Just One Wish in Aussie Readers

Oct 14, 2019 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, own-read, aussie-authors, net-galley, family, read-on-kindle, contemporary-fiction, 2019-release, drama

Geraldine (Ged)’s grandmother was turning eighty and during the family celebrations Gralice (grandma Alice) produced tickets for Ged, her daughter Sappho (Marie) and herself for a girls’ cruise for them to reconnect, have a good time before it was too late. It was only three nights, but it was the coming weekend, so Ged knew she needed to sweet-talk her boss into giving her the time off. Ged was a journalist and loved her work plus she was up for a promotion as the boss was retiring.

Gralice and ...more

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Oct 14, 2019 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc-are, netgalley-reviews, aussie-author

Just One Wish by Rachael Johns is a wonderful contemporary family drama contrasting the life experiences and choices of three generations of women.

“If I’ve realised one thing—perhaps too late—it’s that life isn’t black and white. It’s a million shades of grey and there isn’t one truth that fits everyone.”

Journalist Geraldine ‘Ged’ Johnston is heartbroken when her lover, and colleague, Christos, announces his intention to move back in with his ex-wife for the sake of their children. Fortuitously, Just One Wish by Rachael Johns is a wonderful contemporary family drama contrasting the life experiences and choices of three generations of women.

“If I’ve realised one thing—perhaps too late—it’s that life isn’t black and white. It’s a million shades of grey and there isn’t one truth that fits everyone.”

Journalist Geraldine ‘Ged’ Johnston is heartbroken when her lover, and colleague, Christos, announces his intention to move back in with his ex-wife for the sake of their children. Fortuitously, her grandmother, Alice Abbott who Ged calls Gralice, surprises her, and Ged’s mother, Sappho known as Marie, with a timely distraction, a three day Elvis themed cruise to celebrate Alice’s 80th birthday. Ged plans to use the opportunity to interview Gralice for a biography she hopes to publish detailing her grandmother’s many achievements as a feminist trailblazer, while her mother views the trip as fodder for her popular ‘Happy, happy Housewife’ online media persona, but Gralice has a hidden motive for the trip, a secret that will prove to have unexpected consequences for all of them.

“In a matter of a month my life had become a soap opera—one in which I’d been forced to take a starring role when I didn’t even want to watch the show.”

Set in Victoria, Just One Wish unfolds from the first person perspective of Geraldine as her life, and the life of her family, is upended by a series of surprises. I enjoyed the complications and drama cantering around three very different, interesting women and the choices they make.

“‘I reckon no matter what choices we make in our lives, we’ll never know for sure if they are the right ones....”

The author touches on a wide spectrum of themes including family, marriage, relationships, feminism, euthanasia, homosexuality, and social media, but it’s Johns’ exploration of the differing ambitions of Alice, Marie, and Ged that I found the most relatable. My mother, whose traditional father felt that teaching or nursing were the only acceptable professions for a woman until she married, has always been ambitious, and worked full time in a number of careers until retirement. I greatly admire her drive, but I know she was disappointed when I chose to go into teaching, married young, and then later became a stay at home mother to four children (and wanted more). My eldest daughter is now in her early twenties, and though she is not ambitious exactly, neither marriage nor children are on her radar. So, I identify with the tension between the three women, borne of generational and personal ideals.

Written with heart and humour, Just One Wish is an entertaining and thought provoking read that will appeal to women of all ages.

P.S. Rachael, hope you don’t mind but I was thinking Jay = Ditch Davey circa Sea Patrol ;) ...more

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Oct 11, 2019 Helen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Rachael Johns I am in awe of how you bring to life characters and take on issues and subjects that are all important and happening now and turn them into stories that pull me in, have me turning the pages and forgetting what else is going on in life and when I have to put the book down the characters are still running through my mind no matter what I am doing, you have done it magnificently, I loved Alice, Sappho, Ged and the characters in this story, thank you.

