What the Heart Wants by Audrey Carlan

From the #1 bestselling author of the beloved Calendar Girl books comes the first in a witty, wise and emotionally compelling new series, where coming home is just the beginning…

“Fly free.”

For ten years those words, written on pink parchment paper in her mother’s beautiful handwriting, have been Suda Kaye Ross’s guiding star. Every year on her birthday, Suda Kaye opens another of the letters her mother penned before she passed, heeding the advice inside as she fills her life with experiences. From Italy to Australia, from Rio to Russia, she’s slaked her wanderlust. And then, on her twenty-eighth birthday, she opens the letter that sends her home.

Returning to Colorado means confronting everything—and everyone—she left behind, including her cherished sister, Evie, and her first love, Camden Bryant. Suda Kaye and Cam spent four years and one unforgettable night together. Given the way she ran out on him, it’s no surprise that he’s wary, resentful… and engaged to someone else. Evie, hardworking and überresponsible, just wants her sister to put down roots at last.

For Evie’s sake, and her own, Suda Kaye is trying to build a new life, all the while wondering whether it’s too late to come back home—or if the most important part of her never really left.

Book 1
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Harlequin

Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆☆
I am a huge Audrey Carlan fan, and this is another excellent, fabulous read. I loved them all from page one and didn't put it down until my eyes were closing over the matchsticks. It is such a lovely story, which I will definitely have on my to reread list in the "make me smile and cheer me up" column.

Suda Kaye has been on the adventure of lifetime, but now decides it’s time to go home. No one there can really trust that after ten years of travel she will really settle, so there is a sadness about them waiting for the shoe to drop. This is so beautifully written and lived out, that I could feel the desire of Evie to believe her, of Cam to think there might be a chance she'd stay, but they can't quite.

I loved the boutique being created, the fun with the constructor, and the craft items that she creates to sell. It was a wonderful marker of her arrival, yet her remaining a flamboyant and free person, marching to her own beat, but building a business around her skills and to bring happiness to others through beautiful things.

As for the romance, well it had been 14 years in the making/waiting, but with the complication of a fiancée and her crazy sidekick, things don't go smoothly, until they do... and we get to see that maybe 10 years apart was the making of them, not the end at all.

I do hope that we get Evie's story too – as the Porter-Milo issues need to be explored.

Audrey Carlan is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over 40 novels, including the worldwide phenomenon Calendar Girl serial, and her books have been translated into more than 30 languages across the globe. Audrey lives in the California Valley with her two children and the love of her life.

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of What the Heart Wants (Wish #1) by Audrey Carlan to read and review.