i have to say i loved this so much. summer camp sapphics you have my heart!! i loved the growth between priya and juliette and i just loved how fleshed out all the characters were. the only thing is i wish we could’ve learned just a bit more about galahad, but otherwise this is a perfect ya sapphic romcom that i will be recommending to everyone!!!

5 stars!

thank you to netgalley!

4/5

the book was such a breath of fresh air and i think it's perfect for younger people (12 and up or even 10 if theyre at that level of reading). i feel like so much mg gets closer to ya and ya closer to adult and it felt like this book stayed perfectly in its range.

i really enjoyed the memories this book envoked for me. the small flirting, the camp activities, the strong friendship, teen angst. fantastic. the relationship AMAZING. they had really good chemistry and i was obsessed with them throughout the entire book. ALSO THE EPILOGUE THEY ARE LIVING MY DREAM 😭😭😭

i really like how the characters main problem had nothing to do with their queerness which i really enjoyed. while it a very real reality for many people in the lgbtq+ community it was nice to see struggles of that aspect of their identity to not be mentioned or focused on.

theres only one thing i didn't like, i was expecting both characters to hate each other but its just juliette hating priya for petty reasons (but hey teenagers). i thought it would be like they despise each other bc they lead opposite lives but it wasn't that at all.

This is markered as a romance but is it tho ? They barely talked, the actual romance starts more than halfway through the book and it's just the MC realizing she has feelings for the Li and thinking about kissing her.
I liked the MC personal growth and inner struggle and it was funny

In this captivating read, the author masterfully weaves a narrative that is both engaging and thought-provoking. Through a blend of richly developed characters and a meticulously crafted plot, the book offers a unique exploration of its central themes, inviting readers to immerse themselves in the story's depth and complexity. The narrative is paced perfectly, balancing moments of intense action with thoughtful reflection, ensuring that readers are hooked from the first page to the last. The author's ability to evoke emotion and create a vivid, immersive world is truly remarkable, making this book a must-read for anyone looking for an exceptional literary experience.

Beyond its compelling storyline, the book stands out for its insightful commentary on the human condition, weaving philosophical questions into the fabric of its narrative. The author's skillful use of language not only enriches the text but also elevates the reader's experience, offering new perspectives on familiar themes. Whether it's the intricate dynamics of relationships, the exploration of identity, or the confrontation with ethical dilemmas, this book tackles complex issues with sensitivity and intelligence. It's a testament to the power of storytelling to illuminate the nuances of life, making it a valuable addition to any book lover's collection. Regardless of genre, this is a work that resonates on multiple levels, affirming the enduring impact of well-crafted literature.

I want to thank netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC!

Okay, I’m going to be so honest part of me feels so weird being a 25 yr old girlie reading a book about high schoolers but sometimes you just gotta push past that. And push past that I did, I fricken gobbled this book lol. I genuinely loved this book, it is so cute and such an easy read about two girls going to camp and falling in love. Priya is a big fish in a little pond outside of camp but at camp Juliette is the big fish.. that is until Priya also goes to camp. Throughout the summer, Priya hangs with Juliette and her friends and throughout the book, you can read them slowly figure out their feelings. This book is absolutely adorable and I highly recommend reading this!

i wasn’t sure what i was expecting starting this book, and i ended it hitting myself for not starting it immediately when i received my arc.

wish you were(n’t) here is absolutely queer magic for all the girls who wished they could have gone to summer camp as a teenager. this book is a sapphic, slow-burn, ya masterpiece with the most lovely characters that are so easy to fall in love with. i absolutely adored juliette and priya, along with every other character in the story.

this book made me miss being a teenage girl. it was so beautiful to read and experience those feelings again.

i don’t even have the words to give WYWH the proper review it deserves. my heart is heavy and so happy to have enjoyed this. thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this early on. i can’t want to revisit it when it is officially
published.

So cute and witty!!! In love with the representation and the writing style was so easy and fun. The characters were so refreshing and weren’t copy paste rom com personalities and that was my favorite part. I was really emotionally invested.

I really enjoyed this book! A summer camp setting is one of my favorite things. Juliette was totally relatable as a young person. It was a warm and cozy read, and exactly what we need for the YA genre right now.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc!
Pub date: 6/4/24

3.5 stars !!

i’m such a sucker for summer books and this one was just so cute !!! juliette and priya coexist during school year but no need for that during summer right? that’s juliette’s favorite time of the year because she can finally be herself without overthinking and feeling invisible like she does at school but everything changes when priya joins camp this summer instead of being an influencer in another country like juliette wishes

i loved fogridge sleepaway camp setting !!!! and juliette’s friends were such lovable characters :,) i was surprised that they knew about priya’s crush from the beginning

thank you netgalley and viking books team for this arc !!

I really enjoyed this book. ✨
I always had a childhood dream of going to summer camp! This book was so much fun to read!

