I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, there’s the great witty banter, the cute saving-sea-creatures moments, the fun transformation of a rather prickly MC, and a romantic pairing I really enjoyed.

I think when I picked it up, I was hoping for a book that was heavier on the romance. The “instant karma” power was an interesting concept, but maybe more “preachy” than I wanted in a book I read sheerly for the hope of a cute, swoony romance. There was more time spent on Prudence’s push to enact justice (as SHE saw fit) and less time developing the romance between her and Quint than I wanted. Finally, I struggled with Prudence herself. Her extreme Type A personality was sometimes so lacking in the empathetic department that it was a little cringe-worthy for me. It made it hard for me to like or connect with her. However, it did make watching her growth throughout the book that much more satisfying!

All in all, it’s a light, fun read that is definitely fitting for anyone craving a contemporary with a hint of fantasy/superhero flair (Prudence feels like this Super Justice Girl for a bit) and a sprinkle of enemies to lovers romance (I felt like it was just a sprinkle, anyway!)

I am pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. It took me a bit to warm up to the somewhat unlikable protagonist of Prudence, but by the middle of the book I was a bit in book-love with her. I loved the environmental side of the story, loved the glimpse of animals, loved the friendships and families, loved the love.... This book is so unlike Meyer's Cinder series, but I think the Instant Karma premise will be a cathartic hit with teens.

For Libraries: Buy this if you have fans of Meyer's, contemporary romances or light magical realism-it will be a hit.

I read this book in literally two days. It’s not what I expected. I am so used to this author’s fantasies, that I was not expecting her to blow my mind with this most adorable romantic comedy. I would recommend this to EVERY one!

First of all, thank you so much to Fierce Reads for an eARC of Instant KArma!

I've been lucky enough to meet Marissa Meyer twice over the last 2 years (she lives baout 30 min from me!), and she mentioned at her Supernova event that she was working on her first contemporary! Which, of course, I immediately added to my TBR despite not having a title! And y'all, she exceeded my expectations!

Instant Karma follows Prudence, a sophomore overachiever, who is bent on forcing her lab partner, Quint, in redoing their biology project. When she slips and hits her head after karaoke, Prudence seems to have the ability to cast instant karma on everyone, both good and bad. And as summer begins and she starts volunteering with Quint at his mom's aquatic rescue center, their relationship and the ways she views people begins to shift.

Okay, so, this was ridiculously cute, and so different! I love that though theirs plots and characters with backstories and motives, we also learn a bit about animals and it's something that's seriously missing in the YA genre! I just loved everything about this book. I read it in one sitting and stayed up until 3:30am. So yes, I 100% recommend this!

This book was adorable. Prudence hits her head and can instantly deliver karma for good or bad. She likes to be in control and this has caused problems with her lab partner Quint. Her grade is effected because she is not a team player. Prudence also makes a lot of assumptions on why Quint is the way he is. I think that was well done cause this is often a trait young people posses. You learn from experience and they are just starting out with life experiences. Prudence ends up volunteering at the Wild Life rescue center where Quint works.

I do not even think the synopsis or cover does this book justice. The center, ocean and important clean ups become a very important part of the story. This story was more then I was expecting and I really enjoyed it. I also am a twin and loved the twin interaction in this book.

After a fall at her local hangout/diner, Prudence Barnett is given a gift - or is it a curse? She can somehow dole out punishments for bad deeds - Prudence is gifted with karma! Everywhere she look's, she sees people doing things that are just plain wrong, or mean, or unfair and she can make them pay for it! There is just one person whom she can't seem to make pay for his misdeeds, but as Prudence will find out, maybe she isn't as above reproach as she thinks and maybe, judging people by one action isn't always for the best.

This was a really cute read. Loved the banter and the enemies to lovers tropey goodness! I also liked the emphasis on not assuming the worst in people. If you want a light, happy story, look no further!

I really enjoyed the whole thought process of this, and mind you I don't think I would mind waking up to the ability to cast instant karma around on different people.
Prudence is kind of an overachiever and really judgemental on those around her. Then her dream comes true when one morning after a night out she wakes up with the ability to cast instant karma on people around her. Now, while this whole ability works on everyone in town except her lab partner. While going through this whole adventure she begins to realize something about herself along with there is a thin line between generosity and greed.
I loved that Pru had a lot of growth through this novel. I loved the magical aspect of this novel and really sparked some of my own thoughts! This is definitely one that I would recommend to anyone who loves romance, a little magic and life lessons type of stories. This is definitely different from her other novels that I have read but I still enjoyed it! So, if you are a fan of her work give it a try, but it is a little bit different but it's different in all the good ways! I received an E-ARC and I really enjoyed it!

