Thank you to NetGalley, Marissa Meyer, Rebecca Soler, and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to Instant Karma in exchange for an honest review.

I am pretty sure I have listened to books narrated by Rebecca Soler before. She does a wonderful job with narration and really adds character to Prudence's voice, along with flavoring up the other characters quite well.

This story is quite fun and enjoyable as well. I am usually not drawn to stories that lack fantasy and dragons and magic and such, but this is Marissa Meyer, who I greatly admire, so I certainly had to give it a shot. I am glad I did.

Prudence is assigned to do a major science project with Quint, who she finds to be lazy and unreliable. They certainly don't get along well, and when Prudence gets a less-than-satisfactory grade on the project, she asks for a redo. Begrudgingly, Quint complies. Prudence ends up doing volunteer work at Quint's non-profit sea animal rescue.

Okay, so what about the book title? Well, at the end of the school year, Prudence joins some friends at Karaoke. When she passes out and hits her head, she finds the next day she is able to bestow instant karma upon those who do something not-so-nice.

This book is quirky with a great element of environmental awareness and subtle romance woven in. I highly enjoyed every moment of this book, and was rather invested. Rebecca Soler is a great narrator that definitely kept me engaged, and of course Marissa Meyer is a brilliant author. This audiobook is just a great combination of craft crating a book (and audiobook) that I would highly recommend to teens and suggest old-time fans of Marissa Meyer definitely give this one a try.

Narrator: 5 star
Book: 4.5 star

Super cute high school romance. Freaky Friday & To All The Boys vibes. I loved that our main character grew through the story. There were parts where I was frustrated with her but I had to remind myself she is just a kid.

Sweet, fun, coming of age story that is perfect for a quick read! The audiobook was fantastic. The narrator did a great job throughout the whole book.

This book was enjoyable and cute and I enjoyed the animal rescue aspect of it. The idea of a family named after Beatles songs was super fun. The audiobook narration was fine overall. I didn't completely connect with the characters though and sometimes that happens with YA books as a 30-something-year-old but I would gladly share this book with a teenage daughter content wise.

I received an advanced audiobook copy of Instant Karma through NetGalley, so I could share my review with you!

Prudence Daniels has very specific ideas about right, wrong, and what should happen to people who fall on the wrong side of things. As an overachiever with extremely high standards, she doesn’t understand why everyone else can’t just do what they’re supposed to. So when Prudence gains the ability to impart instant karmic justice on those around her in a freak accident, she is absolutely delighted. At last, she can make people pay for all their indiscretions the way the universe intended. But, for some reason, her powers don’t work on the one person she would most like to punish, Quint Erikson. Quint, Prudence’s slacker lab-partner and the bane of her existence, is immune to Prudence’s instant karma. Prudence might finally be giving people what she thinks they deserve, but what if the world is more complicated than she thought. If every complicated action has a karmic response, where should the lines be drawn between right and wrong?

You can get your Instant Karma audiobook on November 3rd from Macmillan Audio!

Marissa Meyer is one of the most popular sci-fi and fantasy authors around these days, so I was more than a little excited to read her first foray into contemporary writing! At first, I found Prudence to be a bit grating, but that gave her room to grow over the course of the novel. There were more than a few moments when I, as a similarly obsessive student, could relate to Prudence’s struggles with group projects and less-than-perfect grades. I especially enjoyed listening to the audiobook version! Rebecca Soler is one of my favorite narrators (primarily from the Caraval series), so I was very excited to hear her interpretation of Prudence! I thought she brought the perfect energy to Prudence, speaking her narrative in a way that was clear and thoughtful.

My Recommendation-
If you like contemporary stories with a twist of magical flair, you won’t want to miss out on Instant Karma! This book would be a good pick for fans of John Green’s romantic writing style or for those who love the opposites-attract trope!

I picked this up because I absolutely adore Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series. And guess what? It did not disappoint! While it’s not the greatest book in the universe, I really enjoyed it. That’s what it all comes down to, isn’t it?

