Shane, a quirky. self-conscious, never-been-kissed college student is spreading her wings, traveling overseas for the first time and taking a course in London. Although she has been socially awkward at home, she is looking at this as a golden opportunity to open up and enjoy new friendships while exploring her interests in publishing and creative writing.

I enjoyed aspects of this book very much. The various European settings and Shane’s reactions to being overseas for the first time are authentic and depict the excitement of traveling to new places. The developing relationship and witty exchanges between Shane and Pilot are entertaining. There are many humorous moments throughout the book, mostly the result of Shane attempting to function in the world while battling her own inner dialogue.

For me, although the writing is enjoyable, the book lacks depth overall. There is a transformational element of magical realism that falls short and although there is an attempt to more fully reveal and develop the characters, that aspect of the book fell short for me. I found it difficult to be deeply invested in the personal struggles of the main character, which seemed superficial. The book does deliver as a light-hearted, quick fun read though, with numerous moments of humor as Shane overcomes her own foibles and allows her effervescent personality free-reign.

I was excited when Christine announced that she had an upcoming book out. And when I was approved for Again, but Better, I was extremely excited.

First, I have to say that I am not always a fan of the contemporary genre. It is probably my age, but I don't always connect to it. So, having said that, I did not connect to this story. Part of it could have been the hype and me psyching myself up, but it was hard to put myself in Shane's shoes.

The other problem that I had was that while this story is marketed for determination, friendships, and love, I found myself triggered by some relationship issues. It's not a major plot point, but I have reasons why I don't connect to that thing as a subject matter.

I enjoyed the references to 2011, but sometimes it felt that it was too many. I wanted to bask in the sun of Shane as a character and let myself feel what she felt, but there were times when I felt disconnected due to the environment and the world's details taking over.

Overall, I would support Christine and her endeavors. I am looking forward to more books written by her!

There is a lot of controversy surrounding booktubers getting publishing deals. This controversy also stems from popular youtubers getting publishing deals due to their large following. My stand point in this debate is essentially that I don't necessarily care. It gets people to read and that is cool. I will be completely honest and say that I had high hopes for this book. I don't really know the specifics of my expectations but I expected something good and maybe even something that would go onto my favourites list. Unfortunately, this book let me down big time. There writing lacked flow and the dialogue was awkward and not in a good way. The plot had something going for it in the beginning but then it just stopped going. I read 200 pages of this book and I felt as if I wasted my time because the plot, for me, didn't go any where. I was intrigued to see what would happen between Shane and Pilot but when we jumped six years I lost hope. I definitely expected a lot more from this book and I was definitely let down by it. Thank you so much to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with a copy of this book.

Okay.. I have thoughts. I finished this book in less than 24 hours, which you think would say something about it.

I definitely did enjoy the setting of studying abroad, traveling to different countries and writing while doing it. I thought it gave the story a little more push to be purposeful and outside of the mundane. I love the “Flat Family” aspect as that’s something Shane’s character needed.

However, I have more things I didn’t love that crowded my thoughts. I started off really not liking the writing style at all, but it improved enough for me to not notice it as much in the second half- more like the last quarter but ya know. The incessant need to mention it was 2011 got a little out of hand, so jumping into 2017 made me feel a bit better in terms of what was being dropped for purposes of establishing the timeline and setting.

Shane as a character is so annoying, I’m sorry. Bless her heart but her and her family were just so intense EVERY time and I really did not like that at all. I understand that there’s definitely families out there like that, and that the conflict exists, but I wish this was written better. And seeing how Shane and Amy interact, and the cheating and whatnot that happens in the timelines really irked me.

The second half of the book is something I definitelllllllly should have seen coming considering the title of the book. I’m still not sure how much I liked that as part of the resolution. It just cleaned up toooooo nicely. I wish we saw more growth from her as an individual instead of the two aspects of her life - work and Pilot. Like what happened to your other friends from London???

I’m definitely disappointed by this book and wouldn’t have picked it up if it wasn’t for the hype surrounding it.

I really really really liked this one. In the span of it's pages if made me so somber and reflective but also, as Shane says, glittery. Kudos to Riccio. Get this one, readers.

I received my book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

First of all thank you to netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review! This will not affect my review and all of the thoughts are my own!

Again, But Better is a contemporary novel about a pre-med student named Shane who makes the bold decision to study abroad in London as a part of a creative writing program. This book has got it all: witty humor, young love (both unrequited and reciprocated), Taylor Swift references, and a totally relatable main character.