The MC's were great characters. I loved, and understood, Juliette's internal struggles about who she is as a person. It gave the book depth and I was able to personally resonate with the character. I wish I got to read this book when I was their age.

My favorite tropes were in it as well!! ✨
- being yourself
- summer camp
-enemies to lovers

4/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book's ARC.

Wish You Weren't Here was exactly what I was looking for when I picked it up: a cute, low stakes romcom. Not only was this book a delight to read, but I was having so much fun with it that I finished the entire thing in one sitting! Juliette and Priya had such an interesting relationship, in the blurb it sounds more like they're frenemies, but in actuality it's just two teenagers whose ideas about one another have shaped their relationship their whole lives - and what happens when those ideas shatter. It was a dynamic I'd like to see more often in YA to be honest, and it was so refreshing to have it set in a location with characters that actually all felt like older teens. Essentially what I'm saying is that we need more YA like this!

It was so much more than just a romcom as well, Baldwin tackles the fear and dislike of change, especially as teens move on with their lives from high school. The novel examined it in a way that didn't feel condescending, and if anything, I think would help to make it feel more manageable to those who read it. My only complaint is that plot wise, the letter part felt a bit... out of place, as if it was supposed to be a part of the bigger picture later on but just fizzled out. Honestly though, it's such a minor thing that I doubt anyone else will even notice it.

Overall I loved Wish You Weren't Here, and I can't wait to see what Erin Baldwin writes next!

This book has my heart. It was like being embraced in a warm hug and finding yourself. I didn't want it to end!

This book is for anyone who ever went to camp and got to be truly yourself there. Juliette lives for summer camp, it's the one place she feels seen, it's her home, and a place she thrives. She's heading into her final year as a camper when all of a sudden her not quite rival and not quite friend Priya shows up to crash the one thing that's always been hers and hers alone. Now she suddenly has to not only share her friends with Priya but suddenly this one thing she had separate from Priya (they circle in the same social group).

Forced to share the same cabin, Priya and Juliette begin to tear down some of the walls they've built up, things that come from being in the same friend group but never really being friends. It's a joy to watch both these characters grow into themselves and challenge each other. With an ending that made my heart squee, it's worth a read and a re-read. I just finished and I can't wait to pick it back up. Slot this book as my new comfort read.

If you love camp, comfort, and sapphic love stories, this is an absolute must read book! Thank you so much to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

First of all the cover is soo beautiful! I lovee! Now for the story...it was soo great! This was such a sweet story OMG the pinning was everything and the characters were so relatable!! This story made we me wish I went to summer camps more. I was so pulled into this story from the start and had the best time reading this funny, cutee romance!!!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

Wish You Weren’t Here is an enemies to lovers Ya rom com with a ton of heart. This delightful story follows a high school girl who can’t wait for summer camp to escape her school’s hierarchy and the one person who makes her feel invisible. All seems to be going well until the pair are thrown together at camp and have to learn to live with one another.

This story is so sweet you would have to try hard not to love it.

I loved this sweet story of summer time camp romance.

I think both main characters had their own issues they were struggling with and seeing their “enemies” to lovers transition was so fun. I do think they both did some stupid teenage things which makes sense because they’re teenagers.

The side characters were also fun and contributed to the story. I do wish there had maybe been more of them. It felt like so much was put into adding characters to give the camp feel but they’re really hardly mentioned.

There are some typos in the arc but those will hopefully be fixed prior to publishing

rating: 3.75

i actually appreciated this more for the love letter to summer camp than the romance itself. the characters were nice enough, but i think calling this a rivals to lovers is a bit misleading. they themselves describe their relationship through mutuals friends as "eh"; there is a lot of envy on juliette's part, but it's one-sided and not a proper hatred or anything.

but it's understandable when little miss perfect priya shows up at her favorite place on earth for her last year there as a camper and juliette feels she's about to be robbed her best last summer ever. along that note, juliette constantly describes herself as being too loud, too open w her opinions, but we really don't see that, we're only told so. when priya shows up, not only is she quickly loved by everyone, but even juliette quickly succumbs to accepting her into the friend group. it didn't really have that rival drive, but i sympathized w juliette's feeling of her place in camp being threatened.

the rest of the story had good pacing and believable chemistry build-up between the two. i felt a bit dissatisfied with one of the conflict subplots and wasn't a big fan of the epilogue (view spoiler).

overall, it was enjoyable but not a favorite.

an honest arc review <3

"What was that? my brain screams.
Aaahhhhhhhh? I scream right back."
>>> This quote adequately summarizes EXACTLY how I feel about this book.

SAPPHIC JOY SAPPHIC JOY SAPPHIC JOY!!!! PURE SAPPHIC JOY!!!!!!!!!

