Note: Thank you so much to NetGalley for giving me an ARC review copy of Again, But Better.

I finished this book two days ago (two nights ago, actually) and I'm still trying to figure out how to say what I want to say without sounding mean or nasty. Like people actually want this book to fail because it's made by a successful booktuber/internet personality, and we know her and love her so much. I for one have been following Christine's youtube career since it's inception in 2010, and haven't stopped since. When she first announced that she was writing her debut novel, I followed pretty much every Writing Video because not only did I believe that she had (has) the talents to transition into publishing novels, but also she has such a passion for books and reading that I don't see from anywhere else.
With that being said, I had a hard time enjoying Again, But Better.

I know I gave it 3 stars, but my version of 3 stars means it was a decent read. Just strictly decent; not downright garbage, but not that great, either. The more I think about it, the less I think I really did like it. Because I didn't want my 'fave' to let me down.

The writing is simplistic, at best.

There are 2 parts and an epilogue, and in Part 1 2011, we are introduced to the main character Shane Primaveris, who has traveled from her small hometown in New York to study abroad in London for a creative writing program, unbeknownst to her parents. In one aspect, you want to root for the MC because everything is in her perspective. But if her actions are questionable, her thought processing is all over the place, and her morality is poor, then you won't like her. And that comes down to the writing. I understand that Shane is 20 years old and had lived a very sheltered life, but the way Christine wrote her made it seem like Shane was 16 years old; 18, at most. I didn't feel like I was reading in the context of a mature 20-year-old learning about herself, starting over in a new country, to do what she really wants to do, who she really wants to be.

Granted, the writing isn't piss-poor, but the incessant amount of pop culture references (specifically 2011 pop-culture references), started to drive me crazy. Also, the amount of song lyrics.... Christine couldn't have described the song without having the characters obnoxiously scream them into the abyss?! Additionally, I didn't feel the environment in which London took place; I didn't feel like we were in London, but merely watching snippets of the city and other cities Shane and her friends visited. I didn't feel immersed in imagery, similes, metaphors. This book could have taken place in New Jersey (where Christine is from, and also where I'm from!), and it wouldn't have been any different. But at the same time, I knew walking into this book that the writing wasn't going to be of the essence of The Great American Novel. Most debuts don't have that kind of luck, except if you've been working on the same book for 5-6 years, developing your craft hardcore.

Ok so on to the characters. I'd already spoke on Shane, so I'll go on to the others. There's Pilot, her love interest; and her roomates Babe, Sahra, and Atticus. There is also Pilot's roomate Chad. These people (with the exception of Pilot) were pretty forgettable. I liked Babe, but I didn't know her enough as a character to root for her, either. There is a little more information about her in Part 2 2017, but it's still not enough. Sahra is invisible; and Atticus is the drama major who is mostly too busy with his own life to join in on the adventures they had. Not much else I can say about them, I'm afraid. But they weren't bad or awful, by anymeans. With the exception of Chad; because there was a moment between him, Shane and Babe that was so rude and awful.

Pilot. What can I say about our dear, ol' Pilot Penn?

Pilot ain't $hit.

He'd started out as a nice, cute, funny, kind of sweet guy that Shane had a crush on. But it could only stay as a crush because he had a girlfriend back home. However, he didn't even let the group of friends know himself; I think Atticus (or was it Chad?) who let it known about Amy, Pilot's girlfriend. And while I'm not okay with what is now known as emotional cheating, I didn't hate Shane like everyone else did. She was being called a homewrecker/whore/boyfriend-stealer by other reviewers, and I didn't see it. I still don't see it; Pilot was the one with the girlfriend. Not Shane. Pilot was the one who kept leading her on and practically kept dodging everyone's questions about Amy, until Part 2 2017. So if anyone should be mad at anyone, it's Pilot. Additionally, Pilot showcased more of his ain't-$hit-ness in Part 2. He'd gotten a bit better at the end, but by that time, I was already so done with him and knew how the story would end. I imagine that if this story continued in 2018-2019, Shane and Pilot would have been broken up again. Because I did not see the character development between the 6-year time jump. Shane and Amy deserve better than this manipulative, singer-songwriter, one-time Youtube sensation.

