I liked the idea of Again, But Better. However, I had a hard time feeling invested in the characters and plot. The characters fell flat for me, causing me to skim over some parts. I did love the descriptions of the study abroad setting and hearing about the Shane's travels! I enjoyed reading the second half of the book more than the beginning. I would have liked for some parts of the plot to be more developed, like her relationship with her parents and Leo. Overall, this was an okay read for me. I would recommend it to fans of Christine Riccio's Youtube book reviews.

If you could do things differently – with the knowledge you have now – would you change your past?

Shane is not happy with how her college experience is turning out so she decides to apply for a study abroad program and try something different! She will be bolder – she will follow her dreams of being a writer and she will kiss a boy she likes. Things don’t go as planned and she is left feeling worse than when she started. I don’t feel like I can say any more without giving away major spoilers.

One thing I loved is that it is filled with fun pop culture references and other little gems from 2011 that will any bookie or fandom lovers will appreciate. It takes place in the UK but also New York and Paris and Rome so it has lots of fun worldly and travel references. There are so many fun pieces of this story that it truly feels like a coming of age rom-com that I would love to see on the big screen!

The author of this book, Christine, is also a Book-Tuber that I subscribe to and quite enjoy. I found that I had trouble separating the character of Shane with the Youtube persona of Christine! Not that it is a bad thing! Shane (and Christine) would definitely be a fun person to hang around!

Violence: None

Sex: Yes – this is a book about young college students, it isn’t graphic but it is present.

Substance – minor drinking

Language: Coarse language is present.

I would categorize this book as a new adult book vs a young adult book primarily because they are in college vs being in high school. It is appropriate for ages 16 plus.

I received this ARC through NetGalley for an honest review.

GoodReads Review:
From one of the most followed booktubers today, comes Again, but Better, a story about second chances, discovering yourself, and being brave enough to try again.
Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents…sounds ideal—but Shane's made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance…what’s that?
Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time's a ticking, and she needs a change—there's nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She's going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure!
Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart.
Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic—the possibilities are endless.
Review:
I was very kindly provided this ARC via NetGalley to read in exchange for an honest review. I’m an avid BookTube watcher and Christine is one of my favorites to watch. She’s just so full of energy and personality. I was very excited to see that she was coming out with a book.
Christine’s personality is very much present in this book. The main character Shane is definitely someone that reminds me of Christine, from what I know of her as an outside perspective. It also sounds like some of this was taken from her own experiences of studying abroad. This kind of annoyed me in the beginning, but I kind of enjoyed it by the end of the book. Shane was very young and even sometimes a little annoying at times in the first half of the book. She was quirky, but almost too much so. She definitely made me laugh a few times. And I really understood the struggle with her family. But I thought she had a little too much annoyance for her cousins and I’m glad of how she amended that in the later half.
I was surprised by the second half of this story. It went in a direction that I certainly did not expect. I really liked the second half. Everything about it was better. Shane had grown, the writing was better. It was just all around more enjoyable.
I’d say this was an average debut novel. I’ve already preordered it and I’m happy to support Christine. I’m excited to see her writing grow and get better the more that she writes.
Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

There were quite a few things I liked about <i>Again but better</i> but what really got my attention were the themes - overcoming social awkwardness and choosing your own path. The main character, Shane, “had been doing college all wrong.” Well, even though there really is no right/wrong way to “do “college, I understood and admired her self- driven awareness and attempts to change and grow. Gave Shane credit for moving in new and different directions and following her own interests/career path. As a YA title, I think readers will relate to these themes. At the same time, it seemed a bit far-fetched that all of her goals seemed to fall into place upon landing in London – it’s just not that easy.

The story also touched on a number of other current issues and underlying moral challenges that many YA readers will identify with even if they are not fully explored or resolved in the novel. One example is honesty, or lack of, in Shane’s relationship with Pilot as well as her parents (and vice versa in both cases.)

Overall, this was a light, entertaining read but not up to par with the best YA authors. But room to grow is not a bad thing and is to be expected from a new(-ish) author.



FYI - I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to start off with the most important part of this review -- I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! Yes, in capital letters with extra exclamation marks. I'm not usually the kind of person to nearly keyboard smash when it comes to a review, but Christine did an amazing job with this book. I was unsure going in, but by a quarter of the way through I was hooked. I had to know more about Shane! It was heartwarming and heartbreaking and totally relatable all at once. You can bet I'll be buying a physical copy of this book. 5 out of 5 stars.

Here we have the debut novel of BookTube star Christine Riccio, "Again, but Better". The novel follows Shane across Europe as she takes a semester abroad to study creative writing, her true passion despite her parents' pressuring her to become a doctor. She meets someone special, but when the planets don't align for this star-crossed couple, it takes a few broken rules of physics and reality itself for Shane to become the woman she was always meant to be.

First things first, I've been following polandbananasbooks for years, since midway through high school. Now I'm a college undergrad, studying by day and reading fantasy by night. I adore Christine for her bubbly personality and willingness to share all about her life, but her distinctive persona was almost a detriment to her book. Something that immediately stuck out to me was how Christine essentially repackaged her own life story into this book. Shane's experiences and personality are almost perfect mirrors of Christine's, from the way that Shane's roommates got a new housing situation without her—which prompted her to study abroad in London in the first place—to her blog name. She has the same obsession with Taylor Swift, Lost, and YA books. Knowing this, I couldn't really take this book quite as seriously, since it was essentially self-insert fiction.

To be entirely fair, I just don't think that romcom YA contemporary is for me. I found myself rolling my eyes at all of the cheesy dialogue, where so many conversations were dedicated to geeky humor with very little substance for the most part. It's not my personal cup of tea, but I suppose I'm not really the target demographic for this book. A lot of the characters weren't very memorable, and I really had a hard time telling Shane's friends apart. I was also deeply uncomfortable with how much cheating goes on in this book. The love interest has a girlfriend when he and Shane are falling in love, for crying out loud.

Still, there were a lot of very relatable aspects of this book, particularly the sections where Shane's parents really pressured her into doing a more lucrative degree (premed) rather than what she was truly interested in (creative writing), that did resonate with me. I'm a college student myself, trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, and ultimately I can empathize with Shane a lot as she goes through those same struggles. I felt that the overall resolution of this conflict was rather unsatisfactory, however, since we are never shown the progression of how Shane mends the relationship with her parents after they find out the truth about her "premed" program.

A BIG, very subjective tangent here: this is a personal belief of mine, simply because of the way I was raised, but I felt extremely anxious about Shane's decisions throughout the novel. At one point in the novel, it's stated that her parents pay $50,000 per year for her to attend university, which is an extremely large sum of money. As the daughter of immigrant parents with broken English who came to America living off of whatever scholarship money the university program gave them, I was implicitly taught that the humanities were a "worthless" pursuit. My father came from a poor province and studied his ass off to get his master's in software engineering. My mother studied literature all throughout undergrad and grad school, and it is still her greatest passion today. But she could not find work, and so she got a master's in library/database sciences in order to raise our family. I will never stop being grateful to my parents for putting 110% into making sure that my sister and I can live comfortably, but as a result, I myself feel deeply uncomfortable about the idea of pursuing a degree that so often sends people back to school looking for a more technical major with a higher salary. In the story, I found myself really sympathizing with Shane's parents, because I absolutely understand their fears. They're the same fears I have. I don't condone Shane's father's harsh language, but I 100% understand where it's coming from.

I'm not so ignorant as to say that a humanities degree is useless, because there are plenty of jobs looking for people taught those critical reading and writing skills, and you can always go on to become a professor such that you can research those topics for the rest of your days. Society without the colorful touch of the arts would be painfully bland (I'd die without books!). Still, I personally am still struggling to come to terms with my own biases based on my upbringing. For Shane, the decision was very much all or nothing, without any safety nets. She dove in headfirst, and that just sent my anxiety into overdrive. Perhaps if Christine had explored this complex issue more thoroughly, I wouldn't be left with this maelstrom of conflicting emotions. I'm not a fan of the theme of "chasing after your dreams recklessly because everything will be okay as long as you work hard" because that's not how it works in real life. It hasn't worked out for so many of my peers, and it just deeply unsettles me.

Oof, sorry if that sounded really cynical! I have a lot of opinions regarding higher education, but they're by no means law. Overall, I just wasn't a huge fan of the style and plot, and while some of the themes were interesting, they weren't explored as deeply as I would have liked. I imagine that I'm just not the sort of readership that Christine is hoping to target with this, simply due to my own life experiences making me a pessimistic downer haha.

3.75/5*

Received this ARC from netgalley. **

While I’ve heard of Christine Riccio all over from YouTube, i was definitely intrigued when she was writing this book.

My thoughts without spoilers of course.

I found that the writing style was very interesting. The first part was told in 2011 and the second was told six years later. While i did find the second part unexpected, it did added a bit more of a mystery aspect of it to the story and thus more of the plot thickens.

I did find the characters enjoyable. Each of them had their personalities about them and there were a few i had a bit of a love/hate relationship towards a few in particular.

The plot. While i did love the travel, adventure and dab of romance, there was some of it that had the typical drama (family, relationships, etc) i felt that it was a bit over dramatic at times but aside from that, i did feel that i was actually traveling through Europe and seeing how it all folded out at once.

Overall, i did enjoy this book and would definitely recommend this to those who love travel stories with a touch of magic

I did not enjoy this book. It was not well put together, the main character was very annoying, the plot had some serious holes (especially when it came to the time travel) and I just didn't enjoy the story. It read more like a fan fiction than a cohesive novel and I don't think it has much in the way of character development or a clear message.

This book is all about a girl named Shane taking a semester to study abroad in London. She's been doing college all wrong and now has the perfect chance to do things better.

The writing is pretty bad if I can say that in the nicest way possible. It's really cringy, super awkward, and immature. In no way do these characters seem college aged (or mid 20s later on in the book). The pacing is also off and entire events were summed up in a few paragraphs sometimes via journal entries and sometimes even not. Most of the book was just Shane going on trips every weekend to different countries, taking selfies, and making idle banter to the love interest and her roommates. Repeat repeat. I'm pretty sure this book was also supposed to be funny and cute but I didn't laugh or smile a single time. Even parts that were supposed to be emotional just fell flat because the author didn't know how to do it realistically. And ALL of the dialogue in this book was so weird and no one speaks like this, anywhere.

The characters just weren't fleshed out, besides maybe Shane. And the only reason Shane was fleshed out was because she was exactly Christine herself. I get the whole "write what you know" thing but this was excessive. Shane was also super clumsy and she flailed, flopped, and floundered too much. It honestly didn't seem like Christine tried to make a character at all, instead just insert herself in the story. Everything Shane likes whether it is music, tv shows, books, and even clothes is Christine. There are so many references to Cassandra Clare's books and Harry Potter was mentioned even more. Don't get me started on how many times The Beatles were name-dropped while they are living in London and acting like clueless Americans. Half of the book was TONS of pop culture references of Christine's real life favorites and I cringed every single time. A lot of this book takes place in 2011 and Christine is going to be damn sure we get that from all these useless name drops.

Shane has multiple roommates and they all have strange names, and they are all kind of interchangeable. Her love interest is named Pilot Penn and she decides she wants to call him Pies. The romance was also super lackluster, insta-lovey and didn't even make any sense. Plus he had a girlfriend for most of it while still flirting and even kissing Shane. A few times they just stopped talking for months while pretty much living together and that was really weird too.

I'm not going to spoil it but there is a magical element that is just so extra quirky and silly. The book was already pretty bad but it just made it worse. Maybe it would have been good if it was done well but it wasn't.

The ending was also super obnoxious and very wish-fulfillment as well but alas. If you are a super fan of Christine, I'm sure you'll love it. Sadly I value better writing, better characters, and a better plot over Youtube videos. A big miss for me but congrats to her for getting published.

I received an ARC from Net Galley. I wish I had finished sooner, but with school and stuff, that was near impossible.
Anyway, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I thought it was cute and fuzzy, and pretty surprising. I thought the second chance was the internship the first time around, but I enjoyed the supernatural/science fictiony aspect of actually taking the second chance.
I was a little irked at Shane in the second take that she spent so much time thinking of Pilot, but she really surprised me when she took a step back and decided to focus on her. I thought that was such a brave and awesome thing for her to do. Of course, it was sad about her and Pilot, and I am glad that they got their happy ending, and that they reformed their relationship to focus on themselves as well as each other. They’re very dorky.
I related to Shane a bit. I haven’t named my computer or anything, but her wanting to represent Lost in a subtle way is like me with my fandoms. I actually got a “Sherry, Niles” shirt because I love Frasier, and needed it, even if no one has commented on it. Lol
Because this was an ARC, there were jarring transitions, especially during the two Paris trips, where all of a sudden they are with Babe and Chad, but I’m sure that’s been fixed. There were some grammatical errors, too. But, of course, that’s been fixed too, I’m sure.
Some critiques: they snort way too much. Like, Shane snorted like six times in one chapter. I don’t remember getting a physical description on Shane until she’s in Scotland, and that’s just her hair being frizzy. We get a lot of her feelings, but not always in places where I think it matters. When she goes into the Elephant House, she has a tingly feeling, but that’s it. I want more of a physical description of the place, and more of her feelings. Does she feel overwhelmed? Excited? What does tingly mean? And in the second take, Atticus is never around. He’s always doing something, and I really liked him, so it was disappointing not to see him.
I also would have liked more with her parents, especially what happened when she got back the first time and the second. How did she mend the gap?
I loved seeing Shane be more assertive in the second take. I loved her actually talking with Leo instead of retreating into herself, and her relationship with Babe is super cute.
All in all, cute, funny, enjoyable story!

I have to start by saying I was totally into the premise of this book because I also went to London in college and met my husband there. So yeah, I was hooked and loved all the reminiscing I did with the character. However, with out my personal experience would I have liked this as much, probably not . However, if I was a teen reading this story I would probably get sucked in to it. So I will purchase this for my library. And I am sure it will circulate among teens.

I enjoyed parts of this book. I liked the concept of what happens in the middle. I liked Babe. I loved the travel. But other than that the book was a bit of a mess. Shane’s klutziness was beyond a YA cliche and I detested that. I hated all the lyrics and talk about books that I don’t like. Not including HP of course. Love those. And she used cackled over ten times and that grated on my nerves. This book just wasn’t for me. It could have used some editing and smoothing as I did like the concept. But too many YA cliches stuffed into one book.

After reading the synopsis I thought this would be a really good book to read. However, I had to stop reading after getting 25% through the book. I am sorry I just couldn't get into the writing style. The dialog was making me cringe.

I thought this was a fantastic read. I love the author and she did a more than excellent job creating this story, creating this character, and creating the overall mood of this story. I am grateful to have read this story because I relate to the character. She reminded me of myself when I first started something new. I highly recommend this read to those who want to read about a character getting out of their comfort zone to try new things.

Again, but Better was so much fun- filled with bookish references, song lyrics, movie discussions, and little YA winks- it was relatable and thoroughly entertaining. If you are a fan of Christine’s booktube channel, a lot of her personality shines through the story, but Shane still stands out as her own character. This book makes me wish I could have done a study abroad program! I loved reading about Shane’s stay in London and her many travels. Pilot! He was definitely a swoon-worthy love interest. He did frustrate me a bit with his inability to do the right thing. But I recognize it stemmed from a very human character flaw he eventually worked through. His banter with Shane had me grinning. Something that was very unexpected (but now looking at that title, I should have known) was the speculative twist that I not only enjoyed, but was left wanting to know more! The ending left me so satisfied, with an epic epilogue I absolutely adored. Overall, I definitely enjoyed this story and am looking forward to Christine’s next work.

Again, but Better is a really fun YA contemporary. As someone who studied abroad in college, I would have really loved to read a book like this about a study abroad experience at that age. I loved seeing all of the places Shane visited--London, Paris, Rome, Edinburgh! And the romance between Pilot and Shane is really cute--they have a lot of fun banter and inside jokes that YA fans will appreciate. I wasn't expecting all of the magical elements to this--I thought it was going to be a straightforward contemporary at first--but I think those elements made me enjoy it even more. A fun, fast read!

<strong>CW’s: Cheating, Emotional & Verbal Parental Abuse</strong>

<i>Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for providing me with a digital Arc in exchange for an honest Review! All quotes featured are from the Arc and therefore subject to changes.</i>

💗 <b><a href="https://bookcheshirecat.wordpress.com/2019/04/24/arc-review-again-but-better-by-christine-riccio/" target="_blank">Read this Review on my Blog</a></b> 💗

I had high hopes for <i>Again, but better</i>due to its very cool premise, that sadly were <b>disappointed by the actual execution</b>. From weak characters, a relationship based on cheating and the very cliché writing to constant references and a strange sudden change of genre, the entire story felt flat and off for me. I was a fan of the college and travel themes and got through the book rather quickly, as it is fast-paced, but found too many issues with the story to truly enjoy it.

<u><b>L I K E S</b></u>
<b>🌺 </b><b>The idea itself & college life</b>. Like I said, the premise is what drew me into the book and made me want to pick up, because I related a lot to Shane’s feelings about college. Being 20 she is also close to my age, so I felt connected to her experiences and insecurities. I liked that we got to see her study abroad and also pursue writing as her passion! The theme of trying to do things better and living life for yourself and no one else had strong potential to be very relatable to a lot of readers currently struggling with feeling like they failed at life.

<b>🌺 </b><b>Shane’s internship</b>. I absolutely loved the scenes in which we see Shane doing her internship at a travel magazine., Everything about her experience her was so relatable to me as I just did a longer internship myself. The initial awkwardness of being new, not being able to do anything yourself and having to ask, before becoming a bit more part of the team was all spot on. I liked those scenes the most, especially as the Team at the place was so friendly and welcoming!

<b>🌺 </b><b>The traveling in Paris, Rome & London</b>. Even if it felt more like ticking off the most important attractions, I loved getting to see Shane explore a lot of places during her year abroad, it was so nice to read about that! I do wish to know where they got all the money to finance the trips though. I mean, I know they slept in hostels and traveling is not as expensive if you choose cheaper options, but none of their internships were paid and Shane’s fund that she mentioned must have been huge.

<b>🌺 </b><b>Shane’s friends Babe, Sahra and Atticus, who made up a diverse supporting cast</b>. I especially loved her close relationship to Babe, who was such a gem. Babe is very positive, excited and energized, I would love to have a friend like her who just radiates so much positive energy. I also like Sahra and Atticus, even though Babe was a bit more prominent in the story. Furthermore, I appreciate that Babe was a plus-sized black woman and Atticus was Asian and gay. (Not sure about Sahra, she is described as tan, but nothing else is mentioned.)

<b>🌺</b><b> The pace was fast and addictive, with Part 2 being a lot better</b>. Despite me having a few issues with the book, it was very fast paced and addictive once I sat down to read the book. The pacing was very good, made the book easy to read and I felt myself wanting to keep reading even if a lot of things bothered me. In general, Part 2 was a lot more interesting to me. Even though the twist was a bit weakly developed, it did push the story into much more interesting terrain and raised a lot of questions about choices and taking control of your life.

<u>b>D I S L I K E S</b></u>
<b>⚡</b><b> Shane was too much like Christine</b>. As a fellow writer I know that we always put a bit of ourselves (or the version we want to be) into our works and that’s okay, but the issue is when it becomes TOO much. That was the case here, as the story is basically semi-autobiographical with Shane having a lot of similarities to Christine. It <b></b><b>got hard to distinguish between writing voice and actual character voice</b>, because they were one and the same. In my opinion, Christine poured a bit too much of herself into the story, <b></b><b>making it hard to see Shane as a separate character from her creator</b>. I personally couldn’t unsee Christine in the main character. If you know her you’ll inevitable envision Shane as the author, which is not a desirable effect, at least not for my reading experience. Unrelated to that issue, I also disliked how clumsy was a defining weakness/quirk of Shane and used for comic relief all the time. It quickly got repetitive. Another thing I noticed (but with all characters), was that they didn’t read like 20 year olds to me, they read much younger.

<b>⚡</b><b> It was jarring how suddenly Shane’s life changed in London</b>. I was expecting her to take time to settle in and struggle with changing her life, as the narrative framed her college life before to be very different and lonely. However, the second Shane gets to London all her problems with making friends and staying connected are immediately solved. That was way too quickly given her problems in the last years and felt a bit alienating, as it is often not as easy. <b></b><b>A sudden change of scenery is not a cure all</b>. I was disappointed that her struggles to make friends and find out how to get out of her comfort zone were not sufficiently explored. Shane went from anxious to outgoing too quickly.

<b>⚡ </b><b>Pilot was pretty one dimensional.</b> I hope I wasn’t the only one immediately put off by his ‘quirky’ name. I mean Pilot Penn? Apart from that I didn’t feel like Pilot had a lot of depth. He was your typical love interest, who is attractive and probably interested in something artsy (here it was music). I also felt like Pilot wasn’t as great a character as Shane made him out to be. <b>How he talked about his girlfriend spoke volumes to his character and how selfish he truly was</b>. Instead of breaking it off when they have differing opinions, he keeps her warm for ‘later’ while flirting with Shane. Pilot conveniently pretended his girlfriend Amy didn’t exist in order to have two girls at once, until he no longer could avoid it. Then in turn he ignored Shane. Basically, he didn’t want to choose and did it at the expense of both girls. He only does what serves him and it rubbed me the wrong way, especially in Part 2. The last minute explanation as to why he was on edge didn’t convince me, it was thrown in too late.

<b>⚡ </b><b>I was not a fan of the romance especially the constant emotional cheating element</b>. It was mostly emotional cheating (and later a kiss), but Pilot would relentlessly flirt with Shane, resulting in almost kisses despite having a girlfriend. I did not like the “I have a girlfriend, but she is annoying/uninteresting/etc., so I’m ignoring that we’re together” trope that was going on here. It made me dislike Pilot a lot. The grey-area cheating was meant to add conflict and angst, but that could have done another way too. Point is: I don’t like cheating subplots especially when they’re between the Main Character and the Love Interest. Shane also has her burden to bear, because she still hoped Pilot would break up with Amy and often forgot that he was not available and still in a relationship. She was so set on him and the thing is that I didn’t think their relationship has any substance. So apart from the cheating, <b>I found the romance to be missing a spark</b>. It was pretty much instant love between them without any reason and even towards the end I never saw the appeal of both of them together.

<b>⚡ </b><b>The Plot Twist was very bizarre and underdeveloped.</b> If you introduce a new genre-bending element it NEEDS to have a foundation and a background. You cannot just throw in something new and then never explain it, but that’s what happened here. It came out of the blue and took me by surprise, sadly not in a good way, more in a “this is so bizarre what is happening?” way. We never explore why this twist works, does it only work for Shane? Does it work for everyone? How does it even work? I don’t know. It sadly felt like the element was just introduced as a shock and plot twist, but not as well thought out. Connected is the a weird side character that keeps popping up. Said character has no background or personality, they just serve the plot twist and it is never explained what they had to do with it.

<b>⚡</b><b> Some of the scenes/dialogue was very cliché with lots of overused phrases</b>. The writing style was generally okay, but sometimes the dialogue would be a bit awkward and spotted with phrases that felt unnatural. I think it was because they are phrases that are used very often and therefore didn’t feel fresh. Some phrases were just very strange and nothing I could see someone saying.

<i>”I like a boy. He has a girlfriend who isn't me, and it's the worst”</i>. is an actual quote from the book.

<b>⚡</b><b> Shane’s parents abusive behavior was never addressed.</b> This made me a bit uncomfortable because there was some clear <b></b><b>emotional as well as verbal abuse going on the entire story that wasn’t addressed</b>. Especially at one point Shane’s father gets really aggressive and violent, which was very scary as he is described to have anger issues. The way it was casually mentioned that he would often yell whenever Shane didn’t do things quickly enough or did something wrong didn't sit well with me at all. Of course Shane made her share of mistakes as well and went into apologizing, but the narrative never made her parents own up for their horrible behavior towards their daughter.

<b>⚡ </b><b>There were too many references and often they felt forced</b>. Firstly, I always appreciate pop-culture references, but they need to be integrated into the story well and feel natural in the scene. They should be woven into the story and not constantly thrown in. The latter sadly was what happened here. <b></b><b>Shane would always find ways to insert any reference to her favorite things in the scenes</b> to a point where it felt a bit like ‘fan service’ to the readers, to show how relatable the story was. I appreciate that it was shown how nerdy Shane is (because same), but it got too much. Same with the <b></b><b>constant references to 2011 in Part 1</b>. The author tried to establish that we’re in the past, but after a few references readers usually get that, you don’t need to bring that up again and again. <b></b><b>A minor thing that I didn’t get was the initial ‘culture shock’ that Shane experiences. Like … she is SO hung up on the differences between Britain and the US, even though both countries are not that different from each other.</b> I have been to both Britain and the US. Sure, I saw that some things were different but I never had such a huge reponse like Shane. I know it was meant to be endearing, but some things were just too much and strange to me. She was so outraged about the lampposts, the pasta and sauce … all minor things. Forgetting that you have to look the other way to cross the street I can understand, because it is so instinctual, but the rest felt over the top for me.

<u><b>At a G L A N C E</b></u>
<b>Series?</b> No
<b>Recommended for?</b> People interested in books set in college + an angsty romance, Fans of Christine/her Booktube Channel

This book.... is in a way a love letter to the book world & to the reads who want to be writers.
(Yes, I'm a fan of Christine as a BookTuber, been watching her for years, but I did my best to not like that influence my thoughts of this book.)

This book gave me a push to want to work on my own book because unlike Shane, I (& you) don't get second chances. I enjoyed this book, was it cheesy, yes, was it funny, yes, dramatic, yes. But it's like sunlight with light rain while still dealing with family problems, and learning to grow as a person. This has been the second book I've read in the last two weeks that deals with how our choices affect our lives and the outcomes of them. I'm starting to think that it's a sign.

With that said let get back to the book, Shane is our lead character. We get to see her grow. I relate to her in many ways. Booknerd, wannabe writer, Beatle fan and so on. With that said, she was very light-hearted, bubbly, yet still a hard worker. Who follows her heart.

Don't let the blurb keep you from reading this book because it is so much more than that. I enjoyed the fandoms drops. The joy of adventure made me want to read more books that have a travel theme. The dash of magic didn't feel forced or 'not-real'.

The other characters of this book made me love it, Babe is a black, plus-sized woman, while Atticus, (who I love) is an Asian gay, Gryffindor who is a theater major! Sahra, who grew on me. Pilot is a strong male character, who was an on again off again character for me. I enjoyed him at the start & end of the book, but the middle-ish he was driving me crazy.

With that said, I can see why some people wouldn't like this book, but I however did. It was my cup of tea, my favorite kind of books to read during the spring/summer time. I just hope people won't judge this book because a 'BookTuber' is the author.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I had never heard of the author before, or even the term "booktuber", so going in, I had no idea what to expect.

This was a lovely story and fun to read!

Shane is not having a good time at college - she is lacking a "life" so to speak and decides to do something about it.

Being pre-med (because that's what her parents want) but actually she is in love with writing, she sets off on a study abroad program. Here she meets several friends, and even begins a relationship with a guy! Unbeknownst to her, her mom and dad visit and things go out of control.

Flash forward to the future and she is living the life of a medical student, but still isn't happy. She goes in search for those in her past and there is a bit of a time travel adventure (not expecting this!).

What will Shane do? Will she choose to change the fate of her future? Or leave it be?

Recommend to anyone who loves to laugh and a good love story.

2.75 stars.

e-ARC received via St. Martin's Press & Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
T/W: Grey-area cheating, mild-assault (unwanted kiss)

As a recent subscriber of Christine Riccio (polandbananasBOOKS) I am probably coming at this review one apart from the rest. I am not a die-hard fan of Christine (yet!) but I was curious when I discovered that she was writing a book. This means that my thoughts about the Again, but Better are completely non-bias in terms of how much I want to support this book purely for the fact that I like Christine. My admiration for Christine does not mix with the thoughts I have about her novel. Now that we've got that out of the way, here begins my review...

I enjoyed Again, but Better. It was fun and lighthearted and the pacing was spot on. I would like to note that 2.75 stars is not a negative rating - it pretty much means "It was okay. I liked it." which is a good thing. The problems I have with this book are mostly because it felt quite 'lukewarm'. It was a nice easy read but I wasn't desperate to read it all the time and I haven't thought about it much since finishing it a couple of days ago. I do wonder whether my experience reading it might've been a little better if I had been reading it physically (generally, I read my books physically) rather than on e-reader. Just a thought.

My greatest issue with Christine's novel is her characters. They are mundane and a little too inactive for my liking. I thought the characters were exactly like the sort of people you do come across in life but considering our main character has trouble making friends, she certainly had an easy time making them in the period of her life that we get to see. One large gripe that I had with the characters is kind of ridiculous but oh my goodness literally all of their names were ridiculous. I think unusual names so you'd think that maybe I was being a bit harsh with 'Shane' (f) and 'Babe' but 'Pilot Penn'..? I mean really?

As for Shane, while I read this book I was constantly taken aback by just how 'Christine' she was. There is no way that Shane isn't almost a direct copy of Christine. I can even tell this without having watched that many of Christine's videos. Like Christine, Shane has an Italian surname, her online username is almost identical to Christine's, they express themselves in pretty much the same way and they have very similar mannerisms to one other. These with the fact that I picture them looking almost identical means that I find it very difficult to differentiate Shane's character from real-life Christine's. Don't get me wrong, I really do like Christine but the other day I watched an interview with the one and only Victoria Schwab, who said that it is a dangerous game to insert oneself into their characters. Yes to characters sharing one or two of an author's characteristics, but an exact copy can be a risky move. For me the similarities were slightly jarring and removed me from the story as I read.

In terms of the actual storyline: I didn't mesh very well with it. I enjoyed the concept of an American visiting London for the first time for a study abroad experience - relatable and realistic - but having said that Again but, Better isn't just a bog-standard contemporary. It has a twist. There was both an unexplained time-travel-moment as well as a spirit guide present. I was confused every time the spirit guide was mentioned and we were never told why she was there or how what she did was ever possible. I thought that it was brave of Christine to go down that route and I think had this novel been her second or third, if might've worked very well, but for now her writing seems premature but still very promising.

Following on from that, the writing style itself was interesting. In many ways it felt like I was reading a blog post. I think this must partly be because the novel is written in first person. It is chatty and informal and packed to the brim with references. I'm talking Lost, The Beatles, Cassandra Clare, Angry Birds etc. etc. All things that Christine Riccio loves herself, might I add. Sometimes I really enjoyed these references and found that they added more to the story - an example of this is when Shane and Pilot are dancing in a club, I was able to listen to the songs that she mentioned were playing in the scene while I was reading that particular scene. It was good fun. Other times however I found that there were slightly too many and it suffocated the dialogue and descriptions a little too much.

As I write this review, I am discovering that the issues I have with Again, but Better are all ones that can be worked upon in time for Christine's future novels (?). She has a lot of potential and a lot of room to grow and develop. For this reason I am excited to see what is to come from her and I am thankful that I could read this book and be one of the first to watch her journey as an author begin.

Will I be buying a physical copy of this book for myself? Probably not. I like it but it is not an all-time favourite and I don't think I will be re-reading it anytime soon.

Should you buy this book? Yes, I don't see why not. It is good fun, it has an interesting message about personal growth and if you were to read it non-critically I think it would be very enjoyable indeed.

~ Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press & Netgalley for an early review copy of Again, but Better by Chrisitne Riccio. ~