The Wishing Season by Denise Hunter

★★★★★
Goodreads | Amazon

Living side-by-side, a fledgling chef and a big-hearted contractor find a delicious attraction. Trouble is their chemistry could spoil their dreams.

Spirited PJ McKinley has the touch when it comes to food. Her dream of opening her own restaurant is just one building short of reality. So when a Chapel Springs resident offers her beloved ancestral home to the applicant with the best plan for the house, PJ believes it’s a contest she was meant to win.

Contractor Cole Evans is confident, professional, and swoon-worthy – but this former foster kid knows his life could have turned out very differently. When Cole discovers the contest, he believes his home for foster kids in transition has found its saving grace. All he has to do is convince the owner that an out-of-towner with a not-for-profit enterprise is good for the community.

But when the eccentric philanthropist sees PJ and Cole’s proposals, she makes an unexpected decision: the pair will share the house for a year to show what their ideas are made of. Now, with Cole and the foster kids upstairs and PJ and the restaurant below, day-to-day life has turned into out-and-out competition – with some seriously flirtatious hallway encounters on the side. Turns out in this competition, it’s not just the house on the line, it’s their hearts.

Denise Hunter’s The Wishing Season is such a cute read. After reading Barefoot Summer and Dancing with Fireflies, I could not wait to revisit Chapel Springs and the McKinley family - and I was not disappointed. PJ McKinley takes the leading role in this novel and I loved getting to know her character better and seeing her interact with the attractive and likeable Cole Evans. Their combined story, as they work under the same roof, is sweet and funny, though each is haunted by bits of their past that much be overcome. I really enjoyed this newest story from Hunter and cannot wait to visit again with Married til Monday.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley, I received a copy of The Wishing Season and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.