I have a lot of thoughts about this book! Unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. The premise was interesting enough, but I felt no excitement or chemistry between the characters.

I love the dynamic between the Italian family members but felt that the other characters lack the depth that I needed to be totally invested!

It was cute but I wasn’t dying to pick it up! Felt a little forgettable. Sad I didn’t jive with this one because I was so so excited for it!

Nonetheless, I will promote it on pub day without saying my thoughts for a few weeks. I don’t think I will post an official review since my page is usually dedicated to 4-5 star reads only. Thank you for the advanced copy!

📖: Wish I Were Here-a standalone

✍️ By: Melissa Wiesner- I read The Second Chance Year and gave it 5 ⭐

📃 Page Count: 358 eBook

🗓️ Publication Date: 10-15-24 | Read 10-14-24

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley, Forever (Grand Central Publishing) | Forever, and Melissa Wiesner for this ARC💚! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions expressed are my own.

🌎Setting: Pittsburgh

Genre: Adult Fic, Contemporary Romance

Tropes: magical realism, opposites attract, found family, family drama, hidden identity, STEM FMC, MH rep

☝🏾POV: 1st person, single

💭Summary: Catherine is set to start a new job as assistant professor but when she goes to orientation all her information social security number, bank records, and driver's license has been erased. Her birth certificate is even deemed fake, so she goes to the Social Security Administration, and they can't find anything declaring she actually exists. Frustrated and desperate, she goes to Luca-the tattooed, rule-breaker doorman. Through his family connections he vows to help her rediscover her life.

🚺 Heroine: Catherine Lipton, new tenure track professor of mathematics. Type A personality, needs lists, plans, and arriving early.

🚹 Hero: Luca Morelli, laidback, carefree doorman who Catherine has to ask for help.

🎭Side cast:

• Andy- Cat's father, worked as a part-time clown, didn't provide a stable household for Cat and refuses to tell her about her birth mother.

• Mrs. Goodwin-an endeared elderly neighbor.

• Vito-Italian boss

• The DeGrecos-Luca's family

🤔My Thoughts: I loved the premise of opposites attract and self-discovery. Catherine and Luca went on adventures together, exposing Catherine to life she wanted but was scared to live. With Catherine, we learned it's never too late to reinvent yourself or fall in love.

Range of emotions: 😬🤔🙄
🌶️: Spice 1/5
😭: Emotion 4/5
❤️: Couple 4/5
⭐️: Rating 4/4.5

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Grand Publishing for providing the ARC.

This was a sweet story about what happens when one woman's wish to be nobody actually comes true and the utter hijinks that ensue. It is also a tale of self-discovery after viewing the whole world through a very narrow lens.

This book felt very rushed for me. The reader is kind of thrust into the story with some of the lead up to the romance happening off page before it even began. It felt like we were already supposed to know who these characters were before we even started the book. As a result, the romance feels incomplete and so does the story itself.

I didn't dislike it by any stretch. I thought the story was fun, even if Catherine came off a bit grating at times. I liked the inclusion of Luca's family and the maybe they're the mob, maybe they're not vibe they have. And I liked how Luca broke through Catherine's very rigid worldview and shook up her life. But I just wanted a bit more refinement and a bit more to the romance aspect of the book.

This book was cute and had strong found family themes. I enjoyed how Luca and all the residents of Catherine’s building had a way of making her look at things differently.

At times, I was frustrated with Catherine as she put others’ needs before her own needs. The side characters add so much to this story.

There are some magical realism mixed in a with super sweet romance. Overall, this was a fun read.

Thanks to @netgalley and @readforeverpub for providing the ARC.

Catherine is organized, punctual, and follows the rules. Luca is the complete opposite, presenting as more carefree and spontaneous. Catherine finds him frustrating, yet finds herself wishing she could take a break from her own life sometimes. She’s completely stressed starting her new job in just a few weeks, being met with impossible deadlines already, When her identity vanishes into thin air, Luca is the first to jump in and help. Catherine needs all the help she can get to prove she’s a real, registered person in order to keep her new job. Luca’s brainstorming and determination work their own magic to bring Luca and Catherine closer together.