This was such a fun and really cute contemporary romance. I really liked all of the characters and the setting of a coastal town with a struggling sea animal rescue center was perfect for it. The magical realism could have been a bit more important to the story, but it was kind of fun watching Pru serve justice to those who mostly deserved it.

I liked Prudence for the most part. She is over-achieving and a bit of a control freak, but she is also comfortable with her self. She knows that speaking in front of large groups is hard for her but she has tricks that helps her to cope when she needs it. Her main fault is how judgmental she is of everyone. But as she is doling out Karmic judgement on those around her, she does begin to realize that there is sometimes more to a person’s story than a single act might portray.

I really like Quint, Prudence’s lab partner and all around thorn in her side. This is definitely a case of opposites attract. Quint is pretty easy going, but he is also dedicated and much more hard working than Pru gives him credit for. He is the perfect guy for Pru in that he makes her think about herself and how she sees the world. I really enjoyed seeing how things developed between them. I also loved his dedication to helping the sea animals at the center.

There are some side characters that I really liked too. I enjoyed Pru’s relationship with her twin Jude. They always had each others backs, even though they are also very much opposites. Ari is their best friend and I really liked seeing her bloom a bit in this story. I would have liked to have seen Pru’s parents a bit more. What we saw was great.

The story was well paced with a little bit of a mystery thrown into the romance plot. There were some great scenes between Prudence and Quint, like when they go snorkeling together or watching Jaws. Pru’s karmic power was not as important to the story as one would think. There were times when it completely disappears from the story for awhile. But there were times when things that she caused to happen came full circle. And it also helped to shape Pru’s growth as a character. I also really enjoyed all of the Beatles references, they cropped up at some pretty perfect times.

Overall I really enjoyed this little romantic comedy. It is a stand alone book, but there were some things said at the end of the story, that makes me think we might be seeing more of these characters in their own stories in the future. I for one certainly hope so.

This was a really cute book! I know our lovers of meet cute-style fiction will love this. I've already started mentioning it to a few of our diehard Marissa Meyer fans and the book already has a waiting list, despite not being out yet!

Prudence is a focused overachiever from a quirky family that owns a vinyl record store. Her Marine science lab partner,Quint, annoys her by always being late and not focusing on their assignments. She is shocked when he receives a higher grade than she does on their final class project. She asks their teacher for extra credit to improve her grade not realizing it means spending more time with Quint, who volunteers at the marine animal rescue center where his mother is director. Prudence like to sing karaoke at a local restaurant. One night, she is singing Instant Karma by the Beatles and she falls, hits her head, and gets a concussion. She soon discovers that she has the power to punish wrongdoers and reward good deeds just by wishing it. As the summer progresses, the two grow closer as they work at the struggling rescue center. Prudence develops plans to raise funds and to promote the center. After a major festival and fundraiser, she is accused of serious wrongdoing and must prove her innocence. This engaging story highlights the progression of teen relationships and educates the reader about the hard work of marine rescue organizations.

Review from my 12-year-old daughter:
Being a huge fan of Marissa Meyer's previous books, I was so excited for this one. I really liked it, but definitely not as much as her other stories. One of the things that I think greatly contributed to that was that Marissa Meyer creates amazing fantasy and science fiction worlds, and she couldn't do that in this one. But I did still really enjoy this book.

It follows Prudence, who after falling and hitting her head, has the ability to cast karma on people who live in her town. The only person who it doesn't happen to work on is her enemy, Quint, who she is being forced to volunteer at an animal rescue place with.

I really liked the main character and how she thought about things, and I thoroughly enjoyed the family dynamics, which I do wish we got to see more of. I actually liked most of the characters in it, except for a few minor side characters. I also thought that the idea of an animal rescue center was adorable, and I appreciated how much time the book spent there. I also liked the setting of a small town, and I thought that it went amazingly well with the plot.

