By the time I reached book five of The O’Brien Tales, I had grown used to Stacey Reynolds taking me somewhere new. I had followed the family from Ireland to America and on to Brazil. With The Wishing Bridge, she took me somewhere harder to describe: into the space that can open between two people who love each other when they are both grieving. Caitlyn and Patrick O’Brien have lost their baby. Caitlyn leaves Dublin for Brazil, where she takes a teaching role at St. Clare’s charity mission. She loves Patrick, but she cannot face the life they shared or the dreams that now feel impossibly far away. Patrick remains in Dublin, mourning their child and missing his wife. Then he finds an abandoned newborn, and his life takes another unexpected turn. I knew this would be an emotional book. What I didn’t expect was how much I would feel for them both. It would have been easy to see Caitlyn’s departure only through Patrick’s eyes. He is left behind in a home full of memories, wondering how to reach the woman he loves. My heart hurt for him. But I felt for Caitlyn too. Sometimes the place where you were happiest becomes the hardest place to be after a loss. She needs room to breathe, even though leaving brings its own pain. That is what makes their story so tender. They have lost the same child, but they cannot find their way through that loss in the same way or at the same pace. Love is still there. It simply cannot tell either of them what to do next. At St. Clare’s, Caitlyn begins to care for the children she teaches. After reading River Angels, I was glad to return to the mission and see it through her eyes. The children give her days a shape and a purpose while she tries to understand what she wants from the future. Back in Dublin, Patrick’s discovery of the baby gives him someone vulnerable to care for too. Yet caring for a child cannot erase the one he and Caitlyn have lost, and I appreciated the weight of that as I read. The title The Wishing Bridge caught my heart before I even began. I imagined standing on a bridge with water moving beneath me, making a wish I was almost afraid to say aloud. Caitlyn and Patrick both have reason to wish for things that cannot simply be given back. I wanted them to find each other again, but I also knew it could take more than one conversation, or one brave step across the distance between them. That distance is an ocean in this story. It is also all the things they are struggling to put into words. One of the reasons I have loved this series is the O’Brien family itself. They are loyal and close, and they want to help when one of their own is hurting. In The Wishing Bridge, I felt the comfort of having people who will keep caring for you while you work out your own way forward. They cannot make Caitlyn and Patrick’s choices for them, but their love is there. I won’t tell you how the story unfolds. I would rather let you follow Caitlyn and Patrick from opposite sides of the ocean and feel the hope, worry and longing for yourself. I will say that this was a book I read with a very full heart. The Wishing Bridge made me think about how much courage it can take to come home. Sometimes you have to cross a bridge towards someone without knowing whether they will be waiting in the same place they once stood. Sometimes you have to trust that, although both of you have changed, there may still be a way to meet in the middle. I loved Caitlyn and Patrick’s story for that hope. After everything this family has been through, I was still reaching for the next O’Brien book. But I wanted to linger with these two for a little while first, beside the water, wishing with all my heart that they would find their way back to each other. Until next time, Toodle pip, Lainey.
