Three Wishes (Isabelle Merlin, Random House, $16.95 pb, ISBN 9781741662368, May) **

Rose Dumerle is a 16-year-old orphan who leaves her native Australia after being informed that she is the sole heir to a French castle and estate. Once in France, she is introduced to the luxurious trappings of wealthy aristocracy by her ageing, remorseful grandfather. As Rose meets the castle staff and rustic villagers, complete with their superstitions and ageold prejudices, an attempt is made on her life by someone intent on finishing off the Dumerle family. Rose does not know who to trust, especially as her affections are being sought by two local heartthrobs who despise each other. As Rose investigates, her fortuitous rags-to-riches story rapidly turns into her worst nightmare. A debut novel, Three Wishes is a teen romance mystery that is well researched, very descriptive and well paced. However, as the first in a series, Three Wishes does not make the dramatic splash that contempories such as Meg Cabot, Grace Cavendish and Sophie Kinsella made with their series openers. It brings little originality to this well-supplied genre, and the writing is generally uninspiring and predictable. Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable enough read for teenage girls looking for some page-turning escapism.

Gavin Jones is the literature librarian at Melbourne Girls Grammar

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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