Feel lucky for what you have when you have it. Isn't that the point? Happily ever after doesn't mean happy forever. The ever after, what precisely was that? Your dreams, your life, your death, your everything. Was it the blank space that went on without us? The forever after we were gone? 
 Yes, this was one of Alice Hoffman's novels. I could feel her touch, her deep and moving thoughts. 
 I wondered if damaged people ever got over what had damaged them. 
 She is an author who forces you to think or rethink many aspects of your life. 
 I was the child who stomped her feet and made a single wish and in so doing ended the whole world -- my world, at any rate. The only thing that mattered. 
 But... I wasn't so moved and gripped like with The Probable Future [here my review] and Green Angel [here my review]. This story, these characters didn't speak to me. There were, as I have written, wise observations worth reading and I felt sad one or two times. But I expect more from Hoffman. If I didn't know her mentioned two books, I would give it 4. But as it is, I can't give it more than 3. Nonetheless I am going to read another Hoffman's novel in the future.