Wish You Were Her is my first Elle McNicoll read and it will not be my last! I really enjoyed the characters and how she developed them throughout the plot. There were many layers to the characters that had me invested in their stories. I did find it a little drawn out around the last quarter mark but the ending was worth hanging in there for.

Thank you Net Galley, Elle McNicoll and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to preview this title. The opinions shared are my own.
Wish You Were Her is expected to be released Aug. 26, 2025.

When I heard this has 'You Got Mail' vibes, I had to read it. I'm so glad I did. This is a sweet, fast paced YA romance and a perfect summer read. I appreciated the representation of autistic characters. It was so well done by the author, which makes sense as this is an Own Voices story. It was refreshing to read about characters with a disability, find love, friendships, and acknowledge the mistakes they made and strive to be better. Jonah and Allegra were both autistic, but in different ways. Jonah was more vocal about being autistic, while Allegra wasn't. As someone who has epilepsy and bipolar disorder, I can relate to some of the reasons why Allegra didn't want to expose her disability. I found both characters to be relatable and realistic. I think the author did a wonderful job bringing these characters in the limelight and giving them their shine.

Unfortunately, I found this to just be okay. There were some parts that felt disjointed and like the pacing was off. I also found that there were moments where the story felt quite rushed and other moments where it dragged. I wasn't too crazy about the romance between Allegra and Jonah. There was something about it that was doing it for me. Allegra started to make me feel uncomfortable about her keeping a secret about the person she'd been emailing. That didn't sit well with me because it just felt all types of wrong.

Overall, I think that many neurodivergent readers will be able to relate to both Jonah and Allegra's stories. The author did an amazing job with the neurodiverse representation. However, other aspects of this just didn't do it for me. I'd still recommend it to audiences who love neurodivergent representation, small town romance, and a quick fun read for the summer.

Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me a physical arc and the netgalley arc! I went into this book blind and I loved it. A grumpy bookseller, a famous actress, and a small town romance. Sign me up! I also loved the disability rep and thought it was great to have Autistic main characters. This was my first book by Elle McNicoll but I can't wait to read her other work!

This was such a sweet, refreshing read with so much heart. I almost immediately slipped into this story. The writing is smooth, the pacing is just right, and Elle McNicoll never misses a beat when it comes to creating characters you feel for.

I really enjoyed the thoughtful and honest representation of autism. Seeing how it manifested differently in both Allegra and Jonah was incredibly moving and felt so authentic. I don’t think I’ve ever read a love story where both leads are autistic, and it was honestly beautiful. Their relationship had this perfect balance of tension and tenderness. Watching Jonah slowly unravel around Allegra, and Allegra trying to hold herself together with this fragile mask… it just made my heart ache in the best way.

Allegra is easy to love. She’s bright, kind, layered, and complex. You want her to find peace and connection. And Jonah, the grumpy bookseller with a surprisingly soft heart is so adorable. Their dynamic felt genuine and earned, and I found myself rooting for them so hard.

The setting added a nice charm to everything - a cozy little town, a book festival, secret emails with an anonymous stranger. It gave the whole story a whimsical romcom feel while still staying grounded in very real emotion.

This is one of those books I’ll be recommending to pretty much everyone. It’s tender, funny, thoughtful, and deeply human. Elle McNicoll is definitely an author I’ll be reading more from.

My copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Wednesday Books for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was lured in by the premise - what's not to love about a You've Got Mail- style romance in a Stars Hollow-esque small town? Unfortunately for me, I didn't love the writing here. I really enjoyed Elle McNicoll's MG novels, but the prose here felt a bit stilted at times, which took me out of the story. What I did love was the representation - autistic romance for the win! I appreciated how we got to see two very different experiences in Allegra and Jonah, as well as their complete relief at feeling seen for the first time ever.

All in all, a sweet summer romance with just enough drama to keep the teens happy.

Who could resist a book pitched as Book Lovers meets Notting Hill with a slice of You've Got Mail? Not me!

