While I found this book to be an easy read and very entertaining it had a lot of things going on. The dog, the bf, religion, bullies... I almost wish it had picked one thing to focus on. I do look forward to more books by this author in the future.
Thank you to netgalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those books that you'll either really love or totally hate. It took on some serious matters such a religion shaming, slut-shaming, kidnapping, and the list goes on. I genuinely don't know how to feel about this book. There were parts that had me on the edge of my seat and then there were parts where I couldn't have cared less about what was going on.

If I rate this just on a level of surface-enjoyment, I would give it 4-5 stars. However, it had the potential to be very impacting and poignant, but it fell short of that. I am kind of at a loss of how to review this.

Overall this book wasn't great, but I do LOVE when a book tells young readers that their parents and pastors don't know everything, and that they are allowed to have their own feelings about religion and belief.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book!

In the novel, we follow Meredith, an eighteen-year-old girl who makes a pact with her friend to lose virginity before the end of high school. As a daughter of a preacher, the girl didn't have many chances to gain experiences, but she hopes she will be able to overcome anxiety and make things happen and do it quickly. Unfortunately, the pact gets leaked and from a Mute Mare, Meredith gains attention from every guy in her school.

To say the least, this book was not what I expected. From the premise, I gathered that 'The Anti-Virginity Pact' will be full of drama YA novel with a possibly dark twist somewhere, but instead, I've got a bland and unremarkable story (just as unremarkable as Meredith?). The novel has many (if not only) weak points: the characters, the plot, and overall lack of the promised drama. I really struggled to get through it and overall didn't enjoy it.

Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this book, despite reading the blurb it wasn’t what I was expecting. Thanks to the piublisher and netgallley for an egalley.

Strange. I can't decide how I feel about this.



I'm conflicted. I think I'm just feeling some type of way over the characters.

okay, but what? Normally I don't mind taboo stories (uhhh, duh I read mostly romance) but this one was a littttle off for me.

I appreciated the effort and thought the writing was done well, but mostly I wasn't impressed by this story and just kinda wanted to finish it to be done.

I did appreciate the trigger warning at the beginning! but man, too many big topics that weren't done well in the slightest.

I probably wouldn't suggest this book, but who knows! You might love it.

DNF around 50% or Chapter 15. Nothing really happened by this point. The pact was mentioned in the beginning and barely again. What's described in the synopsis hasn't even happened yet. The French representation was a strange choice. I thought this would be a gritty YA taking place at a religious high school. There were a lot of topics like bullying, sexuality, and religion that were barely explored. Too much for one book. It was overall cleanly written but bland.

Without a doubt, The Anti-Virginity Pact is a controversial book that unfortunately I could not finish. I requested this book from NetGalley because I admire what Katie Wismer has achieved with her youtube channel. But I did not connect to the story and couldn't continue reading the book.

The Anti-Virginity Pact follows main character, Meredith Beaumont, on her quest to lose her virginity with her best friend before they graduate high school. Being the local preacher’s kid and having no experience with romance makes this a little difficult for her. Mean girl, Ashley, manages to get her hands on the Pact, and news of the good girl gone slutty travels like wild fire. Now Meredith has to try to salvage her reputation, her relationship with her family, her new romance, and the person she wants to be.

CONTENT WARNINGS: bullying, religion, sexual assualt, substance abuse, animal abuse, anxiety, homophobia, abuse from a parent, mentions of rape, and trauma.

I will say, I did not expect to FLY through this book. I read it in about 4 hours…..HIGHLY RECOMMEND FOR READATHONS.

The characters were all good enough. I didn’t think they were anything too special, personally. They just weren’t too memorable. Meredith, Johanna, and Sam were classic contemporary characters– no real depth, but they weren’t exactly two-dimensional either. Ashley mentions going to a wedding at some point, and I was really hoping she would have some depth with like her mom marrying a man she hates or something to give her a reason for being mean. That just didn’t happen. I think the only character I really wanted to know more about was Harper, Meredith’s younger sister. She could have had a really great arc with a strong sister bond, but Harper was kind of brushed under the rug until she was needed.

The plot was the shining star. At the beginning it seemed pretty cookie-cutter…boy was I wrong. I was really not expecting some of the extremities that happened in the novel, but they made up a large percentage of the action.

There was one part of the book that focused on animal abuse…it just didn’t really fit. It was kind of just an addition that seemed like she just wanted to write about something else but put it in to this project for some reason? It just took the focus away from the issue at hand.

