I love Shannon Hale, but this book is book-nerd-bait. Will be recommending it to upper MS students who are heavy readers already, but the book felt engineered to appeal to people whose entire personality is books.

ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A clever idea, but not such a clever execution. I was intrigued by the idea of the main character being pulled into the books she read. Too bad those books were so boring, or ridiculous. I feel like the author missed an opportunity to do something amazing with this concept. I would have been more vested in Josie's emotional journey if I had liked her more. On the other hand, even then I probably wouldn't be able to get past the fact that she was an irresponsible caregiver. Seriously? Bring a child to a park and a library and then deliberately go into a fugue state so you can escape into a fantasy world?

Cute book. Took me a few pages to get into the story. It was a bit faster after that. It finished way stronger than it started.

In this story Josie Pie (stage name) is killing it as the popular high school girl who has the lead in every performance. Everyone is constantly telling her she is awesome, and she believes it. Her drama teacher, who has connections to the theater community in New York manages to get her an audition, so she QUITS high school and moves to NYC - and bombs the audition. Unwilling to go back to her hometown as a failure, she stays in NYC, runs up debt, until she gets a nanny job that moves her to Montana. Here she sits, telling everyone who will listen that she was a big deal in high school. Upon the recommendation of a highly attractive book seller, she begins to read a book and finds herself literally drawn into the story. Trying to figure out what is going on, she book hops, until she finds herself trapped in a book, almost forgetting that she has a real life. She must figures out who she is, who she wants to be, and if she wants to leave this make-believe world behind.

I had a hard time suspending disbelief enough to get into this story. Our protagonist, Josie Pie, is so self-absorbed that it is hard to find her a sympathetic character, however, all the characters seemed to be pushed beyond the archetype they were meant to represent, so perhaps that is intentional. Having a teacher push to have a student quit high school to be a star on Broadway, and a mother who basically says, "meh, it's your life" just doesn't sit well with me. I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be a cautionary tale for those kids who are so self-absorbed they can't function in society, or a satire of what the next generation seems to be prone to.

This book did not earn a place on my favorites shelf, but I'm sure that there are others that will enjoy it.

4/5 stars
*ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
Personally, I really liked Kind of Big Deal. It was exactly the kind of read I was looking for. The synopsis really stuck out to me, and the book itself did not let me down.
Kind of Big Deal is a YA contemporary/fantasy about Josie Pie. Josie Pie lives in Montana as a nanny, but she used to be something big. Big as in, Josie managed to get a Broadway audition. But unfortunately, Josie didn't make it. When Josie stumbles upon a bookstore in her small town, and picks up book and a pair of reading glasses, something strange starts to happen to her. When Josie reads, she actually is transported into the book. I was not the biggest fan of Josie, and in the beginning she was kind of annoying. Her character did get better over time. All of the other characters were not bad. Mia was my favorite. I thought the falling into books and being transported into them was a really cool element. It was like a story within a story. The pacing of this novel was ok. The beginning was fairly slow, but the novel sped up towards the middle/end. The novel also finished very abruptly. Overall, I really liked this novel and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a quick, immersive YA read.

Would be a good book for middle schoolers. Pretty cheesy/not believable. Cute story, but not captivating.

DNF I just.could not get into this book. I’ve read and enjoyed many Shannon Hale graphic novels and novels, but this one just lost me. I couldn’t connect with Josie, the protagonist, at all and I’m not sure my middle school aged readers would either. She is lamenting her glory filled high school years by falling into book scenes that are disjointed and confusing. I lost interest pretty early on but kept skimming and then realized I had other books to review.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.
I started this book really excited but it just slowly dragged my hopes down. Disappointed in all the characters, especially Josie. Her character growth is nonexistent. Starts off with her debt issues and ends with her telling her mom, she’s supposed to be an adult living as a nanny. Disappointed.

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

I ended up not finishing this book. I didn't know a ton going into it, but I loved the idea of the main character going into stories! But the first time she falls into a book, I just couldn't get into it. I ended up skim reading that entire section of the book and honestly didn't feel like I missed anything, which made me feel like the rest of the book wasn't worth reading. I do love Shannon Hale's graphic novels so this was a bit of a disappointment.

I’ve enjoyed Shannon Hale’s works before, and this modern day book started out well. However, when it veered into a totally creepy and ill fitting swerve into a zombie plot, I put it down and went “NEXT!” LITS - life is too short to waste on books that don’t resonate. maybe it will for you, but not me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this read. This was my first time reading a Shannon Hale despite having heard her name and seen her titles before. As an avid reader, I loved the idea of a character falling into the novel she is reading. At times I did find Josie's continuous talking about high school and her accomplishments to be tiresome. It took away from the flow of the story at some points, but overall I still found the novel enjoyable.

A really different kind of story. What happens when you are a big fish in a small pond? When a swim to Broadway is a belly flop! You hide out as a nanny and get lost in a book. Literally. Problem is getting out. Can Josie save herself? Keep her boyfriend? Get a life? Sometimes your just not that big of a deal.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a contemporary YA novel. I love this author and have read many books by her but this book didn't shine quite like some of the others. Main character, Josie, is stuck on herself and her past fame in high school and can't seem to get out of the slump she now finds herself in. While she reads different books, she finds herself in those books and adventure ensues. The writing is ok but the character is shallow. I will continue to read other things by this author for me this book wasn't a favorite.

