Signs You’ll Love Reading Erin Baldwin’s Wish You Weren’t Here

Summer’s around the corner, and we’re beyond excited for longer days and more new titles to review! We at THP have seen quite a few incredible fantasies recently but also a lot of adorable contemporary romances. And the contemporary romance novel we’ll discuss today is Erin Baldwin’s debut YA rom-com, Wish You Weren’t Here.

An ode to summer camps and their nostalgia, Wish You Weren’t Here by Erin Baldwin is a romance between two childhood rivals, Juliette Barrera-Wright and Priya Pendley. While Juliette looks forward to her last summer at Fogridge Sleepaway Camp, fate seems to throw every obstacle in her way.

The sapphic, slow-burn romance hits just right. And Wish You Weren’t Here comes out June 4, at the perfect time to welcome Pride Month! Here are three signs we know you’ll love reading Erin Baldwin’s Wish You Weren’t Here as much as we did!

Book Overview: Wish You Weren’t Here

Summary: Juliette doesn’t hate Priya Pendley.

At least, not in the way teen movies say she should hate the hot popular girl. They don’t do cat fights, love triangles, or betrayal. To survive their intertwined small town lives, they’ve agreed to a truce. They complete group projects without fighting, never gossip to mutual friends, and stand on opposite sides of photos so it’s easy to crop each other out.

Priya seems to have everything during the school year—social media stardom, the handsome track captain boyfriend, and millions of adoring fans—and Juliette is at peace with that. Because Juliette has the summer, and the one place she never feels like “too much”: Fogridge Sleepaway Camp.

But her hopes for a few Priya-free weeks are shattered when her rival shows up at Fogridge on move-in day… as her cabinmate, no less. Juliette is determined to enjoy her final summer, even if it means (gag) tolerating her childhood rival, but everything that can go wrong, does.

If Juliette can’t find something to like about her situation—and about Priya—she risks hating the only home she’s ever had, right before she says goodbye to it forever.

You Enjoy Camp Drama

Whether you’ve been to summer camps before or not, you can’t resist listening to the camp drama! And trust us: Wish You Weren’t Here has plenty. Juliette tries to avoid Priya every chance she gets at camp, even though they have to bunk together. Their rivalry and complicated feelings can get out of hand at times, too. The camp’s theater club creates even more tension and drama for our two characters. (See what we did there?) Not to mention Juliette’s new camp counselor seems to have it out for her.

You Love Slow Burns

If you’ve been craving a sapphic slow-burn romance, we definitely recommend Wish You Weren’t Here. While Juliette spends most of her time in the book trying to salvage her summer, she slowly starts realizing her attraction to and feelings toward Priya. But surely, she’s imagining things like Priya’s subtle flirting, right? Buckle up for this one, besties. Juliette would prefer not to talk about the obvious romantic tension between her and Priya, no matter how much it kills us readers.

You Have A Place To Be Yourself

Like a lot of us, Juliette considers summer camp to be her real home. The place where she could simply be herself and never be “too intense.” After all, living in a house with workaholic parents and three younger siblings to look after can be draining for anyone. But at Fogridge, no one’s constantly needing Juliette’s attention. (Although one person does have her attention for most of the book.) So if you’ve found a place to be your true self, or if you’re still finding it, you can relate to Juliette’s story.

Wish You Weren’t Here by Erin Baldwin releases June 4th, and you can preorder a copy of it here!

What do you think of Erin Baldwin’s Wish You Weren’t Here? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

Want to hear some of our audiobook recommendations? Here’s the latest!

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ERIN BALDWIN:
INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | TWITTER | WEBSITE