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Summary: What a charming story!
Review: A family in New York City is transplanted to a small rural town up in the mountains of Virginia. You follow the lives of the two children in the family as they experience culture shock and a very exciting and intricate plot. This is a story about having faith and learning what is truly important in life. David Baldacci does an excellent job of making you invest emotion in the characters, even the ones you don't like very much. I was given this book as a gift and I consider it first when trying to find the perfect gift for a friend.
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Summary: legacy of love
Review: Louisa Mae Cardinal, is a twelve-year-old girl living in New York City. Lou's father is a popular, but poor author. A series of circumstances finds Lou and her younger brother leaving the city, and living with their great-grandmother on the farm where their father spent his childhood. I was drawn into this story from the first page. I enjoyed the characters, and was left with a warm feeling of family at the book's conclusion. This touching story provided a nostalgic visit to 1940's.
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Summary: A departure from the "norm"
Review: While this story line diviates from Baldacci's normal style, it will remain an all time favorite for me. I felt transported to the mountain and a part of that life. I laughed, cried, hoped...well all the emotions. This is a very well written book. The bad part is once it's finished (you won't be able to put it down) you have to wait too long for the next one from Baldacci. No matter how carefully you pick your next book, if it follows a Baldacci book, it's just not quite up to snuff. This is a truly tender story.
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Summary: Lovely, likeable but formulaic
Review: Let me start by saying this is the first time I've picked up a book by Baldacci as I'm not an avid reader of political thrillers.I bought "Wish You Well" because I wanted to read something kind and gentle. This book is every bit as heartwarming as an episode of "Little House on the Prairie" (and I mean this in a good way, without cynicism). Baldacci uses WONDERFUL metaphors and descriptions to paint pictures of the people, landscape and characters of the Appalachians. I was quickly drawn in to the characters' lives so much that I finished the book in on sitting. I was entertained by "Wish You Well" and would happily read another, similar book by Baldacci. On the downside, "Wish You Well" is every bit as formulaic as an episode of "Little House on the Prairie." The bad are punished, the good triumph and (almost) everybody lives happily ever after. "Wish You Well" would have been much better if Baldacci had come up with more inventive twists and outcomes. With a gift of description that approaches Steinbeck's, I could easily see Baldacci moving from writing popular fiction to writing literature if he chooses to step away from "the safe formula for popular fiction" and writes his characters and their situations with more truth.
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Summary: Wish You Well
Review: A drastic departure from both Baldacci and my normal read. I found this engrossing story laid out in beautiful Southwestern Virginia a joy. The story demonstrates that the will to believe in others and yourself resonates as one's core from which your life can be built upon. Having read most of his books..... his best to date. What happens with Amanda, Lou and OZ next?
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Summary: Best Book I read all year!
Review: This is a wonderful book! I loved every part of the book. It was one I could not put down!! I love Virginia and reading this book made me wish I was walking through the Blue Ridge Mountains myself!! I hope he writes alot more along these same lines!!
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Summary: Best Book I ever read...
Review: It was, in fact, the best book I ever reads. Though other novels may have greater prestige, this one got it for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Wish I Hadn't Read It
Review: I approached this book with no prior knowledge of Baldacci's work... The characters are one-dimensional, each supplied with a name (usually unbearably precious) and a single, overweening personality trait. Lou is Protective Tomboy; Oz is Cowardly, Sensitive Younger Brother; Diamond is Pretty Much Huckleberry Finn without the Funny. Then, even though the author spends too much of his time trying to convince us to love these caricatures, he has no problem killing them for no reason other than providing plot devices. None of the deaths in the story is inevitable, or capricious, or the logical result of a chain of events. They are all carefully timed and arranged to kick-start the story or provide the writer a way out of a corner into which he has painted himself. It's all too convenient, and leads to a climax and an epilogue in which the surviving characters all have their wishes granted by the blue fairy. The wafer-thin characters and plot failures, however, are not the book's greatest problem. That distinction goes to its writing style. The writer lacks descriptive power, whether he's relating a beautiful view, a violent action, or a deep emotion. He's unable to summon the simple, true, poignant phrasing that is the hallmark of great writers of prose, and falls back on the inflated, flowery constructions of the hack. The writing is full of stock phrases and redundancies. Crucial details pop up suddenly and are backfilled, providing the telltale sign of an author too lazy to go back and add details where they should fall, rewriting around them if necessary. This failure is made all the more acute by the book's obsession with a dead character who was an exceptional prose stylist. One could, I suppose, be generous and regard this juxtaposition as intentional irony, but I'm not feeling generous today. I just finished reading Wish You Well.
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Summary: This is a wonderful book
Review: I love this book. When I heard what kind of book Baldacci was putting out I was kind of
disappointed and wondering if I would read it. I am sure glad that I did read it. This is a book that reminds me of books like "Tom Sawyer" and "To Kill A Mockingbird," because it is kids at play and what can happen. Baldacci tells a wonderful story where I really cared about the characters (unlike the character in "A Painted House" by Grisham). I have recommended this book to many people and will continue to. You will not be disappointed.
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Summary: Worth 10 Stars-Best Book I've Read All Year!
Review: This is definitely one book that I hated to have come to an end; that's how great this story is. If you enjoy well-written, quickly developed characters & a storyline that tugs at your heartstrings, then this is the book for you. Wish You Well is a departure from David Baldacci's mystery/suspense novels and a very nice one at that. You will find yourself breezing through the pages from the opening chapter and these characters, particularly the children-Lou(short for Louise)and her little brother Oz(short for Oscar)are ones that you actually care about. What a wonderful movie this would make, but what am I saying here-there's no actual foul language or sex scenes-not exactly Hollywood's cup of tea. Still, if it were done right, it would at least make a good Made For Television film. I hope Mr. Baldacci eventually writes another novel about real people from different eras. Very highly recommended.
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