I read this on a long plane ride and because of that, didn't realize it was YA. If I'd known that, I'd have been a lot less confused. I thought maybe it was New Adult (which honestly, it sort of feels like, as the main character, though eighteen, is a global superstar.) When she returns to her small town to hide out for the summer, she meets the most annoying boy ever to exist, not realizing that he has also become her email pen pal.

I loved the small town vibes of this one, and thought the autism rep was really interesting and added so much to the story. I do question whether this story would have worked better if the characters were aged up seven or eight years, but again that could be because I spent most of the book thinking I was reading adult romance (there is spice, but it's closed door.)

<i>Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!</i>

Enjoyment rating: 5 stars
Analysis rating: 3 stars

If you wish You’ve Got Mail had more bookshops, neurodivergence, famous people, and maybe a slight touch of Gilmore Girls style small towns, this book may be for you.

Even the characters who are frustrating or aren’t being kind, there are reasons for their behaviors (even if that reason isn’t revealed until much later). The people all feel real. That said, there were some characters behaviors that frustrated me, such as the shift in Allegra’s dad’s behavior and the explanation for it. It was a little overly simplistic to how humans operate.

One thing I found particularly interesting about this was the portrayal of how autism presents for men vs. women. Jonah and Allegra respond in different ways that are true to how it often looks in real life. Even though they have different responses that initially make them enemies, I like how they’re eventually able to figure out the ways they are similar when they initially thought they were too different to get along. I felt like the book showed both the positive and negative sides of autism.

Although I liked the characters, I was sometimes frustrated with their portrayal. I felt for both of them as they struggled to communicate. I imagine some readers may be very frustrated about Jonah’s behavior and how it’s somewhat excused as soon as it’s revealed that he’s autistic, but it’s frustrating that everyone else is apologizing for him instead of him doing it himself. It sometimes felt like “oh, it’s just autism” was occasionally used to handwave poor behavior. Also, I know that revealing that you’re the person behind the letters/emails at the end is part of the trope of telling this story, but it felt like Allegra waited longer than she should have to reveal.

The characters are 18 and preparing for the next steps in their life, with some discussions of college and things like that, but they read a bit younger in their behavior. They are in “grown-up” kinds of situations, and there’s a plot reason they have to be adults, but I sort of wish the author had aged them and the plot down to like 14 or so. I think it would have made their poor behaviors a little more acceptable as part of growing up. There are also times where they seem to have responsibilities or activities that are older than their characters (which makes sense for a movie star but maybe not for a small town bookseller), so it’s a jarring contrast.

Overall, this felt like a great vacation book. It has so many “wish fulfilment” type elements that make it extra fun for a summer read (movie stars, bookshops, small towns, book festival). Complaints aside, I enjoyed the experience of reading it very much.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This very new adult Shop Around the Corner had me clicking request for the arc based on that premise.

What I got was a clever way for a Hollywood sweetheart to be sure about the people she was getting to know. The characters were compelling, both principles are autistic. Seeing interactions through their lens was compelling but there was a lot of sorting behaviors into allistic and autistic-presumably some are natural human conditions but for 18 and making sense of the world, it still worked and was compelling.

The small town of Lake Pristine felt a little flat, aside from the lack of characters (some of Allegra's new friends were great, even if fallible) and there were a couple of times I wondered about the author's geography because I had to keep reminding myself this was set in the USA. When Jonah said in a final chapter "that cost us five points thrifting" and I figured out the author is Scottish some of the way the characters talked made sense.

Which brings me to the writing. It vacillated between stilted and quite moving and lovely. It generally kept me reading once I was invested.

It had me rooting for Allegra, but most of all for Jonah and both of them.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this and SATC always makes me click (though at a point this was genuinely catfishing imo)

Thanks to the author and netgalley for this arc, which had not affected my review.

girl how did you not realize who you were emailing i need people to be a little more in-tune with their environment because that man was always at the computer lets think critically

otherwise a fun time!!

