This is a great YA for neurodiverse rep and it comps greatly with You’ve Got Mail.
It was a quick and easy read that made me go through many emotions which makes this a book I will go back to.

i have been thinking over and over how to start this review as this book is beyond amazing I have never cried so much with such raw emotion in a great way not bad . i read some like it cold a few years back and loved it so much , i feel that Elle just did one better .

The plot to this story of a young girl called Allegra who managed to get her dream job on t.v show and one thing she really wanting is love real love and to be seen and feel normal as she is autistic ,i could relate so much to this story as i have a son who lives with autism . this story really hit my heart hard so i could understand what Allegra was feeling I never wanted to give a character a hug so much .

t thought that Elle did a wonderful job writing such a wonderful enemies to lovers story i thing she written this story with such grace and honesty so heart warming , plenty of teen drama and very swoon worthy story .

Elle if you see this review i would just like to say thank you for helping others living with autism feel seen , i honestly got so emotional reading this story you have created i wish i could give this book 10 stars i feel everyone should read this .

thank you to the publisher and elle for asking me to review this wonderful story . 5 stars .

Allegra found herself rocketed to stardom after appearing in a successful TV series. Needing a break from the limelight, she heads to the small town of Lake Pristine to stay with her father for the summer as he organises the annual Lake Pristine book festival. On arrival she bumps - literally - into Jonah, who works at her father's book store and they get off on the wrong foot. Can they overcome their differences?

This is a cute YA romance with the fairly typical will-they-won't-they story line as Allegra and Jonah try to make sense of their feelings for each other. It was interesting to read a romance book through the eyes of autistic characters and the additional challenges that they face trying to navigate social norms.

I have adored everything that I've ever read from Elle McNicoll and this new release is no different. Just a joy from start to finish and I can't recommend it enough!

Wish you were her
By Elle McNicoll
Published by Pan Macmillan

Elle McNicoll bestselling author & screen writer does it again!
‘Wish you were her’ holds nothing back. This truthful, hard-hitting yet beautiful love story takes us into their world. A cruel world lived by autistic people, not understood by neurotypical’s.

For some of us this is the dream we idolise when we watch and follow in the footsteps of our big screen actors. The fame, the fortune and the lifestyle of money and splendour. But it comes at a cost - the lack of privacy, the inability of others to understand and empathise.

18 year old Allegra Brooks, movie star of the big screen returns to her hometown of Lake Pristine hoping for a summer “get away” from it all. The annual book festival is in full swing and the employees at her fathers bookshop are not sure what to make of the returning daughter turned film star. Hoping the book shop & her home town are to be her sanctuary and the townsfolk her barrier to the intrusive outside world. All she wants is a normal summer holiday just like any other teenager. But things don’t always go to plan especially when jealousy and greed react with love and rejection.

This funny, witty romcom will keep you wanting to know more, understand more and hopefully fulfil what we all take for granted - our freedom.

Joanne Bardgett - teacher of littlies, lover of Children’s literature.
#Netgalley

An absolute joy to read, I adored seeing such beautifully written neurodivergent characters in this type of story. The YA romance of the summer.

Thanks to Netgalley for the early copy. A great YA romance. A small town bookseller and a big time actress, all the perfect ingredients. Elle McNicoll is an auto-buy author for me.

Another fantastic YA from Elle, I adored Some Like it Cold last year and feel exactly the same for Wish You Were Her. I love the representation of neurodivergent characters in Elles writing and she does it so well especially being Autistic herself. The characters were very well written and I definitely fell for our little romance and was completely voting for it with the little you’ve got mail vibe of things. This has now become the top of my Elle reads and I wish I could live in this small town because it is perfect and has everything that I need. Thank you Elle for once again writing a perfect YA please keep giving more of them!

Fantastic romcom set in the same town as Some Like It Cold. We have new character Allegra, her father the book shop owner George, Simon and Jonah. Allegra is a 18-year-old autistic film star needing a break and a summer out of the limelight.
If you enjoyed the shop around the corner/you’ve got mail, romance, autistic representation and truth you are bound to love this.
I know I did. Another brilliant Elle McNicoll production.

This was brilliant. Allegra, a celebrity, needs a break for the summer so she heads to her dad's and to the book festival he organises. She hasn't told anyone, but before she arrived she started an email flirty conversation with one of the workers in the shop. She spends time trying to work out who it is and how to tell them. There are so many twists and turns, but eventually she gets what she so very desperately needs and deserves. She is autistic and chooses not to tell anyone, but eventually she doe and how people around her respond is wonderful. Such a wonderful story. I hope there are more Allegra adventures so we can see how she navigates other areas of her life.

Although this is part of a series, Wish You Were Her can easily be read as a standalone, and it delivers a cosy, bookish romance with strong autistic representation.

While YA isn’t my go-to genre, the You've Got Mail comparison had me intrigued, and it certainly captured a similar charm.

The setting was a definite highlight. Lake Pristine provided a charming backdrop, and the bookshop and book festival elements were particularly effective.

If you’ve ever dreamed of working in a small-town bookshop, this aspect will undoubtedly resonate.

Seeing Allegra, a global film star, get to experience a more typical teenage life and build friendships was also a lovely element of the story.

One of the book’s biggest strengths is its representation of autistic characters. Allegra is portrayed as down-to-earth despite her fame, which was refreshing.

However, while the autistic representation was important and well done, it sometimes felt a little heavy-handed. I understand that autism affects all aspects of life, but certain points were repeated so frequently that it felt a little much. For those less aware, this aspect will likely be eye-opening and valuable.

While I enjoyed much of the story, there were a few elements that didn’t fully land for me. George’s distant behaviour towards Jonah felt unnecessarily harsh - I understood that he wanted him to expand his horizons, but it didn’t quite justify his treatment of him.

