I have missed Marissa's worlds that I am able to jump into full force and be immersed in all the action and emotions of the characters. You get to know Prudence and Quint quite quickly as lab partners along with their quirks that make them clash. But how Marissa builds this story, their difference layers unravel and my heart warmed up and smiled for how their story played out. There are many great messages within Instant Karma for us as people in a world of needs and connection to hear. The plot flowed smoothly and the climax was well timed. As all of Marissa's novels, I wasn't ready to leave Pru and Quint but the book was well-rounded and important life lessons were learned. What an interesting and great read!

This book is ADORABLE! I love everything by this author and this one is no exception! Marissa Meyer's first contemporary young adult novel tells the story of Prudence (named for the Beatles song, "Dear Prudence") who faces disappointment when a science project doesn't get the grade she thinks she deserves. Over the summer, Prudence volunteers at a local sea life animal rescue, along with her science partner, Quint, and creates a program to help the rescue center get more help and donations. She hopes this work will help her science grade improve. Prudence is also given the power of "Instant Karma" where she can enact karma on others by simply willing it. Confusions and chaos follow this new power as sparks fly between Prudence and Quint. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves ya, romantic stories, or contemporary novels. Very fun!

I had to DNF this book at 20%. The audiobook narrator was great, but the story was bad. Pru, the main character, has to be one of the most negative characters I've read in a book in a long time. She was whiny and unlikeable and absolutely acted like she was entitled to whatever she wanted. To give her the power to pass out instant karma just felt like giving the bad guy a really powerful weapon. Maybe the book gets better, but honestly I couldn't handle 11+ more hours of the audiobook. I'm so sad because I love Marissa Meyer and this book was just such a disappointment. I do hope she tries YA contemporary romance again, but maybe just don't make the hero of your story the villain.

Contemporary romance and I just haven’t been getting along recently, at least with arcs. I did have high expectations with this one because I really loved Meyer's book Cinder (and need to continue the series) but this book feels like it was written by another author. Points for the cute cover though!

Prudence suddenly gets the power of being able to grant instant karma on those who deserve it. I wasn’t a fan of Prudence, if anything I thought she should get some instant karma against her for her behavior. She is selfish, annoying, judgmental, and thinks she is better than everyone else. Eventually she changes but by then it was too late for me, I thought she was just too unbearable.

The enemies to lovers could have been cute but Prudence is beyond rude to Quint when he would just mind his business and if he would make a mistake she wouldn’t really allow him to speak. She only cared about herself and her own feelings. I actually liked Quint and Prudence’s brother Jude. All the characters except for Prudence herself were likable.

My other problem was that the concept of instant karma is basically forgotten around the 40% mark of the book and focuses on Quint and Prudence working together at the wild life center. This is where it focuses on the love interest instead but because of that, a whole plot line is basically forgotten about. Eventually it does tie in together but because the book is 400 pages, it gets a bit muddled. I did like learning about the sea life and the southern California setting but it just wasn't enough for me.


Thank you to Netgalley and to Macmillan Audio for granting me access to an advanced audiobook of this book! The narrator did a good job at bringing the characters to life.

This book was extremely high on my want list. Marissa Meyer is one of my all time favorites. So anything from her is a must have.

That being said this book suffered from way to long syndrome. Pru was insufferable through the first 60-70% of the story. It made it hard to get through. I considered DNFing a few times. I do love a sort of coming around story. Watching the character grow and change by the end. The premise was great. I loved the ending and the romance. If she had cut out about 30% of the first half this would have been an easy five stars. I would still recommend reading it!

Rebecca is one of my favorite narrators. She did a great job bringing the characters to life. The voice she gave Pru is the exact voice I pictured for her. Her narration made it way easier to get through the slow parts of the story. With the lulls and the struggles to get through the first half, had I been reading and not listening I most likely would have quit. She gets five stars for performance.

Overall the story is three stars for me.
Narration is five stars.

