When Good Wishes Go Bad
Mindy Klasky
Mira, Apr 1 2010, $13.95
ISBN: 9780778328216

In Manhattan, Rebecca Morris works at The Mercer Project Theater. Her live in lover of three years, Dean the accountant, did the books for the theater and for her. He leaves her a short note that he is working late, which is not a shocker as it is tax season.

Dean never makes it to their Greenwich Village apartment. Instead he absconded with her life savings and the theater's three million dollars. She also learns the play they were going to produce is not available as the Mercer lost the production rights. Homeless as the police declare her pad is a crime scene, Rebecca sees a bit of light in all this gloom when author Ryan Thompson arrives with a delightful play. Stage manager Kira lends Becca clothing and gives her a lamp housing Teel the genie who orders Becca to make her four wishes so the genie can get on with his life.

This is a charming Manhattan fairy tale romance though the genie is street tough (not bottle tough). Although Becca with her profound observations on everything somehow missed Dean being an embezzler is a bit difficult to grasp. However readers who accept that the Dramaturg failed to notice her boyfriend's felonious behavior will appreciate an amusing tale of a heroine with four wishes holding back on the last one just in case she needs it to persuade her new love they can write romance together.

Harriet Klausner