From NetGalley
In this drama-filled love story, private confessions are scattered on the beach during a senior class overnight and explosive secrets threaten to tear everyone apart, including best friends (or maybe more?), Natalia and Ethan.
"One of the best YA novels I've read in a long time." —Rachel Lynn Solomon, author of Today Tonight Tomorrow
It’s Senior Sunrise, the epic overnight at the beach that kicks off senior year. But for Natalia and Ethan, it’s the first time seeing each other after what happened at junior prom—when they almost crossed the line from best friends to something more and ruined everything. After ghosting each other all summer, Natalia is desperate to pretend she doesn’t care and Ethan is desperate to fix his mistake.
When the senior class carries out their tradition of writing private letters to themselves—what they wish they would do this year if they were braver—Natalia pours her heart out. So does Ethan. So does everyone in their entire class. But in Natalia’s panicked attempt to retrieve her heartfelt confession, the wind scatters seven of the notes across the beach. Now, Ethan and Natalia are forced to work together to find the lost letters before any secrets are revealed—especially their own.
Seven private confessions. Seven time bombs loose for anyone to find. And one last chance before the sun rises for these two to fall in love. Perfect for fans of You’ve Reached Sam.
"Secrets are like a wall. They protect you by keeping others out. Or they protect others but keep you locked in. Either way, they leave you in a prison of one with no way out but total destruction."
Secrets are at the core of Eva Des Lauriers's beautiful and vulnerable debut novel, I Wish You Would. That's one of the many reasons why this book is so relatable to its readers. There has never been a person who didn't have a secret or two in their lifetime, especially as a teenager. And Des Lauriers does a fantastic job narrating the way secrets cause harm on many a level.
The book opens with a secret, a pact, between Natalia and Ethan that neither one is certain the other took seriously when they thought it up. But as tends to happen with a lot of close friends (speaking from experience) feelings evolve. As a result, we the readers are privy to the spark that lit a tense flame between best friends.
From there, we witness the secrets pile up. Not just with our two main characters, but every student present at the senior sunrise; a school-sanctioned event that Natalia organized for their incoming senior class. What Des Lauriers did with her cast of side characters was deftly executed. She managed to make every side character interesting. Their personalities, and the way they affect other students, and the way they affect our MCs, all come together like a tangled knot. Mixed up and messy and complicated, just like life. With all the big and earnest feelings of 17 & 18. She made me want to root for the math team with Prashant and Sienna, and want to play volleyball with Leti, and want to hang out with Mason, and want to let Rainn teach me to surf.
But my heart remains with our main idiots. Both clever, and funny, and perfectly imperfect in their own ways. BUT IF THEY WOULD JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER. Yes, my friends, this book is driven by the Miscommunication Trope. And while I'm not a hater of the back-and-forth delivery of half-truths and assumptions, I can promise you will only want to pull your hair out a little bit. This book really would not be the same without it. It is as necessary as it is frustrating. At the end of the day, Natalia and Ethan need the confusion to give them time to make sense of the mess they've made of their friendship.
And you'll just have to read the book to find out if they do, or not.
I Wish You Would has all the nostalgic feels of an early aughts YA romance, the hormones, the raw emotions, and the stakes, written for the 2020s. Eva Des Lauriers's contribution to the canon of the genre is the first in what I'm certain will be a long list of favorites.
I recommend this book for anyone who loves Taylor Swift, angst, SECRETSSSS, aching slow burn, SELF-love, and LOVE love.