This is a cute enough story. I like the idea of falling into a book you are reading! Josie has some fun adventures. I did get a little bored towards the end when she was doing all of her life reflecting but it ended fine and I know many teens who will love this one.

I usually write very long, very detailed reviews, but this doesn't deign a long response or a kind response. No less than 14 times within the first 20% does the main character mention "being a big deal" or thinking that she was a "big deal." I get that we name books after the overall theme, But it's horrible and annoying to hear such a narcissistic MC think of herself as a "Big Deal" so frequently. I really don't understand. If we knew a person like that in real life, we wouldn't want to be friends with them because we'd be so annoyed and pissed and would just end the friendship immediately. She starts random conversations with people and begins to talk about how much of a big deal she was before she stops herself. People don't do that. I've never met a single person be that caught up in their past popularity that they bring it up in every conversation. She seems totally normal, like every other teenager with everything else she does, so clearly it doesn't bother her as much as she thought. There are other ways a story like this could have been written that would have been 10 times better.

My biggest takeaway from KIND OF A BIG DEAL is that it felt like it was one book trying to be too many different things. As the story is about our main character, Josie Pie, being able to jump into stories, this wasn't entirely unexpected. For any type of portal story to work, there needs to be some sort of grounding element that helps hold all the disparate elements together. Unfortunately for this story, the grounding element was how utterly frustrating Josie was as a main character. I found her to be a bland narrator who's really self-absorbed. There was some character growth, thank goodness, but it seemed to all be squished into the last 20% of the book and I'm still not really sure that Josie really learned the lessons the story set out to teach her.

There was a big mismatch between the age of nearly all the characters in this book and the age that it was written for. Josie is eighteen and her peers in the book all seem to also be in their late teens or early twenties. The writing style of the book felt really young, as though it were geared more toward younger teens, and left me feeling jarred. I have nothing against books on either age spectrum of YA but would've preferred if the writing style of the book reflected the age of most of the characters.

The premise was really interesting and kept me entertained enough to keep reading. The investigation about how our fantasies shape how we view ourselves was unlike anything else I've seen in YA and is certainly something I'll be mulling over for a while after finishing this.

When her money comes to a end Josie has to put her dream of being on Broadway on hold and take a nanny job. She has a hard time with not being on Broadway after everyone told her she was so good in High School, so good in fact she left high school early to go to a call and never went back because she was so embarrassed she didn't get the part or any part. When her job takes her to Missoula she doesn't know what to do. when she takes Mia, the girl she nanny's for, to the playground she passes a book store on the way and gets a book and reading glasses. When she starts reading the book she finds herself literally in the book.

This is a cute book with twists and action, not to mention a talking teddy bear. The plot is new and refreshing among young adult books. The characters are the best really, who doesn't like Josie Pie and the books she jumps into are great, I hope everyone will like this as much as I do.

This review will appear on my blog on Aug 25th.

I did not enjoy this. I think Hale is a gifted writer and I have enjoyed things she's written across genres and age groups, but the one area I've consistently disliked her work is YA with a speculative fiction bent. Dangerous was one of the worst books I have read and this wasn't that much better. Josie is boring and nothing about the speculative angle worked for me. Also, all the books she fell into felt the same. Yes, they were written by the same author IRL but something should have been done to make them feel like different books.

Josie dropped out of high school to go after an acting career in NYC. It turns out that her acting skills were not as good as she thought. So she becomes a nanny to Mia and moves to Montana.
In Montana, while out with Mia, Josie stumbles upon a bookstore. When she reads the book she picked up there, she finds herself literally in the story. The more books she reads, the more stories she lives in. But being in these stories does not make her real life problems go away. Josie needs to find a way to solve them and to stay in the normal world.
Opinion
You are going to want to buy this book. Once you read the story, you will want to read it again and again. This book is so well written, with so much attention to detail, that upon the re-readings, you will find yourself having that “ah-ha” moment of understating as to why Ms. Hale included that little piece of the story. As I was finishing up this story, I was reminded about earlier parts that seemed like it was just a fun detail but in all actuality had a greater reason for being included.
What I loved most about the book, however, was not the little details but just the fluid way the story flowed. Ms. Hale is such a powerful storyteller that you can empathize with Josie. You feel as if you are in the stories with her.
I also enjoyed seeing the characters from Josie’s real life end up as the characters in the stories she read. As she read/lived the stories, Josie’s relationships with the characters changed. She became less self absorbed and was able to see the world from other peoples view points. As Josie matured/grew up in these scenes, she began to see what is truly important. This made all the difference at the end of the book.

Loved the story concept - down on her luck actress/nanny falls into the books she is reading. Fun, quick read with a somewhat predictable dash of romance. The book fell down a little bit for me though because the characters are slightly one dimensional and not really empathetic characters.