| Deb Caletti delights once again with her charming, | | | | items to their rightful owners. |
| buoyant prose on pertinent issues. This is the fifth | | | | Along the way, Quinn meets Jake Kennedy, |
| book of Deb Caletti's that I have read. And as | | | | Frances Lee's younger brother (who's the same |
| usual, she did not disappoint. My favourite is still | | | | age as Quinn). And can I just say that he's the |
| 'Wild Roses' - her best yet, in my opinion - but | | | | latest fictional character I've fallen in love with. He |
| 'The Secret Life of Prince Charming' captured my | | | | looks like a bad boy, with the serpent tattoo on |
| heart too. | | | | his arm and those smouldering good looks (of |
| The story is about this girl called Quinn, who grew | | | | course, Deb didn't use this expression to describe |
| up in a house full of ladies who have had their | | | | him - how cliched would that be?). But he once |
| hearts broken by men - her mom, her aunt | | | | said to Quinn, "You're not the only one looking for |
| Annie, her grandma. They warn her against men, | | | | something true." He's a sensitive soul who's had |
| but she refuses to start getting cynical about love | | | | his heart broken before and just wants to find a |
| at the age of 17. She and her younger sister | | | | love that is true and pure and simple. This is |
| Sprout have just reunited with their father 3 | | | | reminiscent of Cassie Morgan and Ian Water's |
| years ago and are starting to know him. Quinn is | | | | love in Wild Roses. It's so heartbreakingly pure |
| hopeful, eager to find a bond with her father, and | | | | and uncomplicated - only Deb can create a love |
| in awe of him, the performer (part of a circus | | | | story like that. Plus, the guys aren't sappy. |
| band called the Jafarabad Brothers, or something | | | | They're tender but they're not clingy or mushy; |
| like that). Sprout, however, is loyal to their | | | | they joke around like Michael Moscovitz and have |
| mother and distrustful of their father. She's | | | | no underlying motives. They're so pure of heart |
| frustrated that Quinn can't see their father for | | | | it's almost impossible. But what is fiction but |
| the egotistical jerk he is. He loves no-one but | | | | delightful escapism sometimes? |
| himself. | | | | Throughout the story, there are excerpts from |
| When one day, Quinn finds a room full of prized | | | | the women in Quinn's father's lives, who reveal |
| items that she discovers were stolen from the | | | | the loves - good and bad - they had in their lives. |
| women in her father's life, she decides to hunt | | | | Once again, Deb Caletti has delivered a poignant, |
| down her half-sister, Frances Lee, who persuades | | | | lighthearted gem of a story. |
| her to go on a karmic quest to return those | | | | |