I found this book really hard to get into. I usually don't mind MC who can be annoying but Pru was extra obnoxious. She was mean and judgmental and I didn't find that her character grew too much during the book. The romance also felt a little off to me. Like there wasn't much of it and I felt there was no spark.

The story starts with Prudence Barnett, an overachiever, and her lazy, annoying, and chronically late lab partner, Quint Erickson, getting a bad grade on their final science project. Pru has an accident later that night which leads to her being granted the ability to cast instant karma on anyone she feels deserves it. Of course Quint deserves it in her eyes, especially since he doesn’t want to help her redo the project over the summer, but every time she tries it backfires. Pru soon learns not everything is as black and white as she thinks it is.
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As soon as I started listening to this audiobook I knew I was going to have a hard time pausing and stepping away. It caught my attention right away and kept me interested the whole time. It was fun to see all the musical references and I really enjoyed all the adorable sea life we learned about.
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Character wise, I feel like Pru was super judgy and self-absorbed, but as the story progressed it was nice to see her finally changing her ways. There were parts where she really was trying to do the right thing but refused to ask for help so it caused a few issues in her personal relationships. I felt this was actually pretty realistic since teenagers rarely ask for help, but it still annoyed me. On the other hand, I really liked Quint’s character right from the beginning and grew to like him even more as the story went on. I enjoyed all of the side characters and their relationships felt very real and not forced. I did feel the romance wasn’t explored as much as I would have liked and took a bit to long to get going.
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Overall this is a great book about learning how others can be going through things they don’t want everyone to know about, and how you should not make judgements before you know their whole story.
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Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

God this was so bad... First. Let's talk about cultural appropriation. Marissa Meyer is a white woman. Prudence was a white girl. Marissa has no business talking about karma and that magic. It's not her place. It's not her culture. I had the same problem with the Lunar chronicles white washing Chinese culture.
Second. Prudence was HORRIBLE. Some people just say she was judgy and a lot of teenagers are like that so it's good to be seen. But that wasn't it. She was dumb. She was judgy. And it was so repetitive that "she was smart". Just no.

This is book is nothing you have read by Marissa Meyer, this YA contemporary, gives us Pru and Quint's story, where they meet as lab partners and they now find themselves having to work together. It was a cute story wanted to see how karma was going to play into the plot and this is the only part I thought it was missing a bit. It was overall a good story, one I heard as I got the audiobook, and the narrator Rebecca Soler did a good job portraying the characters, the edition good as well.

This is such a big deviation from other books I've read and loved by Marissa Meyer.

I found Cinder on a bookshelf in a library 7 years ago, and proceeded to first devour it, then continue on with everything else that she's written. And, although all her books are YA, this one is very contemporary YA.

But if it doesn't have any sci fi elements, there is a bit of magical realism to the text, inherent in that mid-80s way where the main character bumps her head and ends up with temporary magical powers. In this case, it's to inflict good or bad instant karma on those around her.

Prudence is a fairly uptight character and we see only her point of view when it comes to the end of term and she's lumped with a bad grade due to a group project that she has done the majority of the work for. She really doesn't like her group partner, Quint, who she sees as lazy, always running late, and basically only there to be a thorn in her side.

What she doesn't know is anything about his history, why he is late, why he might need passes from school.

Over summer, however, she finds out. What starts as her attempting to redo the group project with him turns into the two of them volunteering at the animal shelter that his mum runs as a nonprofit. She manages to loosen up over such instances as snorkelling and a viewing of Jaws. Quint brings Prudence out of her shell, and the two of them both begin to find redeeming qualities in the other.

I quite liked the element of literal instant karma being given by someone who always thinks they are in the right. It served as a really wonderful way of showing her that maybe her experience and understanding of the world weren't correct as soon as she understood what she was doing and how she was doing it. In addition to Quint's kindness and patience, it allowed her to open her eyes and question what she was doing and the way she was seeing the world in a way that made all the difference as to whether this was a fun story and whether she was a readable character.

Although I didn't love it as much as Marissa's previous books, it was a decent read.

I really wanted to like this book. While it was a step away from Meyer's usual retellings I found the main character Prudence very annoying and self serving. It's like for a good portion of the book she didn't want to even try to give Quint a chance let alone a break. There was also no rhyme or reason to her getting this "power" when it happened so I just mainly felt confused. Hopefully others found it a little easier to swallow.

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!

This book was so much fun! I loved the characters and their relationships they all had with each other. I loved all of the beatles references and I loved the beach town setting.

Prudence was such a fun character, I loved how determined and passionate she was in everything that she did and how she never got discouraged by setbacks. I also loved Quint and how charismatic and sarcastic he was but also how much he cared for all of the sea animals at the rescue center.

I will definitely be reading this book again and could not recommend it enough this book was just so much fun and I loved it so much. I feel like this review doesn't even describe just how much I loved this book.

This was a fun story. I struggled at times connecting with the MC but she had a great character ARC. The narrator was fantastic and overall it was a really fun read.

4.5 stars

I love Marissa’s writing! Whether it’s a sci-fi take on a fairy tale or a cute YA, the writing is always spot on.

Instant Karma was so fun to read, the characters were lovable and this story was actually informative for teens. I loved how she intermingled environmental topics along with a young romance.

I also have to say that the narrator that Marissa uses is fabulous! She did all of the Cinder series as well as this book. She is one of the best narrators out there. She does such an awesome job that you sometimes forget it’s only her on the audio.

Overall I would highly recommend this audio, the narrator, the storyline and the writing are all fantastic!!

I really enjoyed the eARC I read of Instant Karma, so I wanted to listen to the audiobook! While I really enjoyed the narration by Rebecca Soler, I recently learned more about the roots of Karma, and I don't feel comfortable giving a full review for this audiobook.

I absolutely LOVED this book! It took me a minute to get into but once I got a few chapters in, I was immediately in love with the characters. Prudence is the quintessential know it all and the perfect yin to Quint's laissez-faire yang. The classic enemies to lovers trope is one of my favorites and is done in the perfect YA way by Marissa Meyer. This is a book I will be recommending for a while!

I want to start off by saying that contemporary YA is not normally my favorite genre. In fact, I would probably never have picked this book up except that I generally love Marissa Meyer's books. So, it's possible that some of my issues were just because this genre isn't usually my cup of tea.

That being said, this book was okay. It had some really cute parts, and the banter between Quint and Prudence was delightful. And the writing was great!

But I had such a hard time with Prudence at first. She just drove me absolutely insane. I did appreciate that she had a very clear character arc, and there was certainly a lot of development on her part. But I disliked her so much at first that I almost stopped reading.

Also, being a huge fantasy and science fiction buff, I struggled a little with the magic--or, karmic powers. I wanted to know more about them and how they came/went. I know most of that wouldn't necessarily have been important to the plot, but not knowing much about Prudence's powers made i a little harder for me to truly believe in them. All in all, this was a fun read. Once I stopped thinking too deeply about the story and let myself just enjoy two young people learning and growing together, I enjoyed the book a lot more. If you like contemporary YA stories, I think you'd enjoy this book!

Prudence is an overachiever and well slightly controlling when it comes to life and academics. Everything has a plan and she can manage it herself. That is until Quint Erickson stands in her way of a better grade, she may have to rely on Karma. Instant Karma is a heartwarming romantic comedy based on the premise of karma for negative and positive deeds and how these actions can have repercussions in the future. Prudence is an over achiever and wants to control everything and one around her. She wants to prove to herself she can be a models student and get into a great college. Quit is the typical class clown who seems to not give much thought to anyone. What Prudence and Quint lack is the relatability and depth that make great characters. Both do not have much history or tangible qualities or experience the reader can attach to. The karma twist is flimsy and does not hold much weight in the plot. Yet, overall Myer does present a fun and humorous love story, although it could have used a little more depth.

This was a really fun read! I wasn't sure that I was going to like the magical aspect of Prudence having the power to invoke instant karma but it took a back burner in the story and I didn't mind it at all. I listened to it with my 10 and 13 year olds and we all enjoyed it (although the 10 year old groaned a bit at the kissing - LOL). Perfect for lovers of sea life and animal rescue. Lots of great lessons about friendship, how to treat others and the importance of not jumping to conclusions.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a pre-release of this novel. My review is voluntary and all opinions are my own.

I was eager to read this one as I love many books by Marissa Meyer. This was a great change to read a contemporary with a little but of magical realism. Overall the book is super cute and super fun, the characters are my favorite part! They are well developed and change and learn and grow throughout the book, that doesn't always happen so I love it when it happens!
I will say that at the beginning I found Prudence a little annoying. She wouldn't listen to anyone and just kept doing things her way anyways. However because of that wonderful character development it all turns around. The only other thing that was slightly off putting was that it felt like there was a lot going on, there was only about 2 hours left in the audiobook and it felt like we were going to have to rush to resolve everything.
The narrator of the audiobook was great, she did a great job of voicing different characters without them sounding cartoonish.
Overall I enjoyed this book because even though you know what is going to happen, it still takes you for a ride to get there!

