Chronic overachiever Prudence Daniels is always quick to cast judgment on the lazy, rude, and arrogant residents of her coastal town. Her dreams of karmic justice are fulfilled when, after a night out with her friends, she wakes up with the sudden ability to cast instant karma on those around her.
GENRE:
Young Adult, Contemporary with a dash of Fantasy elements?
PAGES:
512 pages
PART OF A SERIES?:
Standalone
RELEASE DATE:
November 3rd, 2020
PUBLISHER:
Feiwel & Friends
SOURCE:
e-ARC
Please note that I receive most ARCs in exchange for honest reviews but this does not have an effect on the authenticity of the review itself. Reviews on books that have not yet been released are always spoiler free. ARCs may differ from final book!
YOU CAN PRE-ORDER THE BOOK AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE/LIBRARY OR THE FOLLOWING LINKS:
BookShop (This supports local indie bookstores – we recommend Vroman’s in Pasadena!)
GOODREADS SUMMARY:
In this young adult contemporary romance, a girl is suddenly gifted with the ability to cast instant karma on those around her—both good and bad.
Chronic overachiever Prudence Daniels is always quick to cast judgment on the lazy, rude, and arrogant residents of her coastal town. Her dreams of karmic justice are fulfilled when, after a night out with her friends, she wakes up with the sudden ability to cast instant karma on those around her. Pru giddily makes use of the power, punishing everyone from public vandals to karaoke hecklers, but there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner and all-around mortal enemy. Soon, Pru begins to uncover truths about Quint, her peers, and even herself that reveal how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed . . . love and hate.
MY REVIEW
Guys, I absolutely love Marissa Meyer to the ends of the earth and back. She has always been incredibly sweet to me, she was nice enough to let me crash her podcast to promote my books (which you can listen to all the episodes here) and her books are some of my absolute favorites – I have a cat named after one of her characters. So when I heard about Instant Karma, I was totally sold and I had to be patient after reading Supernova last year and wait for this book to come out. LUCKY, I got my hands on an e-ARC and was able to read it ahead of time. I promise you, as always, no spoilers but here is my review.
Guys, I struggled at first. I’ve never struggled with a Marissa book in my life and it felt SO weird to do so. The book is written so well and the story is so obviously there. I absolutely LOVED that it took place in this little California coastal town – my own book that just released does as well so I felt a super big connection with that – and I LOOOOOVED all the Beatles references with Pru and her siblings’ names. So great.
But I’ll be honest, I think I struggled with the book at first because Pru starts off as so unlikeable! The further I got into the book, the more that I realized that this is the point and that Pru kind of needs to take a chill pill and enjoy the things around her and not be so judgmental but oh my god, at first, it was so hard to stand her. She’s super judgmental, she kind of does everything for very selfish reasons – what does SHE get out of it? – she often fails to see the big picture, she feels SHE knows best. So its incredibly hard to relate to her and I found myself putting the book down because I was SO frustrated with her. I just wanted to shake her, like, Pru, omg, stop being so awful and people will like you more! I honestly wanted to be in Quint’s head more often because of how frustrating she is haha.
The further the book goes along though, the more that you see Pru and Quint’s friendship and eventual relationship begin to blossom and she does indeed begin to take a chill pill. When that starts to happen, I really got caught up in the story and I finished the last 75% of the book SUPER quickly. I adore Quint to the ends of the earth and he’s an adorable book boyfriend, he gives me those perfect California summer vibes and he is exactly the kind of boy I would have fell madly in love with, especially with him working with marine animals and being so sweet and funny. I admire his patience in dealing with Pru. She became a lot more likable as the book went along and I really did appreciate her at the end. For the main character, though, she wasn’t my favorite and I found myself loving Quint and Pru’s siblings the most. I’m also a sucker for siblings – I have five of them – and so I appreciate when siblings are used in a story.
I also liked the idea of Pru having this power of instant karma. I couldn’t quite figure out what it had to do with anything as the story went – it seemed sort of random – but the longer the story went, the more that I realized that her having that power was HORRIBLE for her original personality haha. Pru thinks she knows everything, she makes quick, rash decisions and judgments and so she thinks she knows better and her instant karma is sometimes justifiable but often times, really isn’t – she just thinks she’s enacting justice. I think it works really well with her storyline and her learning to be less judgmental, to care about people and things that don’t directly effect her and whatnot. It was kind of interesting to see. I seriously kept laughing though every time she tried to do it to Quint and it wouldn’t work. It was so funny.
All in all, I ended up SUPER enjoying this book. I love that it was set in California along the coast and I love that there were lots of marine animals and conservation in it, I loved the summer vibe, I loved Quint and Pru’s siblings and, yes, Pru, too. I did struggle in the beginning because of Pru’s unrelenting, stubborn nature but as the book went along, I began to like her and the story so much more so I encourage you not to give up if you are struggling too! This book comes out in early November so make sure to preorder it!
RATING:
4 out of 5 Stars
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