*I received an arc copy*

3.5 rounded up to 4. It was a cute read. The romance was light and fun, the MMC adrable, and Catherine was a great character.

However, I didn't love the treatment of Catherine's parental relationships. As someone who struggles with that, the solutions seemed simplistic. It felt as though the end was an effort to tie up everything nicely.

This is a perfect fluffy fall read if you want some pleasant ghosts, a cute romance, and swoony mmc.

Wish I Were Here was honestly super cute, but nothing to write home about. I found Catherine to be a bit unlikeable (she eventually grew on me), but adored Luca

This contemporary romance has a delightful dose of magical realism that makes for a sweet, unforgettable story.

Catherine is a newly hired math professor who feels comforted by order and strict planning. This is a result of being raise in a way that could be seen as chaotic at best, but abusive and neglectful at worst. Her single dad is a literal clown who seems more interested in his performing than in paying bills or providing stability for his daughter. She has recently moved out and found an affordable apartment in a building full of elderly residents. The only person her age seems to be the doorman, Luca.

When Catherine attempts to attend the HR orientation at her new university, she find out that her government documents aren't valid and the issue stems from her birth certificate being a forgery. With the help of the doorman (and his towncar), she tracks down the parts of her past that will set everything right again. Through Luca, she also meets her neighbors and becomes more aware of the community around her.

This was a fast, charming read and the magical element is subtle, but beautiful. It was a little difficult to read about Catherine's childhood, as there was real trauma there (constant moving around, being dragged to festivals instead of going to school as a kid) and it seemed to be dealt with as a humorous aspect of the story. Still, it was a very entertaining read!

This book is charming, and what I enjoyed most was that it has unique elements - different from the average, basic, same old romance story. Enemies to lovers? BORE. Move back to your hometown and rekindle your first love? BORE.

The concept is super unique, plus the unique characters make for a cute, fun book with a twist.

I thought this was such a cute story. I like to read different book genres at the same time and this was my go to for a feel good read. The beginning grabbed me with everything going wrong. I really enjoyed it.

At times Catherine’s fastidiousness was too much and the lack of communication between characters was annoying. I also wasn't sold on her relationship with Luca because I felt she was so mean to him.

But that being said I think it's because who wouldn't want a Luca in their life? Caring, positive and hello, tattoos?! Yes please.

But this was really Catherine's book, and you could say that it's more about her growth than it is about her relationship with Luca. Still a good book! But overall I would give it 3.5 but rounded it up to 4 since I did stay up too late reading this!

This book had a very good premise but I found the FMC to be somewhat unlikeable, the MMC to be a little bland, and generally was not pulled in to the story. The writing was good, I could visualize it…just wasn’t into the story.
I probably wouldn’t pull this book out to rec to others.

she was cute! nothing to write home about in my oh so humble opinion, but i did end up reading this in one sitting and i enjoyed the mc. i fear the writing was a bit difficult to connect to, but overall i found this pretty enjoyable!

Charming rom-com with some magical realism mixed in. I really enjoyed The Second Chance year from Melissa Wiesner so I was really looking forward to reading Wish I Were Here and it did not disappoint. Catherine was raised by a loving laid back street performer which seemed to push her to be the opposite, she became a type A PhD in mathematics. After landing her dream job and getting her own apartment (with a seemingly scatterbrained door man) for the first time there is a HR glitch that has erased her from the government database. With no proof of her identity she has to go on the search for her original birth certificate which means looking for her mother she has never met, with the help of the ever present door man his large Italian family and the elderly inhabitants of her building and neighborhood. I really liked the character of Catherine and how she had to be more open to people helping her in her life and all the cast of characters she met along the way. While the romance was secondary to the main plot of figuring out who she really was it was light and enjoyable. This was such a cute and quick read would definitely recommend it. I want to thank NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the last book by this author, so I was pleased when I read the blurb to this one. Catherine had a chaotic life growing up, so she is very rigid nowadays and likes structure. Luca is the complete opposite of that, but she can’t help but like him anyways.

I figured this story would be more about their romance, but it mainly involves Catherine trying to get her identity back. I loved all the other characters involved in the book, the world felt very lived in.

Thanks as always to NetGalley for the ARC.

Reads more as women’s fiction but i still enjoyed it! I will say the romance was lacking in chemistry and not as heavy.

For me, this book falls just shy of four stars. On my rating scale, this is between “might recommend” and “would definitely recommend”. Ultimately, I loved the story and the characters and am walking away feeling like this was a cute read. However, this is one of those situations where I just know too much. I graduated from Pitt (right across the street from the math department) and now hold a PhD and tenure-track position. It felt like there were inaccuracies in the set up that took away the overall magic for me. However, I also realize that if I wasn’t so close to both the setting and the field these would have meant nothing to me. This story definitely demands a little bit of a belief in magic and finding your purpose and I loved that. Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Other things I loved:
Tattooed MMC (he designed his own sleeve! Swoon!)
Premise - definitely check out the authors note!
Female mathematician in a tenure-track position at an R1 institution
Acknowledgement of gentrification

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing an ARC! These thoughts are my own.

I was initially drawn to this book by what seemed like a cute romance with a little magic and an intriguing premise....the story follows organized, type-A Catherine, who loses her identity overnight. I was really looking forward to big moments with Luca, more backstory, and some banter....however, the story leaned more heavily into self-discovery and family drama with the romance taking a backseat, which wasn't quite what I hoped for.

From the start, I was trying really hard to immerse myself in the story, as I can tell that the author really wanted us to be immediately sucked in, but I just couldn't. It was hard to keep my pace and excitement while reading, and I struggled to connect with or care about the characters. Catherine was kind of awful and gave no grace to the people that were relentlessly helpful and caring about her???