It’s cute and endearing if a tad predictable. Great beach read or a good listen for a road trip. Yes, our main character Prudence is self-centered and judgemental, but she wants to be better. In fact, she does try to be better and even learns some life lessons over the course of the plot.

Now, it’s fairly obvious in some places what will happen. The novel follows a fairly standard rom-com narrative with introducing the couple, them finalizing realized what we’ve known all along (they like each other!), some sort of fight/split, and a reunion at the end. Don’t let that spoil it for you!

The things I loved:

Prudence learning that her judgemental attitude is not serving her as well as she thought, and her judgments are often wrong and hurtful.
The sea rescue!
Quint – until I didn’t.
The narrator – I listened to the audio version and felt she did a great job.
Things I didn’t love:

The obvious way Prudence was doing things wrong, but that was part of her journey, I suppose necessary for the book to happen.
The instant karma device – I’m not sure it was necessary, but I guess it worked ok? Also, it would be something kind of cool to have personally, but Prudence just didn’t get it for almost the entire book.
Overall, as mentioned at the start, this is a great beach read, or for any day when you don’t want to read something serious or heavy.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley.com or a free advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Instant Karma
by Marissa Meyer
Very surprised at the remarkable nature of this book, similar to Madeleine L'Engle's books. Like the Austin Family books. Looking at the small sea shore town and protecting the animals, and protecting sea life. I listened to the book, struggling like Prudence with learning how life pays you back for your intentions and behaviors. The book will be remarkable to help teach young students about animal rescues, and taking responsible to help their areas. Its a great inspirational book for middle school about how you can change things in your area for the betterment of your town, school and world.

I was excited to see Instant Karma the audiobook pop up on my NetGalley shelf. This book stars lab partners Pru and Quint. The two couldn’t be more different Pru is a chronic overachiever who is never without a minimum five point plan and a binder. Quint is more go with the flow and is okay with being late if something important comes up. They live in the beautiful seaside town of Fortuna Beach, California.

I was excited to see a book categorized as a teen and ya romance offered as an audiobook! Are teens into audiobooks now? It’s my first time listening to one of these, I enjoyed it and think my younger self would have loved it. I will say I had a hard time liking Pru in the first half of the books. She felt uptight and mean. She grew on me and I appreciated her work effort, but I wasn’t rooting for her in the beginning. I wonder if this was the character or the benefits of growing up from an uptight overachiever like Pru to a more mellow adult.

I've had some hits and misses from Marissa Meyer over the years, and I have to say that her newest release, INSTANT KARMA is right down the middle for me. I honestly just didn't really enjoy the characters, Prudence was judgemental and very type a. But I did enjoy her development and c9me to appreciate her. I thought Pru's relationship with Quint was fun and kept me on my toes.

This has to be one of the sweetest, most feel good, had me smiling the entire time books I've ever read.
I don't read many books that make me smile for all 14 hours, but Instant Karma did just that.

Quint and Prudence are a riot. And all the supporting characters are fun and bring such life to the story.

I wanted to crawl into this story and live there.
I wanted to help at the rescue center.
I wanted to work on a school project--and I loathe school projects.

Seriously, if you want a feel-good, smile like a loon, have a good time kind of book, Instant Karma is for you.

The premise of this is so much fun! To have the ability to give people instant karma would be awesome, I'm so jealous. Although, it really could go bad quickly and we see some evidence of that here. Prudence is pretty judgmental and doesn't give anyone the benefit of the doubt. She's quick to use her karma powers for punishments that people may not really deserve. Luckily, we see her learn that not everything is as it appears and she matures quite a bit.

Quint is an adorable character, he's so optimistic and always helping others out. He puts up with Prudence pretty well, not letting her get under his skin often. As we learn about him, we see that he's a great son, worker, and friend. I'm glad he pushed back against Prudence and challenged her views.

Some of the people getting karma were deserved and made me laugh. Don't pick up after your dog poops and then you step right in it lol. That's what we need in this world!

The audiobook was cute and I enjoyed the narration. Definitely a fun read.

