This book was surprisingly very heartwarming and entertaining. What would you do if you could read all your coworkers emails?

I felt invested in the characters and even if the storyline is a little predictable, it was a good journey regardless. Good solid little read, even if it wasn’t groundbreaking.

A quirky read with characters you really root for. A very relatable main female character that, due to technical difficulties, ends up revealing true thoughts and feelings about her colleagues.

I loved the friendships that unraveled, the development of familial relationships, and the very real description of how everyone struggles sometimes, no matter how they present themselves to others.

This read was just what I needed.

A quick read that delves into the realms of office life and its complications with acceptance, friendship and office politics. The characters all have a personal life away from the office that greatly impacts their persona when at work. A web of lies and ‘keeping up appearances’ weave together to create a predictable but engaging story.

Jolene doesn't have any friends at work, she is all alone in the office and at home.
She wants to be invisible.
Until one day there is a new HR guy, Cliff, and he is tasked to meet and assess the workforce.

Jolene's computer is put under surveillance after she sends a not very nice email to her colleague, however she gets given super admin powers and can read everyone emails and insta messages. When the rumors of redundancies is confirmed in one of the confidential email she reads, she comes up with a plan to keep her job, but it will involve actually talking and making an effort with her colleagues. Will she be able to do that?

A very great read about office politics, relationship at work and family pressure to fit a certain standard.
I truly enjoyed this book.

This book wasn't at all what I expected! I assumed it was another satire on office life / the modern world but what I actually read was a rather sweet rom com, with a supporting cast I couldn't help rooting for. The email plot was inspired and the resolution, although simple, very charming. Recommended

This is a light-hearted novel aimed at, as the preface states, anyone who's worked in an office. A major IT error results in Jolene, the anxiety-ridden protagonist, being able to read all her colleagues' emails and, thus, their 'inner thoughts'. I'm probably not alone in saying that the emails I send at work reflect very little of my 'inner life' but, that aside, there are relatable moments and it's a fun read with some heartwarming moments. Although an interesting premise for a novel, which I'm sure many people will enjoy, admittedly it's probably not for me.

"People show you most of who they are up front. It just takes someone to really watch."

Jolene Smith does her best to avoid her colleagues. She doesn't like them. They don't like her. When an IT error allows her to see everyone's emails and messages company-wide, she doesn't report it. Now, she can see what people are saying about her, and she realises she could be fired. So, she uses the opportunity to get one up on her competition.

Meanwhile, she's been sent on an HR course after she accidentally sent a nasty email to her nemesis, Caitlin. She forms a surprising connection to the new HR manager, Cliff, one of the few people who seems to see the 'real' her, someone who is struggling to come to terms with a dark past.

But, can Jolene keep up with all her lies?

This book is such a quirky, witty and enjoyable read. There are a lot of cringe moments (in a very entertaining way) and while Jolene does very unlikeable things and lies a lot, I still managed to identify with her (I mean, who hasn't had at least one or two awful colleagues?). I loved how she develops as a character, and how the ending isn't just cheesy and completely predictable. Cliff is so sweet and you can't help but root for him.

I loved that while the book is clearly meant to make you at least smile if not laugh (often in shock), there are many deeper themes about friendship, familial relationships, and how people are often not who they seem – instead, everyone struggles sometimes, no matter how they present themselves to others.

A lovely, uplifting read.

✉️ This debut contemporary novel by Natalie Sue is one of my favorite books of the year thus far—I absolutely loved it! It follows Jolene, a relatable screw-up and office outcast, as she's mistakingly granted admin access to all her colleagues’ private emails and instant messages. Chaos ensues, as Jolene starts seeing what everyone truly thinks of her—but will she use this newfound information to her advantage?

✉️ What follows is a hilarious exploration of workplace culture in all its petty and toxic glory. The humour is relentless, largely thanks to Jolene's sarcastic wit, and I found myself laughing throughout—it's honestly rare for a book to make me laugh so much!

✉️ In addition to the humour, there's a touching side plot involving a colleague from HR, who Jolene reluctantly grows more and more fond of. As this will-they-won't-they situation develops, I found myself really rooting for these characters and may have ended up shedding a tear or two in the process...

✉️ If you're into humorous, contemporary novels with a bit of romance and a lot of insight into the absurdity of workplace culture, I definitely recommend giving this one a go.

Rating: ★★★★½

Thank you @netgalley and @harpercollinsuk for granting me access to this e-ARC.

I admit, at first, I thought this book was a memoir about life at work and the title was a clever dig at how no email has ever found anyone well.