All I know is I love Luca and his tattoos... <3

WISH I WERE HERE has all the trappings of a romance book, but it is so much more than that. This is a woman for whom everything she believed about herself is turned upside down in a moment. But it is turned right side up when she discovers friendships, community, love, and the value of everything she already had. Add a touch of magical butterscotch and this book has heart and depth that surprised and moved me.

I loved The Second Chance Year and was so excited to learn about this book. But I just could not get into it. I really struggled with Catherine because I wanted to see more of her personality besides just being type A. I wanted to feel feelings with her, and I felt like there was a distance for some reason. I also wasn't sold on her relationship with Luca because she's just plain mean to him. I like a good enemies to lovers but some of the judgement here just didn't give me the right vibe for them. I know others have loved this and I am so glad. It's just not the book for me.

Everything is coming up roses for Catherine Lipton. She's landed her dream job as a math professor and finally has apartment that’s all her own. She's completely Type A as the result of her tumultuous childhood with her clown (literally) of a father. The doorman at her new building, Luca, is her complete opposite. While charming and friendly he never seems to be doing his actual job.

Then Catherine ceases to exist, there's no trace of her in the government systems and this throws her life into absolute chaos. Despite their differences, Luca is determined to help Catherine get her life back, in more ways than one.

I really enjoyed this book. The side characters were so quirky and charming and the community Luca and Catherine helped create in their building and neighborhood was heartwarming.

There were a few moments when Catherine’s fastidiousness was too much and the lack of communication between characters was grating but overall I really enjoyed this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

I loved Melissa Wiesner's book The Second Chance Year, so I was pretty excited to receive an ARC for her latest, Wish I Were Here.
Catherine Lipton leads a very well planned and calculated life. Unfortunately, she wakes up one day, to find out her identity has been completely erased - credit cards, her job, literally no track of her existing at all.

From page one, we are well aware that her and Luca, her doorman will have a love connection. Catherine enlists Luca, as he is well connected to an Italian mafioso family, to help her find her way back to existing.

Along the way, Catherine ends up finding herself - who is she really without an actual plan anyways? Will she find love? (of course), and how will she truly get her identity back and find happiness along the way?

We all know the answers to these questions, but I found the book to not be as funny as I wanted it to be. The romance portion starting on page one left little to the imagination. Hope her next one is better for me!

I absolutely adore magical realism & Wish I Were Here was such a fun & difference concept.

Luca is my new book boyfriend - I’m a sucker for tattoos and I absolutely adored his positivity & caring nature. And the chemistry between Catherine & Luca!!! It was just absolutely perfect. They felt like complete opposites who just fit together & complemented each other so perfectly.

I love how Melissa Wiesner creates her side characters to be as memorable & important as her main characters. I love how her story telling is full of a wide range of emotions and the characters feel so real - flaws & all.

This is one book that I absolutely wish I could read again and again, experiencing it for the first time every time.

Thank you so much to Forever and NetGalley for the e-Arc, in exchange for my honest review. And thank you to Melissa Wiesner for letting me be on a traveling ARC team. I loved being able to annotate this book.

A BILLION STARS.

This was a blast!! I loved everything about this book, from the two main characters to the side ones, the setting, storyline, and storytelling skills. It is definitely in my top 10 reads this year.

*Thank you Netgalley for the ARC, all thoughts are my own*

DNF @ 35%

Historically I'm not a very big romance reader, however I've been trying to get more into the genre this year. I've luckily been able to find a few that I've really loved, even going as far as to give them 4 & 5 stars. Wish I Were Here, unfortunately, does not fall into that category.

Catherine is our by the book, very organized, no nonsense female main character, who has just landed a dream role as a math professor at a university. As someone who grew up with a very unstable childhood, things could not be more ideal; until her entire existence is basically erased from every government record and things quickly spiral into chaos for her.

There's also a love interest, Luca, who is the doorman to her apartment building who is basically the exact opposite to Catherine in every where. I don't get a lot from his character so I'm not sure my feeling towards him other than he's fine, if not a little bland. It's possible his character is explored or developed more after the point that I stopped reading but from what I got, he didn't impress me.

This was fundamentally not a bad book, the writing was good I just couldn't connect with any of the characters and I couldn't get myself to care what was happening. I felt sympathetic toward Catherine, I couldn't imagine having to deal with all of that and she handled it a lot better than I would have.

The romance between Catherine and Luca was also a little lackluster, he's very generous and offers to help Catherine during her crisis but I don't really understand his attraction to her.

I was actually most interested in the mystery identity of Catherine's mom but even that wasn't enough to convince me to finish. I think if you enjoy Romance, this is a decent option.

Happy National Book Lovers Day! Wish I Were Here was a quick little rom com read about a highly type A math professor, Catherine, with a childhood of trauma that caused her to be this way. She‘s finally independent and free of her whimsical and non structured father, so she buys her first condo. This condo has a swoony but unreliable doorman and the set up of a perfect rom com. Tons of quirky elderly neighbors and found family galore in this condo. On the day of her brand new job, Catherine discovers her identity just doesn’t exist and thus goes on an adventure with Luca the doorman and her neighbors to get it back.

But… while the characters and found family were perfectly quirky, the actual plot regarding a disappearing identity was just not it for me. I felt like this book tried to be too many things at once and in that light it was hard to really get into it. And there were hints of magical realism that didn’t feel fleshed out but were more used as convenience for the story. All in all a fast, quirky, rom com with some minor flaws.