Wow, I highly recommend! This was the gentle hug that I needed after the past year and a half. Reading Diana & Finn’s experiences was soothing and therapeutic and gave me permission to exhale after being stressed and frustrated with how the unknown has become the norm in all of our lives.
The first part of the book was a bit cringy knowing what was coming and how we all thought it was “just two weeks,” but it all became clear as the book continued. I was completely thrown by the twist but loved Diana’s growth throughout the entire book, Such great perspective on the chaos of this pandemic and an encouraging example of human resiliency. I love Picoult’s passion and ability to accurately capture the emotion of a situation with so many unique experiences. Thank you for writing this book and for the arc copy! I am sharing this with all of my reader friends! Now off to research a trip to the Galapagos...

If you want a book to give you all the feels you need to read WISH YOU WERE HERE. I know for some the COVID-19 pandemic is still very fresh. Picoult does amazing job giving what we have been through a voice through. Picoult's main character Diana O'Toole and her boyfriend Finn are both impacted by the pandemic in different ways. WISH YOU WERE HERE shine a light on how we can get through so much by sheer force of will, some resiliency and a whole lot of human spirit. A must read and an story that will leave a mark on your heart.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Diana O'Toole has her life all figured out. She has the perfect job, is living with the perfect man, and they have planned their perfect life together. But just as they are to embark on a perfect, planned down to every detail, vacation, when Finn, her fiance and a surgical resident, is told there is an epidemic coming and it is all hands on deck at the hospital.

Should Diana go ahead without him? After all, they will lose all their deposit money and they have saved for this vacation for a while. Finn urges her to go, if for no other reason than that he won't have to worry about her while he works at the hospital. So she heads off to the Galapagos alone. BUT, when she gets to the island, it is about to shut down because of Covid, her luggage is lost and there is little or no wi-fi. For some reason, she decides to stay anyway.

Thus begins the first of no doubt many novels based around the worldwide pandemic which we are all still experiencing and digging out of.

This was very enjoyable and a good read to help figure out what exactly is important in this world.

Jodi Picoult is known for her stories that features characters who confront ethical, sometimes life or death, decisions. Wish You Were Here does not follow that format. Diana O'Toole believes her life is headed in exactly the right direction. She is working in her dream field, with a boyfriend (soon to be fiancé) who is a surgical resident, and both of them believe they know what the future holds. However, COVID quickly changes that when she finds herself on their long-planned trip to the Galapagos islands....alone. As the world shuts down, she finds herself stranded on the island with no idea when she will be able to go back to her life. But, is that what she wants?

While many readers may not yet be ready for books based on COVID scenarios, Picoult uses the pandemic as a way to explore the ways in which people used that time to reevaluate many of the decisions in their lives - partners, jobs, homes, etc. Often when we are forced to remove ourselves from certain situations, what we find on the other side is more than we ever imagined.

Plain and simple - as if Jodi Picoult could get any better......she does. Best book of hers - and this book will still be this great in 10 years!

I loved this book. Once I started it was hard to point down. I certainly fantasized about being stuck on an island unable to go back to work during Covid…. The plot twist was fantastic.

This is a NO SPOILER review. “Wish You Were Here” is filled with surprises that readers should just find out for themselves. Diana O’Toole is twenty-one and works as an art specialist at Sotheby’s; she and boyfriend/roommate Dr. Finn Colson have booked a trip to the Galápagos. The travel agent told them it would be life-changing; little did they know. It is March 13, 2020, and the world is about to change. New York City suddenly has nine cases of Covid, and Finn’s hospital will not let him leave. The trip has been paid for, so Finn suggests that Diana get out of the city and go alone to the Galápagos.

The story continues in Diana’s first-person narrative. She had her life planned, milestones for her and Finn together. No one ever thinks that the entire world will change between heartbeats, but it does. Readers understand as Diana agonizes over traveling alone, something she had not planned. She is in the Galápagos, but the islands are shut down. There is no way in or out; the hotel is closed, and she is stuck on an island where she does not even speak the language. Phone and internet service is spotty at best, but she occasionally receives messages from Finn detailing the disasters befalling him in a pandemic-stricken New York hospital, vastly different from her experience being quarantined in a sparse but exotic tropical paradise.

The first day of the rest of her life begins in “Part Two.” (Remember, no spoilers here) There are lots of things that people do not know about how the brain works, about how the world works, but people do persevere, do move on. They may feel like they are lonely soldiers returning from war, but return they do.

I received a review copy of “Wish You Were Here” from Jodi Picoult, Ballantine Books, and Random House Publishing. It starts as a casual, fun, entertaining story but rapidly becomes a compelling, world-changing, cautionary tale. Picoult tells the stories that no one else can. “Life is never an absolute, but always a wager.”