While the latter is true, this book is about Jolene Smith, an employee who gave up on her job years ago. But she still needs it and all the dumb, hilarious antics she goes through to keep it.

This was hard to rate as for the most part, I enjoyed reading it and found Natalie Sue's observations about the people you find at an office hilarious. Jolene is quite the character as well- flawed certainly and while I was frustrated with her sometimes, I also found her to be equally relatable.

But I wasn't a fan of the ending which felt far-fetched. I hope to read more from the author though.

Thanks to Netgalley & HarperCollins UK for the e-copy!

3.5/5

Unfortunately this fell a bit flat for me. The premise was great and I was excited to see where it would go but it felt slow and a bit samey. I like the idea of making the point that everyone has their own stuff going on and you never know what someone else is going through but it just didn’t hit like I thought it would sadly.

I Hope This Finds You Well is a smart, funny, compassionate, and addicting read. On the surface it is the literary equivalent of The Office (US), with a similarly well balanced blend of cringe and heart. Above and beyond this it’s also a surprisingly nuanced and special story.

I didn’t anticipate coming to love the layered cast of characters that inhabited this dingy stereotypical office. The author did a wonderful job of capturing their humanity, reflecting the idea that you really never know what people are coping with. Jolene’s growth, and relationship development was so satisfied, and I really enjoyed the ending.

I thoroughly enjoyed this debut novel and eagerly anticipate Natalie Sue’s next!

Thank you HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue

Jolene has been working in admin at Supershops for 8 years when an IT error leads to her being able to see all her colleagues' emails and messages. Since there are about to be redundancies, she can use this information to her advantage and gain the edge on her co-workers. But this has unintended consequences and eventually leads to disaster.

Wow, what a fresh, funny, poignant and original novel - I absolutely loved it! I really felt Jolene's pain as I'm sure any reader who has worked in an office will... and I loved her awkward sense of humour and rooted for her throughout the entire story. One of my favourites of the year so far, I hope it does really well. Very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

‘Would you want to know what your colleagues say behind your back?’

An honest to god, fascinating debut novel from Natalie Sue.

Jolene, whilst flawed, is such a relatable and intriguing character.

This novel is a great character study office politics, grief, anxiety, and depression to name a few.

I found myself laughing, crying and feeling the spine tingling chill of anxiety alongside the characters of this book.

It is a definite must read for 2024!

Thank you HarperCollins UK, The Borough Press and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this! Such an interesting concept, and it delivers so well. These characters will be staying with me for a long time.

I Hope This Finds You Well in an unexpectedly moving, humorous look at when the power shifts in the petty landscape of office politics.

I came for the biting office satire and I stayed for the beating heart of this book. Jolene is a complex, somewhat unlikable character at times, but you still root for her and cackle at her newfound power. She is fraught, caught up in family expectations and a crushing realisation that she is not where she wants to be at work. Her voice is sparky and spiky, drawing you in and pushing you away at equal measure. Life is solitary and unremarkable, but the IT malfunction changes everything. With her newfound power, she can use it for good or bad and that central ethical dilemma drives this book. Further secrets and lies are exposed and she gets further and further caught up in a web of deception.

Also running through this book is a very prominent theme of grief. Much of Jolene’s isolation and deliberate alienation stems from a bereavement she has never really started to live with. Sue handles this with delicacy, unpacking the myriad of emotions that surround this for Jolene. We swing from anger to blame to denial and guilt. It adds an unexpected gut punch to the book and takes it from solely satirical observations to something that has a bit more heart to it. In this space, Jolene herself evolves from caricature to character and takes up space in our hearts in the meantime.

I loved her relationships with other characters and how they developed. Many of them went from fairly stereotypical office types, which we’ve all seen and/or experienced before, to fully realised and three dimensional people with their own issues and motivations. These people went from punchlines to people you wanted to get to know. Sue does not overly explain or justify everything, instead she just leaves people as people, as messy and fractured as that can be.

I Hope This Finds You Well is a complex character study that also delves into the little nuances of humanity and life we often forget in a more monotone existence of work. Prepare to both laugh and cry.

Excellent workplace drama/comedy of secrets, carshares and adult office life.

Park and Rec. The Office. Superstore. I've adored these office/shop-based shows over the last few years, and had the same feeling of familiarity when starting this. With unter-office cliques, power struggles, rivalries, creeps, hidden family problems, passive-aggressive acts/emails and kitchen shenanigans, this slotted right into my empty slot for 'entertaining work-based comedy/drama' beautifully.

