The Wishful Hearts Collection, Books 1-4

By: River Ford

Narrated by: Emma Faye

Length: 21 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Four friends, four wishes for future love.

Kristen, Olivia, Rebecca, and Heather used to be the best of friends. After high school, they drifted apart, forgetting about the wishes they made over a fire pit one summer night. But change is in the air. It's time for them to reconnect and find their true loves.

Will they get what they wished for, or will the loves of their lives be something more, something better than they ever imagined?

In Discovering Her Heart, Kristen needs a break from writing. Resort owner Brett Stone is tasked with entertaining her. Little does he know that he looks just like Kristen's book boyfriend.

Baker Olivia doesn't have much time for a life, even though she's in the middle of Hollywood, but a snide comment has her turning to the gym in Training Her Heart. Cristian is the opposite of her wish, but that might not be a bad thing.

In Protecting Her Heart, Rebecca wants to make a difference for the teens in Chicago, but her efforts put her in danger. Sean is determined to keep her safe and convince her to break her no dating cops rule.

Completing Her Heart is Heather's second chance to accept the love she missed out on in high school. Ryan always regretted losing his chance with the smart girl from camp. Can he convince her she's more important than baseball?

©2023 Charity Bradford (P)2023 Charity Bradford

Good narrator, quick and easy listen

Emma Faye did a good job narrating this book. I think her reading style matched the book well.

This is a cute love story about a burned out writer who goes on vacation to a resort in the Smoky Mountains. Her agent arranged for the resort owner, Brett, to "take care of" Kristin. So he sets up an itinerary for her, goes to some of the activities with her, takes her dancing, etc.. Naturally, they start to have feelings for each other, but she's going home at the end of the month, so they hesitate to move forward. The conflict comes from Kristin wondering if he might be her wish come true and Brett's guilty conscience because she doesn't know he knows her pen name.

One thing I really liked was how accurate the author was when it came to describing their trip to Dollywood. I live in the area and love going there. She was so accurately detailed that I felt like I was walking through it myself.

I usually prefer books that are a little deeper, so I do wish it had been more complex and a little richer, but if you're looking for a light, fun read, this is for you.

cute

This is a 4 book collection about 4 girls who make a wish in there teen years for the guy of their dreams. Then later on in life their wishes started coming true. Each book tells you the story of one of the girls journey through finding their dream guy and how it ends.

ARC Review

This was a series of really sweet reads. I thought the characters were well written and the stories were well detailed.

The narration was decent. A little dry in some places but overall a very nice listen.

I received a free copy of the story and am voluntarily leaving a review

Clean stories

These are pleasant stories for the most part. Four friends who had grown apart find their way back together while finding love. I like that the stories were clean, but I did not realize that the third book had violence in it. I stopped listening when I realized.
The narrator is also pleasant. I found her too easy to tune out if I was doing anything else, though. She was more entertaining when doing accents or doing a funny part. I would listen to her again in a comedy.

Characters you hate to see go…

In "Discovering Her Heart" Kristen is in what authors hate to have, writer's block. Her agent sends her to a wonderful retreat hosted by her loving nephew. Kristen needs to learn to trust and the perfect person to do that is Brett. (I think I'm secretly in love with him!) When she learns to lean on him she realizes he is her childhood wish come true the way it was meant to.

In "Training Her Heart" Olivia is a baker who has eaten a little too many chocolate croissants and when a starlet makes a snide remark, it sends her into a tailspin which sends her right into the arms of Cristian, her personal trainer. She can't seem to understand why someone like Cristian would want anything to do with her since she's a little "fluffy." He helps her in so many ways and saves her from herself. *Fat shaming*

In "Protecting Her Heart" Rebecca has always wanted to make a difference in the world and the way she did that is to have a youth center in the middle of a gang occupied zone of Chicago. In the guise of helping the children, she finds herself in some rather harrowing positions. That's where Sean comes in. Sean is everything her wish was not, and fate had another thing in mind for her. *gang violence, extreme violence, bombing*

In "Completing Her Heart" Heather was asked to join the PR team for a baseball player who is a wrongfully (she hopes) accused father of an unborn baby. Little does she know the player is her long lost "one" that got away. Will she learn to trust in time for love to come in?

I liked the audiobook, but I found I wished that there were different narrators for the different female characters because it all sounded like the same person until you got into the story and realized it's another character.

The characters were very likeable and had flaws I could relate to and grew to love them all. Very good job River in bringing your characters to life and for being able to make me sad that the characters now only live in my head.

I'd like to thank the Author and StoryOrigin for the opportunity to honestly review this book in exchange for a copy of the book.

not my typical books

Not my normal stories. 4 friends who grew apart then find there way back together. They found love. Stories not bad though.

Four books. Four girls find love.

Four girls. Four books. All very sweet. All very entertaining. (Note: Book 3 does have violence.)
My issue with these books. I prefer my book friends to be braver. Smarter. These girls were too irresponsible. They did things that were really stupid and unnatural. The four men, however, were very tolerant and loving. Four stars because it was all very entertaining and enjoyable.

I was gifted an Audible version of this book from the author through Story Origin. The narration was very disappointing. Mostly ok, but sometimes sing songy or even whiny. During exciting times, I found her high pitched and irritating. 2 stars for her.

GREAT BOOKS BY RIVER FORD. INTRIGUING, FUNNY ROMANTIC DRAMAS. SPICY & STEAMY

GREAT BOOKS BY RIVER FORD. INTRIGUING, FUNNY ROMANTIC DRAMAS. SPICY & STEAMY

STORY IS WELL SPOKEN AND EASY TO FOLLOW.
MOSTLY CLEAN BUT HAS SENSUAL, SPICY/STEAMY CONTENT. ACCEPTABLE FOR MATURE TEENS & UP.

NARRATOR IS GREAT, WELL SPIKEN AND EASY TO FOLLOW.