Allegra wants a quiet summer away from the spotlight. Eager to be a part of her father's book festival, she emails a quick question to his bookstore account. But it's not her father who emails back. Instead it's Jonah, one of his employees. The two begin communicating not knowing who is on the other side of the computer screen. When Allegra arrives, Jonah inadvertently makes a terrible first impression. And when she discovers he was writing all those emails, she doesn't know what to feel.

Read if you like:
-Coming of Age
-Autism Spectrum Rep
-Meet Cute turned Meet Hideous
-Mistaken Identity
-Rivals to Lovers

Wish You Were Her is a five-star read for me because of how deeply I related to both Allegra and Jonah. Their inner monologues, their feelings about the world and people around them, just all of the parts of their characters really resonated with me. I felt like I was seeing myself on the page. My heart broke for them; my soul soared for them. To me they were perfect.

Apart from the characters themselves, my favorite part of the book was the slow burn feelings. Their first in person meeting was truly a meet hideous. But the more time they spent together, they began to noticed things they missed and grew to admire those qualities. They fell in love without noticing, and my hopelessly romantic heart was so happy.

4 stars

I've read most of McNicoll's books (and plan to read them all eventually), and I like this author more with each new read. _Wish You Were Her_ reflects all of the features that make McNicoll stand out in a positive way.

Allegra is a young woman, but she has some added experiences that have given her an unusual perspective on life: mainly, her celebrity status! Like most people with any level of acclaim these days, Allegra struggles with the ways in which the media represents her and the public feels a sense of ownership around even the most personal aspects of her identity. One need not be famous to have a dash of empathy for even the ways in which social media impacts our perceptions of ourselves in modern times. How much worse is that cooptation, and how much more dangerous is it, for a famous person? Well, Allegra's experiences will not leave readers on the hunt for their five minutes of fame.

Like other characters this author has penned, Allegra is autistic, and this also impacts her in many implicit and explicit ways. Her desire to keep this information to herself is strong. She thinks about her public persona and her private life frequently. McNicoll brings an in-depth understanding of this situation to her characters, and on a related note, an absolute highlight of this book is the way in which masking is described. Even folks who are completely new to this concept will get a good sense of what this means and how it impacts folks.

As the cover suggests, but I've done a terrible job of relaying thus far, this book is actually a romance and a good one at that. What makes it so good, in my estimation, is that there is so much more happening besides just that piece. The relationship between Allegra and Jonah is complicated, layered, and positive, and it's easy to root for them BECAUSE they are developed characters.

Fans of YA/new adult romance and folks looking for some solid representation of autism in multiple characters will get so much out of this read. I look forward to recommending it to students!

Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Romance
Tropes 💁‍♀️: Celebrity romance, Small town romance, Rivals to lovers, Secret pen pals
Rep ✔️: Autistic main characters
CW ⚠️: Ableism, cyberbullying and harassment
Rating ⭐️: 4/5

Wish You Were Her is set up like any classic 90s romcom. We’ve got the overworked actress vacationing in a small town. We’ve got the grumpy bookseller who wants nothing to do with her. And we’ve got them secretly emailing each other without realizing who they’re actually talking to, à la You’ve Got Mail.

While I enjoy these kinds of tropes in general, I liked the added aspect of both protagonists Allegra and Jonah being autistic. Allegra hides her autism, not wanting to deal with the public reception, but she finds herself wanting to confide in more people as she makes some genuine connections. With Jonah, once they get past their misunderstandings, she’s also able to feel truly seen for the first time.

