At first I thought this was just some light fiction about working in an office setting. But as the story went on, I realized its full of raw truths and unique characters that could be any one of us. I think anyone who has worked in an office with complex individuals can relate to this story. Many of the characters were relatable and I appreciated reaching Jolene's character development through the story! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Darkly comic story of a woman alienated from her colleagues at a job she hates but feels no potential for escape. Admittedly, the workplace is incredibly toxic, filled with infighting and sabotage with references to ongoing harassment. It all was hostile even without Jolene's coping mechanism of writing secret extensions to her emails railing against the recipient and the office, then hiding the text until it eventually blows up in her face. No one is innocent in this farce, but it's a compelling journey to follow Jolene through her penance and eventual realizations about the shared humanity of everyone at the office. It's not an easy journey, but 100% worth it.

I was fascinated by the depiction of what it was like to be first generation Iranian-Canadian and that difference between her home culture and the homogenous culture of Supershops as her employer. Jolene's tense relationship with her mother was particularly moving, especially as her mother's character was well-developed with her own motives for both supporting her family and also maintaining her reputation among the women of their community. Everything was so realistic and human, I was cringing along with Jolene as I was devouring the text. Complex problems arose and played out in believable fashion, with no magical resolution or anything going against the grain of characters as they were developed. That's actually really difficult to achieve in fiction, where a lot of writers find their way into corners and give in to temptation to resolve impossible conflicts suddenly or off-camera.

Jolene was so deliciously flawed as a character, but so well-developed with realistic consequences for self-destructive actions like drinking too much. Her mental illness was so well depicted that it should probably come with a trigger warning for those who struggle with depression, anxiety, or alcohol abuse. Readers who show up for easy laughs should be warned that this book covers some heavy topics but is still a wonderful read.

Cliff is my favorite kind of cinnamon roll love interest. He is probably the best person at Supershops and my dream man. Luckily, not too much of the plot centers on him (though he is pivotal). This book is more about Jolene's journey, as it should be, and she needed to resolve all her relationships and not just the romantic one. Besides, deeply flawed characters are inevitably more compelling than sweet perfection.

If you liked this book, you might want to try Several People Are Typing.

TW: alcohol abuse, mental illness, emotional abuse, physical abuse (referred to)

This story is full of character and heart. In the novel, we meet Jolene who is attending a training with HR after sending a passive aggressive work email (where she thinks she writes her passive aggressive note in white font but doesn’t). When they put monitoring software into her computer as part of the training, she actually gets access to everyone’s emails at work and begins to learn her enemies at work have a lot going on outside of work too.

This story explores what it’s like to have a sort of anxiety and PTSD and continue to try to do life. I adored all of the characters- both their good and bad traits. I think the novel was deeper than I was expecting and that’s a good thing.

I was immediately intrigued when I saw the cover of this book and quickly added it to my “to read'' list. However, feeling burned out from my own corporate job, I kept putting off diving in, afraid to wade back into the world of work at the end of a long day. What a mistake! I Hope This Finds You Well was an absolute joy to read. It was the perfect blend of hilarious, snarky, and heartwarming. I could not put this book down and cannot wait to read what’s next from Natalie Sue.

If you want to appreciate your workplace environment, this is the book for you. A very flawed character stars in a story where you gradually get to realize that her mental health is the basis of her bad decisions. Things to think about and plenty of humor as well!

This is a workplace rom-com about Jolene who struggles to fit in and accept her colleagues who she strongly dislikes. Her friendships, especially with HR guy Cliff, steadily grow as she mistakenly learns more than she should by some misdirected emails. I found the plot funny but slow moving at times.

A funny, modern book about the struggles of working in an office in today's world. Sardonic at times, the novel eventually gives way to hope.