Shane is honestly one of the most real characters I have ever had the chance to read about. She is quirky, weird, hilarious, and wrestles with self doubt. I loved watching her character develop and seeing the internal struggles she faced on a daily basis. She has spent her entire life trying to please her parents rather than chasing after her dreams, and I feel like this is such a common theme in today's society. Her study abroad trip is the first time she truly goes against everything shes worked for in order to find herself. Even though it takes getting a second chance at happiness to really stick up for herself, I feel like that made her even more real for me. I loved the subtle nods to Christine's personality in this character: her blog title and love for Taylor Swift- that was so fun to read.

Pilot. Phew. This guy took me on a rollercoaster of emotions: I loved him, hated him, wanted to choke him, loved him again, missed him, and then wanted to put him on my keychain. Just know that if you have similar feelings while reading PLEASE DON'T STOP READING. The frustrating parts are so necessary and extremely short lived and it is 100% worth it to push through until the end.

The flat 3 crew was so much fun and the group dynamic was perfect. I wish we could've gotten to know them better right from the start but I feel like everything came full circle in the end and the characters really grew on me. I loved how they were all so unique but built amazing friendships over the semester.

The whole meaning behind the title was a jaw dropping moment for me and I thought it was GENIUS. This is such a unique and creative story and I have never read anything like it. Christine's writing style had me binge reading and dying to know what would happen next. This book made me stay up until almost 4am reading one night, it's been a long time since that has happened for me.

Overall this was one of my favorite contemporaries ever! It had all of the components of a great coming of age novel: self discovery, heart break, friendships lost and gained, wanderlust, and choosing whats best for you even when it's hard. BRAVO to Christine on her debut novel, it was such a fun read! Anyone who is looking for a quick and heartwarming novel then please pick this up ASAP!

I was over the moon to score an advance copy of Again, but Better. I’m new to book tubers but a friend recommended Christine Ricco’s Channel to me and I fell in love with booktubers all over.

I have seen mixed reviews about this one so although excited to devour this one I was a little apprehensive but wanted to read without any biases. And My feelings on rating this book fall somewhere in the middle. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. Definitely think you should give it a try. I think it’s awesome to see her passion for reading books come kind of full circle to her writing a book herself.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy for my honest review.

I really wanted to love this book because it was written by a fellow book reviewer. Plus I love Wednesday books. It is one of my favorite publishers. This book wasn't executed well at all. The characters were boring. I literally felt like I was reading an exaggerated form of Christine's life. That just isn't a book I want to read. I ended up DNFing this book around the half way point.

This book was a breath of fresh air. I found it to be definitely a fun read, I really liked the main character Shane. The story really gained momentum, and I just really enjoyed the character growth as it progressed. I feel like this was a great self-discovery story for the character and it was very fun to follow along.

Wow, so many not so great reviews of this book! I have to say that I loved it! It was just the change in pace that I needed - something light and fun but with real meaning behind it. I am not a bit romance, YA reader but this one grabbed my attention and kept it all the way til the end. I was not expecting the twist and I am not going to spoil that for anybody - but it was fun!

Shane has been doing college - and life for that matter - all wrong. She is studying pre med because that it what her parents want. She is unhappy and has no friends. She decides to go to London for a semester abroad and study writing and journalism - her real love. She sees it as a fresh start, a second chance to be happy. She wants to make friends, find love and write. But can it really be that easy?

This is a fun story about doing what you want to do and being the real you. Life is too short. If you get a second chance at something you need to make the most of every moment.

Thanks to St Martins Press and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

Prior to picking up this book I have been an avid follower of Christine's YouTube channel and watched her writing journey videos along the way and was excited to get to read her first full novel. Before reading this work the only thing by Christine that I had read was her short essay that was included in the Because You Love to Hate Me anthology and didn't find myself overly impressed with that. However one of the things that I really enjoyed about this book was the way the writing flowed and made me want to continue reading. Although there were a few high points they don't overpower the things that I didn't find myself enjoying about the plot of the story itself. I couldn't get past the personality of Shane and how her character read, but having watched numerous amounts of Christine's videos I could really see that she was basing the main character around herself and don't see Christine coming off as bad a person as Shane was to me. I liked that being a book reviewer herself she included things that people want to see more often in books and nods towards common troupes. Overall I would give this book a 2.5/5 rating but plan to read future works by her because her writing style is amazing.

I admit I was pretty intrigued by this title, because everyone was raving about it and it sounded like a nice new adult contemporary, so I had such high expectations that unfortunately, weren’t met entirely. This was such a personal experience, because I had a lot of issues with some of the topics this was based on, and that made my reading experience lower quite much.