Also, I've noticed how none of the reviews mention how borderline abusive Shane's parents are, especially her father.

One of the key moments that made me cry and finally feel badly for Shane was during the dinner scene when her parents surprise her in London. Not only do they find out Shane lied to them about the pre-med program in London, which doesn't exist, but are furious when they find it's a creative writing program. Not only does her father proceed to humiliate his only daughter in a crowded restaurant, but he takes her British phone and smashes it on the floor! I understand that these rich-ass parents want the best for their daughter, but they're also dumb for not looking into this school they've spent possibly thousands of dollars for. I don't know any parents who would just accept a handmade brochure (yes, handmade! Shane had the time!) to a program that doesn't exist, in another country no less! But I digress; Shane's father is an abusive bastard who knows nothing about his daughter's dreams of being a writer and doing what she loves. Her mother was passive-agressive as fck; she only spoke when she needed too, and what she said didn't help the situation. This was one of the key moments where the writing was actually better than the rest of the novel. I could feel everything Shane and her friends felt; there was an emotional pull in the writing that made me cry buckets! If Christine were to create a prequel or spin-off series on Shane's relationship with her parents, I wouldn't hate it, because I want to know what that was like.

Not to mention, there is a magical realism thing that happens in Part 2 2017; that's why there's a 6-year difference between then and now.

Which to me wasn't executed well at all; I could have done without this part because it wasn't needed. Even if there was a time-jump, it wasn't expressed in the writing. Shane (now 26 years old) still acted and spoke like a 16 year old kid, but now engaged to some guy named Melvin. Pilot still had Amy back home. Not that 6 years isn't that much of a difference, but between 20 and 26 years, you've lived a little bit of life, had some experiences that changed you and matured you in some way. Nope, no, Shane was still speaking like a 16 year old goofy, nerdy, shy, awkward kid. She didn't grow into herself that much. Same with Pilot, who was also older in 2017. Not only did that make me not want to root for them even more, but it made me angry at times. Also, Shane and Pilot had a spirit guide redhaired woman creature that followed them around and basically set them up for this time-travel adventure. And her magical abilities weren't explained at all. We didn't even know she was a spirit guide until Shane proclaimed her as such. The redhaired woman never confirmed or denied it, which made the plot more jumbled and all over the place.

However, there was a period after their breakup that Shane drove herself into her work, her internship, hanging out more with her friends, becoming her own self. And I really liked that; aside from the Pilot drama, we got to explore the Shane that could have been. The aspiring writer from the US traveling to UK to explore her dreams and pushed herself to the extreme in every aspect. That last quarter (before the ending) was what gave me to rate this 3 stars. That last quarter of the book made me finally root for Shane and her well-being.

Also, in Part 2, there was another moment between Shane and her cousin Leo, who was a closeted gay person. She helped him and was there for him during his own breakup and homophobic father. Even though it was through Facebook chat, I felt their connection, and I thought that was really sweet of Shane to help him.

I could go on and on about this book, but I need to let my fingers rest with all of this typing! All in all, this wasn't terrible, but it just wasn't very good. It was just....ok.

To tell you the truth, if Christine were to write a second book (or even do this one Again, but better!) I'd read it because I do think she has a talent and a way with words. Her words just need extra cleanup and way less pop-culture references.

This book is hard for me to rate. The writing style was wonderful. Shane felt relatable in some ways and unrelatable in other ways. I wasn't a fan of some of the themes in this book like girl on girl hate and emotional cheating. It was hard to get through. I enjoyed the setting, the elements of being abroad and the pop culture references. I think that Christine is a wonderful person but this book just has parts that I wasn't able to connect with.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley

I enjoyed the book but it was not my favorite. Some parts of the story were definitely stronger than others. There was a twist in the book that I was confused by but you just have to roll with it. The parts I enjoyed outweighed the issues I had with the book. Overall, pretty solid debut novel.

