I enjoyed this YA debut from Casey McQuiston, which has such a fun plot:
Chloe Green is just doing her best to survive senior year of high school while keeping her grades a notch above Shara Wheeler, who is the absolute worst and her only true competition for valedictorian. So, when Shara disappears at prom, leaving behind a trail of kisses and cryptic clues, Chloe is determined to find her and make her own up to all of her wrongs.

As with each of McQuiston’s previous books, this one had me smiling, laughing, and tearing up, while adoring each of the characters (yes, some sooner than others).

It’s a fun ride, while still capturing all the messy, weird, uncomfortable parts of coming of age—especially in a conservative atmosphere where not everyone will be supportive of being your true self (the author provides content warnings in the book/on their website).

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Current number of combined highlights and comments on my kindle copy of Red, White, & Royal Blue: 150 and counting. I think it’s well established that I am a Casey McQuiston FAN, which is why I was so honored to be reading and reviewing an ARC of her third book. I appreciated the disclaimer that this book was young adult and therefore slightly different than her last two, but as someone who genuinely appreciates the angsty open-heartedness of YA books, I was all in.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about senior HS student Chloe who has been in a competition for valedictorian with the seemingly perfect Shara Wheeler. One month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and then vanishes, leaving only a trail of clues behind for Shara to follow to find her.

Once again, McQuiston’s characters are elegantly and masterfully crafted. Each has a distinct voice and personality, and the dynamics between her main characters are incredible. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve been in HS but they managed to suck me right back in to those teen feelings.

I will say it did take me a little bit longer to get into this book than her others, but once I was in I read the whole thing in one sitting. I don’t think I’ll devotedly reread this one, but I do think it was more fun than One Last Stop.

Let’s go with a 4/5 rating on this one.

Reading it was like sitting by a window listening the pitter patter of the rain and smelling petrichor; because these things are not only beautiful but also brings us the feeling of happiness, just like this book!!
I don’t think I’m ever gonna get tired of recommending this whenever I’m being asked to give recs for academic rivals (sort of) to lovers trope.
The writing and the characters were so intriguing that I almost didn’t know that I am almost done with it. I really enjoyed the quick wit , the sharp mind and banter between the MCs.
Similarly, I really liked how it has brought the light on the topics like self doubt and low self esteem that’s been instilled among the queer kids, has has been dealt with. Moreover, it was such an impactful read with a great character growth a development. In a nutshell, a full 5 star read for me.

As expected, I devoured this. McQuiston has a beautiful gift for writing messy, abrasive characters who make questionable choices and put up lots of walls, but who also ache with desire and vulnerability that seep through the cracks. The voice is sharp and wry (which I love), but beneath the snark lies a powerful message (which I also love) about how the world shapes us, and how we shape the world, and what it takes to get to a place where we can claim who we are in the myriad ways we might make that claim. The central plot is loads of fun, with overt nods to John Green's Paper Towns, as the manic pixie dream girl of the title (who ends up being a lot more complicated than the average MPDG) sends her admirers on a circuitous quest to find her. Along the way, these admirers learn a lot more about themselves than they do about the girl they're chasing, whereupon McQuiston draws us into a found family (much like she did with her adult titles) we've long since grown to love. This is a book I wish I had as a teen, when I had the kinds of Big Questions the teens in this story face, with few examples in contemporary literature about how others might answer those questions. While other adult readers will also no doubt enjoy reading this, I hope most of all, that it finds its way to the teens who need it.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this ARC!

I think something Casey McQuiston does really well is creating a found-family-esque cast of lovable friends, it's something that I really loved in their previous novel, One Last Stop (OLS), and something I loved about this book as well! However, I think it resulted in me being much more invested in the stories of the side characters than the main character. I found Chloe to be a bit unlikable and flat for the first half of the story and then as I started to like her more in the second half of the story, I found myself caring a lot more about the others around her because they felt more dynamic. I feel like some of Chloe's more dramatic character development should have maybe started earlier in the book? As well, the premise fell a bit flat for me -- in theory, it sounds super entertaining, but up until about halfway through the book, I wasn't feeling it. Where I think McQuiston nailed the voice of the characters in OLS, there were some bits of dialogue in this book where the teen slang felt forced or trying too hard to be trendy. Overall, I found the beginning a bit slow, the main character a bit meh and the pacing a bit confusing, but it was still a fun queer YA novel that I wish I got to read when I was younger! I think the found family vibes and the focus on religious homophobia in high school were really well done.