My main problem with the book was how it dealt with cheating. I don’t typically enjoy books where the love interest cheats with the main character, and this one had that trope not only once, but twice with the same person, and it made me quite frustrated how it was handled. You could see how Pilot in various occasions told Shane that he was happy with his girlfriend and didn’t want to leave her, but still Shane had that I’m-so-much-better-than-her mentality that made me want to throw something at a wall, and that happened quite a few times throughout the book.

My other issue was that I didn’t click so well with the writing or the humor. Though it wasn’t bad by any means, there were certain parts that were supposed to be funny and dialogues between the characters that were quirky and smart, but I didn’t find those funny or wanted to laugh. There were certain times where there were some pretty serious things happening, and then out of a sudden the tone changed, and that made those conversations less dramatic.

When it comes to the characters, I wasn’t blown away, sadly. I feel they didn’t have much of an evolution and our protagonist’s voice and inner monologues were exactly the same, when she was supposed to be four or five years older. The dialogue at times was a bit chunky, and I guess I would have enjoyed more to see an evolution in the arcs.

The plot was fun to follow, though quite repetitive, but I didn’t really mind that. It was such a fast paced novel and I practically read it in two sittings, which was great.

I think overall, that Again but Better had such an interesting concept but needed a bit more editing for it to be top notch, because there were some parts that felt a bit lacking, but overall, it had some redeemable qualities that didn’t make me hate it

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an e-ARC of this novel!

2.5 stars, spoilery review

This book was a resounding disappointment. Christine Riccio is one of my favorite Booktubers and I had been looking forward to this debut for months. Unfortunately, the amateur writing style really shines through. The characters are one-dimensional and boring, the pacing is way off, and so many wonderful opportunities are missed when describing the settings (what kind of coming-of-age travel story doesn't provide detailed descriptions of renowned European cities like Paris, Rome and London?). The "twist" is also poorly executed and there just wasn't enough substance to the story for it to make much sense or to pull off the quirky-ness I think it was going for. I did enjoy Shane's character for the first half, since I found her to be quite relatable and funny. However, the latter half just didn't do it for me. I found the addition of Melvin (I think that's his name) to be in poor taste because he simply serves as a foil to Pilot. We know nothing about his personality or how he and Shane came to be in a serious committed relationship for 5 years or why they've even stayed together up until this point. I just felt many subjects were glossed over instead of explored in-depth. I did enjoy the pop culture references, though! And I appreciate the college setting, as many YA books only feature characters at the high school age. I definitely see a lot of ten readers appreciate this but it just didn't live up to my expectations.

This one was so cute - a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ for me. This was fun story about 20 year-old Shane & her trip abroad, hoping to finally fit in somewhere. At first, I found Shane a little immature, but I tried to remember this was a YA novel & I definitely wasn’t perfect when I was 20. Shane grew on me as the novel went on- finding a group in college that you fit into, deciding how you might want to spend the rest of your life, figuring out where your niche is and who you want to be as a person - all things that I could relate to and I empathized with Shane’s journey. There was a surprise element that I didn’t see coming, and I thought this book was a refreshing change of pace. At one point, you find out the Shane loves Taylor Swift & her favorite song is “All Too Well’ (OMG SAME), so I loved Shane regardless at that point. The story was a little long, but I really enjoyed it overall. If you’re not a YA fan, I’d skip it, but I think even some chick-lit/new adult fans will find this one endearing.

I made it a few chapters into this one, but it wasn't for me. I ended up putting it down. I don't read a lot of YA, and I prefer ones that have a bit more depth. This would have been a book that I appreciated from ages 13-20 though, and I recommend it for that group.

I don't feel comfortable rating it, but I can't post this review without a rating. Giving it three stars as an even medium.

I received this e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and apologize now for this very long rant of how much I loved this book!!!! I probably discovered Christine's youtube channel sometime in 2014. When I started getting super obsessed with books in 2012 I made a lot of friends on Goodreads that I was able to talk books with since I didn't really have many friends that read. Then in 2014, I found out about booktubers and Christine's channel was my favorite. I remember how much I could relate to her in my feelings about the books I loved. When I finish an amazing book I still to this day go find her reviews on youtube.

Anyways, when I found out that she was writing a book I knew I had to have it. It was one of my most anticipated reads of 2019. I was equally excited when I found out that I could request the arc on NetGalley! You can imagine my excitement when I was accepted for that arc. I seriously jumped up and down and did a little dance. I knew that I was going to love this book, and I did!!!

