Thank you Netgalley and William Morrow for access to this arc.

Every once in a while I’ll look at a cover and read a blurb and think “this could be really good or really … not good.” Thankfully this one is really good. A lot of why I say that is because the relationships feel real, the awfulness of the workplace feels real, no one is perfect (by a long shot), but lessons are learned and in the end, most of the characters will be in a better place.

So yes, a lot of what I enjoyed here is how everyone is a bit fucked up but also most have reasons *why* they’re fucked up and many of those reasons matter. Because of a past event as well as her childhood growing up as a minority in a small Canadian town, Jolene doesn’t open up and let people in. She has a love/hate relationship with her culture as well as her mother. Her mom is tough though, as Jolene knows, and picked up her life, which was broken almost overnight, and restarted in a new country. The book has a lovely immigrant backstory that is also worked into some of the shit that Jolene finds herself in at her job.

The romance is an understated one with a wonderful guy. Cliff is actually a good Human Resources person. It’s nice to see a truly caring person in that role. Since they’re at the same workplace and Cliff has a degree of control over Jolene’s continued employment, of course things will be fraught sooner rather than later and kudos that they both pull back. Jolene also deals with a parentally neglected twelve year old where she lives who reminds her of herself at that age. That relationship also has its ups and downs but again, it’s all believable and has a nice ending.

As Jolene dives into her coworkers’ emails, digital file folders, and admin stuff she discovers that the people she thought she knew are people also struggling with the job and in some cases, with their personal lives. In order to improve her own chances of keeping her job and being seen as a “team player,” she starts to interact more and realizes that being “seen” and getting to know everyone – okay, almost everyone – isn’t as bad as she thought. She even feels sympathy for the truly spectacularly fired person though perhaps the office wide mooning was OTT.

Of course eventually the fit hits the shan but not quite in the way I expected. The fall out is not just work related but pulls in Jolene’s past and relies on modern HR interventions that, despite the fallout, I’m actually glad to see are being taken seriously in the workplace now. This is the point where Jolene reaches rock bottom and has to face what she’s done, how it’s hurt her and how she hurt others. There’s some real character growth across the story which culminates in Jolene getting therapy for her past and working out a new relationship with her mother.

The humor had me laughing as I really enjoy subtle snark and sarcasm. The 1st and 2nd generation immigrant experience is real with both ups and downs honestly portrayed. Just about every character gets put through the wringer and, let’s be real, most of them needed it. But the scenarios are so well done and drawn that I was concerned about almost all of them and happy that several ended up in better places. This is more than a cubical romcom. It’s heartfelt and human and luckily for me this book turned out to be really good. A-

I loved this book so much. It was relatable, and heartwarming. Jolene’s inner thoughts while at work really resonated, and it was just a fun read from start to finish! Highly recommend to anyone who works in an office.

I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL – Natalie Sue
William Morrow
ISBN: 978-0063320369
May 21, 2024
Contemporary Fiction

Calgary, Alberta – Present Day

Jolene has worked for several years in the offices of Supershops, Inc., and barely knows her coworkers. It isn’t like she has even tried to interact much with them as she mostly keeps to herself. She has amused herself by adding “white text” to her coworkers’ emails that she sends them. This means changing the font color to white and saying snarky things that they can’t see. Unfortunately, she forgot to change the text to white one day, and she got caught. Jolene is reprimanded and ordered to work with the new HR person on sensitivity training and getting rigorous email restrictions. But a mix-up occurs, and Jolene soon discovers that she is seeing everyone’s emails and direct messages. She tries to tell Cliff, the HR guy, what is going on, but he misinterprets her explanation. Jolene decides to take advantage of what she can now see since she has learned that Supershops are going to soon lay off a few employees. What if she can manipulate or get ahead of issues in order to make herself look good and therefore not be laid off?

It's not a stretch to say that I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL is an unusual read. It is more of a dark comedy than one that has you rolling with laughter. Jolene is haunted by the memories of the role she played in her best friend’s death when she was eighteen, even if she isn’t at fault. She is not a sociable person and being thrust into a working situation where she has to work closely with three other human beings is hard on her. By reading their emails, she is soon pulled into the private lives of her coworkers, and they don’t realize that she knows. It actually makes her start to look at them differently, whether that is a good or a bad thing, well, she will have to figure that out. Meanwhile, she sees opportunities to make herself look good after discovering one coworker is getting privy to info a day ahead of her.

Meanwhile, Jolene spends time with Cliff (the HR guy) and he is a bit of a nerd but nice. She starts to like him, and the feeling is mutual. Turns out that he lives near her apartment, and he offers to drive her to work. But Cliff is still the perceived “enemy” because he is going to be grading her sensitivity training and help decide which employees will be laid off. Will Jolene suck up to Cliff in hopes of him recommending that she stay at Supershops?

The deeper Jolene gets into the personal lives of her fellow workers, the more she begins to realize that they are leading deceptive lives. Will this change her views on them in I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL? Jolene soon comes face to face with a man from her past, and it is not a good reunion. She hates him for a reason, and he could tell her boss about what happened to her at eighteen. As Jolene sweats and wonders what is going to happen to her, readers will be rooting for her to pull herself out of her depression and seize the day. In I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL, you will laugh, and you will cry right along with Jolene. An intriguing read, and one that I highly recommend.

Patti Fischer
Romance Reviews Today

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It had a bit of a slow and depressing start, but I understand what the author was doing. It was a refreshing change from what I've been reading lately and definitely had a bit of "The Office" vibe going on. Lots of humor and self reflection. Overcoming past tragedies, forgiveness, finding friendships you didn't know were hiding in plain sight and a little slow burn romance. Definitely a great book worthy of your time!

Jolene's days are spent boxed into a cubicle, suspiciously wary of her coworkers while her nights are spent in drunken stupors. The trauma from the death of her best friend in their teen years has slowly and methodically etched a valley of trauma in Jolene. Her emotional outlet is writing what she really feels to coworkers and changing the font color to white so it remains unseen by the reader. Of course, this catches up to her and one of her snarky responses is exposed. Forced into sensitivity training with the new HR guy, Jolene is forced to face her past and deal with her present.

Good enough story of a modern day office girl with a past. Jolene was stuck in a cycle of self-pity, guilt, and loneliness which caused a lot of self-pity. When she accidentally began to see her coworkers personal communications she began to understand that everyone has a past and problems - the seemingly perfect lives of her cubicle mates are anything but. I could easily recommend this book for a reader looking for a modern day woman's fiction story.

This book is EVERYTHING 🙌 I laughed out loud SO many times, even shed a tear or two, and cheered on Joleen the entire time! The writing is witty and very much gives the same kind of humor as The Office, with darker humor undertones that reminded me a lot of Katy Brent’s writing (which is a huge compliment, because I love Katy’s books). Natalie was able to create a story that addressed important, but tough topics, while simultaneously weaving in humor, and it was done absolutely flawlessly. Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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.