Another book, another hit! McQuiston knows what they are doing when writing an excellent, queer, coming-of-age novel. While not expecting to connect fully with the story, due to it being YA and I have not been in high school in a long time, I found myself drawn to both the characters and the plot. Going in, I did not realize I was going to be taken through a puzzle to solve (I skipped the summary and trusted that I would like the novel no matter the subject), which is everything I love in a story. Give a quest and I am sold. Give me unlikable characters that fall in love with each other and I am sold. I am so happy that this book was written. It is a book that is needed for young, LGBTQIA+ readers to relate to. It is not tragic, but fun and mysterious.

The year 2022 got off to a fantastic start by reading the ARC for I Kissed Shara Wheeler. This is a true YA novel and appropriate for middle school and up. Shara Wheeler is smart and the perfect daughter, student, girlfriend, etc. On the night of prom she disappears leaving behind clues as to where. Chloe Green is the only rival to Shara for valedictorian. She doesn't want to win by default and is determined to find Shara. It also helps that Shara mysteriously kisses her on the day she disappeared. Teaming up with Smith, Chloe's quarterback boyfriend and Rory the neighbor with a crush, they work to follow the clues.

This is clever and delightful to read. The first 60 percent had me grinning and spellbound. The side characters are diverse and full of LGBTQUIA representation. The pop culture references came as fast as an episode of Gilmore Girls. The later part of the book slows down for me as I realized everything isn't as it seems. I love that both MCs are smart, challenge each other and are a little over the top crazy in their zealousness to out do the other. Yes they are immature and think they know everything but isn't that being a teen. I didn't love the ending, but it's hard to have a full HEA with a YA stories, because there is still so much growing up to do. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys YA books and of course to fans of McQuiston. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. (4.5 stars rounding up)

I loved this book. I sat down to read it and did not move for four hours. I love Casey McQuinston’s writing, and it only gets better with each new book they release.

thank you St. Martin's Press & Wednesday books for the chance to read and review this e-ARC!

I was honestly very excited when I heard Casey McQuiston was coming out with a YA novel this year. I really enjoyed their two previous novels, but I think unfortunately, for me, that this fell a little flat compared to those.

I'll admit: I was incredibly hooked during the first 60% of this book and practically read all of it in one sitting. The build up of the mystery surrounding popular Shara Wheeler's disappearance kept me interested for the most part. Except then the big reveal felt very anticlimactic - exactly as Chloe herself described it. It also felt very obvious? As in the resolution to this big mystery and "follow the clues" type of game did not surprise me one bit. I obviously don't want to spoil anything, but let's just say I was left unsatisfied with the way things wrapped up even after the mystery was solved.

And similarly with McQuiston's other novels, I always grow too attached to the side characters and want an entire spin off series just dedicated to them. However, I usually also wish that there was more development of them. I think Smith was the most developed character, which made sense considering his role in the story, but I couldn't help but wanting more from some of the other side characters as well.

I did enjoy reading this book considering I finished it all in one day, but sadly I don't think it's my favorite by this author like others have said. However, I'm expecting I'll continue to pick up anything Casey puts out in the future because I definitely enjoy their writing and their personality that shines through their work!

A book couldn’t have been written so impeccable by addressing so sensitive issues: identity crisis, youth problems with multi layered characterization and perfect LGBTQ representation with my favorite John Green books vibes!

The idea of chasing a lost student by following the crumbles she’s left which turned into a treasure hunt of our heroine Chloe’s teaming up with definitely likable boyfriend Smith, bad boy next door Rory (we love to hate and hate to love )to gather the pieces of puzzle for finding gone girl Shara! The plot idea has resemblances with Paper Town: but I can honestly say the execution of the idea and wrapping up of the story were so much better than Mr. Green’s work!

The mystery about Shara’s disappearance and smart clues she left behind definitely hooked me up! The character development and realistic approach to high school life, multi layered characters who seek for their true identities were well blended. The author’s challenging decision to throw the religious aspect into equation was brave and well executed as well.

Only two things gave me hesitations to give five stars. Firstly there were too many chapters with mostly similar names gave me hard time to catch up with their back stories and till the last third I wanted to scream at Chloe’s face for being extra obnoxious! I wished her open her eyes to see things from different perspective sooner.