FEEDBACK
Instantly I am immediately invested into this book because I am a sucker for enemies to lovers – and oh my, are Prudence and Quint enemies in the beginning. Prudence is an overachiever so much that she never allowed Quint to participate in their huge Biology project, if he would have even showed up to work on it. Right away, it was obvious that there was something more to Quint being late than Pru was leading on. It was amazing to see what it was about Quint though that made him “unreliable” during the school year. The beginning of this book, I will admit, was a little hard to get through. Prudence is determined to do their project over again to get a better grade but in her own way. This was hard to get through because it was very obvious how wrong Prudence is about a lot of things. Sure, she is good and planning, outlining, and presenting but the issue was that if it wasn’t her idea or her way – it wouldn’t even be talked about. This was meant to be frustrating because of how the story goes but it just made it a little hard to push through. Along with this, Pru suddenly is able to unleash “instant karma” on those who are deserving it. Again, during the beginning this was a little hard to get through also because it was Pru’s sense of karma. Some of the people did deserve it but there was some that could have let slide. What I did like though, was when she tried to use it on someone who really didn’t deserve it – nothing happened to them. I really liked this concept and thought it was unique. The instant karma definitely brought a fun aspect (if not annoying at times) to the story and certain events definitely would not have taken place without it.

Prudence was definitely a character that had to grow on you. In the beginning, she is a huge brat. If it wasn’t done her way then it wasn’t getting done at all. While I can appreciate her wanting to do everything to succeed, it came off the wrong way in times. At the beginning, like I said earlier, it was very clear that there was something more to Quint’s story than what Pru was perceiving. During their exchanges it was sometimes tough not to yell at the book for Prudence to shut up and just listen. However, once you reach about halfway, she really starts to change. Pru is still very much the control freak, but she starts to reign the control in and open herself up to other ideas. I really liked this because it was realistic. There are people out there who are very controlling and no matter what it is done their way. But once these people realize that their way might not always be the best, then do they truly succeed. And if Prudence didn’t open herself up to Quint and his ideas, then she would have never been as successful. I also loved the relationship buildup between Prudence and Quint. It felt like it was never rushed and the buildup was perfect. It was great to see Quint’s personality rub off on Prudence and watch how they honestly brought the better parts of each other out. When I was getting close to the end, I didn’t want Prudence and Quint’s story to end – I felt like it was only beginning.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer was a fun contemporary romance story with a little bit of cosmic justice thrown in. While the beginning was a little hard to get through, it is well worth the push. The story overall was just so much fun and I really had a difficult time putting the book down because I wanted to know what had happened next. Prudence was absolutely a tough character to follow in the beginning but I loved watching her progress into a better person without losing her personality. Quint, Ari, and Jude were fantastic characters to really help mold Prudence into one of the best version of herself. I highly recommend this story if you are looking for a contemporary romance novel that has a lot of growth, sprinkled with some amazing animals and enemies to lovers – I mean how can you not turn that down?

AUDIO REVIEW
NOTE: The narration does not affect my rating of the book
I really like Rebecca Soler’s narration. The first book I listened to her narrate was City of Bones and I thought she did a fantastic job. While she doesn’t have a huge range of voice alterations, she still does a great job. I would absolutely recommend this on audio if you are thinking about it. She really brings the characters alive and helps the beginning of the novel a lot!

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy of this audiobook.

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer is a very well written young adult romance. The book combines a little touch of magical karma, teen romance, and a really interesting back drop of the marine wildlife rescue. I loved how the book had teens volunteering and helping out in the community.

The character development in the book was excellent. The heroine in the book, Prudence, is a little difficult to like, but she does really grow throughout the book. I like how she comes to a self realization and tries to make adjustments to her behavior throughout.

I highly recommend this to anyone who loves movies like Dolphin Tale or other stories involving marine mammals. For me, that is what really made this book shine. So much so that I'm going to make my daughter listen to it next!

NARRATION: The narrator 0n this one does a fantastic job. She really brings Prudence to life while also capturing a multitude of different personalities in supporting characters, from teenagers, to parents, to senior citizens.

This is a new young adult contemporary romance novel and Marissa Meyer's first foray into this genre. It is an enemies to lovers story, which also has a superpower and a mystery in the mix.

Our main character Prudence gets a C on her biology project and all because she and her lab partner Quint were unable to work together. Prudence is determined to re-do the project over summer, but to do that she needs to learn to get along with Quint. In addition, she suddenly gets an ability to deal karmic justice to anyone who she witnesses being cruel, rude or unfair.

I ended up really enjoying this story. It is light, heart-warming and funny. I got an advanced audiobook copy, and my only complaint is that when I sped up the audio above 1.0x, the quality of sound goes down: it sounds as though two people are speaking at the same time.

Overall, 5 out of 5 stars. The book will hit the shelves on Tuesday, November 3.

