Review: `The past is always with us, wherever we go. Whoever we are, it molds our future'
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2014
Fellow Occidental College Alumnus Marilyn Holdsworth comes to her writing matrix with a fine background of experience for this particular novel, MAKING WISHES. In addition to her employment as a staff writer for a travel magazine which entailed travel experiences for fodder for her articles as well as fascinating life experiences for her novels, she created, owned and operated a greeting card company (those core experiences are directly reflected in this story). But not stopping there she is a horse lover as an owner/trainer/and rescue/preservation activist - background for her novel PEGASUS - and maintains a fascination with her ancestry that lead to her other novel THE BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN. Marilyn Holdsworth comes prepared, and that nidus of preparation mixed with her studies in literature and history in college is well served in this very fine novel MAKING WISHES.The manner in which Holdsworth handles dialogue is natural, peppered with enough off color descriptive phrases to keep the story centered in the now, but with such a fine degree of understanding of the dialogue of businessmen and artists that it rings true. Elloree Prince is an artist whose career has taken a back seat to her at-home mom and her marriage to a wealthy businessman, living is just the correct neighborhood for her station in life. She has two boys whom she loves (Paul the elder and Timmy) and life seems stable until she receives a call from enthusiastic Mark Williams, a man for whom she has worked in the past, offering her a job as an artist in his burgeoning greeting card business Wishes. Elated but challenged by an offer to return to the work force instead of remaining house bound as a lady of her stature dictates, Elloree struggles her personal desires, her husband's inordinate jealousy, family dynamics, and the `rules of the game' of wealthy wives of wealthy husbands. How she comes to resolve her conflict holds many lessons about love, family, self-respect, and self-confidence that takes this book out of the 'chick lit' slot and places it in a sociology study of contemporary life and mores. Very well written and very worth reading. More, please... Grady Harp, May 14