The Wish

This #1 New York Times bestselling book from the author of The Longest Ride and The Return explores the choices that haunt us forever and the lasting effects of first love.

For Maggie Dawes, 1996 was the year when everything changed. She was sent away at the age of sixteen to live in Ocracoke, a small town on North Carolina's Outer Banks, with an aunt she hardly knew. Until she met Bryce Trickett, one of the few teens on the island, she could only think of the friends and family she had left behind. In addition to demonstrating to her how much she could love the wind-swept seaside town, handsome, kind, and just accepted to West Point, Bryce also introduced her to photography, a passion that would define the rest of her life.

Maggie is a well-known travel photographer by 2019. She divides her time between taking pictures in far-flung places all over the globe and managing a prosperous gallery in New York. However, this year, she is unintentionally grounded over the Christmas season as she struggles to accept a grim medical prognosis. She finds herself becoming closer to a young assistant as she depends on him more and more.

She starts telling him about a previous Christmas that happened decades ago and the love that led her down a path she never would have thought possible as they both count down the remaining days of the holiday season.