This is my first by this author. I read the blurb and thought it sounded riotous, downloaded the audiobook and only then did I scroll down and see it is a YA book. I haven’t been a YA person in…forever! So I listened anyway thinking what do I have to lose while walking the dog and maybe this could be added to the gift list for my nieces and friends age appropriate daughters. So glad I listened. This was a terrific book as was the narration. Who amongst us hasn’t once wish we could harness the power of karma or at the very least been there to watch as karma “took someone down”? This was well written, witty, filled with some teenage angst and lots of drama, bullying, friendships, learning how to be brave and step out of your comfort zone, the feelings of not fitting in, being judgmental and judged, being blamed for things you’ve not done, not getting credit for things you have and learning to navigate the world with all kinds of feelings that are new to your experience. Family dynamics explored, friendships tested and the beauty of learning to say I’m sorry and being able to forgive are what make up this terrific tale. A major lesson, if there is one to be gleaned is that with great power comes great responsibility and learning to handle that is never an easy road regardless of your age. And lots and lots of cute animals being rescued. Doesn't get any better.

I loved Meyer’s “Lunar Chronicles” and went to a book signing last year where she talked about this book and I was hooked!
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If I were to narrow this book down to one word it’s “snark” Meyer’s humor is on point in this YA Romance.
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Prudence is unfortunately partnered with Quint as lab partners. It’s been a year of disappointment and now it’s the second to last day of the school year and they need to present their culminating project and who doesn’t bother to show up? Quint. Prudence steams ahead and presents only to get an unacceptable grade and tries to fix it. The teacher will but only if she works on it with Quint.
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Prudence reads Quint’s report and was surprised to see he had interviewed someone. Thinking that maybe she can also interview this person for fixing her grade, Prudence didn’t realize it would change her life. She finds herself at the aquatic animal rehabilitation center (which she didn't realize existed) and gets roped into volunteering. This center is a major part of the book and I loved that! Yay for saving animals!
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Karaoke is not for the faint of heart, performing is half as important as how you sing. Prue takes a tumble and knocks her head, then she finds she holds cosmic power and can grant people good karma and bad karma except it doesn’t seem to work on Quint. Hey universe! Probably shouldn’t hand the reigns of handing out justice to a teenager. 😂
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This was an entertaining book full of teenage drama and again - snark! Prudence really grew over the summer and I loved all the conservation efforts with the facts dropped throughout.
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This book releases on November 3rd and you won’t want to miss it! Thank you to the publisher and net galley for the audiobook that I was able to enjoy.
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Note: Some mild language.

It’s 2020. I’ll take a full pound of sugar with a side of saccharine. Or so I thought. I was ready for this book. Pumped. And then it took so long to develop the main conflict. And then some of the characters felt one-dimensional. And then the dialogue rang inauthentic. When it’s all said and done, it was the one-dimensional characters for me. I just wasn’t invested. The narrator saved the day with her crisp, clear voice that conveyed emotion and adolescence well.

This may be good for a summer beach read. The tropes will be familiar and light-hearted. The narrator is solid, so it’s not a total loss!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
I literally shrieked when I got this advanced reader. My daughter and I are both huge Marissa Meyer fans, and we were sold on this book when Marissa read the 1st two chapters on Instagram months ago. We have been eagerly awaiting it's release ever since then.
We received the audiobook version, and it was so well done. Rebecca Soler is just amazing, and one of my favorite audiobook narrators. She did not disappoint in this book at all.
Neither did Meyers. The concept was unique and intriguing. I loved that, at times you were rooting against or at least annoyed with Prudence, but in the best way. I highly recommend this fantastic ya novel.

With thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook, all opinions expressed here are my own.

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer was a fun, feel good contemporary read. It is a completely different style of book to any I’ve read by this author previously but definitely an enjoyable read. Rebecca Soler did a great job narrating, the characters were well written, the storyline made you feel for them and it was fun. Not heavy, a recommended read for when you’re looking for something lighter but with meaning.

A solid 4 stars.

This is one of those books that I really wanted to like but I just never did. I have a difficult time being in Prudence's head. She was just really unlikable and extremely judgemental. She never really grew throughout the entire novel. Also, Quint didn't work for me as a love interest. He was critical of Prudence and her motives every time they interacted. Plus, the final conflict, to me, wasn't something you could easily forgive someone for. There were a few cute moments and some readers may really enjoy it but I was not one of those readers.