Although this book had a couple great quotes that made me laugh so hard, overall this one just didn't work out at all. The character is supposed to be 20 and then 26 in the two time period POVs but I have to say that they both sounded more like Shane was 15-16 and then in her early 20's. I really wished that someone who was editing this title would have seen that as well and could have done something with it. Shane herself was WAY over the top. Which made this one a pain to read. Early on she talks about how she's never been kissed. But its not just that she's never been kissed but that she was kiss blocking herself. I think in a different setting this could have been so funny. But by the time you just get there which is about 2% in this title you are already kind of over the over the top writing that this one had.

This book had a lot going for it but it just felt like this was still not fully formed in thought and execution.

Go Into This One Knowing: Juvenile Writing, Over the Top Writing, Verbal Abuse

This was an absolutely adorable coming of age story. I related to the MC on many levels. I was always awkward, yearning for a way to start over, to expand my world. Shane is a slightly neurotic and riddled with anxiety. This comes off as annoying and self deprecating at times. If you don't understand the underlying issue with anxiety, I really enjoyed the first part of this boo but it took a turn that I really didn't expect. Honestly, the fantasy/time travel thing was really weird for me. It didn't work for the story for my taste. Over all, the book was OK. It was obvious it was a debut in many aspects. I will keep an eye out on this author though, as portions of the book really showed promise! I rated this novel 3/5 stars.

So, I’ve seen some mixed reviews on this book, but holy crap, I bloody loved it. I listened to the audio book and the narrator was fantastic, she really brought the story to life. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud several times whilst I was in work. Which will always be appreciated by me.

I was fully aware of the synopsis when I requested this book on NetGalley. However, by the time I got around to it, some time had passed, and I no longer had any idea what this book was about. Which, honestly, I enjoy doing because I like surprises. And boy, was this a surprise.

This is your typical, girl trying to find herself, and possibly love, whilst travelling story, but with an added touch of magic, right at the very end, which was completely and utterly delightful and such a beautiful surprise. When things don’t fully go to plan for Shane, she’s given the opportunity to have a do-over and it’s absolutely magical.

Who hasn’t thought “I wish I could have a do-over” once in a while? I know I certainly have. This is everything you imagine a do-over would be, and more.

I highly recommend this book, and especially listen to it because the narrator is fabulous. I gave it 5/5 stars

2.5??? Maybe??? I'm waffling a lot with this one, folks.

So here's the thing. The writing is pretty good. The storyline is pretty interesting. I've seen some people complain about how most of the romantic plot revolves around cheating and to me, it didn't seem like that? Like yeah, the main character has a crush on a guy who has a girlfriend. But they don't DO anything. She doesn't even tell him she likes him. She doesn't try to break up his relationship. I didn't have an issue with it.

But GOD is Shane annoying.

Shane takes the "clumsy, quirky girl" stereotype to new levels. I don't usually use the word "cringey" to describe things because I'm not an asshole, but I don't know if there is any other way to describe her. This was very much frontloaded, so after I got a little bit into the book, Shane settled down and I was able to enjoy the story, but for a while, I was so annoyed by her that I was not enjoying this book at all and considered DNF-ing.

Am I glad I pushed through and finished the book? Not especially. This ended up being a take it or leave it kind of book. I'm not overjoyed that I finished it, but I also don't regret finishing it. So an extremely middle-of-the-road 2.5 stars it is.

If any of you follow Christine on BookTube, you know that she’s been working on this book for some time now. In fact, you can even go on the journey with her, as she has an entire video series chronicling her experience writing and publishing Again, but Better. If I’m being honest, seeing the thought and work that went into this on YouTube is what drew me to this novel in the first place.

Sadly, this book wound up being just okay for me. There were definitely things I enjoyed, but overall, I found the execution of the story fell flat, especially during the latter half. But first, let’s discuss what worked. I really enjoyed Shane as a main character. I know there’s been a bit of criticism regarding the anxiety representation here, as Shane’s social anxiety is definitely more high functioning than some readers might find believable. Still, I actually found Shane to be pretty relatable—probably because my own anxiety falls into the same category.

