Book Title: YOU’LL LOVE IT HERE
Character Name: Mona Bucket
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
Well, my parents were always causing chaos for me so…not great. Ever since my dad passed, it’s like my mom has taken it upon herself to carry on his share of the havoc. It’s a lot to worry about when I’m trying to manage my own life, but I digress.
What was your greatest talent?
I can focus on a task for sixteen hours straight with minimal downtime if I ignore the pain that comes right between my eyes during hour seven.
Significant other?
I’m focusing on my career for the next five quarters. Once I’ve secured my promotion, I can get back to other pursuits like relationships. Sami and I are friends—he’s helping me manage the tenants with their wildly different personalities. He’s easy to chat with and easy to look at—but nothing’s going on with us!
Biggest challenge in relationships?
It can be hard to find someone worth sacrificing my time for so I find that with friendships, it’s best to surround yourself with people who are where you want to be in life; people that inspire you and challenge you to work harder, even if it’s because they would stomp over you if given the chance…
Where do you live?
Where do I start? It’s an old dingy apartment and I’m the only normal tenant in the place. There’s a disturbing lobby chair of unknown origin, a laundry room panty thief, and a couple that is always shouting or cooking hotdogs. The plan was to move out ASAP. I’ve already been here for five years too long.
Do you have any enemies?
Right now, it’s probably the tenant Carmen Thurston in 1D. A liability of a man who refuses to answer my messages, leaves boxes and random items in the halls, and loves to keep the building doors propped open. He carries a comb in his pocket (unironically) and wears jeans that violate the masses (proudly).
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I think the best way to put it into words is that the hallway has three smells and “cabbage” might be the best one; the dingy carpets are patterned to hide all the gunk we trample through, and the noises from everyone’s suites offer disturbing insight into their lives. I can admit that the diner across the way is kind of a nice escape, and the street can have a certain charm. Also, I sometimes catch myself wanting to linger in the lobby which hasn’t been the same since Irene left. The little library with random magazines can be fun to dig through, and there’s a rec room that has potential…I worry I’ve been here too long that I’m starting to get used to things a regular person wouldn’t accept.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I have a fish, Alice. She’s a black moor with big eyes and nothing going on behind them. Honestly, she seems to bring the opposite of whatever companionship a pet is supposed to provide. The thing is, she’s the only one that knows the real me, so I suppose it’s complicated between us. I’ve also been watching my landlady’s dog, and the little corn-chip-footed-guy is decent to have around. Plus, walking him gets me out of this building, and I could use all the time outside my apartment I can get!
What do you do for a living?
I’m an associate at a marketing firm and have spent the past five years doing everything I can to make manager. I’m not letting anything stand in my way.
Greatest disappointment?
Dwelling on disappointment isn’t a great use of time. Sure, I wish I was a little further ahead and that the promotion I was due for hadn’t fallen through. And sometimes I wonder if I had a different set of parents, would I be thriving and making it look easy like it seems to be for everyone else? But, like I said, I don’t dwell…
Greatest source of joy?
A toss-up between my whiteboard (which keeps me organized) and my vision board (to remind me why I’m doing it all to begin with).
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
Organize my board and read books on business strategy, although I haven’t done as much of that these past few weeks. Lately I’ve been watching the comings and goings of the other tenants (I would classify it as fascinating but not enjoyable!). I’ve also started a side quest sleuthing out a laundry room panty thief. It’s honestly more fun than you’d think. Oh! I’ve been walking Ernest, so that’s probably my current normal hobby.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
If I had been a little more efficient during my work hours, I would’ve finished the campaign earlier and I wouldn’t have been stuck at the office when I should have been at the hospital when there was still time. But I can’t dwell--this is what it takes sometimes to succeed. I’m certain.
What keeps you awake at night?
Well, to be literal, it’s between the shouting couple, Carmen’s “visitors,” the weird noises coming from Divorced Dad’s place, and of course, the True crime shows Weird Girl Beside Me listens to. I actually don’t know how anyone sleeps around here.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
I need to get this apartment building in shape so that someone somehow manages to buy it. Basically, everything I’ve worked and sacrificed for is riding on this. Unfortunately, my neighbors are too weird to make this easy for me.
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
I want to get a promotion. I need to move out of here.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
The tenants of Valleyview Apartments are in my way. I don’t plan on letting them block me much longer.
A Novel
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.
Women's Fiction Friendship [ Willliam Morrow, On Sale: August 11, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9780063320437 / eISBN: 9780063320451 ]
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.
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