I absolutely loved this book. It was such a sweet, nostalgic, teenaged exploration of growing up and dealing with difficult things. As a person of color who often feels pressured to take a certain path in life, Natalia’s resolution with her parents felt unrealistic *to me* but I absolutely adored it anyways. It was hopeful and positive, which healed my soul a little. I’m also not often a fan of the miscommunication trope but watching Natalia and Ethan fight for each other and never let go made me fall in love with their story. It wasn’t spread out over a long time and it was fast paced and made me appreciate how dramatic and lovely young adult life is. I finished high school pretty recently but I often feel caught up in “adulthood” and this was the perfect reminder to stop and be a little childish and enjoy a sunrise with a loved one.

This checks all the boxes for me. ✅Stubborn AF friends-to-lovers. ✅Forced proximity in a cozy beach setting. ✅And angst. Lots and lots of delicious angst. Eva Des Lauriers’ debut YA novel I Wish You Would is as addicting as the Taylor Swift song it’s named after. It follows best friends Natalia and Ethan, who are so in love but oh-so terrified to rock the friendship boat. After a disastrous prom night and a summer of ghosting each other, they reunite for their Senior Sunrise school trip. Giving them 24 hours to fix things.

Other than the points I listed, what drew me in was the concept of Senior Sunrise. The students gather to camp out and fulfill the tradition of writing anonymous wishes along the lines of “If I were braver, I would…” Naturally, Natalia and Ethan write about each other, completely vulnerable in their letters. Immediately regretting this, Natalia attempts to retrieve her confession and is horrified when the wind scatters the letters all over the beach. As she and Ethan work together to find seven letters, the tension skyrockets. We get to read these letters as they’re found, and it’s interesting trying to piece together who they belong to. It’s also nerve-racking, because Natalia and Ethan’s letters could be out there too.

The short timeline gave me the sense that they had to get their feelings out at this trip or it would be too late. There’s a heavy amount of miscommunication, which would usually be annoying, but the emotion was so raw and well written that I was okay with it. Loving it, even. Natalia and Ethan felt like real people with real history — the kind of friends who get under each other’s skin, in every definition of the phrase. It made their arguments just as enjoyable (well, almost) as the tender moments. They’re a precious, perfectly shippable couple, and I already miss them. I finished this book deliriously happy, as I would after my own beach day.

This was just what I imagined it would be. An emotional journey and a story my teenage heart wished it had, but is finding healing still today. I loved the character arc of Natalia and Ethan, as they grew strong enough to fight for what they wanted.

A beautiful YA romance about two friends wanting to be more while dealing with family drama. Highly recommend for fans of 'To All the Boys I've Loved Before,' friends to lovers romances, and real life situations in books.

I think the author did a great job writing about the final year of high school, with all its blood, sweat, and tears. Literally.

The story felt like it could've happened just as it was written. Parts were dramatic but teens are dramatic so ...

I know not everyone likes reading YA books, but I'm not one of those people. I find them refreshing in their honesty.

I think this would make a fantastic movie and I really hope it becomes one!!!

I would recommend this book!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I read this because of the Taylor Swift song. But this was not for me. I am not a big fan of YA romance they tend to feel super immature for me. If I was younger I think I would have really enjoyed this one.

The premise of this book sounded so good to me but I picked it up hoping for something that I never really got. I'm a sucker for a friends to lover's story, but I didn't really feel the friendship between Ethan and Natalia. I personally hate the miscommunication trope and that is all that the relationship between Nat and Ethan boiled down too. Not for me.

I also felt like this book was trying to do way to many things in under 300 pages. So many conflicts you see in YA novels were all shoved inside this one. Inappropriate teacher relationships, ratial issues, sexuality differences, pervy dads, divorce, college fears, unrequited love between long time friends, mean girls in high school, etc. Similary, I'm getting very tired of so much LGBT characterization being added into every single YA book. It's overdone and in this instance I felt it added no value. I just want to read a good story! It was just way too much. And I don't think any of the topics were handled well or with particular care.