The one unfortunate thing about Shane, however, is how transparently like Christine she is. This can be an issue when an influencer releases a book, but there are so many references in this novel to things that Christine likes and does. In fact, Shane is a blogger, and even her blog name is a play on Christine’s YouTube name. I understand that authors do insert themselves into their stories, but I’d be lying if I said that this level of it wasn’t jarring while reading this book.

As far as the plot goes, I found the first half of Again, but Better to be a lot of fun. The writing style is amateur, and there isn’t a ton of depth to the story, but I think Christine captures the carefree innocence of college well. Shane’s experience studying abroad reminded me of my own days living in a dorm. The travel components of this book are also entertaining, and I think they should have been elaborated on more.

My main problem comes with the second half of this book, when it turns into a partially magical story—something I did not see coming or think was necessary. Without spoiling too much, let’s just say that there’s a time travel element to this story, and it’s not really alluded to much in either the synopsis or at the beginning of the book (with the exception of the title and the recurrent appearance of a strange, fairy god mother type of character who doesn’t really work at all). Truthfully, I think I would have liked this book so much better if it had just been a contemporary, with the second half showing Shane working out her issues from the first half.

Anyway, my other main criticism is in regard to the romance in this book. Shane’s love interest starts off interesting enough, but their fling really goes downhill when you realize that he has a girlfriend. There’s a lot of emotional and eventually physical cheating taking place in this novel, and it’s not really something I’m onboard with. Also, given the lack of intensity between the two characters at the beginning of the book, their residual feelings for one another during the latter half really didn’t seem believable to me. Again, the second half really did me in.

All in all, I think this book could definitely work for some people. It’s entertaining enough, and if you can get past beginner writing aspects, you might even enjoy it. Unfortunately, it was just not my cup of tea. I’m teetering between a 2.5- and 3-star rating currently, so I guess I’m rounding up to 3!

Shane Primaveri’s been doing college all wrong. Her parents talked her into premed instead of the writing degree she wanted to go for. She’s unhappy, hasn’t made friends and goes home every weekend. So she decided to do a study abroad writing course in London. She’s going to get college right this time but first she has to lie and tell her parents it’s a premed program. Will her plan get her everything she wants and make her happy or will it all go wrong?
I’ll be honest for about the first 20% of this book I was having trouble getting into the story. Although I think that was my fault since I kept picking it up when I wasn’t completely in the mood for this kind of story. I did that cause I was trying to pressure myself into having this review up before or at the latest on the release date. Clearly that didn’t happen, cause I told myself to wait and give it a fair shot. Once I did that the next time I picked up the book I got so into the story I had to make myself go to bed when I realized it was 4 am!
I loved reading about Shane’s adventures around Europe. Also slight spoiler there are a few different story lines that could be the ‘Again But Better ‘ part. The London study abroad is done twice (won’t tell you how though) so she gets a second shot at college, love, writing, friendship, family, and finding herself and what she wants.
I personally prefer the second go at the study abroad more than the first. She just seems so much more confident and isn’t letting anyone stop her, except for herself at some points. Also just a heads up you might need tissues for the ending of this book, but in a good way!
I received an electronic advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Again, But Better was released May 7th, 2019 and can be purchased wherever books are sold.

I didn’t absolutely hate this book. It was a fun read, a little dragged out, but fun nonetheless. I really liked hearing the author’s voice throughout the novel. The writing could be a bit cheesy at times, but overall I found it to be easy to read and enjoyable. The idea behind the study abroad trip and “starting over” was cute and interesting. I enjoyed reading about the trips to various Europen counties that the characters went on. That being said I did have a few problems with this book.

