Three Wishes

Three Wishes, formally titled Your Wish is My Command by Stephanie Bond was recently updated and re-released for ebook. From the author’s website. ~

Be careful what you wish for…

Ladden Sanderson is an antiques dealer in Sacramento, California with the ill fortune to have fallen in love with Jasmine Crowne, the governor’s girlfriend. But the most he has to offer the lovely interior designer is an antique rug for her latest job: redecorating her boyfriend’s bedroom in the governor’s mansion. He thinks he might have found a great rug at the auction he just left. While he’s cleaning a copper lamp that came in a lot with the rug, an earthquake erupts, reducing his store to shambles. A homeless man appears with outlandish stories of being a genie and granting Ladden three wishes. Ladden sends him on his way, but bizarre things begin to happen—things that don’t exactly endear him to Jasmine, or her powerful boyfriend!

The “genie” appears and disappears at the oddest times…and then there’s the rug Ladden bought that seems to move around on its own volition. By the time Ladden starts to think there could be something to this magic thing, he’s wished himself into a hole the size of the Grand Canyon! But he still has one wish left--should he wish for his own happiness, or Jasmine’s, even if her happiness means his heart will be broken? A riotous contemporary twist on a classic tale

I was sent a copy of Three Wishes from the author for review. I’ve read many of Stephanie Bond’s books over the years and was excited to read Three Wishes.  As soon as I realized it was a contemporary romance of Aladdin and Princess Jasmine, I was even more excited.

I really enjoyed Three Wishes a great deal. I loved Ladden Sanderson from the moment he appeared. I really liked Jasmine Crowne when we met her as well and could tell there was a bit of mutual attraction between Ladden and her. Of course, their path to true love has a few bumps in the road. First, Jasmine is dating the governor, Trey McDonald, who is running for re-election and not doing well in the standings. When Ladden buys an amazing rug at auction and ends up with a box of junk to go along with it, he finds a copper lamp, which once clean releases a genie, who lets Ladden know he now has 3 wishes for setting him free from his prison. Ladden thinks the genie is a homeless man and doesn’t realize the truth until he has already made 2 of the 3 wishes. Although Jasmine is attracted to Ladden, she has re-invented herself and doesn’t think she could be happy with someone who doesn’t share her goals. However, Ladden and Jasmine are attracted to one another and thanks to some help from the genie, who Ladden calls Gene; they find themselves spending more and more time with one another. I liked how both tried to fight their attraction to one another, especially since Jasmine was dating the governor.  Ladden and Jasmine do give in to their attraction and even get to ride over the city on a magic carpet, which cracked me up so much.

Ladden proves he is more than worthy of Jasmine’s love when he makes is third and final wish. Bond gives her readers passion and much to laugh about in this modern-day telling of Aladdin. I look forward to reading many of the updated and re-released stories Bond is working on for the future.

***UPDATE*** Three Wishes is currently free from Amazon until Sunday (3/18/12). To get your free copy to read on your kindle or kindle app, click on this link.