Iris Massey is gone.
But she’s left something behind.
For four years, Iris Massey worked side by side with PR maven Smith Simonyi, helping clients perfect their brands. But Iris has died, taken by terminal illness at only thirty-three. Adrift without his friend and colleague, Smith is surprised to discover that in her last six months, Iris created a blog filled with sharp and often funny musings on the end of a life not quite fulfilled. She also made one final request: for Smith to get her posts published as a book. With the help of his charmingly eager, if overbearingly forthright, new intern Carl, Smith tackles the task of fulfilling Iris’s last wish.
Before he can do so, though, he must get the approval of Iris’s big sister Jade, an haute cuisine chef who’s been knocked sideways by her loss. Each carrying their own baggage, Smith and Jade end up on a collision course with their own unresolved pasts and with each other.
Funny and moving in equal measures, WHEN YOU READ THIS is a sparkling debut about love, life, and all the emails you really wish you’d never sent.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the read. The novel’s tone was light, the pacing brisk, but there’s this underlying grief the characters carry around that gives the book a surprising level of depth... zippy dialogue and a heavy premise coupled with laugh-out-loud scenes.” Kim Silverton, Senior Forecasting & Market Analyst
“I read this while on vacation and absolutely loved it. I got to the last page and wished there was another 500 to go.” Lillie Walsh, National Account Representative
“Mary Adkins knocks her new unique and heartwarming novel, When You Read This, out of the park! … At the heart of this novel is the different ways that people deal with grief, love, and relationships through the unforgiving eye of emails and blog posts. It is funny, fast-paced, honest and I had big fat tears rolling down my face by the end. I absolutely loved it!” Kristen Beverly, Bookseller at Half Price Books, Dallas, TX
“What’s so incredible about When You Read This is that the story is simultaneously heartbreaking and hysterical and I think that’s thanks to the epistolary form. I still wish I had more time with the characters although from the standpoint of the story, not a single extra note is necessary to tell it!” Erika DiPasquale, Rights Assistant
“Poignant, and bittersweet, When You Read This is a well-rounded blend of romance, comedy, and of course, drama.” Heather, Mitzi's Books, Rapid City, SD