Wish You Weren't Here by Erin Baldwin is YA contemporary romance featuring the most genuinely beautiful sapphic childhood frenemies to lovers. Juliette Barrera-Wright (yes, that's her name, don't get it wrong) is forced to share her home away from home with the one person in her extended friend group that she absolutely cannot stand, the extremely beautiful socialite Priya Pendley. Not just that but Juliette also has to share a closely guarded secret - just how brightly she shines at summer camp, the one place where she isn't just one among half a dozen siblings and the odd girl with the too-long-name.

This made me wish I could turn back time and be a teenager again. I would've given anything to have read a book like this growing up. My heart was so incredibly full and now that I've finished, I no longer know what to do with my life. I truly cannot recommend this enough.

The utter sweetness of these kids, the puppy love, EVERYTHING from all the huge acts of service to all the small, sweet moments, that still stick with me days later (bread crusts, anyone?). This book had such WONDERFUL, laugh-out-loud prose and the most RELATABLE main character I have ever had the pleasure of reading. She's strong-willed and incredibly caring. She's awkward and yet full of teenage pride. I loved all the Filipino rep and how Filipino's talent for singing was incorporated into this without making it obnoxious. Yeah she could sing but so? She's also everything else! GAH I love this so damn much.

I have honestly never been so happy reading a book from the moment I flipped from page one to the very end. This book gave me all the kilig feelings and I honestly COULD NOT get enough. The way that I abandoned all my Saturday plans to stay in and read this book in ONE ABSOLUTELY PERFECT sitting. I laughed, I cried, and SOBBED with all the happy tears, and IMMEDIATELY preordered a copy of this book for myself.

From the highly immersive summer camp setting, to each and every character mentioned, this was a masterpiece. No notes.

June 4, 2024.
Preorder it now.
Seriously.

(+) Filipino American FMC, Bisexual Indian-American love interest, achillean secondary characters, Filipino-American author. Oh did I mention -- SAPPHIC JOY SAPPHIC JOY SAPPHIC JOY!!!!

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(did you preorder it yet?)

This was a cute, summer read focused on the last summer camp for Juliette before she is a HS Senior and basically can't be a kid anymore. Juliette lives perpetually in other people's shadows. At home, she is one of SEVEN siblings, where she often feels invisible, and at school, she is always one upped by the hot, popular, always-perfect Priya Pendley, a frenemy she shares a friend group with but who always crops her out of group photos and are perpetually exchanging the same half-assed birthday gift. The only place she can feel like herself is at Fogridge, a sleepaway summer camp she goes to every summer with NO siblings and NO Priya. Until this year, when Priya's mother decides to send her along (looks good on college apps? I guess?) and they end up not only at the same camp, but also sharing a cabin (just the two of them.)

I really enjoyed the frenemies dynamic between Priya and Juliette at the start of the book. It's not full of animosity, they are actually friendly towards each other, they just kind of quietly keep each other at a distance even though life keeps pushing them together. I even would have liked to see a bit more of that dynamic established before we're quickly swept off to summer camp.

Now, Camp Fogridge is the dream summer camp. It's exactly what you imagine camp would be if you pictured the richest most posh summer camp ever. There are like a million activities to choose from, not one but TWO theater plays that they put on, camp wide games, a zipline, horseback riding, archery - basically everything you could dream of. The book spends a lot of time sending the characters running between one activity to the next, and honestly I thought it could've cut things back just a little to focus more on character interactions. Juliette is looking forward to this thing all year, and then Priya shows up and basically one-ups her all over again.

All her friends and counselors immediately love Priya, even though she's a newcomer. Priya's immediately amazing at all of the camp things and does them better than Juliette. Juliette justifiably feels like her last year at camp is being ruined by Priya's presence. What's worse is there is a new camp counselor that immediately sours on Juliette and does her best to stop her from having fun (um why?) and then Juliette also twists her ankle so the summer is basically a bust.

This part of the book is honestly where I felt a little lost. There is so much going on in terms of camp activities that I don't really feel like we get to deeply know the characters, and I didn't really understand their choices or their POVs. We're TOLD that Priya is a people pleaser who can't say no to anyone or stand up for herself or anyone else - but we don't really see it. And we're TOLD that Juliette is over the top and always told to make herself smaller and quieter for the sake of others. But again, we don't really see it. There's a lot of "Why" missing from the character choices for me.

I think this book does well as an easy, low conflict read with shallow characterization and a lot of summer camp shenanigans - as long as you don't go in with any deeper expectations.

This was a really cute slow-burn sapphic romance mostly set a summer camp between rival girls in different social circles at school. Whenever I read books set at a summer camp, it makes me wish so bad I'd gone to them as a kid. I'd also recommend this to any theater kids out there. Very enjoyable read that kept me up at night until I finished it. This was a debut book and can't wait to see what comes next from this author

this was so cute and i wish i would have read it in the summer because it's the perfect summer read but also??? it made the winter feel just a little more cozier! i'm always on board for a lgbtq+ representation book! the vibes were immaculate, the characters were immaculate! i don't have many complaints honestly!