Right off the bat, I realized that the author was inserting herself into the main character. Between the screen name, references to Christine’s favorite things, and ~awkwardness~ it was apparent that the main character wasn’t Shane, it was Christine. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Christine and watch her videos, but I do find it important to set the art and the artist apart. That being said, I like Christine and her personality, but I found it distracting to be constantly making parallels between Christine and Shane. Inserting yourself into a character is something I expect from a teenage writer, not a published novel on The New York Times bestseller list.

Now let’s talk about the social anxiety aspect. In the book, it is described that Shane has social anxiety. Now, I feel it is important to have this type of representation in books, but sadly it wasn’t done right. It was approached as if it’s just a quirky character trait that can just be turned on and off at will. There is only once or twice that we see the main character in the book struggle with social anxiety, other then that Shane just seems to push past it as if it never existed in the first place.

Another problem I had with the book was the insta-love. Literally the first boy that we see in the book becomes the love interest, I mean COME ON. It is also mentioned that the main character has never been in a romantic relationship before so I find it hard to believe that the first guy she ever interacts with she has an instant connection to.

I went into this book without reading the blurb and with no prior knowledge on the plot of the novel. This is usually how I like to approach a book that I know I am going to read anyway so I have no prior opinions on the book when I began reading it. So that being said, I was unaware of the fantasy element in this book. When we saw the “copper-haired lady” multiple times throughout the story I thought to myself, “No, there is no way this is going to become fantasy in any sense, I’m halfway through the book and there has not been one fantasy element so far.” But boy was I wrong, when the magical twist was revealed I felt like I had readers whiplash. I had no idea what was going on and why, and to be honest I was kind of frustrated. When a fantasy element is in the book I expect a little foreshadowing or maybe even a bit on unrelated magic in the book to warm the reader up to the idea that this might turn into a fantasy narrative. But no, as readers we are just thrown into this fantastical narrative out of literally nowhere. It’s not that I didn’t expect this twist to happen, I did. I just could not believe that the entire twist to the story would come out of nowhere and never be explained. The author never explained why this happened, how it worked, how Shane specifically was chosen or anything of that matter. Good fantastical elements in books come from a good setup and understandable explanations, neither of which were seen in this book.

Overall, If you go into this book looking for a cutesy and cheesy read with a fantastical twist you will enjoy it. But do not go into this book expecting anything more than surface-level plot, and half-done explanations.

I would recommend this to: Anyone looking for a cute rom-com like read and doesn’t mind some magical elements.

I'd heard lots about this book, mainly hype about how good it was going to be, but sadly, it ended up to be a disappointment. Although the premise and the idea was good, the overall execution was lacking.

I enjoyed the parts about Shane's writing and her blog (yay bloggers!). Her character as a sketch was also fun and relatable (as in, her character as described in the book fell a little flat as compared to the one that I was imagining her "stereotype" to be).

Overall, I enjoyed reading about the travel-abroad experience and her experiences at her job, travelling on the weekends, and things like that. However, I found that the "character makeover" bits were a little bit unrealistic: you don't really just go from not having friends and being in pre-med college to being in creative writing in England and making friends at the snap of a finger! That's simply not how it works.

I felt like the characters fell a bit flat in general: most of the other people, aside from Shane and Pilot, were not really talked about, in term of their characters, outside of what they looked like and what they wore. In addition, the writing was just poor: there were many sentences that were "showing not telling," and I even found a typo!

Poor storytelling aside, I also felt that the plot was not great? There was a touch of magic, but the magic wasn't well done (I didn't realize what was happening for 3 chapters after the magic happened!) and overall I just thought that, while the idea was good, the execution of the idea did not work well at all.

Overall, I thought this book looked good conceptually--the cover is SO CUTE, the plot was good, even the romance was sweet--the writing just failed it, and the book was just disappointing. Because of how the story is written, it also feels so much longer than it actually is: just under 400 pages. Reading more than 100 pages in one sitting felt like a drag (when I usually can take out 350-400 page books in one sitting), and it just felt very slow all around.

I will be honest. I didn't finish this book. I barely even started it. The first few pages were honestly, not very well written. It was just a little cheesy for me.

