Thanks to NetGalley, BookClubGirl, William Morrow, and Harper Collins for this copy of "I Hope This Finds You Well."

What a marvelous debut from author Sue. It was both hilarious and heartbreaking, charming and thought-provoking.

Jolene Smith works at Supershops Inc in a soul-sucking job where she does her best to be invisible to her intolerable co-workers. But a computer mistake gives her access to all the employees' emails and instant messages.

When she finds out that layoffs are planned, she tries to use the information to her advantage. But as she learns more about her co-workers through their messages, she learns that maybe they're very different than she thought.

I am not usually one for office novels (maybe my time as an office drone is so far in the past and so poorly remembered that I don't want to revisit it?) but Natalie Sue takes the office novel to remarkably compelling and captivating new heights. The premise is simple - unhappy office worker Jolene, stuck in a terrible job, hiding from her parents, running from her past, gets in trouble with HR for improper use of email. But through a tech mistake, rather than have her email restricted, she unexpectedly gets access to all her co-workers emails and messages. What ensues is anything but simple however - Jolene comes to understand that she is not the only one hiding her misery behind her keyboard and she also recognizes the work she will need to do to overcome her past hurts and fully embrace the world around her. A cute HR professional assigned to her case adds some spice, as does a fellow Iranian-Canadian co-worker. Highly recommend. Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for e-ARC.

This book was not what I expected but in a good way. I read to the first 30% and set it aside for two weeks and then when I returned to it I couldn’t stop and binged the rest in a day. This is a sneaky book in that it surprises you with its direction. It’s such a strong example of how you really never know what people are going through. A great debut!

"Stu Wilkins has been hunched over the printer in front of his pod for the past fifteen minutes, watching sheets of paper spit out in one-second intervals like some twisted form of corporate meditation. All these people, with their thoughts floating so close, sitting beside one another in complete silence. Nobody ever randomly screams during these moments -- a phenomenon that should be studied."

I loved this excerpt because I felt that it perfectly captured I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue: a book that is cathartic, meditative, funny, and at times a deeply empathetic study into the truly bizarre modern day corporate and office culture. The story is narrated by Jolene, a long-time employee at Supershops, Inc. Her crippling social anxiety often prevents her from engaging with her co-workers and colors her limited interactions with them as she grows paranoid and pessimistic. After years of ignoring her colleagues, a glitch in her computer forces her to reconsider her work relationships and her own place at Supershops, Inc. when she is suddenly and accidentally granted admin access to all email and internal messaging accounts. The majority of the story follows afterwards and how she navigates this and balances the precarious relationships she has with her colleagues (a very zany cast to say the least). Jolene is a deeply flawed character and we come to learn that many of her seemingly perfect co-workers are, of course, as well. Along the way, Natalie Sue pokes fun at all the truly strange quirks of corporate culture: re-orgs and HR training, nonsense corporate speak (wtf even is a Document Lead), and the truly baffling idiot who has fallen upwards into a management role that is somehow present in every corporate office. Although the book stalled for me a bit in the middle, I was hooked from the beginning and glad I hung in there until the end.

As a reader who is deeply curious about why people do the things they do, this book really resonated with me. Natalie Sue is an expert observer of people. There is so much character exposition and development and I loved the way that my own perceptions and judgments on certain people shifted, mirroring Jolene's own journey, as their stories are told over the course of the book. At the very heart of the story is the notion that we can never know what people are going through or thinking and for that reason, we should attempt to be kind (even when that feels impossible (!)).

Thank you to William Morrow, NetGalley, and Natalie Sue for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Novels taking place in the workplace/office is a setting i typically love, so i was excited to read this one. What a fantastic debut from Sue! I loved following the adventures of Jolene (although she is FRUSTRATING sometimes), as she accidentally gets access to all her coworkers emails. this isn’t a thriller but it definitely kept me on the edge of my seat watching how she uses her new intel against her coworkers and seeing how it all plays out. really fun book with a lot of funny and touching moments too.

Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC of I Hope this finds you well. What an original and cute story. If you are in the mood for something light, with good character development and dialogue, this is the book for you. Jolene works for the corporate office at a retailer called Superstore. It gave me major nostalgia for my days of working at an office, mentioning the smell of burnt hazelnut coffee and burnt micowave popcorn. Due to an error, Jolene gets access to every employee's email inbox and Teams instant messages. She, naturally, learns that they aren't who she thinks they are. In many cases, there is gossip and they are speaking negatively about Jolene herself. Jolene becomes privvy to some business plans for layoffs and how the CEO really thinks of her coworkers. After some time, she does learn some of their back stories and some of them create some empathy in her. There is also a budding romance with Cliff in HR, who she begins commuting with. It takes place in Canada and Jolene is Persian, she is a bit of a spinstery awkward type- like Bridget Jones. She has dealt with some tragedy in her past. Overall this is a fun story, a great beach read.

DNF at 10%. This might have been a case of me misunderstanding and coming in with the wrong expectations. I thought this was going to be an office comedy. Instead, Jolene’s social anxiety and life both at work and at home was stiflingly sad to me. We moved from one situation to another that made me want to cry. Maybe this gets better as the book goes on but I am not sticking with it to find out. Thank you to the publisher for the free book to review.

Jolene finds herself stuck in a soul-sucking job with co-workers she despises and no romantic prospects to speak of. Surely she is a let down to her first-generation Iranian-American mother who has aspirations of her daughter climbing the corporate ladder and finding a prosperous husband. The only way to survive her day filled with coworkers who drone on about their middle-aged sons, emails brimming with violent business casual conversation, and a plethora of passive aggressive actions is to draft emails never intended for the recipient to read with her grievances. When an email with her true thoughts is mistakenly revealed Jolene is in hot water.

I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL is a comical, surprising and tender debut. I loved the character arcs of Jolene and her coworkers who initially seemed irredeemable. Natalie Sue captured the complexity of the generational differences between children of immigrants and the clash of familial expectations in a thought-provoking way.

READ THIS IF YOU:
-Believe everyone has a story behind the lives they project
-Feel microwaving fish in the office should be a punishable offense
-Enjoy complicated workplace dynamics

RATING: 4.5/5 (rounded up to 5 stars)
PUB DATE: May 21, 2024

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank You so much to NetGalley, Natalie Sue, and William Morrow for the advanced copy! I leave this review freely!

I was pleasantly surprised by this sweet, fun, little office romance! I am a huge fan of the UK and US version of The Office, so this was a great little read for me!

Jolene, the office introvert, is hated by her co-workers and the feeling is mutual. She regularly leaves hidden insults in emails to them, until she gets caught and has to go through HR training with the quirky new HR guy, Cliff. An IT glitch on her computer, as they are installing software to monitor her, gives her an eye-opening look at the office politics she's not a part of, of her co-workers lives, and insight into herself.

What happens across the story is often sweet, funny, and makes you want to giggle into your warm blankie. But it also has moments of self-doubt, self-loathing, and touches on the dark side of how people feel about themselves and what they do to not feel so much pain.

I loved Jolene's story and how really all she wanted was to feel like she belonged somewhere. She carried so much guilt over the events of her past that it colored everything she did. So relevant to a lot of people who have suffered childhood trauma.

The cast of characters surrounding her are definitely reminiscent of the Office or the movie Office Space. Quirky co-workers, arch nemesis, and all! I loved it.

One of my favorite reads of the year! Well done!

I LOVED THIS ONE!!!! It is funny, awkward, sad, thoughtful, angsty, dramatic; it's a rollercoaster! I didn't expect to get emotional but I felt myself get a little teary at the end. YESSSS

Thank you HarperCollins and NetGalley for early access to this amazingly wonderful story!! I loved every moment of it, you’re really cheering for the main character and loving her sense of humor but also her vulnerability. Just even the premise is enough to evoke more than a chuckle. I do recommend this book and the humor (as well as rawness) behind it!

Ok, I knew I was probably going to really like reading this snarky, funny and messy debut novel. What I didn’t realize is how multi-dimensional and emotional this read would be!

I heard someone discussing this book as an upcoming release they were excited for and the premise sounded so good! An introverted and insecure office worker mistakenly gets access to everyone’s email boxes. What could go wrong? Um…lots! So of course I ran to @netgalley to request a copy and was overjoyed to get a hard copy also.

