I am a fan of Christine Riccio booktube channel Polandbananasbooks, so finding out she was writing a book was so exciting. Unfortunately I an only describe this book as okay. It wasn't a favorite,. It is basically reading about a fictionalized version of her life in a way. Which could be great and I am all for writing about what you know, and of course you are an authority of yourself. I just think this could have been done in a better way. However, this is her first book and she has to discover what works for her. The idea for this book does put me in the mind of Anna and the French kiss, even though I love that book, it feels a little unoriginal,. The magical realism twist is a little inventive but not as much for me to want to read this book over and over. But I am looking forward to seeing what she has next. Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This one just wasn't for me. I don't know Christine Riccio and I feel as though a lot of reviewers do, however this felt like a cliche and borderline boring YA fluffy read. Might be 5 stars for some but not doing much for me,.

I wanted to like this book (and I love the cover!) but I just couldn't get into it. Shane was immature and I did not enjoy the many, many pop culture references. Too much.

Again, but Better is a coming-of-age story, about Shane who travels to London and meets a boy, and the saga begins. I could not get into this story. I was annoyed with Shane the entire time because of her immaturity and rash decisions and hated Pilot, the boy who Shane crushed on. The writing was choppy and repetitive. I can see readers (upper high school, college-aged, or older) liking this story, but while I finished it, I was annoyed throughout the entire time. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I'm gonna be honest. I could not bring myself to be interested in this book. I kept picking it up and reading a few chapters but it kept feeling too underdeveloped for me. I know the reviews on this were mixed and I like Christine but this felt kind of manic and unrealistic to me.

Christine was the first BookTuber I had ever watched so I was really excited when she announced that she would be publishing a book this year. In a way, her energy and joy in her booktube videos made me feel passionate about reading again during high school when recreational reading wasn’t a priority. However, although I like and respect Christine as a BookTuber, I couldn’t bring myself to love her book. Again, But Better fell flat in its execution where several grey areas made me uncomfortable and left me disappointed with the final results.

Again, But Better follows the life of Shane Primaveri, a college student whose life had been planned out by her parents. Despite not being interested in the medical field, her parents have set her on a path to study medicine and become a doctor. She’s never had the opportunity to branch out in college, and after feeling regret for not living the true ~college experience~, she decides to spend a semester abroad in London where she can explore her passion of writing and find who she is without the pressure of her family’s expectations.

It’s no surprise the Shane Primaveri is supposed to be based on Christine’s own personality, but the things is…her character was *TOO* similar to Christine to a point where it felt uncomfortable and intrusive. Shane Primaveri is obsessed with reading, the TV show Lost, Harry Potter references, and oh did I mention that she has an online book blog called French Watermelon? (Christine’s username is Poland Bananas BTW). If you’ve ever watched Christine’s second channel or are even vaguely familiar with her life, you’d be able to associate every piece of the story with their existing counterpart.

Reading this book felt like reading Christine’s autobiography, and it honestly made me view Christine in a more different light. Shane came off as selfish and emotionally manipulative. While the story is supposed to be centered on her growth as an individual, it often felt like she completely disregarded others’ feelings in the process, especially when it came down to making important decisions that involved multiple people **spoiler** for example, the whole story starts with her lying to her parents about studying abroad. Also, she aggressively pushes Pilot to stay in the past when he has a life for himself in the present.

A huge reason why this book was a no-no for me was because of the cheating. Christine Shane has a crush on a boy named Pilot in her study abroad program who has a girlfriend. This is something that is mentioned from the start so for the rest of the book I just couldn’t support the romance. It’s not solely Shane’s fault because Pilot also crosses emotional boundaries by flirting and leading her on. However, even after he decides to stay with his girlfriend, she aggressively pressures him to break up with her and continually insists that they (Shane and Pilot) are meant to be.

The magical elements of this book just didn’t work for me, and it made the entire story feel even more cringy. I think it made sense based on the direction of the story, but I personally just didn’t buy it. Also, since this book read like an autobiography, it felt like Christine wanted to use the magic to go back in time and create her dream life so I couldn’t fully immerse myself in the story. This entire wish-fulfillment fantasy made the book read like a personal diary x self-fanfiction.

I could write an essay about how much I dislike Shane’s parents and how they’re extremely emotionally abusive. Shane’s dad literally yells at her and cusses her out in a restaurant in front of her friends. Her family shames her for lying to them and constantly puts her down for trying to follow her own passions. While this is a realistic depiction of family relationships for many people, I wish the emotional abuse had been addressed on page as actual abuse. Instead, the ending spins their actions into beneficial for her personal growth and eventual success.