Alice Abbott is turning eighty, sh Rachael Johns I am in awe of how you bring to life characters and take on issues and subjects that are all important and happening now and turn them into stories that pull me in, have me turning the pages and forgetting what else is going on in life and when I have to put the book down the characters are still running through my mind no matter what I am doing, you have done it magnificently, I loved Alice, Sappho, Ged and the characters in this story, thank you.

Alice Abbott is turning eighty, she has been a strong woman, a single mum, worked as a professor at a university, worked tirelessly for woman’s rights has had honours bestowed upon her, but she decides that it might be time to open up about a few things and spending time with her daughter Sappho and beloved granddaughter Ged on a cruise might be a start.

Sappho is now fifty five happily married, the mother of two children and a grandmother, Sappho or Marie as she is known to most people has discovered social media and is making a name for herself with her love of domesticity totally opposite to her mother’s career and who has not always been close to her mother for lots of reasons, but happily looks forward to the cruise she brings along her assistant to help with work on the cruise.

Geraldine or Ged as she is known to her family and friends is a journalist she is extremely close to her grandmother Alice or Gralice and she is known to her family, but Ged has just broken up with her boyfriend of one year and is feeling a little stressed but when Alice agrees to allow Ged to start writing the biography that she has always wanted to she is more than happy to go.

This is a compelling page turner, MS Johns had me guessing a lot about how things would work out for these three beautiful woman, and she did it wonderfully. This cruise together started the ball rolling on some secrets that had been kept for many years, the emotions flow between them with Ged keeping the peace at times, there were lots of revelations about each one of them, that had them all thinking about themselves and thinking to the future.

This story is about being yourself, doing what is right for you, the love and feelings that flowed were wonderful and I did shed tears, (I am still crying) but there are lots of happy smiles as well in this heart-warming must read story, a little bit of everything in this story and it is one that I highly recommend, thank you MS Johns I loved it.
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Oct 20, 2019 Bree T rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc, australian, women-s-fiction, issues, aww2019

In the interest of full disclosure, Rachael Johns is not only one of my favourite authors but she’s also what I’d call a close friend. We’ve talked on a regular basis for many years – from just before her first book, Jilted, was released. I’ve read all her books. I also help moderate her online Book Club on Facebook and so, I readily acknowledge that for me, I’m probably not the most impartial when it comes to reading her books. But I also had the chance to read this before it was published and In the interest of full disclosure, Rachael Johns is not only one of my favourite authors but she’s also what I’d call a close friend. We’ve talked on a regular basis for many years – from just before her first book, Jilted, was released. I’ve read all her books. I also help moderate her online Book Club on Facebook and so, I readily acknowledge that for me, I’m probably not the most impartial when it comes to reading her books. But I also had the chance to read this before it was published and provide some feedback with a few questions she was having about parts of the story, as a reader and as someone who regularly reviews books. So I like to think I’m also pretty honest too.

Just One Wish revolves around three generations of women from the same family – staunch feminist and grandmother Alice, her daughter Sappho (who goes by Marie), a proud purveyor of “new domesticity”, aka being a very traditional housewife, and Marie’s daughter Ged, a journalist. When Alice turns 80, she surprises her daughter and granddaughter with tickets to an Elvis cruise and for each of them, it reveals something very different in their lives. For Alice it’s about catching a glimpse of what she turned her back on many years ago, Marie comes to a shocking revelation about herself and Ged’s life takes a new turn both professionally, as she seeks to write Alice’s memoirs and also personally as she moves on from a relationship that has broken down.

