Okay, first off I love Shannon Hale's work, she has A LOT of great books out there, but this one just wasn't my favorite. I liked the writing and all the books we got to jump into and I liked Josie. I felt pulled into the story because I wanted to know what Josie was doing in Missoula, and how she was going to get back on her feet. But I felt like I needed to know more about her before she "fell" into her first book. Like how was she "kind of a big deal"? And what was she looking to achieve.
I liked the premise behind it, it was unique, because who wouldn't want to fall into a book and become the characters? Especially if your own life isn't going as planned. I wanted more growth from Josie though. She just really kept getting lost in these other worlds.

I just felt that this was story was discombobulated. It was hard for me to learn about her relationships through different characters. I think some of my teens will like it, because it's a great concept, but it just wasn't the best read to me.
Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC

ARC from Netgalley.

This book was kind of a mess. Josie's life has gone down hill since failing to 'make it' on Broadway. And then failing to do anything else. Then she starts literally falling into the books she reads. It just got strange.

I really wanted to like this story as the premise behind it was unique, interesting and one I feel like my students would enjoy. For myself this was a hard book for me to get through. Josie the protagonist seemed immature and often times very self centered. I understand that this was to show character growth but it didn’t fully get there for me.

The plot at times was discombobulated, I wish we would have learned more about Josie before she jumped so to speak into her first book. I understand that this is how we were to learn about her and her relationships with Justin and Nina but many times in the beginning it seemed forced and hard to follow. The ending has me questioning a lot of the story as well.

Overall I would give this book 2 out of 5 stars. Although it is not one of my favorites I still will purchase this for my shelf for my students. I can see how some students may connect with this coming of age and growing up story. Thank you Net galley and publisher for this advanced read.

This book was a Did Not Finish at 25% for me, so I will not be posting a review on Goodreads. I really wanted to enjoy this story - it sounded so interesting! However, the writing was not engaging and felt trite. The main character was clearly full of herself and I couldn't stand her entitlement. Even the section where she fell through into the pages of the book felt clunky and off putting.

I loved the premise of this book--that Josie Pie keeps falling into books. And I was also intrigued by the larger idea that in doing so, she comes to understand why she needs to accept the unhappy changes that have happened in her life and embrace what she has, rather than what she thought she would have.

I did find the plot a little confusing at first; the alternate worlds start up before the reader has a clear sense of who Josie is and what her story is. Granted, that's kind of the point--we find out what's happened through her experiences in the books--but it took awhile before I knew her well enough to *care* about that connection.

I loved Shannon Hale's sendups of various literary genres; her parodies are spot-on, but also clearly done with love for all the narratives she skewers. But the ending was...wow...just, a LOT. It jumps to a whole other level of meta-ness there. Suddenly mythology is real, and in the real world, which is cool, but also seems somehow out of synch with the previous treatment of other kinds of stories. I just felt a little baffled and let down by it.

Still, I can imagine that a lot of readers will love this novel--especially hard-core genre readers who will see every series they've ever devoured get trotted out eventually. This is the kind of book that makes serious readers feel smart and tuned in--never a bad thing.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Four stars! I completely understand many people's difficulties with this book, but reading it, I loved following the heroine's journey and seeing how she grew. I think a lot of people say they want character growth when what they mean is "I want a character I like at the beginning and LOVE by the end," which isn't how I see it. Kind of a Big Deal is a fun read, and recommended!

I normally don't write full review of books I DNF, but I have loved Shannon Hale as an author for awhile, so I wanted to take this time even though I only made it 66% of the way through her new book, Kind of a Big Deal. Ultimately, I'm not sure if it was my state of mind, headaches, or the plot that drove me away, but the next book I picked up I immediately flew through so take this as you will. 

Josie is a 19-year-old (ish?) nanny living and working in Montana, after following her charge, Mia, and Mia's mom from NYC where Josie's dreams of being on the stage fell flat. But she was a "big deal" in her high school in Arizona (I think it was Arizona). She's sad, feels like her boyfriend doesn't like her and her life is going nowhere, so when she starts falling into the books she's reading and experiencing her life through them, she's fascinated and weirded out. That's about where I ended up--she'd fallen into several books, seen the face of her boyfriend in all of them, but the book was 2/3 of the way over and I still wasn't sure if I was supposed to care about Josie? Or root for her? Or think she was...talented? Because she seemed like someone who was probably talented for a random high school but why did she think she should drop out and move to NYC just because she got an audition? She didn't even have equity? And the books chosen for her to fall into felt...random? And unimportant? And it was not that enjoyable and when I decided to DNF the book, it felt like a weight off my shoulders. 

I think the idea was cool--falling into books!--but the execution and the characters were boring. Was I supposed to like the bf Justin at all? Because I didn't. I liked the 5 year old Mia the most out of any character, and I would have loved to see Josie fall into a picture book she was reading to Mia or something. I don't know--that's the theme of this book for me. I'd give what I read like 1.75 stars...but I didn't want to finish it.

This book was unlike any I can recall reading. In a very unusual way, it explored what can happen to us after high school if we believe life after high school is going to continue the same way it did during high school.
Josie Pie dropped out of high school to make it in NYC on the stage, and when that didn't work out as she hoped, she ran. Now she's in Montana, ducking calls from old HS friends and working as a nanny to adorable Mia. Bored, she wanders into a bookstore, and that's when the situation takes a new turn.
I enjoyed this book. Josie's changes were fun to follow, and the way she gets there is quite unique!

