Spotlight & Giveaway: Wish You Were Her by Elle McNicoll

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Elle McNicoll to HJ!

Hi Elle and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Wish You Were Her!

Hey, everyone. Welcome to HJ! I’m Elle, coming from a heatwave in London.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Wish You Were Her: It’s kind of my version of a neurodivergent Notting Hill. It’s about two autistic teens who meet in the small town of Lake Pristine. Allegra Brooks is a child actor turned TV star who’s taking a summer off to work in her dad’s bookstore and Jonah Thorne is a slightly surly bookseller who resents her fame and annoying beauty. They both unwind from their workplace rivalry by emailing their anonymous pen-pals each night. They’re neurodivergent and hate grows to respect which, of course, grows into something else.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“To me, you’re like the pretentious novels you love so much. Just a story that nobody wants to hear.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

Massively inspired by Shop Around the Corner, an incredible old movie. But Daddy, I Love Him by Tyalor Swift from TTPD. As well as my life as a bookseller who then became an award winning author, then an award winning screenwriter. I’ve seen some weird things. But I’ve been autistic through all of them. So I wrote about that.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

I try to start from a want or a need. Something that hasn’t been met or achieved. I also really like to write characters that are maybe a little on the margins. They’re not the most mainstream-friendly, which is maybe stupid to say. They’re different. They have the paperwork. I pull from real unmet needs and feelings of otherness.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

The Lakehouse scene was a blush. The lonely whale dialogue was a cry.

Readers should read this book….

It’s packed with a lot of YA angst and yearning, in a really Stars hollow-esque small town with lively characters. It may be a window if you’re neurotypical. And I hope a mirror if you’re neurodivergent.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m doing copy-edits for my adult romance, Unapologetic Love Story, which comes out in 2026.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Wednesday Books is giving away five copies of WISH YOU WERE HER. Open to US/Canada only.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What draws you to this book?

 
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Book Info:

Book Lovers meets Notting Hill with a slice of You’ve Got Mail in this rivals-to-lovers romance from bestselling, award-winning author Elle McNicoll.

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. And 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 grace: the increasingly personal emails she’s been sharing with a charming and anonymous bookseller who is definitely not Jonah Thorne . . .

An unforgettable romcom about finding the one person who makes you feel like yourself when the whole world is watching.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N |
 
 

Meet the Author:

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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