This book gave me a lot of Anna and the French Kiss vibes, primarily because of the studying abroad and cheating. I really really wanted to like this book and be able to recommend it to everyone, but unfortunately, it left me feeling down. It had potential from its self-discovery and self-acceptance storyline, but I couldn’t love this book wholeheartedly. I know that this book will be successful, and I’m sure some people will have differing opinions and even enjoy this book. I’d still consider reading her next book because I would love to see her improve. However, for me, Again, But Better just wasn’t a good fit.

Sadly, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. I really liked the plot and the main character but the overall story just didn't seem to connect with me.

This was definitely a book that will only appeal to a certain reader. Unfortunately that is not me. I didn't enjoy it much at all

What if you had the chance to reinvent yourself by taking a semester in London, pursuing your passion rather than continuing to follow the career path your parents chose for you, forcing yourself to socialize, and even trying to get your first kiss? What if the boy you’re falling for turns out to have a girlfriend at home and things between you become painfully awkward? What if you spent the first twenty years of your life living to please others and it still blew up in your face? If you’re regretting your decisions and are given another chance, would you take the do-over in the hopes of getting it right the second time?

These are the questions that timid, insecure Shane Primaveri is faced with in this frustrating, but ultimately redeeming story. The first half of the book drags because Riccio uses running commentary, via first-person narrative and Shane’s blog, journal, emails and postcards, to chronicle her thoughts and recount everything the characters said and did on a daily basis. Shane was so full of self-doubt that it made much of it uncomfortable to read. However, when the story fast-forwarded six years and Riccio added a magical element, the pace picked up and much of the detail in the first half made sense.

The well-described supporting characters are varied (including different races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations), and fill critical roles without their own subplots being superfluous. Beware: descriptions of their travels also inspire wanderlust!

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Wednesday Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

*3.5 Stars
This was by far one of my most anticipated titles of the year. I've been watching Christine's videos for a couple of years now, including her writing videos, and I was very excited to see what she had been working on all this time.
Although I was frustrated with a lot of the decisions Shane was making, I liked the contemporary fiction part of the story. However, once it hit that magical element in the second part, I was a little thrown, though I knew something like it was coming. I'm a little grey on the details and even the ethics if that's the right word for what I feel.
Regardless, if you like Christine, you'll like at least the voice of this book because it's just <i>so</i> her. I enjoyed this overall, and I have high hopes for her upcoming work.

Oh boy. How to review this one.

I'm going back and fourth on rating this 3 or 4 stars but ultimately landing on 4. I was skating on a 3 star review for so long because for over half of the book I couldn't fully get on board with the writing but it got better in the second part. Also giving it the 4 because I adored the story.

I'll be honest. I was primarily interested in this because of it's author, Christine Riccio. Like many who probably have and will pick this up I have followed Christine on Booktube for about 4 years now. I don't watch her videos religiously but I do follow her and watch ones I think I'll enjoy. Had I not known who she was and saw this one floating around the book circles I'm in I probably would have picked it up regardless, I do love a good cheesy romantic contemporary.

Without spoiling anything, this book tells the story of Shane and her journey of trying to get out of her parents grasps of wanting her to become a doctor and her wanting to pursue writing instead. We start off following Shane to her secret (from her family anyway) study abroad creative writing program in London. Her parents and family believe she is in a pre-med program that she completely fabricated to talk them into letting her go. While in London she decides she's going to go out of her comfort zone and make friends and do things she wouldn't normally do.

As mentioned before the writing was not for me, at least part one. I don't know if part two necessarily got better or if I just got use to it but I enjoyed the writing more in part two. This isn't to say the writing is particularly bad, I just didn't flow with it. It did feel like I was reading a transcript of one of Christine's videos and that may be my problem, it almost felt forced and journal like. I buddy read this with a friend on Instagram (Drew @drewsim12) and told him a couple times that I wish this was told completely in journal entries or blog posts. The times we got to read Shane's journal didn't feel any different than when we were in the bulk of the story and I think that was part of my problem. I'm not entirely sure, but something wasn't sitting with me. I enjoyed the story enough to look past this though.

As for the story itself, I was intrigued! I like seeing a story set in college instead of high school for a change and it being a study abroad situation made it even better. There were some instances I thought were a little over dramatic on our main characters part but I suppose that was just her.....but really, are you THAT surprised that people in London have their pasta in bags and not boxes? Really?

Christine puts a lot of pop culture references, I don't usually have a problem with this but some of them felt forced. It also felt like the ones that were most important (her love for the TV Show LOST) would pop up continuously but they just sort of fall to the side after a bit. I understand putting in things during conversations when meeting people or talking about things but I don't need lyrics to multiple different songs a cover band is playing at the club.

