3.5 stars

It's interesting that I read this book at the same time I was binge-listening to the second Percy Jackson series because while this book starts out as contemporary fiction, you quickly realize there is some fantasy involved with a dash of Greek mythology/drama superstition. I kind of went back and forth with thinking this was kind of silly and wanting to know what would happen. I think this book had the potential for me to roll my eyes and give up on it, but there was something about it that had me laughing at the silliness of the books and by the end, I found that I actually enjoyed it a fair bit. I ended up reading this book in two sittings which means I was engaged enough and invested enough to want to know the ending. And the ending was pretty satisfying. I have not read anything by this author before, but this book was unique enough that I am interested in reading other works by her, just to see what she does with them.

Thanks to #NetGalley, #ShannonHale, and #MacMillanChildrensPublishing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was...not great. I was expecting more from a story about entering books, but this was not the kind of story I was expecting, nor what I wanted. The main character was annoying and stuck on her having been a big deal in high school and how she isn't any longer and how to get back to that feeling. And then she starts falling into the books she's reading and it's just... a mess.

Shannon Hale's young adult book, Kind of a Big Deal, is kind of a big dud for this librarian. While the premise is interesting (a girl who is coming to terms with her Broadway failure gets magically sucked into the books she is reading), the plot ends up reading really weird, especially the ending.

I always think about what kind of students might want to read this book, and I do think there is a section of the 'theater kids" who might enjoy the drama of it and the connections to musicals and muses. However. overall, it is just an odd duck. I can get behind a magic realism story, but it has to be rooted in some logic or higher order. The climax where we understand why the protagonist gets sucked into her books is really strange and unsatisfying.

Great cover that will entice young girls (especially those who already love Hale) to pick this up.

Kind of a Big Deal is a quirky, offbeat coming-of-age story. It has a little bit of everything in it - big dreams, failures, time travel, and even is a graphic novel for a bit. Although I didn't particularly like it, I think it might appeal to middle and high school students.

Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale - 3 stars

I haven’t read the popular series, Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale but I heard good things about it. I want to try her writing and I was excited when I got approved to read this book.

The book starts like a normal day for Josie taking care of Mia in Missoula, Montana. I think Mia is cute and that robot is funny. Josie is really good with Mia and they have fun times together. Then Josie starts to look back at what happened in high school and New York. It is fine but it goes on and on all over the book. She keeps pining for her friend Nina and her boyfriend, Justin. She still thinks she is a big star .

That is fine then comes the bookstore and the books that she is reading. More than twice, she gets transported and becomes part of the book. I know I’m reading fiction but fantasy within fantasy seems too much to me. The fantasy seems pretty exciting though.

I kept on reading because I am curious as to what will happen to Josie’s character. I am glad there is some character development, some life realizations. It also made me realize that sometimes we can be like Josie. Suspended in our past or present and just cannot move on. There will always be ups and downs in life. We have to adapt to the changes and live a happy life.

Thank you #netgalley and Roaring Brook Press for the free copy. All opinions are my own.

*I received a copy of this arc through Netgalley*
I don't even know where to begin with this book. I thought I would enjoy this book as a theatre kid and a book nerd, but Josie was too much for me. I know the whole point is for her to be a drama queen and grow to be a better person, but that change didn't really occur until the very end of the book, leaving me to read the phrase "I'm kind of a big deal" more times than I can count. Her auditions were painful to read, the theatre kid in me wincing as she chose the most overused songs for her auditions. Also, I thought her name was Josie Pie, but in actuality, Pie is the last name of her boyfriend that she hasn't really spoken to in months, which was a red flag for me.

I appreciated the lessons that the novel tried to teach: that it's okay to grow apart from the people who were once important to you, that it's okay to not have everything going as planned, and that it's okay to not do as well as you thought you would, but frankly, with Josie's poor character development, they're lessons the reader learns from her and not lessons she herself learns. I liked the fantastical aspect of being able to travel into the books she was reading, but the ending didn't make much sense and felt uncharacteristic of the magical boundaries that had been set so far in the story. I also thought her miraculous relationship fix with her boyfriend wasn't realistic as he wasn't really in the story until the last chapter. Overall, I liked the concept of the story, but the execution was lackluster.

