As with the male characters, I think that any one of these stories could have sustained a book all on their own. Although the main focus of the book is on how the three women's lives intersect, we are also treated to their separate stories, which I found very interesting. It is more than just the a story of three women with intertwining lives. The storyline of The Wishing Hill did not disappoint, either. From Will, Juliet's staid, middle class brother, all the way to the divorced contractor working on Juliet and Desiree's house. In fact, I would love to read a book where any one of the male characters were the main focus, that is how interesting they seemed to be. Even the male characters in this book were unique. All of them are strong women in their own way. Claire, Desiree's neighbor, is a single woman in her 60s who has never married, but still is in love with the married man who she had an affair with in her early twenties. Desiree is Juliet's mother, an aging actress who is used to being the center of attention and afraid that life is passing her by. On top of it all, she finds herself unexpectedly pregnant after years of thinking that she is infertile.

Her husband has left her and the bohemian lifestyle they were living, leaving her surprised and wondering where her life is leading now. Juliet is a women coming up on middle age who finds herself suddenly on her own. The main characters in The Wishing Hill are three women whose lives are linked together in an unbreakable way, although we may not understand what that is at the beginning of the book. The Wishing Hill by Holly Robinson fits both of these criteria for me. Likewise, if the plot is varied and the issues presented unique in some way, I am more likely to enjoy the book. I find that if the characters have something other than the run of the mill personality or back story. In fact, I used to think that I was not a big fan of 'chick-lit' but as I have read more and more books in this genre I realized that I do like chick-lit, but that I am just picky about the books I read. On the other hand, I am always a bit leery of labeling a book as Chick-Lit because I think that many readers make assumptions about the book based solely on that. Contemporary Fiction is such a broad category that to label the book as such is really not telling the reader anything.