One thing that I LOVED that Christine did was this line: "I expel a giant breath I've been very aware of holding for the past thirty seconds." THANK YOU CHRISTINE!!! A reader, now author, who knows how much we hate seeing the I released a breath I didn't know I was holding line! Thank you!!

It also felt like things were moving too fast in Shane's mind about Pilot. She convinced herself they were on a second date 3 days after meeting him...come on Shane, you're on a walk with one of your flatmates, even if he is flirting it's not a date!

I enjoyed part one. I completely loved seeing her and her friends go on a couple of trips and see her work her butt off in that internship and her navigate live abroad. Part two I also enjoyed but it was also kind of out there. I don't want to go into it because I spoiled myself by reading reviews but I will say I wish parts were flushed out and given more care than they were. It felt like we hit part two, had a few good in depth looks at things and then full speed ahead gotta get this done!! I wanted MORE of these things not less. I can't really go into more specifics without spoiling things, but if you've read it and read the things I loved about part one then you can probably guess what I'm alluding to.

Overall I enjoyed this. I didn't completely fall in love with it or the characters, but I enjoyed it enough that I was glued to my kindle when I had the time to read it. Would I read it again? Maybe. Do I recommend it? Only if fun, kind of cheesy, romcom stories are your thing. The writing isn't the best but the story was fun and I'm excited to see what Christine has to offer next.

In Again, but Better by Christine Riccio it was a good rom-con coming of age story. This is about our main character name Shane and she is in her mid-twenties and is going to study aborad in London and she goes with no expectations. As she shows up she mets her love intrenest/best friend name Pilot. Pilot have been living at the college for a couple of years and he is a musicaian and also have a girlfriend. There is a trope in here that is friends to lover because towards the end Shane and Pilot becomes a couple.
I really love all of the references that Riccio put in here. She talked about a couple of her favorite books and so she made her character in the novel read them and she loves them. I laughed out loud reading this novel because the comedy in here was my type of humor.
The one thing I didn't enjoyed about this book is the writting. The writting was good to read but I flew threw this after I got the audiobook on my hand and just flew threw it.
The second half of the book wasn't my favorite part of the book either because, it was a little confusing with the timeline and the time travel aspect.
Other than that it was a great novel overall! My rating for this book is a 3.5/5 stars!

Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me, which is fine.
I don't normally DNF books, like never, I Have only DNF'd one book and that's it, but I couldn't finish this.
I stopped at 60% -ish. I didn't mind the first part that much, but the time-travel part was a NO NO NO for me, I couldn't do it.
I wished for the book after I saw the cover cuz it's beautiful, and I read this "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? ", and I was sold, then I got the ARC.
I started the book and the writing style wasn't my favorite, But the story was OK, Shane was annoying and naive, her obsession with the boy was something else, cringey.
The 2011 references were just ridiculous, TOO MUCH, we get it it's 2011.

ARC received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I do not typically enjoy present-tense stories, and this was no exception. I feel like this story was OK, but the characters were not very deep nor likable. The main character is clearly the author herself, who got a book deal because of her Youtube following. I cannot get behind a female character whose "flaw" is being clumsy. Saw it in Twilight and did not appreciate it then. There is something of a good plot here with an interesting idea to get a do-over in time. However, the poorly drawn characters made it difficult to immerse myself in the story.

There are better time-travel stories and way better YA choices. I do not recommend this book for my YA students nor my YA-loving adult friends.

Actual rating = 2.5. To be fair, it takes a lot for YA contemporary to really impress me. I thought there were a lot of holes keeping the characters/story from feeling full and real. The writing was repetitive (I was SO tired of the repeated descriptions of eyes and laughing by the end) and would have benefitted from some much stronger editing. I appreciated the humor, even though the constant cute-ness didn't always land for me and sometimes had me rolling my eyes. LOTS of telling rather than showing—very little nuance. The conflicts could have been so much more complicated, fleshed-out, and interesting than they were. Relationships felt like shallow devices instead of real parts of characters' lives. The book had a strong voice, which worked for it, and I think that's something I would have especially adored when I was a younger reader. I think there's a lot of room to grow for this author and I hope she keeps writing!