Shannon Hale’s new young adult novel Kind of a Big Deal (Roaring Brook Press) is a comedic bop guaranteed to appeal to theater kids and those who are ready to read something fun.

Josie freely admits that she peaked in high school--that is, before she dropped out. Josie was a musical theater sensation in her school, a star on her campus and in her Arizona hometown. When her director sets Josie up with a Broadway audition, she heads to New York. Things there don’t go as planned. (Gosh, this book is hard to review without spoilers!) Josie ends up as a nanny to little Mia in Missoula, Montana, but she misses her boyfriend Justin and best friend Nina.

One day Josie ducks into a bookstore with Mia where the hunky sales clerk Deo gives her a “tawdry” bodice-ripper novel that he thinks she will like. Josie takes the book and Mia to a park where she begins to read, and suddenly she is in the book—not just into the book, as in imaginatively absorbed in it—but her reality morphs into the book’s reality. Josie is in a carriage alongside tightly corseted ladies as they are besieged by bandits.

Flash forward. This reality shift happens to Josie whenever she begins to read a book, but she uses her skills as a musical theater prodigy to navigate these meta-fictional circumstances. You might be surprised how often the ability to belt out a show-stopper comes in handy when immersed in a campy genre drama.

Shannon Hale plays all of this for plenty of laughs, including inside jokes about musicals, clever bits about literary conventions, and even a brief cameo appearance by The Princess in Black, Hale’s popular chapter book heroine. High school and junior high kids who were fans of Hale’s The Princess in Black and Princess Academy books in their earlier years will find a lot to enjoy in Kind of a Big Deal.

Our national moment has many readers immersed in timely books that speak to our various current crises. This concentration on serious books about important topics may be long overdue. Kind of A Big Deal is not at all a book in that vein, but I hope there is still a place for a well-written, funny, light romp like this one.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advance look at this title.

This review will also soon appear on my What's Not Wrong? blog. whatsnotwrong.wordpress.com

I had the chance to read an arc for this book. Thank you to Netgalley and Roaring Book Press.

I had a hard time getting into this book. At the beginning, I just didn't connect. I was a little bit "ho hum, another angsty teen drama queen." However, after about 1/4 way through, I really began to get into it. The drama queen part is literal. Josie is a singer/actress shooting for Broadway. In her sphere, she was "kind of a big deal". As I kept reading to the end, I found that this books is actually very different than any other realistic fiction book I have ever read. It is realistic fiction but there is a fantasy element to it that brings a different way of looking at life and learning from it.
I could relate. I went to a small high school with many opportunities for those who wanted them. I wasn't the "everybody knows me I am so popular" one, but I did well, grade wise, and was praised for my acting/singing/dancing by many. When I graduated and went to a Jr. college, I discovered how mediocre I really was. I am glad now that I didn't go to a University to begin with, because the reality check would have been much harder. Josie's reality check came even before she finished high school when, with encouragement from a trusted adult, she shot for Broadway and missed. She has a little bit of baggage to deal with and begins adulting earlier than most girls her age. There are many messages to find in this book but they aren't "in your face". You can find them and appreciate them, or just enjoy a good story without worrying too much about it.

This book was an experience. It took me a little bit to get into the narrative of Josie's life and the rules of magic in her world but then I was hooked. I am a big fan of Shannon Hale and was glad to see that even though this book was for an older audience, Hale's creativity and skillful randomness was not lost. Josie's character was infuriating and honestly, I just wanted her to get over herself. At the same time, this made her growth just so much more satisfying. This book really felt like a character study mixed with a little of every genre. I have no idea where I'll put in my library, but it definitely will have a place.

Her singing made her kind of a big deal in high school. Could she get a part on Broadway?

Roaring Book Press and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It will be published August 25th.

What sucked me into reading this was the fact that as she read books using the glasses she got in the bookstore, she stepped into that story. The characters became her friends she had in real life and she had many adventures.