This book was painful. I read 15% and gave up. Not my cup of tea.I would not recommend this to anyone because it was very boring and did not keep my attention.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly? I didn't care for it. Josie is supposed to be unlikable, I get it.the character growth is part of the story but she honestly didn't seem to grow that much and I couldn't even get myself to root for her.

The book is a really fun idea and I love the concept but it's totally not my thing.

Josie is 18, she was kind of a big deal in high school and her drama teacher thought she could be a broadway star. But it didn’t work out, now she’s a nanny and HS dropout and somehow, she has found her way to Montana. There’s a magical bookstore where weird things happen. Or maybe it’s the bench that helps her actually dive into a book? Feel like she’s: in it for real.

It’s a fun premise for book lovers, and I understood Josie’s high school crew because I was a theatre kid too. But there is something about the book that is clunkier than Shannon Hale’s usually writing. Something about Josie maybe wasn’t fully formed, or maybe the setting of an 18 year old nanny watching a preschooler while her mom is on a another continent felt off in 2020.

In Kind of A Big Deal by Shannon Hale, Josie Pie begins to live her life through the books that she is reading. Josie ends up visiting a book shop in a small town in Montana. She moved there from New York after she had failed to make it on Broadway. While reading a romance novel, she falls into the book and becomes the main character. Will she ever escape the story and if so will she fall into other stories? Read Kind of A Big Deal to find out. I would recommend this book for high school and up.

I loved the elements of theatre and mythology woven into this book. I will be recommending it to middle schoolers and up. What happens when a big leap goes awry? How does a person reassemble themselves? Josie Pie is on a really interesting journey in this book. I enjoyed the Missoula, Montana setting of much of the story and many friendship/newly launched adult challenges it surfaces

An intriguing premise, and while I read through it to see what would happen, I wasn’t fully invested. It would certainly be a good fluffy type read, if someone is looking for something that’s not too heavy to read. I would still recommend to anyone looking for new contemporary and slightly reality alternating stories. Thank you for providing the e-ARC for me to read!

I received a complimentary copy of Kind of a Big Deal from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
I LOVED this novel! I was skeptical at first...didn't really know where it was going with a slow start, but Shannon Hale knew what she was doing, and she sure has one heck of an imagination! I enjoyed the overconfident Josie Pie and the lessons learned, as well as the time Josie spent "in" the books she was reading. A great example of modern day "make believe"!
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is all sorts of cute! I think it will appeal to teen readers and adult readers alike with its rich fantasy feel and realistic youth perspective. Shannon Hale nailed teen emotion and had me turning pages long part my bedtime.

An amazing book, with books inside. It was so cool to see a character get to be character inside another book.

Cute idea, but this one did not work for me at all. Ended up skimming through the majority of the book.

I didn't connect to Josie at all, nor the journey she was on. I thought she was spoiled, stuck up, and immature. She spent a lot of time remembering how great she was in highschool and whining about not being where she wants to be.

Shannon Hale books involve a little bit of magic, strong female characters (who do not always know their own worth) and a lot of wishful thinking and ingenuity. This was a fun book, although it did confuse me a little at the beginning. I very much appreciate the lost-in-a-book factor, and I appreciate that Josie, despite her obvious disenchantment with her life and her world, continues to search for some sort of meaning in her life; real or imagined.

Kind of a Big Deal is a magical fantasy - sort of like all of Shannon's books - Austenland, Ella Enchanted, Princess Academy, etc. Josie's dream world is one of books, friendship, romance, childhood, all wrapped in one not-quite-grown-up package. It's fun, but also addresses some serious current topics; her loving acceptance of her friend Nina's transgender journey; her own disgust at finding out the true "secret" of one of the characters she becomes (she is bi-racial; half black, half Japanese during an era when such things were not accepted). There are serious moments as she deals, the best way she can, with her own family dysfunctions. Overall the tone of these topics is Josie's acceptance of diversity, and her quest to discover how to be her best self.

Josie peaks in high school where she was actually "kind of a big deal". Stardom beckons and Josie believes she is destined for the big time - with a push from her drama teacher (who abandons her on his therapists recommendation). Lost in her dream-fantasy world Josie accepts a job a nanny and ends up in Missoula, Montana. A chance encounter in a book store and a really handsome clerk leads her to the discovery of getting lost in books, starring in her own version of the tales she reads, while she believes she is following the dream of what she truly wants in life; love and acceptance.

I've loved Shannon Hale since I was 9, when I read Princess Academy for the first time and then proceeded to reread it about a million times. Then I read the Books of Bayern and adored those. So when I saw I had been approved for this ARC, I kinda freaked out in excitement because I just knew I was going to love it.

...I did not love it...

As quite a few other reviewers have said, this book had a neat idea without the best execution. The best way I can think to describe it is 'messy'. The story at best felt chaotic and underdeveloped, and at worst left me feeling so uninterested I might've died of boredom. The character of Josie Pie is supposed to be unlikable, but there's a fine line between writing a flawed character that people can understand and someone that's insufferable to read about. If I had to hear her say 'I was kind of a big deal' one more time, I was pretty sure I was going to lose it.

On a positive note, I will say that I appreciated how YA this book was. What I mean by that is that this wasn't a book with adult characters masquerading as teenagers. This wasn't Riverdale where all the 15 year olds are actually 28. The characters were teens that oftentimes made horrible decisions and were even worse at communicating. Their problems were actual 18 year old problems and it was refreshing to see that.

I still love Shannon Hale and will read anything else she writes; this was just a big miss for me.