This was fun, but I'll go ahead and say that if you don't like miscommunication, this probably isn't the book for you. From the very first chapter--and everything that evolves from it--the book revolves around Natalia and Ethan having feelings for each other but keeping them hidden, and then eventually more secrets are kept and it all just kinda snowballs. I don't like miscommunication, and I think that's why this was just a "meh" read for me. It was quick, diverse, well-written, and took place over 24 hours so the pacing was good, but I just couldn't get over the constant "i love her but i cant tell her shes my best friend" "i love him but he deserves better" GAH just confess already!! Anyway, I liked it overall, just not that the entire book was them keeping secrets and getting their feelings hurt because they kept secrets.

I loved this book, it was such a cute read full of teen angst. It is perfect for those people that are stuck in limbo when trying to figure out the friend zone and getting out of it. I loved the slow burn and all the drama that came from little misunderstandings.

I loved all the characters in this story. They were different, real, and relatable. The male MC is not your typical “macho” guy with stereotypical flaws, instead he’s real and fallible as is the female mc. All the characters are, none of them are perfect and that’s the point for all of them and I loved that. The diversity of the cast was also a huge plus to me, I felt like Eva did it so well, thank you for that representation.

This is a fast paced and well written character development story. If you like drama shows, teen angst, and miscommunication tropes, this is absolutely the book for you. If, like me, you genuinely dislike the miscommunication trope, this book may not be for you. It’s not bad by any means but the story may not hit the spot for you. The silver lining if you still want to give it a shot? It’s not drawn out over the course of days, weeks, months, years, etc. it takes place over the course of 24 hours with some flashbacks for storytelling sake. So it doesn’t have you rolling your eyes at characters or wanting to throttle them through the book because they won’t just get over themselves.

I can’t wait to read more of the authors stories in the future.

Love love LOVE the idea of this book! I adore senior year nostalgia reads, so I Wish You Would was right up my alley. I loved the single day timeline - it felt realistic and not overly filled. I loved the class bonding and fun activities. Senior Sunrise and Grad Night sound so fun!! I wish my school had done things like that.

I adored all of the side characters. Rainn and Sienna are such good friends - I was SO glad at the end when Natalia and Ethan really appreciated their friendship. And Prashant — everything he did surprised me and cracked me up. Love that dude. And Mason! The growth! (He didn’t grow a ton as a character, but other people’s perceptions and assumptions about him did, and it was so sweet.)

I didn’t ~ love ~ Natalia or Ethan. The whole time I just wanted each of them to grow a pair and shop whining and just tell each other how they feel! The slow burn went a little too long for me… I got a bit tired of the drama and miscommunication. And good grief they both could benefit from some therapy.

Overall this was fun! It sucked me in and I read it over two days. I really felt like part of Liberty Prep’s senior class!

This would be perfect for fans of KL Walther and Morgan Matson. 😊

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for allowing access to the e-Arc.

4.25 stars

Wow! This definitely gave me similar feels To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. I really enjoyed this love story. I felt like it was realistic and raw. There were hard topics discussed in a more digestible way. It expresses all the burdens that some teens go through. I appreciated that rawness.

I highly recommend it!

✰✰✰✰
This was exactly what I was craving! It's a nice, contemporary romance that I was able to finish in one sitting. There was a lot of drama, a cute romance, and good pacing. I loved the characters (+ the friendship scenes between Natalia and Ethan were very sweet) even if they did make decisions that annoyed me (lots of miscommunication + drama as I mentioned before!). It was also fun to read the letters and try to match them to the characters.
Overall, it was a great read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a sucker for best-friends-to-lovers. It’s probably my favorite romance trope. (I blame Kevin Arnold and Winnie Cooper.) I Wish You Would is a really sweet, well executed best-friends-to-lovers story with just the right amount of angst that makes their inevitable HEA still feel like it has high stakes.

One thing that really stood out to me was the way that the author used side characters. I felt like I knew all of their stories too, even though the book wasn’t focused on them. I also really loved the way that overachievers anxiety was portrayed, and how a lifetime bond between friends was used as a solution.

I also really loved reading the missing confessions and piecing together which ones belonged to which side character. It added a fun mystery element to the story, and while each one didn’t have a confirmation of whose it was, because we knew them well enough, we could still figure it out.

I’d say the only part that left me a bit uncomfortable was “the” interaction between the FMC and the MMC’s father. The undertones didn’t quite match the outcome, and I think they could have been left out and the outcome would have remained intact. I can look beyond that because everything else is really well-done.

Overall, if you’re looking for a sweet, quick, and teenage-angsty read, this one is great!