Each of the women are at different stages in their lives – Alice has recently retired, for reasons that become clear later in the story and Marie is discovering a career for the first time, growing her social media following about new domesticity. Ged is looking forward to a promotion but soon finds that life has other plans for her. The thing that I so enjoyed about this was the complex issues the three women are facing that blend together perfectly to create a cohesive narrative that doesn’t feel too crammed or overcrowded. The women are very different and at times there is conflict but the relationships they have despite their differences and the decisions they sometimes make, hold the story together. Alice was one of the early feminists, well known for raising Marie as a single mother holding down a full time job and also finding time to campaign for women’s rights. She’s lived a fascinating and worthy life but it hasn’t been without its downsides. Her daughter felt the sting of being raised in a situation that was still frowned upon and instead of embracing the rights that Alice fought so hard for, has seemingly regressed back to a 1950s housewife, cooking and cleaning for her husband. Her two children are grown and have left the nest and seemingly by accident, Ged’s hooking Marie up on instagram has made her a sensation. She’s now well known and does YouTube videos on how she keeps her happy home. Alice and her have definitely had their differences – Alice never married and Marie is the very definition of a traditional housewife. But at the very core of it, Alice did everything she did for Marie so that she and other women like her might have the choice. What Marie/Sappho discovers about herself rocks a lot of people I think, and it’s something that I think was portrayed very well, both with Marie’s back and forth over it and internal agony and also the views and thoughts of those around her, as she goes through it.

Ged’s relationship with Alice is very special too and this was something I could relate to because I’m very close to the grandmother I have left in my life. She was a huge part of my childhood, I credit her for the reason I am the reader I am today. She always bought me books as a child and an avid reader herself, always encouraged me in the pursuit when others were telling me to get my head out of a book. Although probably not what would one would define as a feminist, she always worked, even during a time when it was unusual. Alice is clearly such a role model for Ged, someone that she really looks up to and admires as well as loves and she’s desperate to tell her story, for other people to be able to read about her and see her the way Ged does. I really enjoyed their bond, which is not without its little squabbles that family members have but ultimately Alice, Marie and Ged all support each other during the difficult times that come about in this story, even when they perhaps don’t agree with decision that have been made or are being made.

There’s romance here too (in several different forms actually) and not gonna lie, when I read this earlier I felt like I really knew where I wanted Ged to end up in the end and who with. I enjoyed it for the difference of it – two people who didn’t have that much in common, who had some arguments, who had some differences in what they wanted out of life. It wasn’t all smooth sailing and it’s definitely complicated by forces from other areas also but I liked the way it grew and changed and adapted and almost snuck up on them both. For me, it gave a real sense of realism, genuine connection that is made from working at it, listening to each other and growing and changing in ways that aren’t necessarily expected. And even though I enjoyed the romance, it’s not the core part of the story, it’s just like the glazed veggies that accompany your meal. Delicious, but not the bit that’s the most important. The three women, that’s the crucial part of the story. This book also contains the most perfect scene and I can’t talk about it because it’s such a spoiler. But it’s the incredible blend of happiness and heartbreak, old and new and love and grief.

***A copy of this book was provided by the author for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more

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Dec 06, 2019 Nikki Sims-Chilton rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5*
This review originally appeared on Beauty and Lace: http://bookgirl.beautyandlace.net/boo...
Just one wish is a story of three generations of women – each with their own story to tell!
The Grandmother is a strong feminist (and scientist) while the mother is a famous domestic goddess. The book however is told from the daughter’s perspective as she navigates life with these two role models. At a crossroads in each of their lives, the three women embark on a celebratory trip together sparking lif ...more

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Jan 20, 2020 Nicola Marsh added it · review of another edition

Shelves: aussie-authors, women-s-fiction, read-in-2020

I enjoyed reading about Gralice, Sappho and Ged, three generations of women whose choices have far-reaching consequences.

Gralice is a stand-out character with her strength and humour.

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Mar 07, 2020 Tanya rated it really liked it

Just One Wish is the story of three generations of women in the same family.
Alice, now in her eighties, was instrumental in the feminist movement, becoming a single mother and career woman in the 60s
Sappho, Alice's daughter, is the opposite - a devoted housewife who spends her time on Instagram and Youtube promoting caring for your husband and house
Ged, Sappho's daughter, is somewhere in between - a journalist who unwittingly is the bridge between her mother and grandmother

Overall, the book is G ...more

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