My main problem with this book is that it's called "Instant Karma," and Pru barely uses her powers. She hardly uses her power to cast karma on people, and there are maybe three or four scenes where that is the main focus. Throughout the book, I kept forgetting she had the use of her power, and it never once really mattered that her power didn't work on Quint. In the end, it could have been the exact same story if there wasn't karma involved, and the main character was just a normal girl. But overall, I enjoyed this book and think it's a cute, summer read that I definitely recommend.

I loved Instant Karma, and will recommend it to others. A great plot, interesting well developed characters. Believable story

Marissa Meyer is an auto-buy author for me. I absolutely love her fairy-tale inspired Lunar Chronicles series and stand-alone novel Heartless, and her original take on superheroes in the Renegades trilogy is amazing. So, when I saw that she had a YA rom-com coming out, I instantly requested it.

Instant Karma is so much fun. It has a clever premise: sophomore Prudence Daniels has had a frustrating last day of school plagued by an unreliable partner and a low grade on their final project. So, she’s thrilled to go out with her twin brother Jude (yes, all five kids in Prudence’s family are named after songs by The Beatles) and her best friend Ari for a relaxed evening and some karaoke. After Prudence takes a bad fall and passes out, she wakes up with a strange new ability: she can make karma strike in the moment.

Prudence, who has a strong sense of responsibility and of right and wrong, has no patience for people who defy rules. So, if someone is putting gum under their table or not picking up their dog’s poop or just being unkind, Prudence is thrilled to have the ability to make sure that person suffers, just a little bit.

She can’t however, totally enjoy her new ability because she’s still trying to bring up that final grade. And, since her science teacher is (in Prudence’s eyes) totally unreasonable, he insists that teamwork is the one skill she most needs to learn. She’s still stuck, therefore, with unreliable partner Quint . . . who may not be quite the person she thought he was.

Meyer’s touch with magic is light here, but this book is a perfect addition to her catalog of YA books. I love the array of characters who round out Prudence’s life, and Prudence herself (while sometimes frustrating in her lack of self awareness) is a nuanced, thoughtful character. This book is perfect for anyone wanting a sweet, fast-paced read with an emphasis on first love . . . and lots and lots of Beatles references.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of "Instant Karma" by Marissa Meyer. Meyer is an insta-buy author for me because I just love her voice and the feel of all her books, especially "Heartless." This one, however, took me a minute to get into. Prudence was a really unlikeable MC for me for the whole first half or so. She was angry and intense and filled with hatred and stress and—I don't know, maybe she had too many of my worst qualities. She didn't have any qualities strong enough to redeem her in my mind. She enjoyed punishing people and really hated her loved interest without any strong chemistry toward him that I could feel in the beginning. It did improve though. Once the romance finally started developing in force, I got into it and fell in love. Quint just really gave Prudence exactly the softening she needed, and I felt like the book ended well. I also enjoyed the little whodunnit mystery that appeared in the second half. It wasn't too hard to predict, but it did keep me guessing for a little and pulled me through to the end.
I do have to say, also, that the slightly magical subplot of her instantly being able to punish people with karma was almost entirely unnecessary. I think you could take it out and we could've gotten to the romance and the mystery parts that I actually liked a lot faster, and nothing about the core plot would have to change at all. She would still have ended up falling for Quint and making all the same decisions. Her little power actually didn't change much or contribute much that she couldn't have figured out without it. I do like the theme of karma that the book had, of how things aren't as simple as we think and we shouldn't be so quick to judge people's actions before we understand them. I do think the way Meyer showed karma applying to certain people didn't always make sense. Sometimes it was straightforward, sometimes it was convoluted, sometimes it was so round about only a plot convenient super villain could have come up with it—was it sometimes supposed to actually be applying to Prudence through someone else? I'm not really sure. I just think the book overall would have been stronger without this cutesy plot device at all. It could have stood on its own as a sweet rom com without the little hint of magical fate.
But I did end up enjoying it overall in the end, so Meyer is still holding strong for me.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this book because Prudence was extremely self-absorbed and unlikeable at the beginning, but when she started to change after hanging out more at the shelter and with Quint, I really started to enjoy Instant Karma. I with we would have seen more of her relationship with her family and how they impact her as a person because it felt like that was a subplot. Overall, an easy, fun read!

I won a digital ARC of this book in a giveaway from Fierce Reads.

