How Not To Make A Wish-Mindy Klasky

How Not To Make A Wish
Mindy Klasky
Mira, Oct 2009, $13.95
ISBN: 9780778327370

The competition is fierce and cut throat as Fox Hill stage manager Kira Franklin sorts through the debris of dusty junk seeking an angle to save the dinner theatre. She finds a lamp that she assumes was from some long ago production and starts to clean it to see if there is any sale value.

However to her shock, her polishing releases Teel the genie. He tells her he will grant her wishes, but keep them reasonable as eliminating world hunger is outside his range though extinction would do the trick. Scornfully Kira fails to read the contract with its four wishes but instead sarcastically wishes for the job she covets and is stunned gets it as she now works at the Landmark Stage. However, that proves not to match her fantasy as her boss is an insane egomaniac; her other wishes turn out as poorly as her first one. Then again, the one wish she did not make involves set designer John McRae, but as she falls in love with him she knows he is leaving.

Fans will get what we wish for as Mindy Klasky provides a jocular over the top of the entire Midwest refreshing tale filled with poignancy as chick lit heroine Kira gives a first hand account of her desires, sneezes, and failed wishes; Murphy had nothing go wrong compared to her. Lighthearted, HOW NOT TO MAKE A WISH is an amusing contemporary as the audience and Kira wonder how can seemingly innocent wishes go so badly and she wishes she had no more coming.

Harriet Klausner