Blog Tour: Review of The Wishing Bridge by Viola Shipman

 

Publisher: Graydon House (November 7, 2023)
Paperback: 336 pages

Workaholic Henrietta Wegner can feel her edge beginning to dull in middle age. Once the company’s hottest mergers and acquisitions executive, Henri can see the ambitious and impossibly young up-and-comers gunning for her job. When her boss makes it clear she’ll be starting the New Year unemployed unless she can close a big deal before the holidays, Henri impulsively tells him that she can convince her aging parents to sell Wegner’s—their iconic Frankenmuth, Michigan, Christmas store—to a massive, soulless corporation. It’s the kind of deal cool corporate Henri has built her career on.

Home for the holidays has typically meant a perfunctory twenty-four-hour visit for Henri, then back to Detroit as fast as her car will drive her. So turning up at the Wegner’s offices in early December raises some eyebrows: from her delighted, if puzzled, parents to her suspicious brother and curious childhood friends. But as Henri fields impatient texts from her boss while reconnecting with the magic of the store and warmth of her hometown, what sounded great in the boardroom begins to lose its luster in real life. She’s running out of time to pull the trigger on what could be the greatest success of her career…or the most awkward family holiday of her life.

My thoughts:

In The Wishing Bridge, Henrietta returns home in an attempt to talk her parents into selling their business to the big company she works for.  She is sure it will help save her job.  Can she get back into the Christmas spirit that she had when she was a child? 

I'll be honest, this just wasn't a book for me.  I had a hard time connecting with "Henri".  She is supposed to be in her 50s but she is written much younger.  I almost felt like the character was originally supposed to be in her 30s maybe (?), but she was aged up for an unknown reason.  I also had a big issue with the beginning where things like certain toys were mentioned as being in a 1975 toy catalogue that didn't exist until a couple of years later.  If you are going to throw in name brands like Simon, Star Wars and Nerf, at least make sure the year fits the toys.  This reads very much like a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie.  I know there are a lot of people who l enjoyed this one, so it's probably a me thing.  Give it a shot.

About the author

Wade Rouse is a popular award-winning memoirist and internationally bestselling author of twelve books, which have been translated into twenty languages and selected as Today show Must-Reads, Indie Next Picks and Michigan Notable Books. Rouse writes fiction under his grandma’s name, Viola Shipman, to honor the woman whose heirlooms inspire his writing. He lives in Michigan and California, and hosts Wine & Words with Wade, A Literary Happy Hour, every Thursday. –This text refers to the paperback edition.
TLC tour schedule:
Monday, November 6^th: @donasbooks
Wednesday, November 8^th: @readingwithremy
Thursday, November 9^th: The Romance Dish
Friday, November 10^th: @coffee.break.book.reviews
Saturday, November 11^th: @booksimperfectcondition 
Monday, November 13^th:  @nobookmark_noproblem 
Wednesday, November 15^th: @temmathomas
Thursday, November 16^th:  @randi_reads 
Friday, November 17^th: @nurse_bookie
Friday, November 17^th: Reading Reality
Saturday, November 18^th: @webreakforbooks 
Monday, November 20^th: @subakka.bookstuff and Subakka.bookstuff
Wednesday, November 22^nd: @shopcoffeekids 
Friday, November 24^th: @wordnerdbookworm
Saturday, November 25^th: Laura’s Reviews and @laurasreviews_1
Monday, November 27^th:  From the TBR Pile
Tuesday, November 28^th: Stranded in Chaos and @sarastrand9438
Wednesday, November 29^th: @a_book_read_in_jersey 
Friday, December 1^st: Girl Who Reads
Friday, December 1^st: @everlasting.bookworm 
Saturday, December 2^nd: @readdrinkandbemary