Review: Waiting for Wyatt by S.D. Hendrickson

Title: Waiting for Wyatt
By: S.D. Hendrickson
My Copy: Amazon.com
The BookWhisperer's Rating:



My name is Emma Sawyer.

I met Charlie and Wyatt on the same sultry, summer day. It was unexpected, leaving a feeling in the pit of my stomach like the time I drove too fast over Beckett Hill. The moment happened out of nowhere, all fast and quick and a little strange. Or maybe that was just Wyatt’s personality.

It was Charlie that brought us together. Little Charlie with those ridiculous ears. I found the dog, waiting in a pool of his own blood. Waiting for someone. Waiting for me.

Now Wyatt, he wasn’t waiting for anyone. At least that’s what he said, except I saw something different in the broken guy all alone out in the woods. I knew he needed me before he knew it himself.

Wyatt with his hidden dimples. Wyatt with his warnings to stay away. He was a hard lump of coal, ready to burn everything around him. The more he burned, the more it pulled me into the pain I saw etched on his troubled face.

I wanted to help Wyatt. I wanted to save him like he had saved all the Charlies in the world. He told me not to fall for him, but I did anyway. I fell hard and fast and deeply in love with Wyatt Caulfield.

But that was before I knew his secret.

I found myself with mixed feeling after finishing this book and I feel like it is going to be hard to express how I truly felt about the characters and story.

Okay, let’s try.  Hendrickson is a wonderful storyteller who captured me from the first page.  She was able to wind two unlikely characters together to tell heartfelt story about love and loss.

Wyatt was the greatest character in this book for me.  Something about his kept secret intrigued me immensely.  His constant refusal to even consider Emma as a possibility in his life left me constantly flipping the pages to find the moment he reconsiders.  He was a reformed bad boy who is well versed in the classics and keeping Emma at a distance to protect her.  Once you find out his secret, all of his actions make sense yet you still root for him and hope that he finds happiness. 

Emma, on the other hand, just didn’t sit well with me.  I liked her determination to figure out what was wrong with Wyatt but then it also got on my nerves.  I liked her love for all four legged creatures but wish she had learned her lesson in the first place and wish she would stop meddling.  I also disliked her sister.

I think the part in the book for me that really spoke was closer to the end when things really started to pick up.  I don’t want to spoil anything but when Emma meddles again, it doesn’t turn out well.  This part had me glued to the pages.  I had to find out what was going to happen and I found it very intense.  During this part my dislike for Emma grew a little more and my love for Wyatt grew a lot more. 

While I really did love the writing, the plot, and Wyatt, Emma’s character brought down my love for the book.  This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t give it a try.  I know plenty of people who loved this book with all of their hearts and adored both Wyatt and Emma’s characters.  Sometimes I can be stubborn.