This book was gripping. I was sucked in and could not put it down! The concept was so unique, I loved this book.

This book was incredible. As usual, Jodi Picoult has a way of writing characters and subjects that make you think and feel. This book centered around the start of covid in the US, particularly in NYC, so it was a tough book to read at times, as covid is still very much a part of our lives, so for some, it might be ready to read at a later date, but I thought it was fantastic.

An excellent timely story about what it was like to live through the Covid-19 pandemic in both New York and on a remote island. I loved the parallel storylines between Finn and Diana and how different things were in different parts of the world.

Diana decides to go on a trip she and her boyfriend were supposed to take together. He’s a doctor who needs to work during the pandemic. She gets stuck in the Galapagos due to quarantine. From there, she slows down and experiences life. After having a near death experience, Diana realizes things about herself she would never have known. This book was unique and surprising. I think we can all relate to it in one way or another, even if it’s just the impact of COVID on our lives. I laughed, I cried. It’s a good reminder that life happens while we are busy making plans so be flexible and live!

Wish You Were Here is a very interesting story about covid survival. It does, of course, feature a Picoult twist - one that I didn't see coming, but that also made sense in the story. This was not my favorite Picoult novel (she has set the bar very high!), but still entertaining and thought-provoking. Be warned though - there is an ambiguous ending (if you like things nicely cleaned up, this may frustrate you!).

Thanks to publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Has Jodi Picoult ever written anything that hasn't made me think hard about my own life? The answer is a hard no.

I first heard about her concept for Wish You Were Here at a virtual author event where Jodi moderated with Kristin Hannah when Hannah's latest novel, The Four Winds, had first come out, and I was so excited at the prospect of reading Jodi's take on the COVID-19 pandemic. I know many authors have decided to keep any mention of it out of their books in order to give readers a break from reality, but I was hoping at least one would show us their take.
I was not disappointed. Jodi's take was unique, heartfelt, uplifting at times, and somber at others. I loved everything about this book, including the gigantic twist that I won't spoil.

Diana's life is perfectly on track: she's working at Sotheby's, her boyfriend is a doctor and has the same goals that she has, and she's fairly certain he's going to propose during their upcoming vacation to the Galapagos - which means she'll meet her goal of being engaged, if not married, by the time she's 30. Then the pandemic hits. Her boyfriend will practically live at the hospital, she's probably going to lose the huge client she was working with, and she winds up in the Galapagos alone. Her luggage lost, Diana is trapped on an island that's been closed to the rest of the world due to Covid, and internet access is unreliable. The emails she receives from her boyfriend feel didactic; almost all are about Covid, how typical patients present, how doctors and nurses have to don PPE, and what authorities are doing to fight the pandemic. Descriptions of Diana's time on the island were confusing at times; at one point it's said she doesn't speak to anyone for days on end, when she's only been there a handful of days, and goes on in the next paragraph to say she meets a young girl on the beach every morning. Diana's huge client is very obviously based on Yoko Ono, which felt unoriginal and careless. The ending was predictable, although the twists that Jodi Picoult is so well known for might not be to all readers.

Jodi Picoult is my favorite author and I loved this book! It was so relatable because we are still living through this pandemic but this book was so much more. I did not want to put it down!! Can't wait for my patrons at the library to be able to read this book!

I was so excited to be able to read Jodi Picoult's newest book months early through netgalley. I eagerly started reading and my excitement vanished-it was basically a story that has been told repeatedly for the past 18 month. Covid is all we are still hearing about, I don't enjoy reading about it in my free time. Along with her last several books it adds an alternate reality element, which makes this books seem similar to the Book of Two Ways. I personally didn't enjoy Wish You Were Here as much as Picoult's older fiction works. I finished it, but it won't be a title I rush to add to our library shelves.

