Just before I read the RN Book Club February choice (The Lamplighter's Bookshop) I read my workplace Book Club offering - I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue (her debut novel!) It's a funny and heart-warming 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. 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 co-workers 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 colour 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 co-workers 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 favour, convince HR she’s Supershops material and beat out the competition. I really enjoyed this story with well developed characters and their own individual stories coming to light as the book progressed. The writing is descriptive, funny and certainly makes you stop and think, 'What would I do?' It's a good reminder that while you think you know your colleagues, you probably don't actually know what's going on in their private lives and that a smile or an offer to make a cup of coffee will go a long way in making someone's day. I know I pleaded with our RN Book Club "no more debut novels" recommendations, but I'm pre-ordering this author's second novel as I enjoyed the style of writing and story telling in her first novel. Hope you enjoy it too. Jayne
