Review: Charis Michaels’ WHEN YOU WISH UPON A DUKE.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

📖 Q: what are you currently reading?

A couple of weeks ago I read a historical romance that’s lacking in moments of emotional intimacy—then I read this one, where the leads have lots of kissing + convos about their pasts & it was just *delightful.*

Charis Michaels’ When You Wish Upon a Duke is “over the top,” as she writes in her Author’s Note. In a really great way.

Isobel Tinker is a 27 year old manager of Everland Travel, an agency that caters to wealthy women. She leads a staid, respectable life by choice & that’s all disrupted by the arrival of the bold, handsome, & charming Duke of Northumberland, real name Jason Beckett, a former foreign service agent who asks her for help on his last mission.

Jason knows that Isobel lived in Iceland & for a number of reasons feels she can help him rescue his cousin from pirates. Even though Iceland left Isobel with a great deal of heartache & she’s vowed to leave that time, that Isobel, behind her.

This book is filled with moments where the sexual tension building between our two fascinated leads bubbles over—though the actual sex scene doesn’t happen until late in the book—& I read it with *great* anticipation.

Fiercely brave Isobel gives off the sense that she can handle any situation & Jason is the equally adventurous, surprisingly sensitive Duke she didn’t even know she wanted. His need to learn more about her, his desire to, burns throughout their every interaction even as he battles her reticence to reveal the things that have made her who she is.

Eventually they both open themselves up to the other, allowing themselves to be vulnerable in ways they prohibit others, & it’s lovely.

From a charming travel shop in Mayfair to a ship crossing the sea to a waterfall in Iceland, When You Wish tells a story of two curious, unconventional leads who can’t resist the lure of the other.

4.5 ⭐️. Release date: 08/24.



CW: Isobel previously experienced a miscarriage.