*Challenges*

This book took me by surprise. It had a gentle pace that I found very touching.

We have Anna a single divorced mother with her autistic daughter Ruthie. They are trying to get through life and her ex husband who left when the going got tough does nothing to help things. He moved on quickly with a younger girlfriend.

We have Sam Jackman (yes that really is his name lol) he has a flourishing career as a top superstar NFL player across the pond who is about to embark on the deal that is set to make him mega millions but ahead of that he needs to take a string of medical tests. Sam thinks it’s all a formality until he receives some crushing and life changing news. What does he do? he jumps on a plane and heads to the U.K. he ends up in Richmond and he sees some youths approaching a young girl. He rushes to her aid and on looking for Ruthie Anna rushes naturally jumping to conclusions about what was going on especially as the boys had gone. She gets the wrong end of the stick but the stars align especially when she gets the full story when a literal bang puts Sam on his back.

This then becomes so much more, the author Mandy Baggot uses her personal experience as a mother of autistic children. Ruthie is intelligent and hates to be touched and has to have hand gel and wipes around her. We see the challenges that Anna faces but I fell in love with Ruthie. I how her autism is almost a superpower without being crass or insensitive. More support is definitely needed for parents and children dealing with autism.

Sam finds it refreshing that Anna does not know who he is and for once here is someone who is invested in finding out the real person behind the fame, there is a scene where she thinks that he is after her money because she has a home she inherited from her Gran. There are some lovely scenes where we see how Sam makes an effort to understand Ruthie.

While Anna is an open book Sam is holding out on her. He has a medical condition but fear comes into play. Can they work out how to move forward together or is there too much at stake with that huge pond between them? favorites melodrama romance-chick-lits ...more18 s14 comments Michelle1,450 137

I have been a fan of Mandy Baggot for a while, and I read most of her books and her latest offering Wishing on a star is another beautiful festive read.
Anna is divorced and a single mother to Ruthie who is Autistic, and it is her first Christmas without her ex-husband Ed so, she wants to give Ruthie a Christmas to remember.
Sam Jackson is an American football player who is just about to get the deal of his life and become the most well-paid NFL player in history. But luck turns when he goes for a fitness test to be told that he has the gene for Huntington Disease.
He feels his world is falling apart and instead of meeting with his doctor he instead runs and takes the first flight out and ends up in the UK in Richmond which only a small rucksack with him. Where he encounters a girl being bullied by a couple of boys. He comes to her aide, which is the first time he meets Ruthie. When her mother Anna meets Sam there is an instant connection between them. Little does she know who Sam really is and about his diagnosis.
Thank you Embala books and NetGalley for an ARC. This is another endearing and heart-warming and funny story from the author but also a bit different to her other books. The story also teaches us about the complexities of a child with Autism and someone who has the degenerative disease of Huntington’s disease. The story was sensitively written and it is a great festive read. 4 stars from me.8 s Hannah508 109

Mainly set in Richmond one of my favourite boroughs of London. Anna and daughter Ruthie live with what her autism throws her. It is beautifully written from the prospective of how special Ruthie is. Unrecognised by her father Ed for much of the book.

Over in the states Sam is on cue for the biggest promotion of his life. Until he is thrown with positive test results no one wants to hear. It is in the end uncurable. Jumping on the first plane out, jumping in a taxi ending up in a random place. Of course it was Richmond.

Sam and Anna never would have met in some life times but both would be so glad they did. The moral of this story is living for the moment as no one knows when time is up (or would want to).

5 stars2022-books bad-feeling famous ...more6 s Suzie395 69

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