I have just completed “Wish You Were Here” by Jodi Picoult and I must say it was excellent. I now have to somehow review this book and since it was about Covid and I don’t know where to begin. First I had trouble getting into this book, it is a very heavy read. The first part of the book did not even read like a Jodi Picout book, it was quite a different but with Jodi Picoult great writing style it all fit together very well. As I read further I could not put this book down. It kept drawing me in deeper and deeper and taking me right along with it. The book had some strange twists and I loved every second of it. I can not go into the story without spoiling it for everyone else except its about what happens when someone gets Covid and what happens to the person and the loved ones closest to that person. Happy, sad, heartwarming, forgiving and more, its all here. This book will stay with you for a long while. Another great Jodi Picoult novel which I could not put down. A 5 plus star rating. Thanks to Net Galley and Random House Publishing House for the advanced copy.

What a page turner!
This is a pandemic themed novel involving a young couple who live together in NYC at the time when COVID was first beginning to swamp the hospitals and there were so many deaths.
Finn is a hospital resident doctor at the hospital and Diana is an art specialist at Sotheby’s.
They had a previously planned trip to the Galapagos, and when the departure date comes.. Finn insists that Diana go alone since he can’t get away, as he is stuck basically 24/7 at the hospital.
Diana makes it to the island just before everything is totally closed down.
Even though this was a story involving COVID, it was still an enjoyable read.
Shocking plot twist!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Group-Ballantine for the ARC!

If someone is going to chronicle the Covid years, let it be prolific, best selling author, Jodi Picoult. She has successfully tackled many tough topics in the past and Wish You Were Here adds to that body of work.

This novel touches on the gamut of experiences and emotions surrounding Covid. It’s tough reading about the experiences of patients and health care professionals….but its important because, as she points out, Covid is NOT the flu. As with the main character, Diana, living in the time of Covid has caused many of us to reexamine our lives and what is important, who we are, and what we need.

As usual, Picoult’s research is thorough and readers learn some interesting and diverse info. She portrays Isabela Island so vividly that you can see it in your mind’s eye.

I don’t want to reveal a spoiler…so I will just say this…if you find the beginning of the novel less than satisfying (as I did)….keep reading. And, please, do read the author’s note at the end.

Diana O’Toole has her life figured out. In her near future is her boyfriend ready with an engagement ring. But life has a way of getting in the way of best laid plans,
Living in the heart of New York City, Diana is an associate specialist at Sotheby’s where she prepares fine art for sales. Her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She’s not engaged just yet, but she has an excellent feeling Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos. This is just before her thirtieth birthday. It couldn’t be more perfect.

But then a virus that once felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. Oddly, he wants Diana to still go, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip money to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes.

This vacation is nothing as she had dreamed and now she’s wondering what possessed her to go to a foreign land alone. Things continue to go downhill. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they’d booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated and no real knowledge of how to communicate with those who don’t speak English, she struggling way beyond her comfort zone. Soon she makes a connection with a local family who assist her with food and board. She becomes enmeshed with the teen age daughter who shares her deep and dark secret. Despite the young girl’s father’s suspicion of outsiders, Diana becomes close to this man.

Then part two of the book begins which threw my mind and emotions in so many directions. I was surprised and shocked at the turn of events. Not shocked at the COVID 19 facts because that was written in real time and I saw and experienced many of the same events unfolding in my little area of the world.

I must stop my review here so I don’t reveal any spoilers.

So well written Mrs. Picoult as alway.your research is always evident.

Thank you Netgally for allowing me access to the ARC.

Jodi Picoult writes a sweet and simple love story that's been told hundreds of times before??? Say it isn't so (it isn't!!) While Wish You Were Here has a boy meets girl plot-it's so much more than that. Not only can't you judge this book by its title, you can't really appreciate the depth of its pages until the half way mark. Never one to shy away from controversial subjects like abortion and gun control- (although why covid became as polarizing as these will be debated for centuries) Wish You Were Here is Miss Picoult's most cleverly executed novel to date. Wise and wistful, Wish You Were Here is destined to be one of the most talked about books of 2021. If you aren't saddened, angered, and frightened by the plight of covid patients and the heroic medical professionals treating them, you may not be human. For the rest of us, Wish You Were Here is a brilliant novel that will pierce the deepest recesses of your heart, mind and soul

Wish You Were Here, the newest novel by Jodi Picoult, takes a bad situation and makes it manageable. This book is both heart breaking and enjoyable at the same time. The parts where Finn describes the Covid patients and what they endure is hard to read, yet I loved the tropical feel I got when reading about Diana being quarantined on the Galapagos Islands. Wish You Were Here is not the only book I have read that is set around the pandemic and the corona virus, but it's the best and most realistic so far. This one's a page turner. Thanks to the author Jodi Picoult, publisher Random House Publishing / Ballantine Books, and to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book for an honest review.

