A review by lulustjames
Wishes and Sorrows by Cindy Lynn Speer

5.0

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This book has been sitting in my TBR pile for a VERY LONG TIME. Every time I flipped through my library to see what I should choose to read next, Wishes and Sorrows by Cindy Lynn Speer would pop up and I would hesitate before swiping away. This is another of those times where a cover can be deceiving. I mean, the cover is GORGEOUS but also a little misleading. I kept putting this book off because I kept thinking it would be some long, overdrawn, very uppity type story and I was never in the mood to read that.

Finally, in an attempt to clear my galley TBR list, I thought I would give it a try and get it over with. Sweet gods in heaven, how could I have been so wrong about a book! Wishes and Sorrows was so amazing! I absolutely fell in love with it and all of the different stories within. Wishes and Sorrows is a collection of short stories, many of which can be divided into Wishes and Sorrows, ergo the title. They’re all a bit fantastical, tales including ghosts, ghouls, fae, witches, and more.

The collection starts with what is possibly my favourite tale of the book, The Bell Witch and the Queen of Vines. In it, we see an older woman, a town witch that uses bells and dancing to ward off evil spirits and creatures from the town to which she belongs. She befriends one of these “evil” creatures one day, a werewolf, who shares with her a warning — danger and death are actively following her. What happens? I won’t give it away but it does hold a bit of Greek mythology in it…

Another ghoulish favourite is A Necklace of Rubies. This story could actually be its own full length novel (which I would have loved to read). Here, we see the typical trope of a character being given everything in the world, all of the freedoms available, and yet, cannot keep themselves from doing the one thing that was forbidden. Yet, there is a turn which leads to an unpredictable (yet enjoyable) ending. Also, Don Joaquin is exquisitely delectable and I could definitely see him being a Man Crush Monday character.

On the Sorrows side of the collection, you have some truly horrific tales in Remember and The Train, both of which leave you feeling unsettled. The former is told in bits and pieces where the reader jumps to conclusions about a lover who is abusive or false, while the latter is a perverse rendition of Frankenstein.

On the whole, each of these stories are interesting, well written, and solid. More than half of them have me wanting to reread them already, which definitely earns Wishes and Sorrows five stars.

// I received this title for free in exchange for an honest review //