Melissa has done it again! I was so excited to see another magical realism plot, with Second Chance Year being in my top 5 of 2023. I loved the premise of this book, LOVED Luca (and his family), and loved all the lovely tenants in the apartment building. Catherine had her moments I struggled with, but she turned it all around in the end! I appreciate when the conflict with the MCs doesn’t drag out either. I enjoyed all the shenanigans they got into to help her find her identity again. This was a perfect start to my October reading.

Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner is a classic opposites attract scenario. He’s loose and airy; she’s all pinned up. Together? Fireworks!

Catherine Lipton, a new Assistant Professor in Mathematics, is all set to start her new life and job (at what I think is the University of Pittsburgh, but it’s never said in the book), but she shows up for orientation at her new job only to learn her paperwork didn’t clear. Her “identity” seems to have disappeared, and there is no record of her ever existing. To top it all, her birth certificate she’s used her entire life is a fake!

Catherine sets off with quirky doorman, Luca, in search of her birth records and her birth mother, whom she has never known. With comedy, plot twists, and loveable characters, Catherine and Luca set off to find her identity and find so much more.

I related to Catherine on so many levels! Catherine’s situation is literally a nightmare that I had about my job, before I started it four years ago now. I had dreams that something would go wrong, and my hiring was questioned. I feel like every PhD has nightmares about their dissertation, degree, job getting taken away. It’s common for folks in the months post-PhD to have nightmares about their degree or the defense, about it all having been a mistake and having the hard-won degree stripped away. But here, Catherin is living the nightmare!

Luca and the cast of characters in the DeGreco were just a delight! I loved how they all worked together to bring Catherine out of her buttoned-up shell. At times, even, I found myself more invested in the secondary characters, but perhaps that is due to the ensemble-esque nature of this book. The community she builds is so very important and beautiful!

The story is both enlightened and complicated by Catherine’s father, who is a (literal) clown. After her somewhat unsteady childhood, Catherine yearns for the stability she never had growing up--though we do learn throughout the book just how much love was around her.

To top it all off, there is a lovely, and dare I say cozy, supernatural element to this book that I won’t go into for fear of spoilers, but it is a highlight of the novel overall!

In short, I loved Catherine’s journey to finding her place, her community, and her happiness. And her Luca.

Thank you so very much, Forever Publishing, NetGalley, and Melissa Wiesner for letting the e-ARC and the physical ARC of this one. I absolutely loved it.


I shared a reel with an abridged review on 10/11 here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DA_TQnjx9rl/
I will be sharing this full review tomorrow, 10/15 on my instagram for pub day: https://www.instagram.com/professorrachelreads/

"'I believe life is what you make it.' He looks at me across the coffee table. 'Maybe something seems like a disaster. But if you look deeper, maybe it’s an opportunity. It’s all about how you look at it.'"

This book hooked me from the first chapter. Meet Catherine, the most Type-A human in existence, relying on Luca, her doorman, who is the opposite of her in every way. Wish I Were Here had me longing to move to live in the DeGreco building to be a part of the sweet found-family that Melissa Wiesner has created.

Thank you, NetGalley and Forever Publishing, for an ARC of Wish I Were Here! Pub Date: October 15, 2024.

This book gives you all the feels!

Catherine landed her dream job as a mathematician at her local university. On her orientation day, she discovered an issue with her paperwork, so she couldn’t participate until everything got straightened out. Everything seems to snowball for her from there. She goes to the DMV and Social Security office to find out she no longer exists in the system.

It looks like her birth certificate is fraudulent and now she and Luca are on a hunt to track down her mother who she doesn’t know to get her real birth certificate. I love that Luca didn’t leave her side throughout this entire situation. The adventure of tracking it down is filled with my heartfelt laughs. Luca is seriously one of the nicest main male characters ever! He is so kind and just looks out for everyone in the DeGreco building where he is a doorman.

I adored how everything came together and I loved the little twist at the end. Melissa Wiesner has easily become an auto-buy author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Pub for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner was such an enjoyable story.
The story was well-written and very entertaining.
These characters are just amazing.
They're the kind of characters you wonder about long after closing the book.
It was filled with heart, and a bit of magic, which worked really well with this story.
I loved The Second Chance Year and this book was no different.