This story stars Jolene, who is such a GREAT character! She is sarcastic and witty while carrying around heavy baggage from her teen years. That baggage is lightly alluded to throughout the beginning of the story and then is slowly revealed through the second half. I was not expecting the emotional depth this book held - and I LOVED that this author injected the right amount of humor to lighten the heaviness of some subjects.

Jolene’s coworkers, the HR guy, her young neighbor and her Persian parents rounded out this story perfectly. Her overbearing but well-meaning Mom was a hoot! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Persian traditions and culture. It felt really original to this genre of story. I read this book so much faster than I have been able to read lately. I was totally transported into to this outdated and unremarkable office and hated to put this book down.

One of the underlying themes I responded to was the ways in which we interact with each other to cover up what we don’t want to face. For some it’s gossip, for some it’s tearing others down, for some it’s bragging, and for some it’s shrinking into the background. It was a good reminder that we don’t know always know what’s going on in someone else’s life. Even someone you see and interact with every work day. Maybe kindness and patience are tools we all can utilize more. Me especially.

Thank you @williammorrowbooks @netgalley for the ARC to read and review. Highly recommend!

If you are in need of an office drama with a touch of romance this is your novel! I was intrigued by the premise and had to know all about this one.

Jolene is an admin with Supershops, Inc and has been for many years. She has coworkers who don't understand boundaries or her introvert ways. In order to survive her bullying coworkers she vents by sending emails with postscripts to air her grievances and then changes the text color to white so that they can't be seen. (I did my own testing on this and this could happen!!!) But then one of her secret messages is accidentally seen and she is found out!! So it's sensitivity training for Jolene complete with a super friendly HR named Cliff. She also has some email restrictions that are placed upon her. Buuuut.....an IT mess up lets her have unlimited access to her entire department's emails and messages. When Jolene goes to Cliff to report it, she almost gets the words out but Cliff is so encouraging that she never gets it out and she is left with all this access.

But who wouldn't want unrestricted access to their coworkers correspondence? Jolene finds out what her coworkers are really saying about her and other coworkers. She also finds out a future layoff. So she thinks she needs the chance to save her job and scope out her competition.

But as Jolene continues to spy, she finds out all sorts of things about her coworkers and even something involving herself. She tries not to like her coworkers, even Cliff, but she starts to break. As her attitude changes, her circumstances might also. And she might find some friends.

I loved the characters and the drama as it unfolded. I was turning pages so quickly on this one! Working in an office really gives me a unique look into this one and I laughed so much at this one. I was really rooting for multiple characters in this one. This is a good reminder that you never know what someone is going through in their personal life so always give the benefit of the doubt and be nice. I really liked this book. This was a 4.5 star book for me because of how much I laughed and even teared up at the end.

A special thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC of this funny & entertaining novel.

I first learned about I Hope This Finds You Well from an early review on my local bookstore's Instagram, describing it as "perfect for fans of Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine." As a huge fan of Eleanor Oliphant, I immediately added this book to my TBR list and was lucky to be granted an advance read by HarperCollins and NetGalley.

The book did not disappoint. It was full of all the passive-aggressive thoughts we secretly harbor against our coworkers and the excruciating frustrations of office life. It was also a book that dared to explore our inner thoughts, anxieties, and hang-ups, such as what our coworkers really think about us, our trust/suspicions about HR, and who our colleagues are outside of work. I found myself questioning what I would do in main character Jolene's situation. The tension, at times, was cringe-inducing, but only because I was invested in the characters, and I could sense the turns that were forthcoming.

IHTFYW places an interesting spin on the idea of walking around in other people's shoes by putting Jolene and the reader into her colleagues' emails and messages so that we really begin to see them as three-dimensional, complex people, a sort of modern examination of the human condition. It's at the same time biting and clever, heartfelt and warm. Fans of "The Office" will appreciate IHTFYW for its ability to find the humanity in office life and uncover characters' depths in interesting and relatable scenes.

The dialogue and internal monologues are so real and well done that I felt like I knew Jolene, at times recognizing characteristics of close friends and also of myself. She has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor that kept me smiling throughout, but there is also an underlying loneliness and guilt that is undeniably human. Natalie Sue does a great job establishing characters' voices and making each stand out in their own way.

