to Paris a few weeks back for research and a mini vacation? Anyways I envy her so much with all the lovely pictures she posted and make me a little more jealous.

So are there things on Rose's Wish List that you want to do as well? Or have done already?