If I had a nickel for each book I’ve read this year set in the Galapagos, I’d have 2 nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. This was actually super enjoyable. I’ve had mixed feelings about Jodi this year as I’ve been reading through her backlist and I’m happy to report I really liked this one. I only got annoyed a few times 🥴 but overall the storytelling, twists & readability was excellent. Set in March of 2020, Diana is heading to the Galapagos without her boyfriend while he stays home to work in the hospitals. I think I enjoyed the first half over the second half but really both were good. This was a quick little read (just over 300 pages) that I read in about 24 hours. If you haven’t guessed, this is set during the ✨event of last year✨ and overall it’s less about the craziness and more about the perseverance of the human spirit & being happy with the present. I did really enjoy the overall message, make sure you snag this one tomorrow!!

Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite author and has been ever since I first read The Pact over 20 years. Since then, I've read almost every book she's ever written and this one will forever have a special place in my heart.

Wish You Were Here opens with Diana, an associate specialist at Sotheby's, and Finn, a surgical resident, preparing for a two week romantic trip to the Galapagos Islands. Except that it's March 2020 and as the world starts to shut down (for just a few weeks, until everything can get under control of course), Finn is needed at the hospital and so they make a decision: Diana will go on their trip and Finn will hold down the fort at home until she returns. Except that once she gets to the Galapagos, she finds herself stuck there and unable to get back to the US. We watch her journey unfold, with parts of Finn's work in NYC woven through the story in letters, and a second story about a piece of art that Diana was working to sell also made a part of the book.

The story was all-consuming and I could barely put it down. Yes, it is a story about Covid, but it's really a story about human emotion and centering who we are and how far we'll go for the people we love. The story forces you to ask who your family is, and looks at the importance of the family we choose. I loved reading all about the Galapagos and, as usual, Picoult has done her research to bring this story to life. I am so excited to buy my own finished copy to add to my Picoult collection!

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for the copy of this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

There should be a TW on this book about all the feelings and anxiety it drums up from the start of the pandemic, and all we didn't know/the uncertainty of what we were dealing with. That being said, I loved this book. Diana's trip to the Galápagos is enchanting, despite the island closure due to the pandemic. The people she meets are so very generous to her and she forms beautiful relationships with the family of the woman who takes her in and gives her food and shelter when the hotel is closed. Diana's day trips around the island with her newfound friends are mesmerizing, and I couldn't read this book fast enough so that I could get away and experience a virtual vacation and get to know more about the island. I wanted to dive into the ocean with her, swim with the local marine life, and make art on the beach from the flotsam and jetsam.

The longer Diana stays, the more she learns about herself and she starts to question everything she thought she wanted in life. I was totally shocked by the twist in this book. I did not see it coming. Not by a long shot. And it left me reeling, and also grieving for what was. Diana makes it through this twist and out of necessity continues her deep self-reflection and growth. Her journey is a reminder that we have to be true to ourselves, follow our hearts, our passion, take stock of what is important, and act on it..

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I loved this book, and it is one I would read again! I would also like Jodi to write more about this island. She has such a gift for taking her readers to new places and experience new things, and I am a huge fan!

Mind. Blown. That is the best way to describe how I felt after finishing this book. Completely incredible.

In March of 2020, Diana and Finn are thrust into the hell that is the COVID-19 pandemic at a time of uncertainty and panic. There are no vaccines and there is very little hope in sight.

Diana flees to the Galapagos Islands on a long-time planned trip that she was supposed to take with Finn, but as a resident at a NYC hospital he has no choice but to stay put.

The dream trip quickly turns upside down as her luggage gets lost, her hotel is shut down, and the island goes into quarantine.

And that’s just the beginning.

As Jodi Picoult does, she delicately and brilliantly takes us back to that time period and we watch these characters live through what was our reality…and then some.

The pacing felt slow at first but don’t be fooled, it picks up and you will be glad you kept reading. Feel free to DM me the moment you finish (as I did to @mrsboomreads) because it’s impossible to discuss on here without spoiling it for others!

I do want to stress that this storyline is centered around the initial height of the pandemic. If you or your loved ones had Covid, you lost someone to Covid or are still in any way are dealing with the aftermath, this may not be the book for you right now.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I read this book while suffering through COVID-19 myself and I will say, Jodi Picoult really captured the full reality of living through this pandemic from multiple perspectives. While I was lucky enough to only have mild symptoms, knowing people who really suffered with this virus gave this book a relatable and brutally authentic meaning. Wish You Were Here is a relevant and significant book portraying this time in our history.

I loved this book. It was well written and brought aspects of the seriousness of the pandemic and how it has impacted so many people.

