Publication Date: May 21, 2024
In this wildly funny and heartwarming office comedy, an admin worker accidentally gains access to her colleagues’ private emails and DMs and decides to use this intel to save her job—a laugh-till-you-cry debut novel you’ll be eager to share with your entire list of contacts, perfect for fans of Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.
As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text color to white so no one can see. That is until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions.
When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it, but who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this might just be the key to saving her job. The plan is simple: gain her boss’s favor, convince HR she’s Supershops material, and beat out the competition.
But as Jolene is drawn further into her coworkers’ private worlds and realizes they are each keeping secrets, her carefully constructed walls begin to crumble—especially around Cliff, who she definitely cannot have feelings for. Eventually she will need to decide if she’s ready to leave the comfort of her cubicle, even if that means coming clean to her colleagues.
Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes along with it.
At 33, Jolene Smith finds herself stuck in a dead-end job that has become intolerable thanks to her ratcheting anxiety.
Her coping mechanism when replying to company emails is to change the font to white and spew all of her innermost thoughts. It works…until she gets caught.
Author Natalie Sue delivers a witty tongue-in-cheek story in I Hope This Finds You Well. If Jolene’s work situation isn’t enough misery, pile on efforts by her Iranian mother and Persian aunties to see her married and having babies.
What ensues is a hilarious workplace story heavy on the dysfunctional element. All of the classic work characters are portrayed, including the gossip, the cheerleader, the office pet, etc. It takes an interesting turn when a modification to Jolene’s computer gives her complete access to the office messaging services rather than restrictions.
Eventually, the source of Jolene’s angst is revealed, giving readers a glimpse of the pain she’s carried for 15 years. Her chance for happiness may be tied to her biggest mistake.
I Hope This Finds You Well serves up a light-hearted comedy that will leave readers with a smile.
Natalie Sue is a Canadian author of Iranian and British descent. She spent her formative years moving around western Canada with a brief stint in Scotland, where she discovered her passion for storytelling as a means of connection and reading as a means of comfort. When she’s not writing, she enjoys bingeing great and terrible TV, attempting pottery, and procuring houseplants. She lives in Calgary with her husband, daughter, and dog. I Hope This Finds You Well is her debut novel.