I had some issues with the writing, but overall the writing was immersive and really enjoyable. My issues were mainly with useless details and fluff. There was one scene where Meredith noticed her chipped nail polish for no reason? There was no point in mentioning that unless it was also mentioned that she picked at her nail polish when she was anxious or something.

My last issue wasn’t even in the novel but on the summary on the back: Meredith is reffered to as “Mute Mare.” Using the word “Mute” as an insult is kind of ableist…I mean, I understand that high schoolers use ableist slurs when bullying all the time (they used the word D*ke in that context in the novel), but it was just unnecessary. Throughout the novel she was never bullied for being shy or quiet. She was just invisible. I just didn’t understand why it was necessary to add that on the back.

Overall, it was an easy read that kept me hooked from start to finish.

Yes, there were some issues, but I liked it and would recommend it!

3.5/5 stars.

I wanted to love this book, I thought the blurb was so interesting. However, the book turned out to be not what I expected. I was expecting something a little more darker then what it turned out to be. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the book and there was some really thought provoking moments but it wasn't consistent through out the book and I think that made the world of a difference from this being a good book to this being a great book.

The characters were strong and I loved how honest everything was. I just wish the book was a little more consistent with its message.

I was excited to read this novel, but I just could not get into it. It was a DNF for me, but hopefully, someone else will like it.

Thank you Netgally and the publisher for the gifted copy, all thoughts are completely my own.

This definitely wasn't for me. It contains a lot of "sensitive topics" like sexual assault, homophobia, animal abuse.

This was a dnf for me.

I will not be giving public feedback for this book because of the homophobic slurs in this book. It is 2020, please have the author do better. I waiting until now so not to be entered in the contest to win this book.

I thought this book would've been better than it was. I was a bit disappointed by it and don't really recommend it to anyone, I can't see anything that's worth going crazy for.

Even though this book has kind of a Superbad premise to it, it's nothing like it. First, we have two young women who want to lose their virginity before graduation. And that's basically the only similarity. Second, one of the characters has insanely religious parents. So much so, that eventually something happens that make the parents, to me, completely unforgiveable. But I won't spoil you, because this book is worth it. It has love, high school, high emotions, and even a cute, little dog that you might love instantly. I definitely did.

Some of the books I pick on Netgalley are kind of random, and may or may not be decent. This one was one I picked randomly, and I lucked out. The Anti-Virginity Pact is worth the read. Not just because of the title and maybe obviousness, but because it's a story about growth and independence. It's a little bit beautiful too.

4.5/5 Stars

I was really happy to receive a copy of this book. At first it took me a little bit to get into the story, but then I felt like it started to pick up and I was really into the story but somehow at the end it felt flat to me. Overall I felt like the author tried to include too many different topics but none of them where truly explored in the novel. It went from one thing to the next. I would have loved to the see the theme of religion being more explored.

To sum up, I really enjoyed the writing style but it felt overly ambitiuous. Still I would recommend it specially for the way religion was handled. And I would definitely read more from this author.

I never got a chance to read The Anti-Virginity Pact, by Katie Wisner. It never ended up on my kindle.

I have to preface my review by saying that I adore this author's YouTube channel, especially her vlogs. Getting to see her working on this book for the last year or so, and now getting to read it, has been so much fun.

Overall though, I feel pretty "meh" about this book. I liked what it had to say about religion and family pressure/expectations. Even though Mare's opinion about religion is pretty obviously in the negative, I think Katie was still very respectful and didn't slander Christianity at all (I'm not religious at all, but that's still my view). I also thought the romance was cute, and though I won't say why, because spoilers, I liked where it left off in the end. It was very refreshing to see!

What I didn't like, primarily, was the girl hate. Mare and her friend Jo didn't necessarily label themselves as "not like other girls" but oh boy, did they hate they pretty, popular girls. They can't talk enough about how much Ashley and her friends wear cute outfits, high heels, and makeup to school. They call the girls "The Pretty Committee" and so much of the book is spend on Mare and Jo hating those girls. I will say, Ashley is horrible to them, but I wish Katie had left all of the girl hate out. We get way too much of that in YA as it is; we don't need any more.

On a more positive note, I really enjoyed Katie's writing! It wasn't super flowery, but it flowed really well, and I really liked all of her descriptions. I will definitely pick up Katie's future novels!

Trigger warnings in this book for parental abuse, sexual assault/rape, animal abuse

*Thanks so much to the publisher for providing me with the book in exchange for an honest review!*