Sticks and Stones

A fatal choice, after a string of bad choices, leaves Desiree broken and dying in a ditch. With seconds left to live, a genie appears. She can live again, he says, if she agrees to serve him for fifty years.

She agrees, but after more than four decades of granting other people’s wishes and never getting her own, the former hippie has developed an attitude problem.

Mandy Matteo is the perfect daughter and student, never breaking a rule for fear of the repercussions. But her friends want fun, not perfection, and abandon Mandy for parties and boys.

Miserable, she makes a wish. Nothing extravagant, just a whisper to the universe to be happy. Never dreaming it will come true. Then Lexi, her childhood imaginary friend, shows up in the field outside her house and life is good again.

Magical wishes have conditions, though.

Once started, they cannot be altered or revoked. And once Mandy is truly content with her life, Lexi must go back to wherever she came from. Turns out, Lexi likes being alive and she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to stay that way.