Overall: it was another well written book of Casey McQuiston. Not my favorite but it’s still gonna be one of my great reads of 2022!
Red-White-Loyal Blue is still my most favorite work of the author.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books for sharing this highly expected digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a little bit Looking for Alaska, a little bit Gone Girl, a little bit Gilmore Girls, and a whole lot of fun. Teens will love reading about Chloe's struggles at her conservative Christian high school and how she and her friends, old and new, rebelled simply by being themselves. The central mystery has a very satisfying conclusion, and the romance is squee-inducing. Casey McQuiston has knocked it out of the park with her YA debut.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is an delight from start to finish. This novel understands the conventions of the genre but utilizes the enemies to lovers and end-of-high-school tropes in a way that isboth nostalgic and refreshing. It completely understands its place in the history of contemporary YA romance, unabashedly referencing the material to which it is most comparable (e.g. John Green’s Paper Towns, but without the cynicism). McQuiston delivers an absolute romp, spurred on by one of the best disaster bi heroines I think currently exists on page. This book is already one of the best YA books I have read in 2022, and I can’t wait to see what McQuiston does next.

After being disappointed in "One Last Stop", I was so excited for this book. And Casey McQuiston did not disappoint. She brought back the magic from "red, White and Royal Blue" and continued her elegant prose to bring life to these teenagers struggling to find themselves. As a high school educator, I will encourage my students to get lost in the small world of Willowgrove Christian Academy. I think there is something for everyone in this read!

If i am being "critical', for me the hardest part was keeping track of the characters. Many of the characters had similar names and tryng to keep track of their pronouns and identities sometimes took away from the read. However, I do feel that McQuiston is a genius at writing queer and transgender characters. There doesn't need to be some big "coming out" moment,---it's all so well interwoven that their identities are part of their character and you don't often notice it.

Truly a beautiful love song to any teenager trying to figure out their paths and especially those that may not be traditional

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC!

Ok, so I loved this book. And This was in spite of times where I didn't expect to. Don't get me wrong, the story, the mystery of Shara's disappearance, was very interesting. At the same time, for much of the middle third of the book, I was alternately frustrated with and downright disliking the protagonist and POV character, and wasn't sure Casey would be able to pull it back. Thankfully, it worked out beautifully.

First I want to talk about how much I enjoyed the supporting cast. I loved the diversity, and the character journeys most of them went on (and even the ones who didn't have full on character arcs often ended up presenting a greater depth in themselves than they initially seemed to have, which of course was a major point of the story, but something like that isn't always pulled off as well as this).

The story is always wonderfully queer from the get go with of course Chloe who's bi and her friends Georgia and Benjy, who're a lesbian and gay cis male, respectively, as well as Ash who's nonbinary, and without getting into spoilers gets progressively more and more gay as the story gets on. I will say the themes of self discovery, both amongst the initial 4 who already know who they are but aren't necessarily out and with the characters who learn things about themselves over the course of the story was handled phenomenally and <i>mostly</i> organically.

The religious aspect of the book was subtler than I initially expected, given that they all go to an Alabama Christian High School. It's there to be sure, suffusing so many of their lives...but at the same time, so much of the story could have taken place to students of a secular high school. It isn't really until near the end where you realize just how much it's actually there. But it's allowed to just kind of be background static while the characters do what they need to until it's appropriate for it to come up and make it's presence known. Given that this is a world I'm not really familiar with, I'm not how much this rings true, but I did appreciate how McQui

This book also made me confront my own biases as my initial thoughts about Smith & Rory were much like Chloe's: oh, the jock boyfriend & bad boy boy next door...it's been done tediously to death and was part of the story I wasn't honestly looking forward to. Except, no, no it hasn't, these two guys are great, and have so many layers. Getting to know them was a lot of fun, and it was easy to see how they grew on Chloe!

Speaking of Chloe...she frustrated me so much! Through much of the middle block of the story she is just so single minded on the hunt for clues that she can't see things that are painfully obvious around her, which made it so annoying for her to be the one who we're stuck with through the book. Adding to that, getting her to change her viewpoint is like pulling teeth. These aspects made for a confusing experience where I was so invested in the people around her, but wished we could have a bit of a break with some different POV characters. She's essentially a genius, so some of her blindspots felt a bit forced.

<spoiler>And then there's the person at the heart of the search, Shara Wheeler herself. I was intrigued to learn aspects of her through the search, even as I started to feel she was a little bit sociopathic in some of the things she did.</spoiler>

It's almost a trope of so many books, YA and non, to run out of runtime and try and fit everything that needs doing into the very end of the book, often making things feel rushed. I feel like I've commented that being one few annoyances on some of even my favourite reads. Except Casey does something rare: she gives the book time to sort it's shit out! McQuiston actually gives her characters the page count they need to get everything sorted, and the last quarter of the book is utterly wonderful, and made the aspects that I was not a fan of...maybe not less frustrating, but certainly puts them into a context that made sense from characters POV. Mostly. Some of Chloe's shit still bugged me.