I enjoyed the tie in about the alternate reality of the main character and fell in love with the life she led.

I went into this book with the mindset that as much as I love Jodi Piccoult books this one may not be for me until well after the Covid-19 pandemic. Well, let me say that I am so glad I took a chance on it and read it NOW! Piccoult accurately portrays the good and bad that surrounds us regarding Covid-19. This book peels back some of the human layers of grief, happiness, love, relationships, and illness and brings us full circle in a few of the character's lives during the pandemic. Namely the main character Diana.

A lot is going on in Diana's life. She had major plans for her career and family life before the pandemic. She was raised by her father as her mother didn't have a lot of time for her while growing up, which still haunts her. She is now living with her boyfriend Finn who is a resident at the local hospital in NYC. They are set to go to the Gallapgagos Islands when the pandemic hit and she has to go alone because Finn must work. He insists she go and have a good time. She is conflicted about this but decides to go.

Diana experiences things she would have never imagined while on Isabela Island. She meets a family who takes her in and the story goes from there. She then returns home and things get even more complicated. She is faced with huge life decisions after her recent experiences begin to shape who she is to become which is different than she thought priorly. No spoilers here but about halfway in there is a shift that took me by surprise! Whoa! I never expected it. Great read.

Thanks for NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC. I am so appreciative for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I liked the first part of this book but when the big "twist" came, I was turned off. I just felt it was ridiculous for the reader to accept that conclusion. I thought the writing was good, but so is anything by Picoult, and my library has purchased it already.

As a nurse working in the hospital in ny during covid this hits close to come. The ability to weave such real raw feelings into this book is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time

This is my fourth Jodi Picoult novel and so far Small Great Things has been my absolute favorite, but unfortunately this book really didn’t do it for me. First off, I found the first half of the book to be very slow. While the Galapagos seemed very beautiful, there weren’t many climactic moments and nothing to really move the story along. Luckily I read some reviews and noticed that there was a big twist that happened about 60% into the book. I have to admit that if I hadn’t read about the twist, I probably would have DNF’d the book. After the plot twist, the book finally started moving along at a much better pace.

I think the second reason why I couldn’t get into the book is that it was about the Covid Pandemic. Since we are still living with this nightmare, it was hard to read about it and relive the beginning of the pandemic. I guess that I am just not ready for books that center around Covid in the storyline. Also, I found it so hard to believe that Diana would have travelled all the way to the Galapagos by herself and that Finn would even suggest it. Why would anyone travel to a country by themselves that they had never been to and did not speak the language. When Diana got off the ferry, she became aware that the island was closing for two weeks because of the virus and was given the opportunity to go back, but she stayed.

The best highlight of the book was the Author’s Note at the end, it was very heartfelt and honest. I almost wish the Author’s Note was at the beginning of the book, understanding the concept of the book and development of the the characters might have help prepare me for reading this book. The story concept was brilliant and if the first half of the book had moved along a bit faster or had more climactic moments, then I might have enjoyed it more. I still love Jodi Picoult’s books and cannot wait for her next development.

I historically have loved Jodi Picoult books, but then something changed a couple years ago. They just weren't hitting the same way. I think she is a wonderful storyteller and I love the pictures she paints in the form of her stories. This one just didn't sit right. Part of it was me, as I don't think I was ready for a book about the pandemic set in the city where I work and can remember those early days a bit too vividly. And part of it was just that I didn't feel in touch with the characters as much as I would've liked. Even after the story pivots, it just feels...forced. I don't think this is one I would recommend, although I can see what other folks have really enjoyed it. It just wasn't for me.

I think if I didn’t work in healthcare I wouldn’t have liked this one so much more. I was shocked by the many twists throughout and I did feel invested in all the stories. I really liked how in the end the things like sporadic emails were the boyfriend visiting her at bedside.

I think as a nurse dealing with Covid her cheating on her boyfriend knowing the hardships he was dealing with was just too much for me personally. It really bothered me since I know what he dealt with and felt she gave up on him and it hadn’t been very long.

A very sweet story to come out of Covid. Definitely played into real experiences of a very difficult time for so many.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC.

Jodi Picoult is a phenomenal writer, and this book reinforces that. She captured the way the pandemic has affected all of our lives in a way that future readers will turn to to understand what happened to our world as the virus began to spread. The connection to the characters I felt, and the investment in their stories made this one of my favorite books to capture the events that unfolded in 2020.

Thank you to the author & publisher & NetGalley for gifting me a physical ARC & ebook.
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There is no doubt in my mind that Picoult is among the best of writers out there. I have even highlighted many sentences in this book. That being said, this book fell tone deaf to me.