After falling and hitting her head after a karaoke performance at a local bar & grill, Prudence Daniels discovers she has the power to dole out karmic retribution to people she finds doing wrong. And if anyone deserves a bit of karmic payback, Prudence feels like it's none other that her lab partner Quint Erikson. Quint's penchant for unreliability when it came to working on their final project cost Prudence the A she felt she deserved after being forced to do most of the work by herself. Unfortunately, Quint is the one person Prue's gift doesn't seem to work on. But she's determined to complete an extra credit assignment over the summer to bring up her grade. The catch is, she needs to work on it with Quint.

Quint agrees, but only on the condition that Prue volunteer at his mother's non-profit ocean-life rescue shelter for two weeks. Prue figures it's worth it if she can earn that A she so rightly believes she deserves. But once she starts working and sees all the good the shelter is doing, then sees that they're struggling financially, Prue makes it her goal to make the shelter a success. She'll discover what it means to look past the surface to see what's underneath.

Instant Karma is Marissa Meyer's first foray into contemporary. While it does skew a little towards the Y side of YA in terms of the fact that the main characters are in the 15-16 age range just completing sophomore year in high school, I found it to be one of those reads that can be appealing for more than just the target age group. Of course I shouldn't have had any doubts being it's written by Marissa Meyer.

I listened to an audiobook, and it's the first one I've listened to as narrated by Rebecca Soler. I thought that Rebecca Soler did a great job brining Prudence to life. Her voice and inflection was perfect for a character that gets right to the point of a matter, takes on more than she needs to, and is maybe a little more mature seeing as how she's one of the oldest children in a house with five kids (she's part of a twin set). And I thought that Rebecca Soler did great giving the rest of the characters their own voice and personality. When someone new would speak I would know who it was. As I've listened to more audiobooks, I've learned that's not always easily achieved.

I was surprised, however, that as I started reading I wasn't immediately drawn into the story as I have with Meyer's previous books. Then it suddenly clicked: Prudence is not a very likable character. At least, at the start. She's extremely quick to assume or judge. She needs to be in control of pretty much everything, and people who don't also follow her strict work ethic are obviously lazy slackers and not worth Prudence's time. Nowhere is this felt more than when Prue is using her new "gift". The biased way in which Prue is the one to determine right and wrong was frustrating. As clearly no one can possibly live up to her expectations. And if you can't live up to Prue's expectations than you're obviously deserving of a little karmatic payback.

This fact made it a little difficult to get invested in the story at first, but the thing to remember is the story is all about Prudence's journey. As Prue begins to open her eyes a little bit more so did the story begin to pull me in. This is especially highlighted in the interactions between Prue and Quint. The quintessential enemies-to-friends (lovers doesn't feel completely right here so I substitute). They start out the book so at odds with one another, I loved seeing them inch past their preconceived ideas about the other. It's easy to say that Prue is quick to judge and make assumptions, but it's clear too that Quint has made and makes assumptions about Prue as well. Since we only get Prue's point of view, it's easy to point to her as being the difficult one - I mean Quint is painted as a very nice guy who like to help animals and doesn't really seem caught up in , but had we gotten Quint's point of view, I think it would have lessened the overall impact of the growth that Prue goes through over the course of the book.

I guess what I'm trying to say overall is that once I understood the journey we were taking with Prudence, I loved being on it with her. I loved seeing her growth and coming to terms with the insecurities that were the cause of a lot of how she acted towards others. I thought the commentary about right and wrong and who gets to decide and mete out "justice" is an interesting underlying theme that Marissa Meyer handles with care. I enjoyed how everything is weaved together forming cause and effect and how even sometimes our best intentions don't go how we plan, or maybe look different from someone else's perspective.

I hope we'll get to see more contemporaries from Marissa Meyer, although I'm not quick to leave her fantasy worlds yet, I like when an author is able to branch out and give us something different and unexpected.

Instant Karma is Marissa Meyer's first venture into YA contemporary, and I thought it was very good! I do think this may be a polarizing book because our main character is "unlikeable" and female, and apparently people expect 15 year old girls to be nice and very mature. Well, having been an overachiever who thought I knew everything myself, I found Prudence to be incredibly relatable. Maybe I didn't get the cosmic ability to bestow good and bad karma on people, but aside from that the teen me had a lot in common with her. And if I did have that ability? I probably would have been kind of petty about it too, being so sure my black and white sense of morality was the correct one. So yeah, I enjoyed this and found it to be a very believable characterization. Is she selfish, judgmental and blind to her own flaws? Yep! But honestly, so were many of us at that age.