I thought the premise of this book sounded interesting, so I was hopeful going into it. However, I realized early on it wasn’t going to be for me. I ended up skimming & spot reading the majority of the book. I’m not a fan of the miscommunication trope, and I Wish You Would hits that trope hard and that’s where it lost me. It did have a a nicely wrapped up ending the felt satisfying to the story though and that cover is stunning!!

Oh my god! The book immediately captivated me from the first few chapters. With its dual point of view, the palpable tension, the jealousy, the angst, and the longing, it all felt so genuine, frustrating, and incredibly entertaining. However, as much as I adored Ethan and Natalia, their inability to communicate effectively was a major obstacle. While it may have been realistic for teenagers, it was still exasperating to read. If only they had taken just ten minutes to sit down and talk, this book could have been condensed to a mere twenty pages. Nevertheless, I found myself deeply connecting with these characters. Once their reasons for the lack of communication were revealed, it became much easier to comprehend their actions.

This young adult romance was undeniably adorable and the perfect read for the summer season. Before delving further, I must acknowledge that this book heavily relies on the miscommunication trope. I understand that many readers, myself included, tend to dislike this trope. However, this particular book managed to surprise me. Yes, I was frustrated for more than half of the story, but simultaneously, I was completely invested and unable to put it down. The pacing was swift, the romance was incredibly sweet, and the fact that it shares a title with a Taylor Swift song only adds to its charm. Therefore, I highly recommend giving it a read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

If you're someone who's always yelling at the characters to just talk about their problems, you're really going to hate this book. If, however, you're like me and you kinda thrive on the chaos and tension of miscommunication or no communication, this is your book.

This book happens over the span of a day and is told in dual POV. I loved both characters so much. They both had a lot of family problems they were working through and, because of a misunderstanding at the end of the previous school year, they weren't able to lean on each other during their summer apart.

Going back to the miscommunication thing. I think they could have worked things out a little sooner and then had other forces keeping them apart, but I didn't hate things how they were. And there were some really cute moments of dialogue and internal thoughts that kept me going too.

Some of the secrets that the students wrote down on this trip were juicy so it was fun that we had some of the letters with the secrets interspersed throughout the book. It kept things interesting and well-paced.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. Most chapters ended on a cliffhanger so I was always anxious to start reading the next one which meant I flew through this book. Even though I enjoyed this one, I think it's going to be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of book.

I Wish You Would, by Eva Des Lauriers, is a cute, YA romance full of high school drama and teen situations. This was a quick easy read and even though I am well past my YA years, I enjoyed the time I spent reading it.
Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with the ARC ebook I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Even though this story had a nice concept the execution fell flat for me and this wound up feeling messy. Everything about this book just felt like a collection of all my personal pet peeves. The plot relies entirely on miscommunication to keep it moving, and it was beyond frustrating to read about to characters who couldn’t have a conversation and continuously assumed the worst of each other in every situation. On top of that, and this probably won’t bother many people, the characters frequently used current slang like “sus” and “hella” that were just cringe for me to read.

Another downside of the miscommunication being so heavy was that it made it hard for me to enjoy the characters or root for them, specifically Ethan more so than Natalia. While I feel like Natalia eventually took responsibility for her part in where things went wrong, which made me like her a bit more, Ethan never did. It seemed like he would always find a way to blame his issues with communication on Natalia by saying things like “I only did this because she did that first” and it got to the point where I would be rolling my eyes every time we were in his point of view.

It wasn’t all bad however, as it was a quick and easy read and gave off a summer vibe that was enjoyable. Also, as I mentioned before, it had a good concept that was very reminiscent of To All the Boys and I liked that. The side characters in this were very fleshed out as well, though sometimes they seemed more interesting than the main characters. An issue for me with the side characters however was the way the story tried to tackle many serious topics within their storylines, but because they aren’t the most important and the book is so short nothing manages to be fully fleshed out or explored, which leaves it feeling pretty pointless.

Overall, because this was so short and easy to read I can’t really be that mad at it. I definitely think that this story will have a certain audience that it will do well with because it definitely has its positives, it just wasn’t for me.


~Rating: ★ ★ ✰ ✰ ✰.75~

I really wanted to love I Wish You Would, but there was just too much miscommunication and that absolutely killed it for me.