ARC Book Review: Wish You Weren’t Here by Gracie Ruth Mitchell

Rating: ★★★★☆
Audience: Magical Realism Romance
Length: 348 pages
Author: Gracie Ruth Mitchell
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: February 13th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Clementine has accidentally freed a British genie from his ancient British teapot, and she’s not thrilled about it.

However, appalled by his living conditions—and grudgingly impressed by his jawline—she vows to set him free. But before he can join the human world, the genie must prove he can live like a human—and he must do it in one month, or he’ll fade away for good. As Clementine and the genie embark on a series of How to be Human lessons, and as they pretend to date in order to discourage the men trying to woo her thanks to a wish gone wrong, the two of them discover that being human is more complex than they expected—and that love can be found between the unlikeliest of pairs.

Thank you to the author for an eARC.

SO CLEVER.

I absolutely loved this whole entire concept. It was insanely clever and I was busting up laughing within the first few chapters. The dry wit and humor was played well.

I really adored Clementine. The anxiety rep was great and I felt connected to the ups and downs and feeling “boring” and finding where you want to be. Wow did that hit home on many levels of my soul.

The romance with Alaric was sweet. It’s the best kind of slow burn. I was looking for a little bit *more* in the first half, but I adored the way things progressed in the second half. And I found the ending to have a lot of great themes and endearing moments to both characters and what they wanted out of life and how they found a way to do that together.

There’s some cute small town antics and I loved the little oceanside area. This was another wonderful book by Mitchell and I am just easily charmed by the sweetness with a touch of magic her books provide.

Overall audience notes: