One of those books that will probably sell well due to the huge popularity of the author, i think a lot of people would be left feeling slightly deflated after this read.
A little too predictable, i struggled to even get to the end

I think this will be an enjoyable read for a younger YA audience. At 26, I do not feel I am the target audience and the protagonist read quite young for me.

The premise was interesting, but it was not for me over all and I did not enjoy the cheating themes.

However, I will say there is a difference in the protagonists voice in the two timelines and I found the writing style easy to read.

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the advanced copy of Again, But Better.

Again, But Better is a story about second chances and self discovery. It's the type of book that I think will resonate with some, and for others simply be just alright. I had high expectations and really wanted to like this book, but in the end it just wasn't for me.

I'm not sure if this boils down to my expectations of the book? I was fully expecting a cute contemporary novel about a girl who wanted to do things differently in a new country during college. While the writing is fine, the overall tone of the novel is youthful - to the point where I had trouble envisioning the characters as actual college students. Their actions, dialogue and friendships felt more akin to a high school setting than a college one. Much of it felt repetitive and boring, with little development plot-wise or with the characters. Most of the time I find myself flying through YA Contemporary novels, but this one just lagged for me and I had a hard time caring about any of it.

That said, I am NOT the intended audience for this book - so I believe that there will be a lot of people in the target demographic who will enjoy it - it just didn't work for me.

I have to give Again, but Better credit for not being as terrible as some made it out to be. Because of the novel's mixed reviews, I had low expectations - but I didn't think it was that bad, actually!

My main problem with reading Again, but Better was that I had trouble getting through the beginning of the second half where the "again" part happens. The first half was okay, but it wasn't something I wanted to read again. The second part is different enough that it's somewhat interesting... but not until about eighty percent through the novel. The fact that Again, but Better is almost the same thing twice is the main reason why I gave it three stars.

I was worried in the beginning of the second part that the book would only focus on Shane and Pilot's relationship and would barely include interactions between Shane and her study abroad friends like Babe and Atticus... which is kind of what happened. I was annoyed with the fact that Again, but Better turned into a romance and almost completely ignored the main character's friendships. In this way, I liked the first half better, which is a shame because it ends poorly for Shane. On the other hand, the end of the book was satisfying since it ends well for everyone.

I enjoyed Again, but Better, but it wasn't great. It was a chore to get through in some parts, and though the conclusion was worthwhile, it's not a book I would choose first to recommend to others.

I tried this one out but the story just wasn't for me. I admit that I picked this up because of the author alone, being a fan of her youtube career and all. The cheesy romance genre is just not for me and I should've seen that coming.

While the book was fun and reminded me somewhat of myself when I was in college, I had a hard time connecting with Shane. Maybe it's because I was beyond-my-years mature even in my first year of college, I don't know, but I felt that she was very immature, almost childish. However, I would have loved the opportunity to travel to another country to try and figure myself out while getting to explore a beautiful place.

Shane Primaveri has done college all wrong. So, she decides to study abroad in London, make friends, and enjoy her life more. Then there's some magic time traveling and a love interest named Pilot.. blah, blah, blah.

I'm not trying to be mean here, but this book is pretty poorly written, and the main character is actually pretty annoying. I thought about giving it 2 stars because sometimes I do that if the story is decent or different (and just the writing bad), but I don't think the plot was even that interesting. Overall, I do not recommend this one!

I really enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I had never heard of Christine Riccio prior to receiving this ARC so my opinion is based solely on the book. I had no preconceived notions or expectations based on Christine’s Booktube because I didn’t even know it existed. I thought the story was cute and fun and had a bit of an unexpected twist that made it even more interesting. I enjoyed the characters and their growth from college kids to adults and it made me wonder whether there are any things I would do differently if I had the same opportunity Shane and Pilot did.

DNF @ 19%

Maybe this was just not my time to read this book or it's another case of right book, wrong reader--either way, this book didn't sit well with me, and because of that I had to DNF. I loved the premise of the book, and having watched the process from the beginning of this book being created, I was intrigued. However, I could not for the life of me enjoy the writing style of our main characters POV. It wasn't bad or anything, and was decent for a debut novel--I just couldn't connect to it is all. Excessive use of references that I was like "I get it, you are cultured Shane" and our MC, Shane, is almost the fictional version of Christine, which is awkward for me for reasons I don't know how to describe. Like I said, this could just be me not being in the mood/mindset for this type of contemporary, which is totally fine, or it could be just a serious occurence of right book, wrong reader...who knows? Since I'm not sure, I think I will keep this on my physical shelf a little while longer, and maybe have a go at it again in the future...