Jolene knows she's the office joke. She keeps to herself and gets her own back for comments/acts of microaggressions with whited-out email messages that say what she really thinks of everyone. Until the day one of these email sign-offs is not hidden and she gets called in to the new HR guy's office. Reprimanded with sensitivity training and computer software to track her online words, Jolene is puzzled to discover that her updates have actually given her admin control to view every email, private message and document flying around the building, between every colleague there.

And she's going to use this to her advantage.

What a premise!!!! For everyone who's ever wanted to know just what those tap-tap-tap messages going round are actually saying, what people REALLY think of you, what your bosses are REALLY up to... well, you'll both love this and also realise that sometimes it's not always best to know.

Though Jolene has plans to keep her job when it becomes clear the new HR guy, who's actually kinda funny and rather likeable, is probably there as a cost-cutting measure to find people to fire. Jolene will do what she needs to in order to rid herself of all those annoying people round the office who don't like her anyway.

Some fantastic character arcs, brilliant quirky situations and relationship-building, the book was a breeze of a read that was over far too soon, but I loved every moment of it.

We get nicely-developed stories with Jolene's family and a good range of colleagues. There are laugh-out-loud scenes and cringy moments that the author paced well and watching Jolene move through the requisite stages of the unfolding plot was a joy. Loved her, loved the others to.

Please make this into a TV series!

Would read this again, highly recommended.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

When an IT error means that Jolene has access to all of her workmates emails and messages, she should do the right thing and fess up so the error can be fixed. But with rumours of layoffs, will the temptation to use it to her advantage prove too much?

Jolene was a great character. Flawed, believable and portraying a realistic example of feeling lonely and isolated, even in a office full of people. Adding in the pressure to succeed from her family, it is easy to understand why Jolene made the decisions she did. Darkly funny in places with a great surrounding cast, it is also a good reminder that uou never know what people are going through and to always be kind.

Well, if this isn't the book of the year, it should be. From the momentI started reading it, I have been telling people and recommending that they order it. We can all recognise the office situation and I did laugh out loud at what Jolene does in the first instance. I immediately wanted to try it out. I haven't yet! The hole that she finds herself in and then can't get out of is one I think people will identify with. The need for survival in a workplace where you don't fit in. It also highlights the loneliness that everyone feels and how they try to find coping mechanisms to deal with situations that life throws at them. I loved the shopping trips with Jolene's mum. An extremely thoughtful book with touches of comedy. This is the new Eleanor Oliphant!

This book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting but I do see why people are loving it. Did I find it stressful, waiting for Jolene’s lies to unravel? Immensely! But I also couldn’t stop reading. It’s so fantastically written and despite Jolene’s questionable behaviour, it’s so clear that she is kind, she cares, and she’s also hurting. She’s been through something incredibly traumatic and hasn’t been able to move past it, leaving her isolated, lonely, and in pain. This story explores anxiety, depression, and trauma response (if that’s the correct term to use) in what is at times an uplifting story and others a reminder of how dire office environments can be. It reminds us that so many people go through the world lying and pretending, but often without any sinister intent. Life is riddled with the expectations we heap on ourselves, and through this varied group of employees in Jolene’s workplace, we see the harm this can do and how sometimes, a little kindness can go a very long way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but it wasn’t always an easy read. I was feeling anxious knowing that Jolene’s comeuppance was inevitable and would perhaps unravel all the work she’d done to build new relationships and form friendships. She’s in way over her head but she’s also doing good and so whether or not she’s a good person is a grey area.

I have to finish by saying I adore Cliff. He’s funny, generous, sweet, and cares so much that it’s impossible not to form a soft spot for him. He deserves only good things!

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

Jolene hates her job and has been secretly writing snarky messages to her coworkers. When her mean messages are discovered, HR is forced to step in. However, they accidentally give her access to all of her coworkers’ emails and messages. With job cuts looming, could this newfound power help her keep her job?

I absolutely loved I Hope This Finds You Well. I was expecting a slightly bizarre dark comedy. While I definitely got a dark comedy, I was not expecting this book also to be a thorough exploration of loneliness and isolation. You witness how isolation breeds further isolation and withdrawal, how difficult it is to reach out, as well as the pressures of comparison and a toxic workplace. With her professional life on the rocks, Jolene also struggles to cope with the pressure to live up to her Iranian mother’s expectations.

It’s funny and touching, dark but uplifting. It also serves as a reminder to reach out to people as you don’t know what they might be going through.

Thank you to @boroughpress, @harpercollinsuk and Netgalley for the ARC. I Hope This Finds You Well is out on the 23 May and I thoroughly recommend it!