This was my first Jodi Picoult book and I wasn't sure what to expect. I was also hesitant because the plot involves the pandemic which is still very raw for some. I was blown away by Jodi's writing and how she delicately handled the subject. Jodi paints such a detailed picture of the locations you truly escape to the Galapagos islands with Diana. Her writing is intellectual yet accessible, I can not reveal too much but would emphatically urge readers to pick this up, everyone will identify in some way with Diana's journey and experience.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult is a novel about Diana, an associate specialist at Sotheby's, who has her life planned out. But then, the pandemic hits, and her trip to the Galapagos with her boyfriend Finn is in jeopardy. Finn, a surgical resident, tells her to go on the trip without him, and she does. She ends up stuck there, but she gets to experience everything the island has to offer. But then, Picoult throws a twist at us that I did not see coming. I enjoyed this book, but the details about COVID were too much too soon for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Raw and gripping, this story made me relive every moment of the beginning to now of the COVID-19 pandemic.

*SPOILERS*
What could have been better?
I still am unsure how I feel about the whole first half of the book being a dream and the break up between the MC to Finn. I feel like there wasn't enough time to see all the growth the character had to make this decision. I just wish there wasn't the "dream" sequence or they stayed in it, not the split.

What I enjoyed?
I think the author captured the pandemic really well.

I loved all the descriptions and the emails from Finn in NY describing the pandemic at the time. It all felt very familiar and real, especially the disbelief and egotism of the US.

I also loved the character Beatriz and Gabriel, as well as all the descriptions of the Galapagos islands.

I would recommend this to people who love books that hit close to home!

I recommend. Keep me engaged and interested, thank you for the advance chance to read this. I’ve already told family and friends about it

Disclaimer: Big Jodi Picoult fan.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book nor did I really think I was ready to read anything COVID related, but .I am glad I did. I loved the twist mid-story. I didn't see that one coming. It was a reminder that even through a pandemic we are resilient and we will get through it.

Thank you to Random House, NetGalley and the author for the #gifted copy of the book.

Yet another banger by Jodi Picoult. I saw so much of myself in Diana and no one captures the breadth of human emotions and the beauty of grey areas like Picoult!

Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity to review this title.

I did enjoy this title, but it does not offer an escape from our current circumstances. It is about the covid pandemic, lockdowns, glimpses into families who have suffered loss during this time and those working on the front lines of the pandemic.

This was a perfect book about such a completely imperfect and messed up time. It seems impossible that someone could write a book achingly sad and beautifully uplifting at the same time. It’s a gorgeous book. It’s sad and smart and lovely and so so so great. I loved this one!

This is a tough one to review. For about the first half of the book, I thought to myself: this doesn't fit the Picoult book formula AT ALL. But then... oh THEN.

I don't want to say too much and spoil the book, but I'll say this: I found the first half of the book pretty slow. I quickly flew through the second half, and have found myself thinking a lot about the book since I closed the cover for the final time a few days ago- and that, I think, says something. This book DID end up fitting the Picoult book formula of stirring up deep human emotions. Mission accomplished.

I think I land on 4.5 stars.

I received an electronic copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a long-time fan of Picoult's writing so was thrilled when I saw she had a new release. Heads up -this one is about living through COVID, a global pandemic, and addresses how the pandemic affected relationships and our outlook on life through the story of one couple.

Picoult delivers with a big twist about halfway through the novel that I didn't anticipate and that brought with it a lot of questions.

I wasn't sure about reading a thought-provoking story about living through COVID while we are still in it, but I also found it to be incredibly engaging. I sat down and read this cover to cover in one day. Picoult captured so much of the way life shifted when COVID emerged in Mach 2020 and this was an emotional read, especially when thinking of loved ones who worked in healthcare or were at risk due to age.

I'm still debating what the ending meant and have a few theories. I love how she left space for interpretation.

I appreciated reading a book that was set in COVID! I didn't think those would be coming out for a few more years. This wasn't my favorite Jodi Picoult by a long shot but a meh Jodi Picoult is still a really great, thought-provoking book.

I love Jodi Picoult. I’ve not read one book that she wrote that I did not like. I enjoyed this one just as much. It was hard at times for me to read because of the Alzheimer’s part because I can relate. I will buy this and I would share it with a friend.

I swore off Jodi Picoult about 2-3 years ago after reading her latest book at the time and I vowed to never again read one of her books. I'm a bit sorry that I didn't stick to my guns. While this book started out seemingly innocuous, it took a turn and became another one of her books about "an issue." She always seems to pick an issue and just beat it to death. This one was Covid - you know, the LAST THING that people still living it want to read about!

The book initially had so much promise ... a woman stuck in the Galapagos at the start of the pandemic. She goes from having nothing to maybe finding a way to change her life. Such promise. Then, BAM! It's all over and you're taken on a completely different, much less interesting journey. It would have been much better without the (usual Picoult) social commentary.

This review was also published on Goodreads.