A rom-com from Lunar Chronicles author Marissa Meyer? Yes, please!

However, this book only gets 2 stars from me because of the unexpected, but brief, foul language.

Otherwise, this was a really cute high school romance to read. It has everything one wants for a summertime fling. Snorkeling. Saving injured animals. The Beatles. And some pretty fun karma to unleash upon the world.

Actually, I listened to the audiobook and I'm definitely a fan of it because Rebecca Soler narrates it (who also narrated the Lunar Chronicles series. So that made it all the more fun.)

I have enjoyed all of Marissa Meyer's books, and that still rings true here. I did, however, feel the book was trying to do too much. The title Instant Karma is in reference to when the main character, Prudence, is gifted with the power to cast instant karma on the people around her. This plotline seems to only be the subplot instead of the driving plot point. Instead, I feel like the power was used as a way to give Prudence some character development. The read heart of the story lies in Prudence coming to care for something other than herself through her volunteer work at the Animal Rescue.

I found Prudence to be an unlikeable character as opposed to pretty much every other character. liked Quint, but in comparison to Prudence who actually had some character development throughout the book, found him to be one dimensional. She had all the flaws to work through and he had all the likeability.

With those notes in mind, this was a really fun read, perfect for the beach. This was also Meyer's first contemporary novel and although, not my favorite of her works, had her signature touch of world-building. I love the way she really built up this small coastal town, and you could tell that all the people were living lives of their own, and with struggles of their own.

There was absolutely nothing about this book that I did not love! I cannot express how much I love that feeling, too. When you start a book and it is going great and you begin to love it more and more through every chapter!! I live for that feeling.

Instant Karma is all about an overachieving sophomore named Prudence, who is just trying to finish up the last couple of days of her school year. When she gets an undesirable grade for a marine life project with her underachieving partner, the ever smiling Quint, she is infuriated at the injustice of it all. The only way she can get a redo of the assignment is if she and Quint can agree and work together.

Later that night at her favorite hangout spot (a spot where Quint is there once again, annoying Prudence even more) she falls and hits her head. Soon afterward, she starts to notice that she might just have an unbelievable control over instant karma and she uses her newfound "power" to right injustices all over the place.

Aside from this new development, she decides to head over to the local marine rescue center and see if there is any more that she can learn for her project. What she doesn't expect is for Quint to work there or for his mother to own it... The two decide to make a deal, which involves Prudence actually volunteering her time and participating in all they do at the rescue center - in turn for Quint's participation in the redo of the project.

Over the course of the summer, Prudence learns a lot. Not only does she find she actually loves volunteering at the center, but she may not hate Quint as much as she thought. The more they get to know each other, the harder it is to dislike each other. Also, she must maneuver through her new power, applying it when needed. The magical realism plot in this was super fun.

This was an unbelievable amount of fun to listen to. The narration was amazing, doing a top notch job at bringing so much life to Prudence. I have to give a lot of the credit of my pure love for Pru's character to the narrator. Normally, I don't grow so attached to type a characters in books, as they tend to totally annoy me. But I fell in love with her character and wanted her to grow and flourish.

And Quint!!! Oh how I loved his character. There was just so much to him. He was always smiling and always happy just being nice to people. He was adorable. I loved the marine life aspect of this story. There was so much love in it! The supporting characters were all great - even some that rub the wrong way at first, round out nicely by the end. The story progression in this was great. Seeing Pru and Quint get to know each other and realize that they may have been wrong to dislike one another was beautiful. And the whole last 2 hours of this had me almost on the edge of my seat. I will admit I cried for the sweet and sad teenage love and injustice. It was all just so good! Also, it should be noted that all of The Beatles references added a lot of fun to this story!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC of this audiobook!

Wow, this was such a cute little romance / sudden detective story! I really enjoyed the snark and wit between Prudence and Quint. I had a feeling I knew exactly what was going to happen...it played out kind of like a Hallmark movie regarding predictions BUT I am not complaining because I love a good Hallmark movie, haha.

I wish there had been more about Prudence and her family, we only touched on the struggle and life of a large family and financial struggles. I feel like we should have ended with a welcoming speech to an event for the record store or something that really wrapped it up nicely. Overall though, loved it!