Wish You Were Her

Autistic 18-year-old actor Allegra Brooks can’t wait to spend the summer in her small hometown of Lake Pristine, where her bookstore-owner father is organizing the annual book festival. She’s hopeful that the low-key vacation away from the high-pressure lifestyle of television fame will afford her an opportunity to make friends and experience “the brushstrokes of being human on the canvas of her face for the first time.” Arriving at the store—where she’s been hired to work for the season—she encounters grumpy bookseller Jonah Thorne, who seems irritated by her presence. Allegra and Jonah’s unfurling love story follows the usual romance tropes: as they spend more time together completing quotidian tasks at the store and taking in the summertime trappings of the lakeside town the duo learns that they have more in common than either of them initially suspected. McNicoll (Some Like it Cold) empathetically presents Allegra’s struggles to fit in—whether because of her celebrity status or neurodivergence—across this honest tale about the brutal scrutiny of fame and self-perception, as well as a reassuring and cozy romance whose low-conflict ambiance ensures that readers never doubt the pair’s inevitable happily ever after. Main characters read as white. Ages 13–up. (Aug.)