Wicker Park Wishes, published by Eckhartz Press — order here for quality print edition. Cheap digital version at Amazon. This is what readers said about the book (honest reviews):
Margaret’s book Wicker Park Wishes is a very Nick Hornsby-esque look at single life in the 90s. It’s a vivid fun read.
— John Siuntres, creator and host of the Word Balloon podcast
What a page turner! I just finished your book and couldn’t put it down. It was interesting to follow Claire’s exploits, and I was interested in her relationship with her father, stepmother, and stepbrother. It was also fun reading about a Chicago now long gone! Congratulations on such an impressive debut.
— Tate Gunnerson
Your book is excellent. It pops in my head whenever I’m in Wicker Park. It’s a great read. I devoured it once I started it.
— Davis Staudacher
Finished the book!!! Loved it!!!
— Jess King
Your book was very well written. I enjoyed it because of all the local references. And it wasn’t predictable, so I kept reading to see how you were going to land it. You did a great job of transporting us back to 1994. Not THAT long ago, but soooo different!
— Clint Phillips
Margaret has a way of writing about Chicago and transporting the reader back to a time before the Internet was a part of daily life, before we were tethered to our cell phones and when you actually called people to make plans and have interpersonal relationships. “Wicker Park Wishes” really takes me back to the 1990s with Margaret’s artful and accurate style of writing, and the descriptions of Chicago neighborhoods from that time make me feel as if I am really there. She does a great job painting a picture of Chicago without making it seem forced.
— Tina E. Akouris
From the moment we meet Claire, hungover and ‘over it,’ riding on the speeding L towards her office job in the Loop, we love her. She is refreshingly cynical, no-nonsense, and most endearing of all, earnestly seeking something more than the life she sees laid out before her. Margaret Larkin takes us right back into the world of 1990s Chicago, following Claire, a young twenty-something college grad, as she navigates the social and dating scenes of that pre-internet era. This is a fun, fast paced read, and we cannot help but cheer for Claire—a very real character who I’d love to be friends with—the entire way!
— Meg Ritter
Wicker Park Wishes captures that friend we’ve all had, the one who makes all the wrong choices, rationalizes them and asks for advice she never takes. Claire, a trust fund kid, wants to escape the boredom of her suburban upbringing but still yearns for the traditional: a good guy who loves her. These desires often conflict as we watch Claire party her way through Wicker Park, an artsy, edgy neighborhood of Chicago, one that tempts Claire with the allure of easy sex and drugs. Margaret Larkin paints a vivid picture of Chicago’s Wicker Park in the nineties, a time when payphones were the only lifeline when trouble arises and computers were beyond mainstream understanding.
— Nora Naughton
I finished your book. Excellent! This brought me back to the days when things were a bit simpler: no cell phones, no Internet, you actually had to use land lines and keep promises to meet at a certain time. I think it was funny how she always had to find change for the payphone. I also like the references to places around Chicagoland.
— Lana Simon
“Her novel suggests a far more developed writing style than that of a first-timer.”
— Bill Moller
Wicker Park Wishes was indeed a quick read. I got through it in one evening because each time I thought about putting it down, I would think, “No. I want to know how this turns out.” And I really enjoyed your capturing of early 90s Wicker Park.
— Lori Solyom
Thanks to the people who have ordered and contacted me. Order at Eckhartz Press and digital at Amazon.
