Instant Karma (International Edition)

3.5 Stars!Instant Karma is a YA Contemporary romance by one of my favorite SciFI and fantasy authors.It is something completely different than what we have previously read from Marissa Meyer and I appreciate her stepping out of her comfort zone and trying something new.Marissa Meyer's writing as always was a delight.Her books just seem so easy and fast to get through.I had a bit of a love hate relationship with this book.My problems with this book mostly stemmed from my dislike of our main character Prudence.This book is completely written in Prudence's perspective and we have a front row seat to her journey as a character.She starts off as a snotty,judgemental teenager with a bad attitude and I really wanted to drop the book many times but I'm glad I stuck with it because this book was so much more than just a YA romance.I really liked that we learnt about Quint along with Prudence and seeing him shed his layers one by one to show us the absolute cinnamon roll he was.The romance was very adorable .Loved the characters in this story.Marissa Meyer always gives us such an amazing supporting cast.Each and every character is this book just felt so real.They made mistakes and learnt from it.But by the time I started warming up to Prudence,my opinion of her had already taken a huge hit.Another thing that plays a major role is the Aquatic animals rescue centre.I just LOVED how Marissa Meyer brought attention to the various aspects including the habitats,the problems and the rehabilitation of sea animals.We get to learn so much about rescue organisations and the passion the author holds for this issue is quite evident and translates so well to the readers.I hope this book truly brings awareness and attention to this matter because it is honestly quite heartbreaking but also comforting that there are people with the initiative to bring a change.Since the concept of Instant Karma was the main selling point of the book,it just felt really underwhelming with respect to how much of an impact it really had on the overall storyline.Another major issue I had with the book was the rushed ending.Everything seemed to be headed in a nice direction but the drama really threw me off.It was very unexpected and honestly just seemed unnecessary.This book just really encourages many necessary conversations and the one I'd like to have is how we expect ideal characters in YA books when the characters are merely teenagers and are bound to make mistakes.I'm guilty of it too and would definitely love to know your thoughts about this.While this was not a book I was completely crazy about I’d still recommend it to anyone who wants a fun read.

[pt/en]Começou bom, aí no meio enrolou enrolou enrolou e acabou virando 3 estrelas no máximo, quase que dava menos..It started out good, very promising, then in the middle it got a little boring and ended up becoming 3 stars, almost 2.5 stars

Quality good

Great book and quick delivery

I honestly had no idea what to expect when I pre-ordered this book, but since it’s by Marissa Meyer I figured it had to at least be decent.The real issue I have with so much YA romance is that it’s too wrapped up in itself. This is not a book suffers from that issue. The romance doesn’t even really start till almost halfway in. The characters have goals that do not remotely relate to having or getting a romantic partner and they genuinely care about and are passionate about things other than falling in love.I became invested in Prudence and her life quickly and wanted to know more and more. The last third of the book had me on edge the whole time and I couldn’t stop reading it. And the end? I was grinning like an idiot and incredibly satisfied.5/5 stars. I loved this book and I hope you read it too.

This is a little bit of a departure from the author's usual fantasy/sci-fi YA lit. Which is fine. Good for her for trying something different, but I miss the creativity of her world building and the unique situations the characters find themselves in. Even in plots that we would all be familiar with (like the stories of well-known fairy tales), she would put an interesting twist on them so that although you ultimately knew how things would turn out, it was still a fun ride to get there. That's not the case with this book, unfortunately. I'm not sure if it was not having the creative opportunities by setting it in the real world or that even the small fantasy element she included was vastly underutilized or the unlikeability of the main character, but I found it to be kind of boring and incredibly predictable. I devoured her previous books, but this one I felt like I had to slog through. The eventual conflict setup was really obvious, but a lot of nothing happened leading up to it, to the point that I started skimming a little bit just to get there. I'm actually kind of annoyed that I pre-ordered it for full price. And yes I know I'm not the target YA audience, but my teenage daughter is and she feels the same way about it, if not even more negatively. I'm rating it as 3 stars, but it's probably more of a 2.5 for us.