Thank You NetGalley and Forever for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

A solid 4.5! Wish I Were Here is a clever, fun and quick read.

Netgalley provided the ARC (thank you!), opinion 100% mine.

I devoured this one! So light and fun and sweet, as I kinda knew it would be because I also adored Second Chance Year when my book club read it a few months ago. This is a great read and I recommend to all! Melissa - please write more books and I’ll happily sample them all. She is quickly becoming one of my favorites!

I was initially drawn to this as it was marketed for fans of Sophie Cousens and Ashley Posten, so I had high hopes! I found it didn’t live up to them, but it was still an enjoyable read.

I love a romance with magic realism mixed in and this was heavy in the magic realism which was fun, but I found the romance lacking. It kind of took a back seat to the self discovery theme, which is also nice, but I was hoping for more with Luca. More backstory would have been greatly appreciated, and I think would have served the book well.
I did struggle to connect with Catherine. I feel like this is why more of Luca would have been great because despite being somewhat one dimensional, he kind of stole the show and also made Catherine more interesting and appealing of a character.

Overall this was a cute read that had a lot of potential, it just fell a little flat for me unfortunately. I didn’t adore it, but I also didn’t hate it.

Thank you to the author and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing me this eARC via NetGalley.
Publication date 10/15/24

Happy almost pub day (tomorrow!) to this delightful novel! I felt lucky to cuddle up with my cat FT and devour this book over the long weekend. Sometimes Fatty wants nothing to do with me, and maybe it's due to the cool weather in New England, but he has been snuggling in my lap, keeping me warm and cozy while reading.
Wish I Were Here is such a lovely read! The FMC is a mathematician (eee!) who just got her dream job as a professor, but her identity has been erased so the university can't process her papers. This leads her on a chase, with the help of her very attractive and carefree doorman, to find her absentee mother and recover her identity using her original birth certificate. With just a smidge of magical realism, the book is a delight - especially for a math teacher like me!
Thanks to Forever and Melissa for the #gifted ARC and NetGalley access in exchange for my honest opinion. I really enjoy Melissa’s writing and recommend this book as well as her previous Forever release The Second Chance Year.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!
This book was so fun and unique. I loved the mystery component and did not know how the book was going to end. I was surprised. This is not like any other book I have read in this genre and I found that refreshing. Luca was a great MMC and I loved learning about Catherine's child hood and understanding how she became who she is. The side characters in this book are also a delight!

I really enjoyed this enjoyable and fun read.! It had me wondering if you have to lose yourself to discover who you truly are. Cat has worked hard to finally be starting her dream job as a mathematics professor. She has always done the right thing, followed the rules, and followed her detailed plan so she is lost when her identity disappears and her dream life is in jeopardy. Her juggling dad can't be counted on and she know nothing about her mom so she's on her own. Except Luca Morelli the doorman in her building is insisting he can help. He is far from organized or rule following so can she trust him? Luca's family, the residents of the building, including some that are recently departed, and the performer friends of Cat's dad add so much depth, heart, and humor to the story. This is a story of family secrets, found family, love and trust. Will Cat find her true self before she loses everything? I highly recommend this book!

A sweet story of priorities and expectations you put on yourself and finding you're really worth.

Catherine's life is structured and ordered and she likes it like that. Everything in order and has a place after her chaotic childhood with a single father circus performer. The slightest thing out of order adds to her stress. She lives her life to fill the expectations of what she thinks society wants of her, what ideas she created for herself with that in mind.

Then with a little bit of magic that is all upended. Catherine's identity disappears and she is forced to rely on Luca, someone with less structure and order in his life, in order to put hers back together.

This is such an adorable book. Catherine is loveable even in her order and structure obsessed way and seeing her forced to let that go to really find herself is a joy. Luca is an adorably sexy foil for her and his extended family offers so much color to the book.

On a more serious side the lessons Catherine learned about the expectations she set for herself based on societal norms is something everyone can take something from-- how hard are we on ourselves because of how we think we should live? What's wrong with setting our own expectations for ourselves?