So, apart from some very minor annoyances, I thought this was a fantastic book, and can't wait to own a physical copy in June. 5 stars!

It took me a little bit to love this book as much as I loved One Last Stop, but god do I love this book. This is everything I wish my high school experience could have been, and everything Im still looking for now. There is so much love in this book, in all its forms, and it is so incredibly smart and funny. I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving CMQ’s books.

Enormous thanks to netgalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this book.

I loved this book. Honestly, it felt like a whole season of a TV show in one. I got Pretty Little Liars vibes (but better) through the first half of the story and couldn't have loved it more. My review is a rambling mess, but did I mention I loved this book?!

I love the diverse cast and LGBTQIA+ representation. It also gave a look at religious trauma that can happen to LGBTQIA+ folks inside of some Christian organizations. I seriously applaud the author for tackling so many real issues in a way that still highlights the beautiful characters. It's also PERFECT for YA (high school+) fans and makes love accessible to all.

Both of McQuiston's latest books (One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler) created worlds of characters that I long to be a part of. Although there is conflict and struggle to find identity, the characters develop in a way that shows readers that they are perfect as they are and that they don't need to hide parts of themselves to be loved.

This is a book I needed when I was 16. I feel lucky to have gotten to read it now.

Honestly, not my favorite book by this author. I feel like it was trying to be Gilmore girls and a John green novel. It was disappointing only because red white and royal blue and one last stop were so original and this one just wasn’t. Fell flat for me.

This was my favorite of McQuiston’s romances. There was a scavenger hunt/caper, a romance, some self discovery, but also some serious issues covered.

McQuiston keeps killing it! I couldn’t put down this wonderful coming of age book with loveable and hilarious characters. I loved the found family themes and mystery plot. A lot of fun B-movie tropes and twists and turns which had me laughing!

<b>Thank you St. Martin's Press and Wednesday Books for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.</b>

Although I often see Casey McQuiston's books lumped into the YA category (they are most definitely new adult!), <i>I Kissed Shara Wheeler</i> is McQuiston's first young adult novel. It is a contemporary high school mystery set in religious, academically competitive town. Chloe and golden girl Shara have been in a high-strung battle to win the valedictorian title--until Shara goes missing, with nothing but a series of clever clues left behind.

Casey McQuiston is fantastic at writing witty dialogue, distinct characters, and vivid scenes. Right from the beginning when the mystery is introduced, it's obvious that this was a carefully planned novel. Even though the beginning started out great--a mystery! with little clues! from the perfect, oh so beautiful Shara Wheeler! complete with a gang of lovable clue-hunting side characters! woo!--I was really struggling to stay interested in the mystery. I found myself devouring the beginning and end of the book, but unable to read more than a few chapters at a time of the middle without getting bored. Even though ideally books should hold your attention for the duration of the entire novel, eh, sometimes it happens. Sometimes you get a little bored. It's cool. It can happen often in realistic fiction contemporaries. However, for a mystery novel, I should be wanting to speed through the pages to solve the clues. I should be hypothesizing, gasping, and trying to solve the mystery along with the characters. Not wanting to quit in the middle of the book because I'm unsure why the characters are even invested in the clues in the first place.

And that was my other problem. The characters. Our main character Chloe and her rival Shara were unbearable. I hate calling female YA protagonists annoying, but they were repetitive and a bit selfish, with maybe only a few redeeming qualities towards the end that were not redeeming enough. This was a perfect example of a book where I cared very little about the main characters and very much wanted a story about the side characters. I was having a hard time understanding why the characters felt so compelled to follow the clues about Shara Wheeler's disappearance. Y'all!!! If I was in this book, I'd simply not care. I would say "oh no, I hope they find her!" and move on. I'm sorry.

I don't want to put spoilers in this review, so I'll be vague, but I also wasn't entirely a fan of the way things wrapped up, regarding the characters emotions and explanations. Nothing felt satisfying, convincing, or worth it.

Despite all my complaints, I didn't hate <i>I Kissed Shara Wheeler</i>. It was fine. Mediocre, yes, but fine. Just a typical YA contemporary. I would say go for it if you're interested in reading it, but don't expect anything groundbreaking.