The boy she loves is in her stories. So is another boy she has her eye on. She gets in death defying situations where she and whichever boy is in that story fight as a team and win. She learns something about her best friend from high school. She doesn't want to be friends anymore, she wants to move on. She's not sure which boy she wants more.

And then she learns something about the new boy that scares her. She's developing powers she never had before. When she thinks she's figured it out, she braces him. He tells her it's true. She's not interested in being what he wants her to be so she plans to get away. He tells her she can't.

Will she break the spell and go back to being human? Is there any hope she and her old boyfriend will get back together again?

Read it and see.

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley. Thank you!

I am a huge fan of Shannon Hale but this book is not her best. The protagonost, Josie, "peaked in high school" in terms of musical fame. She drops out in order to audition in New York. She fails repeatedly and ends up in Michigan as a nanny. The character is so unlikable, it was painful. Insecure, whiney, immature. I can't count how many times I cringed reading this book.

The premise is somewhat interesting. Josie discovers she can dive into books and live out the stories as one of the main characters. The other characters are played by people she knows in real life. She becomes addicted to doing this to escape her own miserable life. Yet, this idea was not well executed. After the first few stories she goes into, they became extremely boring.

Lastly, her best friend Nina is transgender. I felt like this was a throwaway character, labeled as transgender to attract a certain audience. It did not feel very sincere or well-researched. There was not much history for Nina and not much to connect with for readers.

I confess I'm having a hard time reviewing this book. I adore Shannon Hale and usually love her work, but I had a really hard time getting into this one. I was really frustrated by Josie as a narrator. The book felt very disjointed to me, particularly the first half. I struggled to emotionally connect with Josie and care about what she was going through. There were too many moments that kept pulling me out of the narrative. For example, can you imagine any teenager actually saying "I was kind of a big deal in high school?" No matter how un-self-aware or confident they are? For me, the answer is an absolute no. The first few times she jumped into what she was reading felt ridiculous and utterly unbelievable. I found myself skimming just to get through the cheesy scenes.

The book, like Josie, was trying too hard and came across as disingenuous. That being said, I did enjoy the ending. At long long last, it came together for me as it did for Josie. The final scenes confronting her literal and figurative demons were well done and I really liked her ending moment with Justin.

Kind of a Big Deal has an interesting premise that captured my attention but didn't quite follow through. Our main character drops out of high school to pursue her Broadway dreams and ends up not succeeding. I couldn't believe Josie gave up so easily after a few failed auditions. I also blame her drama teacher for pushing her so early to move to New York when she could have graduated first before trying her hand in the big city. I found Josie's personality irritating and her pompous attitude reminded me a lot of Rachel Berry of Glee. I was excited for the parts when she would transport into different books, but I ultimately found myself not really enjoying the stories within a story and was always eager to get back to the main plot. I found Josie's relationships throughout the book rather odd. I found myself drawing comparisons to Jodi Picoult's Between the Lines and Off the Page. Perhaps a younger reader would enjoy the fantastical and magical elements of Kind of a Big Deal more than I did.

Kind of a Big Deal was the perfect book for current times. It was delightful, witty, heartwarming, and escapist. I feel like we can all relate to wanting to live in stories and the author brought that to life in this book. Highly recommend this read to anyone who needs to leave the real world for a little while.

Writing this review breaks my heart. I absolutely love Shannon Hale, but this was not it.

For most of this, I was confused. The rules of the "magic" or world weren't clear. Even when the big reveal happened I was still confused. It got real frustrating and was my biggest complaint.

Normally, I find Shannon Hale's writing magical and almost peaceful. This felt very chaotic and jumpy. Maybe that was on purpose, but it caused me so much anxiety and contributed to my confusion.

And Josie wasn't a particularly likable character. Some people don't need to like a main character. Generally, I do but I especially need there to be some sort of connection to them. And none of the other characters felt real or flushed out. I did really like Mia and Josie's relationship with her was a small redeeming thing.

This addressed some important topics-especially for older teenagers. I really liked that she talked about friendship break-ups and growing out of friendships. This is a real thing and it doesn't necessarily mean either person is bad/toxic. Sometimes things just change. However, like a lot of things in this book it didn't feel very realized or developed. Just surface level.