Miscommunication also plays a big role (as expected with a You've Got Mail retelling), which was frustrating at times. Additionally, though Allegra and Jonah are meant to be 18, some of their interactions felt more mature - though that could just be my own perspective!

I was initially surprised by the American setting, given Elle McNicoll’s usual Scottish locations. A moment where Jonah remarks that Allegra’s Instagram following is “almost more than Scotland” made me wonder if the author briefly forgot she was writing an American teen! That said, the setting was necessary for the story being told, and a Scottish backdrop likely wouldn’t have worked in the same way.

Overall, Wish You Were Her is a quick and enjoyable read that balances romance, self-discovery, and bookish charm. It’s engaging, with a well-developed setting and strong representation, even if certain elements felt a little frustrating.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Allegra Brooks is taking a break from her stratospheric career as an actor by helping at her dad's bookshop as they prepare for the anuual Lake Placid book festival. Although she loves acting, it comes at a great personal cost with the usual horrific experiences of being a woman and an actor compounded by the fact that she is autistic and spends her days masking and terrified to show her real self. Before she arrives at Lake Placid, Allegra begins an anonymous email correspondence with one of the booksellers at Brooks' Books. When she meets her father's employees for real, surly, combative Jonah and friendly, welcoming Simon, she is sure she knows who is writing those emails. The truth, as ever, is far from simple.

Elle McNicoll has done it again and written a book that autistic readers can identify with and allistic readers can learn to do better from (though this makes it sound far, far, more preachy than it is!) It hits many favourite romance tropes , the most obvious being The Shop Around the Corner/You've Got Mail connection, while having Allegra astutely make the point that tropes don't devalue romance as a genre anymore than their use in crime fiction does. It's an easy, fun but heartwarming read which still manages to make the reader think about how the world is not kind to the neurodivergent and how much gender impacts the experience of neurodiversity, fame and life in general. Highly recommended.

As a big fan of not only YA but Elle McNicol, I was really excited to receive the ARC of Wish You Were Her.
On the whole it was a fairly good read. Obvious positives are the representation of autistic characters who lead the story, and do this well. Despite being a world wide mega star, Allegra is portrayed as overwhelmingly just the girl next door, which I guess was good.
I liked the setting in Lake Pristine and supporting characters. My favourite was Jonah who I thought went on more of a journey than anyone else.
I did feel the story dragged on a bit and was waiting for more of a conclusion around Allegra’s relationship with her dad, but hey ho it was all harmless enough in the end really.

There is always something so special about not only how Elle McNicoll writes her books, but towards the awareness of neurodiversity. As someone who is neurodivergent themselves, her words just connect with me so deeply and her characters are at times, a mirror into my own mind and experiences.

But even going past that, the romance element of this story was just so beautiful, watching these two characters dance around each other, unsure of how to express themselves and to hold themselves with one another and then finding that harmony, was just utterly beautiful.

It is just such a beautiful romance book that also tackles the gendering differences of being neurodivergent.

I truly cannot recommend Elle McNicolls books enough. While they may be classed as young adult, I do believe the older audiences (such as myself) can get so much out of them

Even though I don't typically read too much YA, the fact that this had been compared to one of my favourite movies, You've Got Mail, had me eagerly requesting this. And it certainly delivered some very similar vibes, even if I was cursing when it comes to the scene where the two characters are set to meet up in person for the first time only for one of them to stand the other up.
I loved the bookshop and book festival setting. If you've ever dreamed of working in a bookshop, and a small town one at that, this part was particularly effective.
I also liked seeing Allegra make friends and start to experience the teenage years that she had missed out on.
As someone who is undoubtedly neurodivergent myself, it was nice to see some autistic representation, but it did feel a bit heavy handed at times. I understand that it affects all aspects of your life, but sometimes it felt a bit repetitive when they brought it up over and over and over again. Maybe that's because I have an inherent understanding. However, it will no doubt be eye-opening and important for some.
I'm also still not sure why George was so distant with Jonah. I get that he wants him to expand his horizons and move on, but that didn't really excuse the way that he treated him.
And do I love miscommunication (even though I knew I would be getting some, given its You've Got Mail angle)? No. So, that was frustrating too.
It was a quick and easy read though.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this sweet romance between two autistic teenagers. It's the first book I've read of Elle McNicoll's and I'll definitely be picking up the others.

A wonderful book, Allegra and Jonah’s emails were so witty and hilarious, and the development of their relationship in real life was so much fun. You’ve Got Mail is one of my favourite films and I loved every nod to it in Wish You Were Her. I really enjoyed the insight into Allegra’s life and I really missed the people and town of Lake Pristine. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.

Wish You Were Her is a great read, the classic love triangle but through a neuro divergent lens. It was incredibly informative but in a way that added to the story, so it never felt dry or laboured. The representation within this novel is so refreshing and inspiring, I wish that writing like this existed for me as a teen, it would have made me feel seen and would have given me the ability to understand myself so much better. It is here now though and it is worth celebrating!

A thoroughly enjoyable story of friendship and young love, with a neuro divergent cast.
Allegra is an autistic movie star, who has hidden her diagnosis from the world. She goes to spend the summer with her dad, support his bookshop and the book festival.
A lovely story, highly recommend.

This is Elle McNicoll's second book set in the sublimely sounding Lake Pristine.
Containing a lot of the characters from said book - Some Like it Cold, it is not necessary to have read this to fully enjoy Wish were Her.
Allegra the main female character in this book is a famous actor and new to lake pristine this story evolves around her and her family and friends. Allegra is Autistic and this is grasped both intellectually and sensitively by Elle McNicoll .
A must read for Neuro diverse and Neuro typical types alike, as the juxtaposition between the two types of characters in the book is spellbinding.