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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The story is about Catherine, who is a total control freak. She is a math professor who has her life planned to the minute. She’s super rule-bound and, she can’t chill out. What particularly irritated me at first was to see how people were doing a lot to help her, and she seemed very ungrateful for it, always picking out on things just for the sake of control/ perfection. Like, Luca was on his way to give her a ride so she wouldn’t be late for a meeting and 1) she’s complaining about “being late” while still being early and arriving perfectly on time. 2) All you can think about is a freaking elevator and the fact that the doorman was not there because he was out to help you?? Girl, please.
Anyway. Overnight, her entire identity just vanishes. No ID, no social security, no record of her existence. It’s like she’s a ghost. With no one to help her, Catherine has to rely on Luca, who is a little more carefree and laid back. As they try to solve the mystery of her missing identity, she starts doing things way out of her comfort zone, breaking her precious rules. This journey makes her realize how sometimes it’s just a matter of changing the perspective, the good side of not always sticking by the book.
This book was my first Melissa Wiesner book. At first, it was kinda hard to go through with it because the FMC was getting on my nerves. But I pushed it through to see how the story would unfold with the document issues and finding out what was the end of the search of her origins. I was happily surprised when I was starting to enjoy the book getting more towards the middle of the book. Overall, I liked the ending and how things unfolded.
So, if you’re all about slow-burn romances where characters start out rough but then finally start letting their guard down, this one will give you a good time. By the end, you’ll love watching Catherine embrace her inner rebel with Luca cheering her on every step of the way.
Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Anyway. Overnight, her entire identity just vanishes. No ID, no social security, no record of her existence. It’s like she’s a ghost. With no one to help her, Catherine has to rely on Luca, who is a little more carefree and laid back. As they try to solve the mystery of her missing identity, she starts doing things way out of her comfort zone, breaking her precious rules. This journey makes her realize how sometimes it’s just a matter of changing the perspective, the good side of not always sticking by the book.
This book was my first Melissa Wiesner book. At first, it was kinda hard to go through with it because the FMC was getting on my nerves. But I pushed it through to see how the story would unfold with the document issues and finding out what was the end of the search of her origins. I was happily surprised when I was starting to enjoy the book getting more towards the middle of the book. Overall, I liked the ending and how things unfolded.
So, if you’re all about slow-burn romances where characters start out rough but then finally start letting their guard down, this one will give you a good time. By the end, you’ll love watching Catherine embrace her inner rebel with Luca cheering her on every step of the way.
Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
I picked this up because I really enjoyed Second Chance Year, but this one was a bit of a let down. The cheese factor was pretty high and the “moral” of the plot was trite.
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
4 stars.
After thoroughly enjoying Melissa Wiesner's "The Second Chance Year," I was really looking forward to her new book, "Wish I Were Here." I am happy to report that this book is great. It's all about embracing chaos and mess in the name of enjoying your life, accepting people for who they are, seeing things from a different perspective, loosening up, found family, and shedding your old identity to find a new one. The main character, Catherine, has walls a mile high. She is a ridiculously organized, type-A planner who has been plotting every step of her life since she was little because of the way she grew up with an absent mother and a flaky circus clown father (not hyperbole). Luca, her building's doorman, is her total opposite in every single way. He is a fun-loving, heart-on-his-sleeve, aloof guy who never plans a thing and frequently leaves work at the drop of a hat to help the residents of the building. On paper, the two of them don't work at all, but luckily, as Catherine's walls start to come down slooooowly but surely, they embark on a quest to find her birth certificate...and perhaps find love along the way. This story is a mostly light read with a few moments of deep emotion. It is full of laughs, magical realism zaniness, and even a smidgen of heart squeezing. I liked all of the secondary characters in this story, too. All in all, I liked this book a lot, and I cannot wait to read Wiesner's next book!
Thank you to NetGalley, Melissa Wiesner, and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.
After thoroughly enjoying Melissa Wiesner's "The Second Chance Year," I was really looking forward to her new book, "Wish I Were Here." I am happy to report that this book is great. It's all about embracing chaos and mess in the name of enjoying your life, accepting people for who they are, seeing things from a different perspective, loosening up, found family, and shedding your old identity to find a new one. The main character, Catherine, has walls a mile high. She is a ridiculously organized, type-A planner who has been plotting every step of her life since she was little because of the way she grew up with an absent mother and a flaky circus clown father (not hyperbole). Luca, her building's doorman, is her total opposite in every single way. He is a fun-loving, heart-on-his-sleeve, aloof guy who never plans a thing and frequently leaves work at the drop of a hat to help the residents of the building. On paper, the two of them don't work at all, but luckily, as Catherine's walls start to come down slooooowly but surely, they embark on a quest to find her birth certificate...and perhaps find love along the way. This story is a mostly light read with a few moments of deep emotion. It is full of laughs, magical realism zaniness, and even a smidgen of heart squeezing. I liked all of the secondary characters in this story, too. All in all, I liked this book a lot, and I cannot wait to read Wiesner's next book!
Thank you to NetGalley, Melissa Wiesner, and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.
For most of Wish I Were Here, I thought it was a solid three-star read. Catherine and Luca felt like exaggerated versions of their “by-the-books” and “free-spirited” personalities, and I struggled to connect with either of them. The insta-love between them didn’t quite click for me, especially since it seemed to happen partially off-page, and the magical realism felt like it could have been more fleshed out to have a stronger impact.