Christine is the person who got me into booktube and I have a lot of respect for her. That being said though, I really didn't like this book. I'm not a fan of this trend in YA/NA to shove pop culture references in books as a form of relatability, and this book turned that trend to the max. Most of the references were to things only people who follow booktube would really understand, and that cringe factor added to the already bad writing was enough to turn me away.

I have to admit that I had no idea what I was getting myself into, of course I read the synopsis but truly I just went with the fact that Christine had wrote it and that was enough for me to want to read it.

As I began reading I found that it was kind of impossible to stop, right away the characters grabbed my attention and refused to let it go until I was at the very end, and let me tell you this book will surprise you, a lot. There were several plot twists that I definitely did not see coming and they made the book sooooo completely different and richer.

I received this arc from Netgalley for an honest review, I could not connect with this book from the beginning. I was so frustrated by her list and the fact that someone read it over her shoulder to start just turned me off and I was done.

Again, but Better was one of my most anticipated releases of 2019. I have been watching Christine’s booktube videos for years and have been waited for her book to come out ever since she announced she was working on it in 2016. Seeing her working that hard and being so passionate about her book was making me even more excited and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Obviously when I learned I would receive an e-ARC of it I was the happiest.

I read it in less than 24 hours and gave it 3.75/5 stars, which is a really great rating for me. It means that I really liked it and would recommend it, but that it didn’t blew me away.

What I mostly loved about this book was the first part. Again, but Better is divided in two parts, one happening in 2011 and the other one in 2017. The first one was so sweet and funny, it truly was everything I love in a contemporary. It was so easy to read, though not a lot of things were really happening. I also really loved the main character, Shane, who was extremely relatable. I absolutely adored following her adventures as she was studying abroad in London.

The first part was also here to show the reader when everything went wrong in Shane’s life. I absolutely adore reading about bad situations, when you can slowly see everything starting to take a dark turn. It may be weird, but that’s something I like, and I was happy to see it happen here as well. It really ended the first part perfectly and I was really happy about the book at this point.

My main problem was then the second part. It wasn’t awful or anything, I still enjoyed it and thought it was entertaining, but I felt as if it was lacking of something or as if it needed more work on it to be able to fully link it to the first part. Compared to the first part of the book in which everything was slow, this one was extremely fast and everthing happened all of the sudden. It kept me from truly caring and to really understand everything. It was all rushed and I wish it would have been a tad different on this side.

In the end I had a really great time reading this story and was happy to see how Christine decided to add a little magic twist to it. I knew it would happen and it felt like watching a Christmas movie when the twist finally arrived.

The whole book was really entertaining, the writing a tad simple but still cute and enjoyable. It was a sweet and funny story that I would recommend if you want to read something quickly during the summer.

After reading the first few chapters of this book, I can honestly say my immediate reaction was shock. The writing was so juvenile and awkward, I'm still trying to reconcile what I read with this being a famous book from a famous author. I'm not here to pre-judge books by booktubers (I feel like anyone who gets a book deal deserves a "well done"...it's not easy to write or be accepted by a publisher). But I don't understand how this got through edits.

The wording is tacky at best, outright ridiculous at most. Sentences like -- "Thanks!" she spurted. -- are common, as well as dialogue tags running rife. (I interjected, I giggled, he quipped etc.) Whole paragraphs are dedicated to talking about how the British put their pasta in packets vs the Americans put theirs in boxes. Half a page is just a group of characters banter back and forth "we're going on the RERR!"...just, repeating it. To each other. I need like a shocked-face emoji here because I can't quite fathom how this book is about 20year-olds when I've read middle-grade books with 12 year olds who have more intelligence than this. Shane and her friends didn't have two brain cells to rub together. I was cringing with second hand embarrassment the whole time; it was genuinely painful.