Without giving too much away, the book takes us on a journey that we've been on before, and we know how this is bound to end. However, the pacing and reveals kept me reading and trying to figure out exactly how and when the house of cards would come crashing down. The anticipation ratcheted as new dilemmas were posed and the stakes were raised. The payout was a little bit underwhelming, but it felt entirely believable and hit differently because of the investment made in the character development and rationale for the snowballing of decisions made.

Overall, I Hope This Finds You Well was a great summer read that was fast and interesting but also deeper than a typical beach read. It explored themes of individual identity and values versus the herd mentality and the lengths people go to in the name of self preservation, all while keeping the plot moving and entertaining. In a post-COVID world, it also reminds us of our own loneliness and need for human connection. It's a story about seeing people and being seen by people, and all of the complex emotions attached. As a debut novel, it introduces us to a fantastic, fresh new voice in author Natalie Sue, and I will certainly be looking forward to her next offering.

Was lucky enough to get a pre-release copy of the book from NetGalley and truly enjoyed the honest inside look of how a corporate office full of cubicles really operates. So much of how you survive in a corporate setting is more of who you know than what you know on top of that it also is if you have any dirt on anyone of power. The female main character was relatable, and I became truly invested in her, and while she was going through her HR training for the misconduct I found myself rooting for her well-being and hoping for her to have a positive outcome. The main catalyst of the book was easy to dislike even though she was a very relatable character.

I found myself feeling like I was reading a book about where I work and the office politics and how it’s who you’re friends with then if you’re really qualified for the job. Many of the statements of how HR is not for the employees, but therefore the company and protect the companies interest really struck a nerve and was eye-opening.

Genuinely enjoyed this book! I really couldn’t put it down once I got into it. You know it’s going to be messy and it’s like a car crash you just can’t look away. Then it got messier!?

All in all I enjoyed our main character, Jolene, even if she’s a bit of a mess. But I did find myself shedding a tear or two and relating to her.

Cliff was lovely (even if he’s a blond) and I really enjoyed his character, would love him to have a little more depth sometimes but solid nonetheless.

Our side characters were a bit over the top for me at first but became more believable the more we learn about them.

I recommend if you liked attachments by rainbow Rowell, Eleanor Oliphant, or The Collected Regrets of Clover. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I struggled getting into this book, it was slow. Once I settled in to it I enjoyed what I was reading.

You always want people to have a great arc and Jolene definitely did in this book. She's beyond flawed, and tries to make things right, but fails spectacularly. It's honestly refreshing to think about.

She needs therapy and finally gets it. Yes! That's so important, and I'm glad that was part of her outcome.

I would recommend this book.

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

Jolene tries to stay to herself at work. When an IT mix up gives her access to everyone’s private emails and messages, she discovers layoffs are coming and that this mistake may help her.

I love stories with fun office politics and characters. The cliches and recognization of office ridiculousness just cracks me up. On top of that, this one also has a budding romance and a sad backstory that allows for growth within the character. I really enjoyed this one and am bummed that it’s over.

“It shouldn’t be this hard to remain neutral with people. But trust Supershops Incorporated to turn a desk job into an air conditioned version of Survivor, complete with alliances and betrayals.”

I Hope This Finds You Well comes out 5/21.

I genuinely don't know where to start on this review. I've had a slow reading month, but this book hooked me from page one and I was OBSESSED. The main character was so well done and honestly as someone who has social anxiety in large groups of people we can be perceived as weird, but we're usually really friendly we just don't know what to say! I related to her off brand humor and the whole concept of the book was great. Imagine you accidentally get access to all your coworker's emails and IM chats and you start to realize everyone has problems they don't talk about. I 100% recommend this book and it just made it to my top lit fic book of the year spot.

I Hope This Finds You Well is about Jolene, and focuses on her mundane job as an admin assistant for a retail grocer office. She’s miserable in the office and takes satisfaction in saying what she really thinks in the end of her emails by turning the gripes to white ink before sending. Except one time she doesn’t. And she ends up in Cliff, the HR employee’s office. Cliff really cares and wants to help her save her job.

This one started out a little hard for me. Jolene made me literally cringe but as the book goes on you realize she is just a hurt woman who needs help and a good friend. I felt for her through the book, through every mistake. This was a good portrayal of real life and how we each are fighting our own battles but how sometimes we just need a hand to reach out and how it can really make a difference.