You’ll Love It Here
A Novel
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3.9 • 33 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
NATALIE SUE'S WRITING IS: "For someone who needs a good laugh."—Taylor Jenkins Reid • "Phenomenal.”—Forbes • “Very feel good and laugh-out-loud funny.” - Brooke Averick • “Wickedly funny.”—People • "Surprisingly sweet and totally made my day.”—Shelby Van Pelt • "At times funny, at times heartbreaking... I honestly couldn't put it down."—Julia Quinn
From the bestselling author of I Hope This Finds You Well comes a sharply funny, surprisingly tender novel about a woman stuck in place, her nosy neighbors, and the journey to find where she belongs—with all the heart of a grown-up The Breakfast Club.
Mona thought her living situation was bad… but the real mess is just beginning.
One day is all it takes for Mona’s life to implode. After years of climbing at her marketing firm, she was supposed to be getting promoted and finally moving out of her crumbling apartment building. Instead, she’s jobless, aimless, and still stuck in a space barely big enough for a yoga mat.
Then her eccentric landlady takes a tumble and asks Mona to step in as the building’s reluctant super. The deal is simple: help prep the place for sale, and she can secure the upgrade she’s been chasing. But that’s easier said than done when the neighbors treat “boundaries” as optional. There’s the shouting couple, the mysterious shut-in, a possible panty thief in the laundry room—and Sami, the relentlessly cheerful diner owner who keeps showing up with coffee and unsolicited ideas about community. As Mona gets pulled deeper into the building’s chaos—and closer to the people inside it—she’s forced to confront what, and who, she’s really been trying to outrun. Sometimes, the place you’re desperate to leave is the one that finally shows you who you are.
Wise, heartfelt, and laugh-out-loud funny, Natalie Sue’s sophomore novel is a story about burning out, starting over, and finding your people in the most unexpected places—perfect for fans of The Wedding People and Anxious People.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Equal parts workplace satire and neighborhood comedy, this is a warm, whip-smart novel about what happens when a woman’s carefully ordered life—and hilariously judgy worldview—slowly begins to change. After a professional setback leaves marketing manager Mona unexpectedly adrift, she reluctantly becomes responsible for the run-down apartment building she’s always treated as a temporary stop on her way to something better. Natalie Sue (I Hope This Finds You Well) uses Mona’s relentlessly tart inner monologue to turn even everyday annoyances into comic gold. As Mona gradually begins to see her fellow tenants as more than the dismissive labels she’s assigned them, You’ll Love It Here grows into a surprisingly affecting story about the rewards of letting other people into your life. Especially if you’re a Fredrik Backman or Dolly Alderton fan, this breezy but perceptive novel will be right up your alley.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Residents of a Calgary apartment building attempt to fight gentrification in the unexceptional latest from Sue (I Hope This Finds You Well). Living at Valleyview Apartments wasn't supposed to last long for Mona, a mid-level employee at a marketing firm. But at 31, five years after moving in, she's still awaiting her big promotion and can't afford to move. Amid her mounting frustration, Mona sasses an important client and gets put on leave. Then she drunkenly trashes the apartment building's lobby, leaving an obstacle for the landlady, Irene, to trip on. While Irene recovers from her injury, Mona steps up to care for Irene's dog, and Irene's realtor niece, Lana, taps Mona to serve as temporary super and help ready the building for sale behind Irene's back. Mona agrees, if Lana will consider moving her business to Mona's firm, which would give her a chance for a triumphant comeback. But as Mona makes improvements to the building, she gets to know the other tenants and comes to value her newfound sense of community. Of special interest is Sami, a cook at the diner across the alley, who spearheads resistance to the sale, hoping to keep the neighborhood quirky and intact. Sue delivers solid character work—Mona's transformation feels genuine—but the story is largely predictable. For the most part, this paints by numbers.
Customer Reviews
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This book was a great reminder of how easy it is to make assumptions about who people are based on appearances, circumstances, or our first impressions. As the characters begin to really know one another, those assumptions start to fall away and we see the much more complicated—and human—stories behind them.
I also loved the secondary theme surrounding real estate development: the tension between future development and protecting the physical asset, along with the memories, history, and character that make a property special. There is something worth considering about what can be lost when older buildings with history and personality are replaced by large, modern, cookie-cutter developments.
Having been in the multifamily real estate business as a landlord for more than 30 years, I especially appreciated how the book captured both sides of owning and managing property. There are the constant mechanical and physical challenges of the buildings themselves, mixed with all of the day-to-day responsibilities that come with being a landlord. But then there is the part of the business that is much more meaningful—the people.
Over the years, you realize that the people living in your properties aren’t simply “tenants.” They are residents with real lives, families, struggles, histories, and stories. The place we may think of as a property or an asset is the place they call home. We are working where they live. That perspective is something this book captured particularly well and one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.