Not only that it felt like an Anna and the French Kiss rewrite?! Down to Pilot (the love interest) being a skeevy cheater; one minute flirting with Shane, the next off to Paris for the weekend with his real girlfriend. Every time Shane got her heartbroken by him, I couldn't help thinking, "thank god please get away". How can you fall in love with someone who is cheating and delude yourself into thinking they wouldn't turn around and do that to you too?

The only plot is Shane having a very low IQ (how did she get into premed) and doing cutesy things with her friends until she's busted by her borderline abusive parents for not doing premed but instead pursuing writing. (The parents are framed in a just "aw grumpy overprotective" way but I was shocked at the vitriol and harassment from her entire family and how that wasn't addressed AT ALL). Nothing else happened. Just cringey scenes. Then a weird timetravel backwards so she has a second chance with Pilot who does not, in fact, improve at all and is a two-timing piece of shit.

I also am so awkwardly aware that the book is rather heavily autobiographical for the author. I'm honestly worried about her family's treatment of her (I hope to god that part of the book wasn't true), and that she isn't in a subtly abusive relationship like this. Cheating isn't romantic. Running across countries to chase a boy who is too scared to properly break up with his girlfriend so just *tells you he did*, is not romantic.

Overall it was badly written, with the style and tone of a book about 12yos, and I'm just still in shock that it's really famous.

I will not be posting this review publicly.

This book was so cute. It reminded me of when I did study abroad. The characters were really relatable and loved the scenes that highlighted friendship and self growth, can never have too much of that.

This was so cute! I loved this story. As some one who is very shy I liked how this mc was as shy as me. Totally recommend!

2-2.5 stars

I imagine I'm not the only one who wanted to read this book because of the author Christine Riccio, who is a popular booktuber and has been doing the book reviewing thing a lot longer than me. She was one of the people that inspired me to read and review on a regular basis even. I'm not sure if this statement is an attempt to disclaim that my opinion of her doesn't affect my review, because that would be a lie.

I have to admit that this book fell short to what I was anticipating, and I consciously made an effort not to hold her to a bigger standard just because I’ve been watching her content for a while. At about 85% I saw a glimmer of something that I thought would be the most impactful and pleasant part for me to read, but those last chapters left me with a bitter taste in the end.

My opinion and expectations of this book has also been influenced by Christine's videos discussing her book leading up to its publication. One thing she said that stuck with me was: "This is the book I wish I had read when I was younger". But what I got from Again, but Better was that this is the book that reflects her life when she was in the protagonist's age (except for the paranormal element). The way I see it, this is her catharsis, her way to put her life on paper. It didn't feel like the book she wished she had read, but rather the book she wanted to write FOR herself BY herself. Had I liked the book more, I would have appreciated the autobiographical elements on a different level.

First half of the book:
When reviewing a book, the two main points I (perhaps you as well) pay close attention to are plot and characters. It is an often occurrence that one book has a strong plot element and unimaginative generic characters and vice versa. In this case, however, I thought that neither was sufficiently polished for a final version just yet. We know next to nothing about all the side characters, and considering how much Shane values friendship, that lack of a well-developed cast of characters was showing even further. Moreover, all the 2011 references that display any and every way Shane considers herself a geek, a klutz and a generally socially awkward person got a bit tiring; instead of being helpful and placing me into the timeline, they ended up annoying me a bit. As a result, the thing that comes to mind when I think about this book is solely the abundance of references. I also think I don't love it when people mention their passion for books/reading/writing me and time again in the actual book I'm reading. That is mostly a pet peeve of mine, might have to do with the fact that I keep coming across it in a lot of books I've read recently, but I just feel like "ok, I get it, please give it a rest now".

SPOILERS/Second part of the book:
I found it beyond off-putting that Shane hadn't even kissed anyone at 20, yet went on to meet the love interest the first day she arrives in London. I didn’t know that all you have to do to overcome such long-term social anxiety was to move into a different country and crush on literally the first guy you meet. Insta-love was off the charts here!

I honestly don't know how I missed that major plot twist, but I did; it’s in the freaking title, for crying out loud!

I thought she was horrible towards her 2017 boyfriend Melvin. Not in actions, but in lack thereof and in her thoughts, which is how I’m experiencing this story. I get that she didn’t like him that much and just got comfortable in that relationship. But she was so unfair to him, acting like it was HIS fault that she didn’t like him?! It’s not implausible, but it’s just creating an easy way out for her to pursue the other guy.

