Make My Wish Come True

Gr 7 Up–In order to land the role of her dreams, Arden James must shed her hard-partying starlet persona and sell herself as a small-town girl through a wholesome winter romance with her “childhood sweetheart”—to be covered by Cosmopolitan, of course. This whole scheme seems doable at first. She is from a small, Christmas-obsessed town, and her childhood friend, Caroline, is right there, the object of an unspoken mutual crush. But Caroline is only willing to play ball if she can write the article, the credit she needs to seal her college journalism application. This fake dating setup with a Hollywood holiday twist involves staged “holidates,” Arden making reparations with those she left behind, and Caroline’s attempts to revitalize the town she loves. Caroline’s sense of betrayal at her childhood best friend’s abandonment burns throughout as she struggles to fight against the ill-advised romantic feelings that resurface. Her character is well-rounded, as she grapples with her identity as a half-Jewish teen in a Hallmark-esque Christmas town and her dreams of future success. Arden is less convincing. Her Hollywood life is not developed enough to ground her struggle between fame and family, and the machinations of her manipulative agent, the villain of the story, do not quite excuse or explain her muddled choices.