Jolene is a Persian Canadian living in Calgary stuck in a dead-end job and not living up to her potential. After her best friend died in an accident in high school, she has made her life small and struggled from day to day in a job she doesn't like where she is a pariah. Her mother is involved in her life, but a bit overbearing. At the start of the novel, Jolene gets in trouble for some off-color remarks in an email to a colleague she neglected to white out. The company decides to put her in mandated training, where she meets Cliff, the new HR guy, who may be more than he seems.

Due to a mistake in the settings put on Jolene's computer, she gets administrator access and can view all the email and messages her coworkers receive. At first upset because her coworkers are indeed talking about her, she eventually realizes that everyone is struggling with something and that appearances can be deceiving. Some of the situations and dialogue are a little outlandish and so funny. This was such an enjoyable read. I do feel it was a little long for the type of book it is. I really enjoyed how layered Jolene, her mother, and her colleagues were. This was a well-crafted book about the drudgery of daily office life.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ebook. All thoughts are my own.

I loved this book from start to finish. I used to work in an office as a temp, and the varied cast of characters may seem slightly absurd to the uninformed non-office worker, but I can attest that these people all exist in the real world somewhere. So I found this incredibly realistic (though of course exaggerated for story reasons) and compelling. It is entertaining, incredibly easy to fly through in just a few sittings, and you'll somehow end up rooting for everyone. Well, maybe not that one guy. Or that one girl. But EVERYONE ELSE, I swear you'll fall in love with.

It also made me think, what would I do if I had access to every single one of my coworkers' emails? I would most likely do exactly the same thing.

I was expecting something similar to The Office. It was SO different, but I loved it and could not put it down. The story was character-driven, emotional, and truly funny. This book makes you think of your life and how you treat other people on a day-to-day basis. It was a good reminder that everyone has something going on - and you don't know unless you can live inside their head (or have full access to their inbox).

This was not the book I expected but in the best way. It is a hard look at office culture and a reminder that things are not always what they seem. I definitely recommend this book!

I was ready for a light comedic story but I read a very good story about a woman who has never felt like she belonged except for one friend in high school. And of course something dark happens to this friend and she is left alone. She is working for a National company with co workers who treat her like she has been treated throughout her life so when she responds to their emails she changed the color of the ink to white and tells them what she really thinks of them. But she forgot to change the ink color and her nemesis is the one who receives it.. human Resource calls her in on it and gives her the opportunity to change her ways and they will be moral of her emails and work on her computer. The next morning when she arrives at work she finds that her compshows her every email and DM that anyone I. The company sends. She tries to tell Human What has occurred, but the. Message doesn’t get across. She then decides to use this information to save her job and ruin everyone else’s job. There are occasions that are really quite funny, many that are touching as she learned to become a better person and friend. I really enjoyed this book!

As someone who works in an office setting, this was very relatable. While Jolene was very cynical, she did have a part of her that wanted to belong. Jolene is not very likable, and negative about everything. As an over thinker myself, I related to that aspect of her personality. Her inner dialogue was very funny to me because I have had some of the same thoughts during my various jobs. I’ve had my moments when I just don’t want to be bothered with people at work and I was miserable.

I am nosy as hell, so the thought of reading every single email, and communication chain peaked my interest. As much as Jolene was negative, her coworkers in my opinion weren’t any better. As the book went on, you see why Jolene is the way she is. I enjoyed the catty, office drama, but it was really hard to like Jolene as a character. Overall, this book did entertain me, but I wish Jolene was a little less self pitying at times.

From the title to the romance to all the shenanigans in between, I Hope This Finds You Well is a hilarious book about the mundane work and cultural pettiness of a corporate office. The protagonist is the perfect character to view this story in, Jolene doesn't fit in with her peers due to her severe anxiety and passive aggressive behaviors. It is her downfall at the beginning and through some not completely PC means, she works her way up to be liked enough to save herself from layoffs. She makes progress with all her former foes, at the office and outside. I would have liked to see more of her character development reflected in her internal self-talk, as it never seemed like she got more confident with herself even though on the outside she's always testing the boundaries of her comfort zone with other characters noticing the change for her.

