Meg Shaffer’s The Wishing Game follows Lucy, a 26-year-old kindergarten aide struggling to save up enough money to foster, and eventually adopt, her former student Christopher. Lucy had her own struggles growing up, and all she wants is to provide Christopher the stability, love, and feeling of belonging that was missing from her own childhood, but so far that just consists of after school visits and bonding over Jack Masterson’s Clock Island books. Just when it seems like her dreams are hopeless, Lucy is one of 4 lucky contestants chosen to compete for the only copy of the long-awaited newest book in the Clock Island series, at the author’s home on the real Clock Island. If Lucy can win, she could make all her dreams come true, but there’s always more going on than there appears when Jack “the Mastermind” Masterson is in control.

This book just made me feel good! It has hints of nostalgia, but doesn’t lean on it since the Clock Islands book don’t actually exist in real life. In spite of this, I still feel like I recognize the Clock Island books, with the old-school Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew style covers, the mysterious and somewhat remote setting, plucky young characters, and the plot descriptions that just really tap into that essence of good children’s literature—a little bit of magic to face very real fears.

The characters may not all be especially complex, but they are all sympathetic; I liked that even though the contestants are competing, they aren’t pitted against each other, and while some cope with the contest better than others, nobody was set up as the “bad guy” to beat. And though the romance was predictable, it was predictable in a comforting way, like a Hallmark movie.

All in all, I’m giving The Wishing Game 3.5 stars. I can definitely see myself coming back to this one as a comfort read. Now I just need to win my own trip to Clock Island!