Book Summary and Reviews of Wish You Were Her by Elle McNicoll

Wish You Were Her by Elle McNicoll

Wish You Were Her

by Elle McNicoll

  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Published:
  • Aug 2025, 336 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Book Lovers meets Notting Hill with a slice of You've Got Mail in Wish You Were Her, the brand new rivals-to-lovers romance from bestselling, award-winning Elle McNicoll.

An unforgettable romcom about finding the one person who makes you feel yourself when the whole world is watching.

18-year-old Allegra Brooks has skyrocketed to fame after starring in a hit television show, and she's the overnight success that everyone's talking about. They just don't know she's autistic. Now, all she wants is a normal teenage summer.

Her destination for escape is the remote Lake Pristine and its annual Book Festival, organized by the dedicated but unfriendly senior bookseller, Jonah Thorne.

In small towns like Lake Pristine, misunderstandings abound, and before long the two are drawn into high-profile hostility that's a far cry from the drama-free holiday Allegra was craving. Thank goodness for her saving the increasingly personal emails she's been sharing with a charming and anonymous bookseller who is definitely not Jonah Thorne ...

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Complex, compelling characters populate a satisfying romance." —Kirkus Review

"Full of wit and literary charm, this work is a romantic and compassionate look at two of an infinity of autistic experiences that examines the effects of burnout and masking, and the beauty beyond the struggles of being autistic." —Booklist

"Another perfect novel from McNicoll. Secret identities! Mistaken first impressions! Masking and personas! An absolutely beautiful, witty, cinematic romcom about two autistic teenagers that feels utterly real and magically whimsical." ―Lizzie Huxley Jones, bestselling author

This information about Wish You Were Her was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Elle McNicoll

Elle McNicoll is a bestselling and award-winning children's novelist. Her debut, A Kind of Spark, won the Blue Peter Book Award and the Overall Waterstones Children's Book Prize, as well as Blackwell's Book of 2020. She is twice Carnegie nominated, and was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Awards 2020, the Branford Boase Award and The Little Rebels Award. Her novels have been published in the US and translated into multiple languages. A Kind Of Spark has been adapted for Television in partnership with 9Story and BBC Childrens, with Elle is an advocate for better representation of neurodiversity in publishing, and currently lives in North London.

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