In addition, we get a great enemies-to-lovers romance and lots of cute aquatic animals being rescued. I thought this was charming and had strong arcs of character development. The other think I loved about this was the depiction of Prudence's family. We rarely get big families on the page depicted believably, but this really nailed it. Prudence is a twin and also has three younger sisters with the youngest being 4. As someone who also grew up as the oldest in a large family, I thought the family and sibling dynamics and age-appropriate behavior were perfect.

I really enjoyed this and I think it's going to be a fantastic rom-com for teenagers. Also, the audiobook is very well done! I received an advance audio copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I have read all of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles and loved them! This was definitely a change from those books, but I loved this too! It still had the same ease in the writing that I found and loved in the Lunar Chronicles. I did miss the fantastical element in this one. While I thought the concept and little bit of magic in Prudence's instant karma power was interesting and fun, it almost seemed unnecessary. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the progression of Pru and Quint's story and found myself looking forward to having to drive somewhere (as I mostly listen to audio books while I am driving). It is a good thing that I have to commute to work because it gave me an excuse to listen to hours of this a day! I did occasionally find Pru annoying because of her judgements, and occasionally found Quint to be frustrating because he didn't try to understand Pru at the beginning either, but I definitely related to elements of both characters and it was a lot of fun to watch them develop throughout the story. This was a sweet story and the audio book narrator was fantastic! I really enjoyed listening to this and will definitely be interested to read more like this from Marissa Meyer!

I received this as an eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for giving me access.

More like 2.5 stars. Not bad enough to be 2 but also not good enough to get a 3 from me.

I wanted to love this book. I wanted to love it so much. After all, Meyer is an auto buy author for me. Problem is, I am not a fan of contemporary reads. Not. At. All. I really tried.

Where to start. I felt that this story was lacking, lacking in an actual plot. It felt as if we were just going through a day in the life of a teenager in high school.....which we all have literally lived. Nothing exciting happened until the very end.

Like I said, contemporary isn't for me, but it may be for you. And if it is, then you might love this book. Unfortunately, I did not.

Instant Karma is a YA cutesy romance definitely geared toward a younger audience. It features Prudence (Pru) a high-intensity, laser-focused, over-achieving high school student who is fixated on furthering her opportunities and adding to her list of accomplishments. She’s single-minded and leaning hard into the judgmental side. Quint, is her “slacker” project partner for science class and her own self-imposed nemesis. He is an earnest young man who spends all of his free time working with his mother at their sea animal rescue center and makes every effort to reach Pru, accept her for who she is, and encourage her to lighten up and have some fun.

As summer hits, Pru finds herself volunteering with Quint at the rescue center in an attempt to raise her Biology grade. Their enemies to lovers story progresses slowly and oftentimes painfully, but it eventually does emerge and it’s fun to see the personal transition that takes place in Pru’s outlook on life.

Thrown into this romantic mix, almost as a side-note, is Pru’s unexpected ability, after a karaoke incident, to throw instant karma at anyone whom she thinks deserves it. Anyone, except Quint. It’s a rather humorous element, but also only loosely tied to the main plotline.

This story is cute, and has its share of endearing moments, but it’s also a bit silly and again, feels a little young to me. With Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series, I was smitten with her creativity and sci-fi elements alongside her unique characters. So the YA tag wasn’t a factor for me, even though I’m not a young adult. With Instant Karma, however, I was clearly not the target audience and it simply read too young for me.

In Instant Karma, Pru is young and self-centered and lacks the ability, or perspective, to see what really matters in the world around her. It’s a wonder she has maintained a close relationship with her sweet friend and brother. Her counterpart, Quint, is a great guy. He’s very solid with a good head on his shoulders, a kind heart, and his patience is admirable. The sea life is a touching component to the story and really well-researched.

Instant Karma is a really lengthy book and probably could have been condensed, given the content. It’s definitely quirky and has its redeeming qualities in the sea animals and rescue center and the earnestness of Quint and his family. The audio-narration was great, East to understand and a really nice match for the characters. The karma bits of the plot were also unusual and entertaining, but Pru and the story as a whole, didn’t really do it for me.

I loved Marissa Meyer's lunar chronicles series, and I was excited to see this author branch out to contemporary YA. This was such a fun, cute romantic comedy. I hope Marissa Meyer writes more books in this genre.