Wish You Weren't Here

This was a very cute & quick read but it feels underdeveloped in a multitude of ways which leads it to be unsatisfying

I wish not only the characters but also some plotlines/conflicts were fleshed out more because it feels a bit choppy at times

This novel is more so a love letter to summer camp than it is about the romance so if that's your thing you will probably eat this up, but I was expecting more of the romance and I didn't get what I wanted from that

The relationship dynamic between the two characters was confusing for me. it was very much a one-sided hatred kind of thing on Juliette's part rather than it being a mutual “rivals” thing. it just seemed like Juliette's dislike of Priya was driven by insecurity rather than actual reasoning if that makes sense? but Priya played into it by cropping Juliette out of pictures and keeping a distance but she didn't even have a problem with Juliette? it was a friendly dynamic because they still invited each other to things & were always in each other's spaces so the negative interactions felt unnecessary

I wish the characterization was better in this story, everything felt surface level and there was a lot of telling not showing

When the characters finally do “get together” it's not seamless & I didn't find myself connecting to them or the romance at that point. it all felt very rushed

PUB DATE: June 4th, 2024
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the ARC copy of Wish You Weren't Here in exchange for an honest review.

This ended up being a DNF. Couldn't keep my interest, and  gave up around chapter  7/8. I'm surprised because I was really interested in the synopsis, and this being a sapphic coming of age romance.

DNF 20% - Couldn't stop thinking about the teenage library members behind me in the queue who would probably enjoy this much more than I would. Happy this exists, just not what I'm looking for right now.