Again, but Better is about taking risks and second chances. When we meet Shane in 2011 she is conflicted about her path but making an effort to break out of her shell and her parents control. We are swept along with her in a tale of first love, international travel and chasing a dream,
Overall, I enjoyed Shane’s voice and liked that she was mildly goofy, easily humiliated and imperfect. I did struggle with the first part of the book as her enthusiasm and use of EXCLAMATION !!!! Points somewhat exhausting. I found myself wanting more grit and edge to her story. She is like an adorable puppy falling all over herself sometimes and it’s hard to believe she’s an adult woman in 2011.
Pilot is sort of a mysterious love interest and it was hard to figure out what was going on in his head. We could only watch him through Shane’s eyes as she analyzes his facial expressions and actions.
Her friends in the flat, cousins and co-workers at the travel magazine were all fleshed out and didn’t follow any tropes or tired cliches. Her parents were tougher and harsher than you usually see in this coming of age/chick lit type story which I appreciated.
Overall, this is a fun engaging story with a paranormal twist.

WHAT DID I THINK OF AGAIN, BUT BETTER?
I really genuinely came into Again, But Better by Christine Riccio without any preconceived notions. It is a book that I really, really wanted to like. Alas, I am just incompatible with this book. Possibly it is an age and life experience thing, but after listening to this, I just really did not care for it. That’s not to diminish people who loved Again, But Better. Props to those people. Twelve year old me probably would have loved it. But I am not at all the target audience and I don’t think this was one of those books that transcends all that.

Again, But Better is about this girl named Shane Primaveri (I kept calling her Primavera as in pasta primavera in my head) who goes on study abroad in London for a writing program instead of pre-med and meets a boy. The boy is Pilot Penn, only, he has a girlfriend. So, you’d think Anna And The French Kiss vibes. Not quite. Anyways, there’s a little bit of a twist. But yeah, the book is set in 2011, but then goes to 2017, and then back to 2011. For a college student, Shane is really immature. Like, there’s quirky and then there’s socially awkward. Not that there’s anything wrong with not being socially graceful. Just, personally, I am a little old for that. Anyways, she’s going to a college that is $50k per year which I remember clearly from the audiobook and her parents get mad at her for lying and wasting their money.

How do you know you are OLD? Relating to the parents who are kind of the bad guys in a YA book. Oh my god, if I was spending $50k per year on my kid’s education, yes, I would want them to be in a field of study that has gainful employment prospects so that they are not living in my house forever. I would be pissed if I thought my hard earned money was going toward a medical career when actually my child is screwing around in Europe taking a writing class. And ok, I can empathize and say yes, it sucks to be in a major you hate. If that’s the case, go to a cheaper state school, major in what you want, and pay for your education yourself, not on mom and dad’s dime. Again, maybe this all just hits me because of that level of selfishness and privilege.

Beyond that, I just found all the outfit descriptions laughable. I thought it was funny how this girl had to wait until Pilot went to bed to take her make up off and then get up super early to put it on before he got up. And then when she loses her purse, instead of leaving immediately to go to the restaurant where she thinks she lost it, SHE STOPS TO DO HER MAKEUP. Like, talk about no common sense and weird priorities. And yes, there’s like a million and one pop culture references and it is just TOO much. It just felt like it was trying way, way too hard. I think there was potential with this book, but honestly, if it was tightened up and all that junk edited out, it probably would have been at least 3.5 or 4 stars, but as it stands, it just felt so amateur.

HOW’S THE NARRATION?
One redeeming light with my experience reading Again, But Better was the audiobook. It was VERY well narrated. Brittany Pressley is the narrator and she’s superb with her voicing of Shane, Pilot and side character Babe. Everyone has a weird name in this book. The audiobook somewhat goes by quick when you listen at 2x speed. It’s 12 hours without being sped up. And the acknowledgements are read by Riccio. On the whole, if you are insistent about reading this, get the audiobook, Pressley’s narration makes it seem less grating.

Let’s start with the things I did enjoy about this book. Pilot and Shane’s playful banter in Part 2 was cute-I admit it! I found myself laughing and smiling or rolling my eyes at Shane’s slow reactions. When I removed 2011 Pilot and Shane from memory it became too easy to get into the story and their love. Christine also did a great job adding in diversity without making me think it was supposed to be a selling point. I have to say Shane (despite how much she annoyed me sometimes) reminded me how I was fresh out of High School. That’s one thing I like about this book-I wish teen me could have read it. I think she would have definitely loved to read this. Also, can we talk about that cover?! It is so cutely aesthetic-I will probably buy it just to hoard the cute cover. Another thing I liked was the family aspect of this story. I loved seeing Shane’s restart and how she remolded her relationship with her favorite cousin. Even though I wished it would have been delved into more.

To read more of my review head over to my blog: https://thebookishwallfleur.home.blog/2019/06/11/again-but-better-by-christine-riccio/

Really wanted to like this--I love the author's YouTube channel--but could not finish. Not for me. The main character was overly excited/energetic for everything and the dialogue was somewhat juvenile.

Shane is doing everything perfect, a stellar student with no friends. Then Shane decides to change it all; will it be for the better?