I received an audiobook copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This was such a fun cute read. It was perfect to escape from our current reality. I loved the characters and thought the all had great depth and development. I loved all of the quirks they each had. I liked the Pru wasn't immediately the most likeable character. She really grew on me though. Her growth throughout the book was really great. The one thing I didn't like was the predictability of the big conflict. I knew what was coming and then even when it was confirmed, Pru didn't know and I really dislike knowing stuff the main character doesn't. Other than that it was really cute read! I also really thought the narrator did a fantastic job!

I'm going to keep this short because I hate negative reviews, but alas, I have a lot of negative thoughts.

This book makes me sad because Marissa Meyer is one of my favorite authors, but man did I not connect with the main character in this book. I like the idea of two people who don't get along forced to work together and finding depth in one another, but I didn't see any personal growth at all with the main character. She didn't really change her ways at all. I felt like instead of growth, the reader was to understand why she was the way she was and be okay with it. And I'm not okay with it. She was judge-first, never ask for forgiveness.

The thing that saved this book for me were the sea animals! I loved learning more about places that help return sick animals to the sea and the process that goes with it. And the counter-part to Prudence was really sweet and I actually ended up liking him a lot. Quint was a good guy from the start and I adored him.

I just... I need character growth instead of acceptance from the reader. When a character's arc is flat, I don't enjoy it as much. This is just my personal opinion though and I will still forever read anything by Marissa Meyers. Everything else by her I have super enjoyed!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ALC of Instant Karma in exchange for an honest review.

I knew I needed this audiobook the moment I saw Rebecca Soler was narrating. Listening to Instant Karma was like being reunited with an old friend, and I absolutely loved the experience. Rebecca Soler is always an A+ in my book.

Moving onto the story though & I have some mixed feelings. It's cute, it's fun & I love the Animal Rescue setting. However, I had some major issues with Instant Karma & a lot of it has to do with there being too much in this book.

First of all, there is barely any point in giving Prudence siblings (outside of Jude) because they barely play a role in this story, besides showing that their parents named them all after songs from The Beatles. That's it, that's the only reason they're there & 99% of the time, I forgot they existed.

& then we have so many side stories that serve zero purposes to the story. Pick! One! Thing! & throw in one or two subplots, but gosh, this had so much going on and the story felt like it was dragging so much because of it. I really thought it was never going to end.

Moving on, we have the karma aspect of Instant Karma -- which I kept forgetting about, until Prudence is randomly like, "you know what! Let's throw some karma at people!" So, that will happen for a little bit & then we fall back into forgetting about her power, because of the other things that are happening in this book.

& to finish off my Instant Karma rant, which I really didn't have planned until I started writing this out, it's so hard to vibe with Prudence. I understand ~character flaws~ & I understand that she's a teenager & whatever, so I'm not going to shoot her down too badly but I just want to give readers a heads up that she's a struggle to deal with & she'll most likely annoy the heck out of you.

I'll start out saying that I have 5-starred all of Marissa's books. I devour everything this woman writes with veracity and no shame. This book was no different. From the first second we meet No Nonsense Prudence, I was IN LOVE! Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes and with this cute little taste of magical realism, I'm smitten. The complex quirky characters are fantastic, the setting itself can stand alone as a character, and all of the cute-funny situations she ends up in keep the plot moving. Fantastic, cute, fuzzy read!

This is another book I both read and listened to on audiobook. I did notice more differences between the two versions than I did in other books for which I have done this. I have to say that I read a lot of young adult books, but I don't read a lot of young adult romance books. And this one was partially a romance book. That was the only part of the book that made me feel a little too old. The rest was a mix of other genres like young adult and a little bit of sci-fi. I say a little bit because it was almost as if the "power" Prudence gains early on is an afterthought.

What is to like in this? The town. I love the little California coastal town. There was a nice little balance to it that is often missed when I read depictions of my home state. Having grown up in small towns in California, both coastal and mountain, I often cringe when reading about my state. The people are friendly but not overly "dude"-ish. Small towns are hard to really depict because it seems like everyone knows everyone. It is just not true. There are cliques but there are still strangers. I thought this was written well.

