Remember that old Garth Brooks song “Unanswered Prayers?” Like many country music classics, it tells the story of how a man ran into a woman he once loved and longed to marry, but she’d rejected him. Instead he married someone else, and happily realizes that not having his old prayer answered was indeed the real blessing.

I’ve always loved that song, and that concept. And, since I have a few ex boyfriends around the world, I’ve often thought that not marrying some of them -- even if, at one time, I thought I wanted to -- was my blessing. I love the man I chose! But that doesn’t mean we can’t Google the exes and find out where they are, right? Come on, every single one of you reading this has Googled an ex...if you haven’t, then you either don’t have one or you’re lying.

So, imagine my surprise when I did just that and came upon the home of a former boyfriend home featured in Architectural Digest -- a 25,000 square foot mansion in the Hollywood Hills so breathtakingly beautiful, it hurt to look at it. But look I did...and in walked my teenage daughter, causing me to offhandedly joke that if I had married that guy, we’d be living there.

When faced with that mansion, my daughter didn’t quite get the concept of unanswered prayers or the fact that she wouldn’t be who she is (or possibly at all) if I’d have married someone other than her father. No, her eyes popped open and she squealed and demanded to know WHY I didn’t marry him so we could be living there.

I laughed it off, but the conversation stuck with me and the next day, the whole story of DON’T YOU WISH landed in my imagination as my first young adult novel. DON’T YOU WISH is the story of plain, unpopular, uber-average teenager Annie Nutter who has that same conversation with her mother. But in the novel, Annie’s dad is an inventor and just that day, he’d invented a mirror he calls “Picture Perfect” which reflects not you, but a flawless version of you. One lightning strike and a cracked mirror later, Annie wakes up in a parallel universe...and things are pretty different here.

Although her mother is the same person, she’s married to someone else and Annie is Ayla Monroe, gorgeous, rich, popular, and flawless. It’s not all clear at first, but one Annie/Ayla does know is that she finally has everything she’s ever wished for.

And it doesn’t take long to realize the price for perfection is very, very high.

I am so excited to have my first young adult hit the shelves today and thrilled that the story has a basis in real life. I’m also over the moon that the book has been optioned for a feature film and a screenplay is written and being shopped as we speak. Which just makes me wish...never mind. Like Annie, I’ll be thrilled with what I have so far.

So...what have you wished for and didn’t get, only to realize that sometimes wishes, dreams, and even prayers are better off unanswered? If you don’t want to answer, then just admit it...you’ve Googled an ex. One commenter will win a copy of DON’T YOU WISH!

www.roxannestclaire.com