It was nice spending time with these characters in Lake Pristine, especially with the book festival and overall summer vibes. I wanted a bit more from some of Allegra’s relationships (with her dad, her friends, etc), and I wanted a lot less of certain people (*cough cough* Simon and Skye), but the romance and email plotline were plenty satisfying. I loved the novel’s version of the iconic “I wanted it to be you” line. 💌

**Much thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Wish You Were Her will be released on August 26, 2025.

Getting into Wish You Were Her - with its shifting POVs and somewhat unusual narrative style - takes a little patience, but if you stick with it, you will be rewarded with an unabashedly romantic love story and a view into worlds with which many readers may not be be familiar. From the never-ending machinations a young starlet must navigate to a quirky small town as complicated as is is genuinely good-hearted to the novel's breathtaking autism rep - specific, illuminating and refreshingly unapologetic - this is a fascinating, enjoyable and important read.

I adored getting another story in Lake Pristine (I hope there are more to come!), and that it was a You've Got Mail retelling, down to some exact scenes. This just delighted me. I also love the autism love story part of it, and related so hard to a lot of what these characters went through and felt so deeply the joy of finding someone you can unmask with and be your full self. I flew through this book, just to eager to see them discover each other and get together. It was sweet and just a little sexy and full of deep emotion. I loved it.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and Ellie McNicoll for giving me the chance to read this ARC!

Notting Hill and You’ve Got Mail are two of my all-time favorite films, so seeing them mentioned in the synopsis immediately made me excited to dive in.

This turned out to be such a charming and heartwarming story — the perfect read for summer. I really appreciated the thoughtful autism representation, and it was refreshing to see both the heroine and hero portrayed as neurodivergent. This was my first book by Ellie McNicoll, and it definitely won’t be my last. The cozy small-town atmosphere and the book festival setting made it feel extra special (I’m a sucker for books about books!).

Allegra and Jonah were such delightful main characters. From their very first argument, I had a feeling their dynamic was going to be great, and it absolutely was. I especially loved their back-and-forth emails — it gave their relationship such a unique, layered feel. The friendships Allegra formed with Grace and Jasper added a lovely “found family” element that I wasn’t expecting but adored.

The pacing was pretty well done- maybe a bit slow in the middle, but the writing flowed well and overall it was a sweet YA summer romance.

If you're a fan of You've Got Mail, this one is for you. This was a precious, comforting romance with so much character growth. Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for a copy; my opinion is my own.

I think I’m more inclined to enjoy Elle McNicoll’s middle grade material than her YA. I loved the setting, the bookishness, the neurodiverse characters, and the general You’ve Got Mail/Notting Hill storyline of this book. I have a problem, however, with lying, miscommunication, and coincidental events being used to further the plot. It got a bit slow in the middle and a couple of things were glossed over at the end. (I do wish I’d read the final copy, too, as some editing needed to be done.) I plan to read the author’s other books, as Wish You Were Her, like McNicoll’s other books, had me emotionally invested.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my review.

It was fine. Nothing really exciting stood out to me, but it was a solid story and decently good writing.

Review can also be found on goodreads

Wish You Were Her felt like a gentle homage to You’ve Got Mail—sweet, light, and full of bookish charm. Allegra and Jonah’s connection in a cozy lakeside book festival is cute. The pacing is leisurely, While some parts felt a little slow for me, overall it’s a sweet.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

First off, thank you to NetGalley, Wednesday Books and Ellie McNicoll for invited me to read this arc!

Notting Hill and You’ve Got Mail are two of my favorite movies. So when both of those are mentioned in the description I knew this would be a book I’d enjoy.

This was such a sweet story and great summer read. I the autism representation, and this book neurodivergent FMC and MMC. This was my first Ellie McNicoll book, and I really enjoyed it. It was a great summer romance and the small town vibes were perfect. I love when books bring in books to the story. So the book festival backdrop was honestly perfect.

Allegra and Jonah were just wonderful main characters. When their first argument you know these two were going to be great. I loved the email’s back and forth, and that that was a place that could be someone else. The friendships that Allegra made with Grace and Jasper gave this book found family vibes I was not expecting.

The story flowed and moved well, and was the perfect YA summer romance. Thank you again NetGalley and the author & publisher for this book. I really enjoyed it.