While I was disappointed by this I am still a fan of Shannon Hale and will continue to read her books.

Josie is a dreamer, a singer and actress who wants to make it on Broadway. She's also a beloved line-in nanny to Mia, a sweet 4 year old girl whose mom is always traveling for work. Josie is feeling disconnected from her best friend and her boyfriend and pretty much directionless and lost. While walking to the park one day with Mia, they pass a bookstore and decide to go in. Josie ends up buying a "tawdry romance" which she is a bit embarrassed about in front of the other nannies while Mia plays on the playground with their charges.

Just a few pages in, Josie all of a sudden enters the story, she becomes one of the characters and everyone around her is someone she recognizes from her real life. When she comes back to herself, it turns out several hours in the book world have only taken a few minutes in the real word. As the days progress, Josie finds herself falling into each book she buys and reads. While her real life becomes more depressing, Josie begins to seek out opportunities to read and each time stays longer and longer in the book world. Will she get stuck there permanently, or will she made some big realizations and decisions?

I have loved everything else I've read by Shannon Hale so when I had the opportunity to get an ARC of her new YA novel, I was thrilled. I admit to being a bit disappointed with this one, but wonder if I would have liked it more if I hadn't had such high expectations? It is being billed as a romantic comedy, but I missed most of the humor and found it just campy and silly. It did get more adventure and less campy toward the end, but for me the humor never really materialized.

If you've never read Hale before, please don't judge her by this book. If you have, forget your expectations and just let yourself enjoy the ridiculousness of it all. I finished this one in 2 days, and despite the silliness, don't regret it. Still, I definitely won't be rereading this one like I have lots of other of Hale's novels. If you're looking for an excellent fantasy YA/middle grade crossover, try her <i>Books of Bayern</i> series, and if you're looking for something for your emerging reader, her <i>Princess in Black</i> series is absolutely outstanding!

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review copy courtesy of NetGalley.

I really dig Shannon Hale’s realistic fiction, I find it compulsively readable and compelling. But she really likes to genre blend, and this book takes a sharp swerve from what I expected from the first chapter into a fantasy world that I found just not as interesting. I think those who enjoy adventure stories and other genres will like this book but if you liked more of her autobio stories, you might not enjoy.

I was excited to read this based off of the description but honestly it was kind of a mess. Josie would make random comments that didn’t make sense. She was also a brat and I couldn’t stand the character from the get go.

While I am grateful to the publisher for granting access to this title from an author I usually love, I unfortunately, very much disliked this book.
Considering this is a tale about a girl who gets literally pulled into different stories, it’s a shame that I couldn’t lose myself in this book at all.
Josie’s real life was dull and full of low stakes teen life crisis, she was not a very likeable character overall, and there was little character development to redeem her throughout the book.
Her fantasy life was over the top stereotypes of genre adventures. The painfully goofy adventures in the fiction books got old very quickly, as their inclusion was full of frankly cringeworthy storytelling. Maybe it was meant to be two dimensional and hackneyed on purpose, but even if that was true, it doesn't make for enjoyable reading. The deus ex machina at the end seemed hastily thrown together, and by that point I was just eager for the story to be over. There is really very little I can recommend about this book, other than to say that Hale is usually a stellar author and will hopefully be back in form for her next book.

Overall I enjoyed this book.
It took a little while to get into the right headspace for this book, but after I did, I looked forward to seeing what would happen next. The description for the book called it “madcap”, and I would agree. Let go of any expectation you might have and enjoy the twist and turns this bizarre and fun adventure takes you through. With a meta and spoofy feel, the book plays with the tropes of different genres.

The main character had a great high school experience, so what came after was a big let down. She has to navigate who she is without the people and reputation she had and through her experiences in the book she grows over the course of it.

This would be a fun book for high schoolers to explore the future, post-high school through a fantastical lens. I also recommend to readers who enjoy absurd humor.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Roaring Book Press for this free egalley for review. All opinions are my own.