Let me just say I was really excited to get this as an ARC. Shortly into the book I was very disappointed. First of all this book is not YA. The main character is 20. I felt like I was reading a book written by a 13 year old. There was also a live triangle, had I know this I never would have started reading this book. I regret I say I thoroughly disliked this book.

This started out as a fun, fluffy read, but it just didn't keep up the pace as the story went on. I found myself annoyed with Shane at 20 and again at 26. And don't even get me started on the object of her affection, Pilot. He was not as cool as she seemed to think he was. I appreciated the ARC, but this was one of the few I've received with so many typos/errors in it. Overall this was a light quick read, but needs some work and less pop culture references.

Thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity to read this book! I appreciate the kindness. <3

I understand business enough to understand the theory behind giving people with a large following book deals. But, In my opinion, this book is an example of why you shouldn’t. MC is basically the author’s vision of herself, with major “I’m not like normal girls, I’m different” vibes. The writing is juvenile, and the characters read like young teens rather than the twenty somethings they are.

I've never done this before, but I'm not finishing this book. This isn't a DNF moment either. It's just me putting down this book until the right time comes for me to pick it up. It's not because I hate the writing, the characters, or anything. I'm just not enjoying it like I think I would any other time that I would pick it up.

This story is going to be fantastic for the upper YA readers. It's a great story about a girl who doesn't know what she's doing and going out of her comfort zone to make something of her life. However, I don't need this story right now. I know that it's a good YA novel. I had no doubt that Christine would write a wonderful novel, however, I'm at the point of my own college career where I don't need this story.

I will definitely be picking this up when I need more encouragement. I'm going into my senior year of college and I'm sure that I'll have more than one break down. I kind of want to save the book for those moments.

Christine's writing style is very fun, but also hard to get used to. The MC's stream of consciousness narration takes a bit of time to get used to, but it's still very fun. Her story is fun and I can tell that the conflict is going to be interesting. The one issue that I had was her weird stalker-y vibe about the main guy. I wasn't a fan of that.

I haven't read past page 100, but this is a solid novel. It's just not the right time for me to read it.

Again, But Better is fun and full of personality, with all the relatable college moments that would make an older reader cringe at their own memories, and ground younger readers for the wildness about to meet them - or miss them, as the case may be. It has a case of the debut-writer awkwardness in tone and plot that the book never quite shakes, but fans of Riccio will be happy to see her fingerprints all over the narrative and the main character.

I could definitely see Christine in this book, and there was some parts of it were really cute. But I wasn't really okay with the "asking for him to cheat" kind of mentality and attitude. Overall, that really killed it for me. I did like the writing style though and will read books by Christine in the future.

Thanks to Net Galley and Wednesday Books for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

We all wonder about the what-ifs in our lives. What would happen if we made different choices, bolder moves, followed our hearts. And this story is about that. And I enjoyed it!

It's a light contemporary read that reminds me of rom-coms. It's like Anna and the French Kiss (but better, IMO) meets 13 Going on 30. Seeing Shane grow as a person was amazing, I loved the Flat 3 friends group's interactions (Babe and Atticus were my favorites), how Christine developed the family dynamics and even some of the romance was swoony. I mean, how can you not swoon over a guy who uses Taylor Swift's Red songs as a grand romantic gesture?!

There were a few things that took some of my enjoyment, however. Like in Perkins' story, the love interest has a girlfriend that the protagonist isn't aware at first, which I know it happens to create angst between the couple. While Christine deals with that way better in here, I still wished that Amy (the girlfriend) was further developed, and not just used as a plot device to keep Shane and Pies apart. Also, it drags a bit in the middle, and I found that the pop culture references and Shane's clumsiness (like falling and tripping all the time) were a bit too much for my taste. BTW, it was fun catching all the references in the book to her IRL (like Shane's blog post).

Despite some flaws, totally redeemable for a debut, ABB is a good tale of second chances with well-rounded characters that talks, acts and feels like real people, in a way that the reader can identify with the characters. I liked it, and I'm definitely pumped to read whatever Christine comes up with next!