Instant Karma is about high schooler Prudence Barnett, who lives in a beach town and thinks she's probably smarter than most of her peers. She despises her lazy lab-partner, Quint Erickson, and couldn't be more glad to be done with him as summer nears. In a little fantasy twist to this YA contemporary, Prudence wakes up one day with the ability to choose who the universe besets Karmic punishment on. From there, cute enemies-to-lovers antics ensue, and it's all about Prudence learning the limits of her new power and the limits her own judgmental outlook on life has been setting on her own happiness.

First off, any readers that decide to DNF this book are really losing out on the best parts!

Right from the start I wasn't so sure that Prudence Barnett was my style of protagonist. She herself is one of the reasons this didn't get more stars from me. She seems awfully naive, judgmental, and over-achieving in a bit of an unrealistic and unrelatable way. Considering the title and synopsis of the book and Prudence's clear rushes-to-judgement right off the bat regarding her "slacker of a lab partner", Quint, it seems easy to the reader to guess where the story must be going. And while it kinda is...

It's also SUPER cute! Quint Erickson is every bit as dreamy and book-boyfriend-worthy as all the beloved boys in Marissa Meyer's other series. It's really redeeming for the book as the Karma doling-out fantasy portion of it feels a little anti-climactic and predictable. Read to the end and I promise the book will get very surprising, you'll be in love with Quint, and it will have been so worth the read!

Bonus tip from me: Be sure to play Dear Prudence by The Beatles (of course) during THE SCENE. I assure you, you'll know when it's time.

3.5 stars

Decently good teen rom-com. Pretty standard fare for the genre. Nothing stood out to me that wowed me, but nothing detracted from it either. Pretty cute but not annoyingly so.

Honestly, with Mayer's reputation, I almost didn't read this. I like her writing, but she's been criticized for not taking feedback on the diversity in her books before. "Instant Karma" made me cringe. A Beatles-themed or even generically tie-dye or 60s-themed cover would go a long way here to show that Mayer is staying away from misappropriating Indian culture, especially given how big a role the Beatles play in the book. Otherwise, this is a charming magical romance, with an imperfect heroine, enemies to lovers trope, and I really enjoyed it.

Instant Karma is about Pru, a high school student who is an overachiever and perfectionist to the max. Pru has spent all year with Quint as a Marine Biology partner and the two do not get along. It’s now the end of the year and time to turn in their big project. It doesn’t go as well as Pru would have hoped. That evening, blowing off some steam and proving to Quint that Pru can have fun, Pru sings the song ‘Instant Karma’ at karaoke right before slipping and blacking out. The next day she notices that she is able to give out karmic punishments to those who do bad things. However when ever she tries to punish her bio partner, Quint, her powers of karmic justice backfire. As the summer progresses, Pru learns more about Quint and the marine animal rescue center that he volunteers at, changing the way she sees the world and Quint himself.

I remember first hearing Marissa talk about this book at Powell’s while promoting the last book in her superhero trilogy. Instant Karma sounded so cool and I couldn’t wait to read it. Once belief is sufficiently suspended over the karma powers of justice that Pru is given, this story is cute and sweet and has definite Hallmark movie overtones at times (or since it’s YA, maybe that should be Disney Channel movie overtones?).

Marissa did her research, from the marine biology to the music the characters showcase in this book, and it shows. The science nerd in me is impressed with the focus on marine biology. I have to wonder if it relates to Marissa’s proximity to the Puget Sound and it’s rich marine life. Seattle is also known for it’s music scene. As this is Marissa’s first venture into contemporary fiction, could both be a nod to where she lives?

Pru seems a bit uptight for a teenager. I mean uptight uptight. It takes years for some people to develop that kind of edgy personality. Pru was born with it. She shows some definite character growth over the span of the book and by the end, I liked her a lot more then at the beginning.

I like Quint. He cares about the center. He tries his best. He tried to get Pru to focus on the right and best parts of ecotourism (really the parts that anyone should be highlighting).

I liked the slow build of the romance, the enemies-to-lovers trope. It made it much more believable as Quint and Pru transitioned from two people who did not like each other at all to friends to boyfriend/girlfriend. There was amble opportunity to watch them interact and watch the relationship evolve as the story progressed. It was refreshing to not see another instalove story.

This is definitely an adorable story for anyone wanting to escape reality. It’s a lovely comfort read that I can’t recommend enough.

Overall 4.5/5