Wish I Were Here is a romance with a magical realism twist. I thought some aspects of the story were cute and fun. The main character, Catherine, is a young mathematics professor who is ready to spread her wings with a new dream job at a university and her own apartment. Luca is a young, handsome tattooed doorman at her apartment building.

When Catherine has the worst day ever and Luca comes to her rescue, they begin a tentative friendship that has the potential to become more as they spend time together. There is a mystery element to the story when Catherine is advised that her identity is missing from all the government databases, and she needs to find her original birth certificate to restore her records. She can’t start her new job without resolving the issue, and she only has a short window of time to get it done. 

Catherine and Luca embark on a “quest” to try to find her original birth certificate and the mystery surrounding her unknown birth mother. 

While there are some steamy parts and references in this novel, the writing and some of the situations seemed immature/young. I found myself skimming some of the scenes because they just went on a little long and the content didn’t hold my interest. 

What I liked about the story was how Catherine had herself all figured out, but then showed growth in realizing that a fulfilled life can involve more than she originally thought. 

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Cute story, and some open door steam

What a swoonworthy story! I laughed out loud many times which was a wonderful surprise. 

If you are a fan of shows such as One Tree Hill, Dawson’s Creek, or Pleasantville, you may enjoy this fun romance that has a touch of magical realism. 

Brynn is a newly divorced, 30 year old who has a roommate to share the bills as she is starting over. Her very handsome roommate, Josh, is not around that much because he works evenings and weekends as a bartender at a nearby club. 

When they both end up together in a small town, Brynn realizes that they’ve woken up in Carson’s Cove, the setting of a very popular teen tv show from twenty years ago. The show didn’t get the romantic ending the fans (and Brynn) wanted, so she is there to ensure the show gets its proper ending of Sloan falling in love with the popular dreamboat, Spencer. 
<< this is the magical realism part of the story>> 

In Carson’s Cove, Brynn is actually one of the main characters “Sloan” and Josh is the character of “Fletch”, the bad boy about town. The story goes from there. I liked the relationship between Brynn and Josh. I liked that the present day setting for the novel was in Canada (ie: mentions of Tim Horton’s and Orillia, ON) which was unique. I just found that it was a little too “teen” for me even with some seriously spicy scenes. There was a “B” storyline that concluded at the end of the novel that I really wasn’t into all that much, and I felt that piece went on for too long. 

I did like how the story concluded and overall, it was a creative story. It will have its audience for sure. 

Thank you to Dial Press and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The premise of this story was the romantic fake dating trope comedy I was eager to add into my summer reading rotation. As much as I wanted to really enjoy it, unfortunately it fell flat. 

The adult relationship between June and Levi was too easy and quick, given they have a very complicated history from when they were teens. There were a couple of things that happened between them that would have been a hard “no” but June just brushed it off. 

The story ended up having an identity crisis as it was cutesy but also had some tough tragedy. It just didn’t come together smoothly and I was left feeling unsatisfied overall. I don’t regret not dnf’ing, however, it is a somewhat surface level story. 

Thank you to Griffin and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I adore Christina Lauren. This followup novel to The Soulmate Equation was fun and creative, with wonderful characters. Fizzy and Conner had 🌶️🌶️🌶️ chemistry in this open door romance.