The most promising part of the novel for me was the realization that she was losing herself because of being with said desired (ahem lackluster) boyfriend; however it came about a bit too fast and came to an end even faster. I saw no real depth, no actual progress.

In addition, the fact that there are no actual ramifications to the time travelling aspect is beyond bizarre. She messed with space-time continuum, but in the end everything is tied up nicely with a ribbon on top? No. The whole narration was using plot devices to pin a reader to a certain path with no explanation whatsoever as to why they were changing track so abruptly.

Brief overview:
Pros: twist I didn't see coming, strong familial element, concerning the way one's family steers their decisions in life, travel abroad element
Cons: Neither the plot nor the characters grabbed my attention, too many 2011 references ended up taking me out of the story instead of drawing me further in it, wrapped up way too quickly and way too easily.

okdokie, my name is dissapointment.

I really, really wanted to like this book. most of the time, even when i was rolling my eyes, I was hoping to eventually actually like Again but Better. Did that happen? no, not at all.

Christine Riccio is a Booktuber and this is her debut novel. And while i really enjoy her youtube channel, this debut just isn't for me. Maybe future books will be more mature or better stories, but Again, but Better is a solid two stars for me.

Again but Better feature Shane, an awkward college student who has a weird blog, overbearing parents, and a big wish to start life all over again. Shane schemes her way into a study abroad program in London, where she wants to kiss a boy, get a dream job, and just really experience college.

Shane is sorry-not-sorry, one of the worst characters I've read about this year. Her voice reads so middle school like and she feels just really immature? She's constantly knocking things over, like chairs, sauce cans and more chairs.
And how many times can she drop her head in her hands???????? this constant hands on her face was so much worse than the overused letting go of a breath they didn't know they were holding. Okay??? it was overused and annoyed me to no end.
how does one even keep putting one's head in their hands all the damn time in every damn awjward moment???

Besides annoying Shane, the other characters were just, very meh. THE NAMES, my god, the Names. Pilot. Babe. Atticus.
Are these real names or just fanfic??? like, why such weird names?

And then the plot, major ooooffff. The plot revolves around Shane lying to her parents, scheming for them to pay 50k for a fake study abroad program, and then spending most of that program trying to get a guy to break up with his girlfriend.

Okay, Shane's parents are god-awful, emotionally abusive jerks who needed major consequences for being incredibly shitty. did that happen? nope. nope. nope.

I mean, blatant verbal abuse on the page, and Shane is like, i'll just not move home! ummm, no, there needs to be bigger consequences for treating your child like a robot.

The girl on girl hate??? Rolling my eyes annoying. The spending money to travel while lying to your parents to get more money???? made me want to barf.

Just, most of this story, was damn annoying. Like major unrealistic, juvenile, and the constant 2011 culture references made me want to gouge out my eyes. how much can we talk about Lost and Cassandra Clare???????????????????????????

The main character Shane is studying abroad and she thinks that this is her second chance at college which she thinks she's doing wrong. She's on the pre-med track when really she wants to be a writer. I thought Shane was kind of annoying at times throughout the course of the book. Sometimes I was rooting for her and other times I thought she was being a little whiney. I do think that she had a lot of development though and I liked her more during the second half of the book.


Pilot, the love interest, was my favorite character. He was so sweet and cute. We all need a Pilot in our life.

My biggest gripe is with the writing of this book. I didn't enjoy the writing at all. It was really easy to tell this was somebody's first book. The dialogue was stilted at times which is a big pet peeve of mine. I think that dialogue should be smooth and actually follow the rhythm of a real conversation. Another thing that really irked me was the overuse of pop culture references. There were so many and it felt forced to make the book and characters relatable to the audience. It actually made me cringe at times with how many references there were.

I had some issues with the plot as I felt that magical element in the middle of the book came out of nowhere. There wasn't really any lead up to the magical aspect of the book and I thought it was weird. When it happened I was confused and didn't really know what was going on with the book. I do think that I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the latter half.

This book could have been great if there was more anticipation before the big twist. Another thing that the book could do without is the overuse of pop culture references. However, I did like the ending. I thought it was cute and satisfying. I don't think I will ever reread this book but I don't regret reading it.