Jolene's anxiety stems from a traumatic event turned into an awful high school rumor. It makes sense why she has low self esteem from that experience, but it doesn't really make sense why her office nemesis uses that rumor to beat Jolene down and get her in an HR meeting. Then again, none of the jobs I've ever worked for had a real HR department, so perhaps I am blind to what qualifies as a legitimate work complaint.

I also feel as though the love triangle mix up never really gets clarified to the hurt party. One minute it's the silent treatment and the next the two love birds are talking again, never really explaining what happened. I suppose the reason the characters move on from the fight is because they like each other enough to trust one another, but it would have been nice to get a closure chapter.

I Hope This Finds You Well manages to be both hilarious and deeply heartfelt. All of the characters are flawed and human and realistic and many of them are. The main character, Jolene, makes some questionable choices but I couldn’t help but root for her. This book deals with some heavy topics, but it was done in a way that was tasteful and added to the depth of the characters. I loved this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who has ever felt like they didn’t fit in.

I requested this one because my book club was reading it, and I was genuinely surprised at how much I liked it. As someone who works in an office environment for work, this was so relatable, and I swear I've worked with some of these characters before. If I did have one critique, it would be that there were too man subplots that didn't really get resolved in a satisfactory way BECAUSE there were so many of them. I think if the author had cut a few smaller plots, the main plot could have carried it just fine. But, I will be keeping an eye out for other books by this author in the future.

I had a hard time relating to the main character. I found her to be frustrating and I just wanted to yell at her for her choices. This would normally deter me from continuing the book. However I was drawn to the story and the author kept me invested throughout. I’m so glad I continued until the end.

When I first picked up this book, I was unsure what to expect, but it quickly proved to be an engaging read. The protagonist, Jolene, initially seemed challenging to relate to due to her unhappiness and abrasive personality at work. However, as the story progressed, I was pleasantly surprised by the character development and the evolving relationships between Jolene and her co-workers. The humor was a spot on, bringing genuine laughter with its sharp wit and clever observations. Additionally, the book’s incorporation of Persian culture added a refreshing cultural perspective.

Overall, while the book didn't quite reach the level of a standout read for me, it offered a compelling experience with its well-crafted characters and engaging humor. I’d rate it a solid 3.5 stars and recommend it to fans of contemporary fiction who appreciate a blend of humor and cultural insight.

Thank you to Natalie Sue, William Morrow Publishing, and NetGalley for an advanced eBook copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

I thought this book would be a quick, funny read but instead, I Hope This Finds You Well was a funny and moving book about a woman who is very lonely and broken finding her place in her world and seeing the humanity of others.

In this book, our MC manages her irritation towards her incompetent coworkers by leaving snide remarks at the bottom of each email written in white font. After getting caught, Jolene has to do sensitivity training and through an IT mishap, she acquires access to all of her coworkers emails and documents. Naturally, she can’t resist from snooping and learns more about her coworkers than she ever wanted to.

I found the pacing to be a bit slow, but loved the character growth of Jolene and seeing her move through the book. There were many times I found myself actually laughing out loud and gasping as our MC made mistakes, learned about her coworkers, and as we made our way through a romance subplot.

recommend this book for those who enjoy books with a character driven story line, office drama, laugh out loud moments, witty characters, and mental health rep!

Read if you like:
🤨 Sarcasm & dry humor
📊 The Office
🌎 immigrant experiences

I loved this book. it was so much deeper than I expected and as someone that loved The Office, I highly recommend this one to others that love the show too!!!

This was laugh out loud funny, tender, and sometimes sad.

As a romance reader I also really loved the romance sub plot! It was very real and raw and sometimes awkward, more true to real life, just like the rest of the story!

If you want a book about the human experience with the range of emotions we all experience in life, definitely check this one out!

Thanks William Morrow for my ARC and finished copy in exchange for my review!