What else? The friends. Jude, brother or friend, was under-seen. I know it is a cliche, but the twins spent very little time together. Ari was sweet and supportive. High school kids are often written as fitting in or not fitting in and my experience with them is that it is not that simple. I loved that Quint was not just some popular kid that everyone loved while Prudence was some awkward brainy girl. She got up and sang! Not every smart high school girl in every book would have done that. Most would not have.

And? The ocean. I'm confessing here. I am not a huge fan of the beach. I grew up near the beach and far prefer the mountains. Between tourists and sand I just don't see the appeal. But the ocean is really important in this story. I love the actual ocean. I love ocean life. Watching Prudence learn about the ocean life around her was touching and informative.

Anything else? The crime. It's in there and the culprit was a little obvious to me, and I cringed knowing who was going to be blamed well before anyone knew there was a crime committed, but it was a nice little thing in the middle of everything else.

Overall, this story was pretty simple and there were no surprises. Surprises weren't the point. If I did have to pick a con it would be that Prudence was a little too judgmental and more than a little annoying. From the beginning you could tell that she was wrong. The only other thing was the karma thing. It wasn't even necessary. I forgot about it most of the time and then she would suddenly decide to "punish" someone. If I had to say, I would put it all in her active imagination.

This book was absolutely adorable! I felt myself smiling the whole way through. I couldn’t stop reading and devoured it so quickly! I absolutely loved Prudence and Quint’s banter and I loved their relationship growth. It felt so natural and just so cute! This book had me feeling all the feels and I cannot praise it any more!

Overall: While instant karma maybe cool, this is a bit overwritten for my taste.

Pros:
Karma. Powers. Okay, let’s be fair, Marissa Meyer has always been able to craft magic for her worlds. The ability to cast instant karma on people is no exception.
The audiobook narrator, Rebecca Soler. Those who have listened to Marissa Meyer’s works on audio before will recognize this narrator whose voice seems to go well with her work.

Cons:
Prudence is an awful main character. I understand judgment is part of her qualities; however, it’s overkill without the right amount of payoff.
The overwriting. I think it has become clear after reading all of Marissa Meyer’s published works that she has a tendency to overwrite some of her scenes.
This is just too long. I was hesitant when I saw this young adult contemporary romance listed as 400 pages. Unfortunately, it is too long for the story to breath properly.

This was fantastic. 4.5 stars. I think it maybe could've been a tad shorter and still got the message across, but otherwise, I loved this. Rebecca Soler is one of my favorite narrators, so I was stoked to see that she was narrating this one, and she didn't let me down. I love this kind of contemporary with a twist of magic or sci-fi, in this case Pru's titular instant karma power. It's not delved into too deeply, it just *is* and then the rest of the story feels very classic YA contemporary. The enemies-to-lovers vibes were fantastic, and Pru is complex and learns her own lessons as she doles out cosmic justice. It was exactly what I wanted out of this one.

Prudence has an overinflated sense of self worth. Quint, her lab partner, seems to not be bothered to do any work. When a group project blows up in her face (she got a C!), she needs to convince Quint to work over the summer to get a better grade. After she fell and hit her head at Karoke night, Pru realizes that something is weird about her.
Opinion
I listened to the audiobook version and loved the flow of the story. The narrator did a flawless reading of it.
The story overall was super cute. Two enemies turned friends and then more? How can you go wrong with this. I also love that Quint accuses Pru of something serious only to later find out that it wasn't her. Pru is the one who had to figure out who did it but it made the story so much more interesting.
The two characters learned so much about themselves and each other along the way. Character growth was clearly evident and it was heart warming to see these two, Pru and Quint, become more accepting. The characters (main and sub) became a part of me as I read the book and I certainly wanted to learn more about them.
I am really interested in what happened with Jude, Pru's brother, and her parents store afterwards. Please tell me there is another book coming out! I have to know.
If you are looking for a great young adult romance, this one needs to top your list of books to read.

I didn't mind the narration of this book but I am not a fan of the book itself. The main character is beyond annoying and she had few redeeming qualities