I’m sure like most people that are active in the YA book community, they too were anticipating Christine Riccio’s debut Again, but Better. As someone who enjoys Christine’s channel & personality, yet is not necessarily a huge fan of young adult contemporary – I had zero expectations. Yet even so, I found myself largely not enjoying this book which I hate to say, because Christine is just gawjuss. But alas I did not enjoy this book, and here’s why…

Again, but Better is a story I’m quite confident in saying is largely told using an incessant amount of pop culture references. Pop culture references are never something I appreciate in books. I think a few healthy ones spread throughout the story are acceptable, as they usually go under the radar. However Christine is so heavy handed with references here to make sure you remember that it’s 2011. Honestly, some of them were mind-numbly annoying and cringeworthy:

“You didn’t make me come with you. I volunteered.”
I snort, thinking of The Hunger games.

and...

“How old were you when you came out to your parents?”
“Thirteen.”
“Wow, brave thirteen-year-old.”
He nods proudly. “Gryffindor.”

As I said, I’m never a big fan of the addition of pop culture references, here they feel especially disruptive. But honestly, most of Shane’s narrative feels ridiculous. Here’s a passage where Shane is excited about walking to the grocery store with a cute boy she’s just meet abroad:

“My heart is having a dance party. It’s also wondering, is this like, a date? No, it’s not a date, but it’s like … a something.”

Yeaaah, no. Get it together girl.

Whether it was the authors intention or not, the references also serve to inform the reader that Shane is basically Christine. Aside from endless Lost, Harry Potter, Taylor Swift and other book references, the most obvious testament to this is that Shane has a blog called French Watermelons 19… And quite frankly, all the parallels made me uncomfortable. They were uncanny and made this reading experience feel too intimate. This was just taking inspiration to a whole other level, like it just seemed completely derivative of Christine’s own life. Personally I didn’t enjoy the parallels as it took me out of the story so frequently.

Another uncomfortable element of this story was Shane’s awful parents. For majority of this story, Shane’s parents are illustrated as being really awful and perhaps abusive. Only wanting to be in Shane’s life if she follows what they want for her and make themselves scarce when she decides to follow her own passions.

“You throw this education away, and you’re going to be living in a fucking box on the street! And don’t think for a second you’re going to be able to call me for help!” His words thunder around the dining room.
“Dad, why won’t you believe in me? Why would you say that?”

The fact that her parents are awful isn’t what necessarily frustrated me. It’s the fact that their behaviour towards their own child is never really addressed as it should have been. The reader is briefly told that Shane’s Dad is adamant she be a doctor because he had an absentee father that followed his creative dreams. When the book cuts to the epilogue, Shane’s parents are suddenly portrayed as being all smiles as they support Shane following some success she’s had. There is no bridge that gaps the time from when they are depicted as being awful, to the epilogue when they suddenly appear supportive.

Although Shane did manipulate her parents into paying for a study abroad trip, I personally couldn’t blame her after witnessing her parents continued behaviour throughout the story. I kind of championed her for manipulating them instead.

Finally, the lack of elegancy when using multiple timelines to tell this story, was biggest cause of my dissatisfaction with it. The concept of Again, but Better is what originally drew my attention to it. I loved the idea of a character taking back control of her life and making her own decisions to find happiness. However the choice to tell this story across multiple timelines did a disservice to this message. For the most part, it brought a lacklustre romance to the centre of attention, whilst the intention of this book was overshadowed.

Without spoiling too much, the different timelines incorporated into this story felt overwhelming. Ultimately doing a disservice to the story because the focus was split on so many things. I think a linear storyline would have honed in the focus better without the message getting lost amongst changing timelines and plot points. A linear storyline might have also given this books main message and other plot points some much needed attention to satisfyingly wrap everything up.

Despite my low rating of Again, but Better, I can see the elements of a solid romantic comedy in this story. You most definitely will get Anna and The French Kiss vibes when reading this book. And I would be remiss to say that Christine Riccio isn’t a good writer, because I think she can be, it’s just this book doesn’t really prove that to me. Christine has a voice and I’d love to see that come through more, rather than just reading a book that is made up of pop culture references.