But the ending? That totally changed things. The twist may have been a bit predictable, but it still brought me to tears. The last chapters brought in so many powerful lessons about life, love, and balance that I couldn’t help but feel more connected to the story. I also really enjoyed the side characters and the sense of found family that Catherine decides to accept—those moments added a lot of warmth and depth.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The magical realism was fun, but there were a lot of elements that felt disjointed and added just for the sake of making it obvious that the characters was growing. I also felt like the characters read and acted way younger than 30ish.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
<b>Read Completed 10/16/24 |</b> 3.5 stars, rounded up
I just adored Melissa Weisner's debut and couldn't wait to read this new release from her. WISH I WERE HERE was a little less my style, but I really enjoyed the writing and really appreciated how the book ended!
This was a little less magical than THE SECOND CHANCE YEAR and a little more magical all at once. In an overwhelming moment, our main character Catherine wishes she was nobody and poof! All of a sudden, she can't be found in any database or system anywhere as a real identity. She then goes on a very real hunt for her birth certificate and her mother, all of which are not magical quests but actual important things in her life. We circle back around to a touch of the magic in the end to wrap things up! This was also a bit more contemporary, to me, than romance, which also wasn't a bad thing but not quite what I was expecting. I suppose all romances still have a lot of self-reflection but I felt like Catherine's growth was definitely first and foremost with the romance being a bonus.
This was a fun exploration in identity and overcorrecting your past. Catherine is very type A and sometimes those types of characters are hard for me to read about. She's a math professor, but comes from a background of her father being a clown and running with a crowd who is very into arts, loose schedules, and living a freer life. Now Catherine, all grown up, fixates on her schedules and goals -- which is not a bad thing at all, but she overcorrected just a bit, not having had security like that as a child. I really liked seeing her connect the two parts of her life. She really loves her father but had a hard time when he wasn't the most reliable parent, and now as an adult, she's figuring out how to have a relationship with him. I loved that she got back in touch with her childhood and let go of some of her strict schedules, realizing that she absolutely can have a STEM/math-focused job and enjoy what she does but still let loose and let go of some of that control every once in a while too. I was SO HAPPY that the author didn't make her quit her job that she enjoyed, and she even got to connect with someone in her department that wasn't stuffy to show that personalities of all kinds get to enjoy this type of job.
I also really appreciated Catherine's search for her mother and I don't want to go into any spoilers, but I really liked how the end of that was handled. It wasn't all or nothing, and it made perfect, realistic sense instead of being hyperbolic for the sake of a romance book.
The romance was cute, and I liked how it all worked out. I was afraid that I, too, was going to get annoyed with Luca's unreliability, but I loved how the author really explained every situation in which he felt unreliable. Catherine gets to dig deeper and see exactly why Luca seems out of sorts all the time, and he really just has a heart of gold and is arranging his schedule around others to help them out. I like that he was so supportive and helped Catherine break some rules.
This was a cute read and I really enjoy Melissa Weisner's writing style! I wasn't bowled over by it but it was quite heart-warming and very enjoyable.
I just adored Melissa Weisner's debut and couldn't wait to read this new release from her. WISH I WERE HERE was a little less my style, but I really enjoyed the writing and really appreciated how the book ended!
This was a little less magical than THE SECOND CHANCE YEAR and a little more magical all at once. In an overwhelming moment, our main character Catherine wishes she was nobody and poof! All of a sudden, she can't be found in any database or system anywhere as a real identity. She then goes on a very real hunt for her birth certificate and her mother, all of which are not magical quests but actual important things in her life. We circle back around to a touch of the magic in the end to wrap things up! This was also a bit more contemporary, to me, than romance, which also wasn't a bad thing but not quite what I was expecting. I suppose all romances still have a lot of self-reflection but I felt like Catherine's growth was definitely first and foremost with the romance being a bonus.
This was a fun exploration in identity and overcorrecting your past. Catherine is very type A and sometimes those types of characters are hard for me to read about. She's a math professor, but comes from a background of her father being a clown and running with a crowd who is very into arts, loose schedules, and living a freer life. Now Catherine, all grown up, fixates on her schedules and goals -- which is not a bad thing at all, but she overcorrected just a bit, not having had security like that as a child. I really liked seeing her connect the two parts of her life. She really loves her father but had a hard time when he wasn't the most reliable parent, and now as an adult, she's figuring out how to have a relationship with him. I loved that she got back in touch with her childhood and let go of some of her strict schedules, realizing that she absolutely can have a STEM/math-focused job and enjoy what she does but still let loose and let go of some of that control every once in a while too. I was SO HAPPY that the author didn't make her quit her job that she enjoyed, and she even got to connect with someone in her department that wasn't stuffy to show that personalities of all kinds get to enjoy this type of job.
I also really appreciated Catherine's search for her mother and I don't want to go into any spoilers, but I really liked how the end of that was handled. It wasn't all or nothing, and it made perfect, realistic sense instead of being hyperbolic for the sake of a romance book.
The romance was cute, and I liked how it all worked out. I was afraid that I, too, was going to get annoyed with Luca's unreliability, but I loved how the author really explained every situation in which he felt unreliable. Catherine gets to dig deeper and see exactly why Luca seems out of sorts all the time, and he really just has a heart of gold and is arranging his schedule around others to help them out. I like that he was so supportive and helped Catherine break some rules.
This was a cute read and I really enjoy Melissa Weisner's writing style! I wasn't bowled over by it but it was quite heart-warming and very enjoyable.
lighthearted
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Mathematician Catherine has just secured her dream job as a mathematics professor when she runs into a hiccup. Her identity seems to have been erased and her paperwork won’t go through. With the help of her handsome and free willed doorman Luca, Catherine sets to put her life and job back on track. But when family secrets are discovered Catherine must come to terms with who she truly is and the woman she wants to become.
With the emphasis and sweetness of time that Melissa Wiesner excels at writing, this romance was a true joy to read!
With the emphasis and sweetness of time that Melissa Wiesner excels at writing, this romance was a true joy to read!