This book has everything you would ever want in a contemporary. Great lovable characters, misunderstandings, fun trips, amazing friendships, love, and a little bit of magic. In this story we follow Shane. Shane is on track to be come a doctor, and her parents couldn’t be prouder, but she is not completely happy about this. She feels like her college experience didn’t go as planned and she isn’t quite happy with how her life is right now. Shane finds out about a study abroad writing program that goes to London for a semester and decides that it is exactly what she needs.

Shane writes a list of what she has to do while on this trip, like making friends, being confident, and meeting a boy. She gets to cross everything off while in London, but the trip definitely wasn’t at all what she expected. She hits lots of bumps in the road, but they add to who she is. Again, this book just blew me away! I loved everything about it and didn’t want it to end!

The other day I watched Christine’s video about the audiobook and have decided in the next few months to listen to it! I am so excited to hear my favorite characters come to life! You definitely need to go out and get this book and read or listen immediately. After your done come back and read my spoilery review and let’s chat all this Again, But Better!!!!

DNF @13% (Stopped at chapter 7 exlusively)
I received an ARC copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This has no impact on my review/thoughts.

First, let's get this out of the way. I like Christine Riccio and watch her youtube videos from time to time but this book was definitely not for me. Shane reminded me a lot of Christine even for the first seven chapters I read. However, what ticked me off was the way how Shane was SO obsessed with Pilot the moment he comes into the picture. It just doesn’t make sense. Maybe a crush but she was literally IN LOVE with the guy that she saw for a minute! It was definitely an insta-love trope there.

In chap 5, she likes freaking out that they are going to travel to another country to visit after having arrived just the day before and here she is falling in love with a guy that she met on the same day she arrived in London... and she's NOT freaking out about that (go figure).

I just can’t help but roll my eyes for the entire six chapters that I read. It was really boring for me and the writing/storytelling didn't mesh with me.

Pros: I enjoyed the writing style and am looking forward to seeing Christine grow as an author in future books. I really appreciated seeing the main character, Shane, grow in her journey and prove that this was more than just a love story.

Cons: The two timelines of the story were just so detached from one another, that to me, it felt like entirely different books. I also really hated how I couldn’t envision Shane as a character without seeing Christine. Every single aspect of Shane came from Christine and it was just too overbearing for me to look past.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Again, but Better follows Shane, a college student who is convinced that she’s been doing college all wrong. In an attempt to fix this, she decides to follow her dreams and take a semester abroad in London. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worst when her parents show up, and she starts to reconsider everything. Years later, a magical opportunity comes up, that could give her the chance to change everything.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I had a difficult time putting it down, because I wanted to know what would happen next with Shane. On the other hand, I wasn’t a huge fan of the first half of the book, because I found Shane’s internal monologue to be immature and annoying. On the third hand (yes, let’s pretend I have three hands), I really enjoyed the second part of the book when Shane started focusing on herself and her goals.

My favourite thing about this book was all the travelling that Shane did. I liked seeing London, Paris, Rome, and other European cities through Shane’s eyes, and this book made me want to do some travelling. I also liked the friendships that Shane made in the second half of the book, and I loved how much travelling and exploring she did with her roommates during their term abroad.

The other thing that I liked about this book was watching Shane mature. I liked when she started making decisions for herself, instead of trying to do what everyone else wanted her to do. I thought that she had great character development, and I went from not liking her much, to being inspired by her.

One thing I didn’t like about this book was all the pop culture references. I understand that sometimes pop culture references are useful and that they can make a story seem more real, but the amount in this book seemed excessive.

Overall, even though I enjoyed this book, it wasn’t the book for me. I think if I was a little bit younger, or still, in university, I would have enjoyed this book more. I do recommend this book to people in college or university who are unsure of what they want to do moving forward.

DNF at 4%

I'm really not feeling this writing style.

70% of the sentence begin in I, and the majority have filter phrases.

I've now gleaned the code to the kitchen (which was, in fact, buried in the blue folder paperwork), grabbed Sawyer, and settled in at the table to write. I want to write about my experience in England, so I've started working on a blog post about my first few hours here.

Hours that have been incredibly boring. She got her bags, got on a taxi, nearly fell down some steps because you can't have a YA novel without a clumsy MC, awkwardly met her new roomies, saw a cute boy (his name is Pilot, and his friend's name is Atticus—these are reasons enough for me to DNF), and went to an orientation where she was separated from her friends like a sheep being led towards the slaughter. But all this was related in a way that made me feel supremely disconnected from Shane, almost as if she's narrating it from outside her body.

Anywho, not for me, even though I was incredibly intrigued by the premise because I was kinda hoping for another awkward college coming of age story like Fangirl.

I'm sure others will enjoy it, but it's not intriguing me enough to continue.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.