I really enjoyed this book. I was charmed by the story and characters. The cast in this story was quirky and engaging. I liked the pacing of the evolution of the main couple and the lessons learned through their adventure together. What a cute book! I am going to have to check this author out again!

(4.5 stars) Huge thanks to Forever and Melissa Wiesner for the advanced copies—both physical and ebook—of this incredible story, which blends romance, self-discovery, a sprinkle of magical realism, and a whole lot of heart.

Catherine Lipton is on the cusp of everything she’s ever worked for: her dream job as a tenured math professor at a prestigious university is finally within reach, promising her the orderly and successful life she’s always craved—despite her free-spirited upbringing by a wildly unpredictable single dad. But just as she’s about to step into her new role, disaster strikes. According to every government database, Catherine doesn’t exist. No bank account, no driver’s license, no social security number—nothing. Without proof of her existence, she can’t start her job, pay her rent, or do much of anything.

Enter Luca Morelli, her quirky, chaotic, and forgetful apartment building doorman. Luca might spend more time entertaining the elderly residents than doing his job, but he's the only person willing to help her untangle the mess. Together, they embark on a whirlwind adventure across Pittsburgh to find proof that Catherine is real. Along the way, they’re joined by a cast of eccentric and unlikely heroes, from Luca’s somewhat mafia-like relatives to the lively septuagenarians at the local community center, jugglers, dancers, and even a bit of magical intervention. As Catherine navigates this wild journey, she’s forced to re-examine what happiness truly means, question her tightly-held beliefs about success, and—quite possibly—fall for a tattooed doorman who challenges her to see life through a different lens.

After loving Wiesner's The Second Chance Year (one of my favorite reads of 2023), I was beyond excited to dive into her latest. Wish I Were Here delivers the same perfect blend of romance, self-discovery, and magic that I adored in her previous work. The multi-generational found family surrounding Luca and Catherine was a joy to read, with each character bringing something unique to the story. The elderly characters in particular were fully realized, adding warmth, humor, and wisdom to the story. Catherine's journey of self-discovery and the push-and-pull dynamic with Luca was so much fun. This tender, quirky, and heartwarming story will stay with me for a long time.

This is one of the funniest books I’ve read this year. I haven’t laughed like this since many books ago.

This follows the story of Cat who loses her identity as she is about to start her dream job. What follows is a series of emotional and rollercoaster scenes which will tug at your heart’s strings and make you feel like you’re on the journey with Cat.

I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. Cat was so relatable and one couldn’t help but feel for her as she navigates through her ‘ordeal’.

All of the characters and ghosts were amazing. They all delivered and delighted with their actions, inactions and antics.

I love how the author made this entirely from Cat’s POV. There was no need for anyone else to tell the story. It was entirely hers to tell.

The description of the SS office was so apt and accurate. I loved Luca and how he eased into the wingman position.

If you love magical realism, romance and some comedy then this is your book.

Thank you to Forever Publishing for early access to this book!

General Description: Catherine has finally landed her dream job, which is being a professor of mathematics at a university. However, when she goes in for orientation, HR tells her none of her documentation exists: her birth certificate isn't real, her social security isn't there, and she's completely thrown off. The doorman of her building, Luca, is determined to help her since Catherine's father will not help her (for some unexplained reason). Together, the two have to delve deep to find out what happened with Catherine's identity and have to get it back. What will they discover along the way?

The goods:
- I thoroughly enjoyed how this wasn't focused on one type of love. You see love between.2 people, familial love, and community love. It felt like a holistic book.
- Catherine being extremely type A made me feel seen, especially as someone working on going with the flow better. :)
- Luca's backstory is so sweet and I loved being able to meet so many of his family members.
- The elderly folks that were highlighted in the book were so sweet and I really liked that they were the focus of one of the subplots.

The loss of a star:
- There was a subplot that just felt rushed and not fully developed/explained. I was looking forward more explanation into the subplot and just didn't get it.

Overall, if you're looking for a not spicy, cozy romance that isn't just about a relationship with one other person, this is the book for you!