Book Review - Wish You Weren't Here by Portia MacIntosh

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Title: Wish You Weren't Here

Author: Portia MacIntosh

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Publication Date: 8th January 2025

Rating: 5 Stars

Don’t get mad, get Ethan!

Lana has had enough. Her ‘perfect’ sister is getting married. In Australia. On Lana’s 30th birthday and no one seems to have noticed. To make matters worse, she’s been given a list of rules she must follow so she doesn’t upstage the bride. Well, rules are meant to be bent right?

She’s found a killer dress, now she just needs the most inappropriate wedding date she can find. But where to start? All her attempts at online dating are simply disasters, and not in the right way! Too boring/married/easily intimidated! But then her drop dead gorgeous ex Ethan suddenly reappears in her life. With the power to make her dizzy with excitement she reminds herself why they broke up. Together they literally attracted chaos until their relationship imploded. They couldn’t make it work. But could Lana make this work in her favour… just for the wedding?

However, when they arrive in Australia Ethan seems to have forgotten he’s only there to help cause bedlam. Instead he’s off the charts charming, nothing like she remembers and not playing by her rules. She’s here for revenge, not a rekindled holiday romance… but Ethan has other ideas!

Another hilarious and utterly fantastic story from Portia MacIntosh. 

I don't think I have enough words to explain how much I absolutely adore everything this author writes, and this was absolutely no exception. 

The initial meet cute between Lana and Ethan is memorable, as is just about every moment they properly get together, but not necessarily for all the best reasons. Things seem to go just a tad wrong when they are intimate and it's totally hilarious for the reader. 

Lana doesn't really fit in with the rest of her family to the extent they held an intervention to aim to get her to act and live up to their posh standards at the upcoming family wedding in Australia of her sister. 

She is so mad, she decides to try to find the worst possible date for this wedding, and it leads to all sorts of amusing dates with some truly shocking men before realising she doesn't want to totally destroy the wedding, just cause a bit of trouble. 

Then Ethan comes back into her life and he is perfect for the role and from then on things get even more interesting (and I was very hooked before that). 

I felt for Lana, given how much she doesn't seem to fit in, even at work where everyone shoots down a fabulous idea she has for the app they are working on, something that would actually make women's lives better.  

Ethan is just sublime, and I would have happily got together with him myself.  He's fabulous, and hot! 

There is just so much to laugh at in this story, and I loved every word I was reading. 

This was just what I needed, and a real tonic to read. 

Thank you to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.