"Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes" by Denise Grover Swank

From Goodreads: "For Rose Gardner, working at the DMV on a Friday afternoon is bad even before she sees a vision of herself dead. She's had plenty of visions, usually boring ones like someone's toilet's overflowed, but she's never seen one of herself before. When her overbearing momma winds up murdered on her sofa instead, two things are certain: There isn't enough hydrogen peroxide in the state of Arkansas to get that stain out, and Rose is the prime suspect.

Rose realizes she's wasted twenty-four years of living and makes a list on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt: twenty-eight things she wants to accomplish before her vision comes true. She's well on her way with the help of her next door neighbor Joe, who has no trouble teaching Rose the rules of drinking, but won't help with number fifteen-- do more with a man. Joe's new to town, but it doesn't take a vision for Rose to realize he's got plenty secrets of his own.

Somebody thinks Rose has something they want and they'll do anything to get it. Her house is broken into, someone else she knows is murdered, and suddenly, dying a virgin in the Fenton County jail isn't her biggest worry after all.

Winner of The Beacon 2010 Unpublished Division, Mainstream Category."

Rose is by far one of the most interesting characters I have read of in quite some time. I love that she didn't let herself be dragged down by her history, as many characters would had they been in her position, she always had such a positive outlook on life. Also, she is the sort of character you cannot help but root for and want to befriend in the hopes that some of her positivity will rub off on you. Furthermore, I very much appreciated that Denise was able to give us Rose's history in little bit and pieces (from all sorts of characters, like her sister, aunt, etc.) as opposed to more large information dump- it just made the book flow so much more naturally and made everything seem so much more real.

It becomes evident as you read the book that Denise doesn't dilly-dally in her writing, that she writes everything with a purpose, which, too, makes the book flow all the more naturally and makes it a literal page-turner- keeping you engaged (and on the edge of your seat) the entire time while reading it.

However, I must admit that the ending did throw me off a bit. I just felt that so much happened in the last bit of the book that I had a hard time keeping track of everything. When I thought the storyline was going in one direction it would go in the complete opposite therefore resulting in me having to reread a bit of the end (but this could have totally been my fault since I literally read this book in one sitting and therefore was most likely tired/ past the point of comprehension by the time I came to the end).

All in all, I highly recommend this book to those looking for a funnier read, albeit a funnier read with quite a bit of action. I cannot tell you how many times I burst out in laughter while reading this book. Also, I challenge you to not start talking in a Southern accent after finishing this book, with all of the characters constantly dropping their "g's" and saying things like "crappy doodles".

Rating: 8/10