I finished this book a week ago but have been trying to wrap my thoughts around it. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from a book in which the Covid 19 pandemic was a central character in the book. However, in true Jodi Picoult fashion, it was not shoved down our throats. Instead, it lurked in the background, popping up every once in a while to say, “I’m still here!”
This was an absolutely beautiful book that was unwrapped like a lovely gift. I say that because it made me look at the past eighteen months differently. Instead of just thinking about the horrors that people have gone through, I have tried to think of how I have had to change my mindset. What did I do with the time that I worked from home? What did I do with the money I didn’t spend going out to eat all those nights because restaurants were closed?
Diana O’Toole has a great life. She has a great job, with the promotion in-store. She has a great boyfriend (he’s a doctor), a soon-to-be fiancée. She’s going on a trip of a lifetime to the Galapagos. Diana is living a charmed life. And then the pandemic hits. It doesn’t affect her in the way you’d think, and boy, talk about a huge surprise. I did not see that coming.
I have read a few of this author’s books and have enjoyed some more than others. I have to say that if anyone asked me right now, I would say this is my favorite so far.

I’ve said it numerous times. I’m not ready to read a book that deals with Covid. It’s too soon.

Then I started reading this advanced copy. It’s one I’ve been super excited about. Jodi Picoult!!!! I went in blind.

And dang it. Covid.

Only Picoult’s beautiful and adept writing style could draw me in and compel me to read a book (in ONE day) set in the pandemic we are still experiencing.

Wish You Were Here is moving, heart wrenching, and exceptionally executed.

Diana has specific goals and is on track to achieve them all. Until unexpected, microscopic germs upend her life in exactly the way they did ours- masks, shut downs, furloughs, canceled flights, hotel and restaurant closures…

But in the midst of all the pandemic chaos, Diana’s jaunt to the Galapagos Islands took her breath away, alongside my own! The vivid depiction of the island, the welcoming locals, the playful animals, the whole adventure! In a world where covid exists, Isabela Island provided a lovely escape.

Picoult’s depth of research is evident in Finn’s character. His emails to Diana were heartbreaking and intense. We owe a debt of gratitude we’ll never fully be able to repay our frontline workers. Picoult well honors them in this book.

So much more to say. But to reveal too much about this book or it’s plot would do a grave injustice to future readers. In typical Picoult fashion, the twist is shocking and superbly executed.

This novel demanded processing time. It hit my emotions hard…remembering what we’ve already been through while knowing it’s not completely over. And yet, Picoult also managed to create a sense of hope. Her message of resilience was just what I needed, even if it was not what I had sought out.

Thank you Jodi Picoult, Random House, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book.

This book starts out so quietly. You think, “oh this is an okay way for the pandemic to have played out for this character.” Then it slams into you and you’re hit with the full force of the story and everything we’ve collectively endured over the last 18 months. This is the first book I’ve read where Covid and the pandemic was front and center and it was hard to read. But this is an amazing story and I highly recommend it.

I was so hesitant to read about the pandemic but I am soooo glad I gave this a chance! Another Jodi Picoult hit, had me captivated from the first page.

I have been reading Jodi Picoult books for years . She is one of my favorite authors. I want to thank Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of Wish You Were Here. It felt like real life characters the way the book described all the different things that were going on as far as the pandemic. I did those same things with wiping off the mail and everything else in my house. I have felt that isolation that is described so well. I found myself nodding my head when Finn was describing being a resident at a hospital, feeling such compassion for him. I must say there was something very different that happened in the book that is very intriguing I don’t want to give any spoilers but that blew me away.
Once again a great book that I would highly recommend.