Let me explain. I knew going in that this book deals with COVID-19 in a lot of detail. But one half of the book deals with an art seller exploring the Galapagos Island when the pandemic has just initiated around the world. Then a MAJOR twist happens. Then the rest of the book goes on a complete tangent. I cannot reveal anything without spoilers but let me just say that the current pandemic could have been completely omitted in this book.

Also to be noted is that the book relies heavily on a “symptom” of COVID19 that’s pretty rare. Again, I can’t say much more beyond it. So this rare side effect gets very embellished and made it a bit too fantastical for my taste.

Lastly, the epilogue deals with the year 2023 where in the book, COVID-19 is completely eradicated. This part also bothers me because we still live in a moment where variants keep threatening our daily livelihood. I personally feel that an author shouldn’t be using their artistic creativity for a major current event with no end in sight, that is still very much destroying people’s lives.

I still enjoyed reading the book for the first part and would have given 4-5 stars. But the second half killed it for me. Also the extremely long and then extremely short chapters were very disorienting. I will say that this book makes for a great buddy read as I’m sure people will derive various opinions reading this.

At first this book seems like a mundane romance, but I am so glad that I did not give up on it! It is deep and profound. It touches on our very consciousness and what is real and what is not real. It is very timely too as it includes the COVID pandemic and reactions to it all over the world. I do recommend this as something you will not forget. Thanks to Netgalley for sending me the Kindle version of this book to review.This is my honest review of this book.

I am late to the party as far as Jodi Picoult bis concerned. This was my first book by her and I was not disappointed!

Diana O'Toole works for Sotheby's in NYC. Her boyfriend, Finn, works in a hospital as a surgical resident. They have plans to go to the Galapagos, a trip they have been saving for, and Diana thinks Finn will propose to her while on vacation. All these plans are falling into place until the day Finn comes home from the hospital and tells Diana that he will not be able to go on vacation, because of Covid. This story begins in March of 2020, right when Covid is taking hold and though there aren't that many cases yet, Finn tells Diana that there will be. So he tells Diana she should go by herself.

This begins an amazing story! Jodi Picoult has is an amazing story teller!! Her descriptions of the Galapagos, of Covid patients, the struggles the doctors and nurses are going through is just simply fantastic! I felt the sun it face! I felt the angst and sadness, I felt the worry...She has some serious storytelling powers! But what I loved the most was twofold... 1) the surprises in this novel. I wasn't expecting the book to take the turns that it did... BRILLIANT!! 2) The sheer amount of research that went in to this book is astounding! Not just on the Galapagos, but on Covid as well. I admire someone who is able to not only tell a story but takes the time to learn about what their story is about.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House, Ballantine Books and Jodi Picoult for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

One of my favorite Jodi Picoult books. I wasn't sure I'd be ready to read it since COVID is still so much of our lives but I'm so glad I did. Her character development and story writing is top notch in this one. I loved everything about it!

Writing a book set during pandemic can be extremely risky as I personally am not ready for reading life during lockdown or pandemic kind books. So it will depend heavily on readers and their readiness for dealing with it. But this author is a pro at creating terrific storylines and thought provoking writing. I think this would have been more big if it came a few years later when people are at peace with Covid and can talk about it with more calmness than now. It was extremely emotional and makes the readers let out their raw feelings with some powerful writing.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult is the type of novel that the less I say about it the more a new reader would enjoy it. I will say though that Wish You Were Here is more a women’s fiction title with a bit of contemporary romance with a twist that hopefully readers don’t see coming.

Diana O’Toole is really excited for her upcoming trip to the Galápagos thinking that it will be the perfect romantic getaway for her boyfriend, Finn, to propose. Diana’s career as an associate specialist at Sotheby’s is on track and Finn’s now a surgical resident with a ring hiding in their apartment so Diana feels like this is the time he’ll pop the question.

Right before the Diana and Finn are scheduled to depart for the Galápagos Finn gets word that it’s all hands on deck at the hospital where he works. The virus that seemed liked only a news story has hit the states but Finn tells Diana she should go on with the trip. But as Diana arrives the islands shut down due to quarantine and with no luggage and no place to stay this isn’t the trip Diana had imagined.

So I’m a total sucker for travel in books so when I saw a trip to Galápagos I was all in for reading Wish You Were Here. Also, being familiar already with the author I knew this was going to contain good writing and sure enough I was right there but I was totally not prepared for all the book contained and that turned out to be and even more compelling surprise that I thought. The story is one of character growth and coping with all that come in life and it was a journey I was glad I took. Definitely an author I will return to any chance I get.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.