I Kissed Shara Wheeler
by Casey McQuiston Narrated by Natalie Naudus
3 stars
Chloe is uprooted from her life to move to her mom's old hometown, in Alabama. One day suddenly Shara Wheeler the Queen Bee in the high school disappears leaving behind several notes hidden around town to the last three people she kissed. Her boyfriend Smith, her high school rival Chloe, and her neighbor Rory. As they find more clues and get closer to finding Shara, stuff comes to light about every student they had hidden.

I am not that fond of this book, I didn't like One Last Stop either but it was cute just not for me. Just like this one, it's cute but not for me. I enjoy her writing style and I love how she was hitting on the rough subjects and how kids handle going through their identities. Maybe I'm not one for a lot of YA books. I enjoyed smith's character he was adorable. I couldn't handle Chloe or Shara who the book is mostly about. I did enjoy how they have all the students going through a little bit.

Thank You, Net Galley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC for an honest review.

I really wanted to give this 3 stars, but the ending turned out much better than I anticipated. I didn’t love the premises of “playing games” with love interests (I think it’s really toxic in ya novels) that was about the first three quarters of the book, or the “twist” with the “villain” of the book (I’m trying to keep this spoiler free!). That might be one of the greatest graduation speeches though!

I didn’t love this one.

I was into it at first. Chloe gave me Maeve (Sex Education) vibes because she seemed to be a smart rebel who flaunted archaic rules. I was curious about Shara’s disappearance and the scavenger hunt she sent Chloe, Smith, and Rory.

As the book progressed I realized that Chloe was just self-centered and immature and that Shara was a manipulative Regina George (Mean Girls) wannabe. Quite frankly, I would say that they deserved each other, but nobody deserved that.

The book’s saving graces were the supporting characters. In fact, I would have loved for this book to have been about another budding relationship in the book.

I wanted to love this book because I love the author, but alas.

I KISSED SHARA WHEELER by Casey McQuiston is an absolute dream of a YA romcom. High school senior and IT girl, Shara Wheeler, has disappeared, but not before kissing her academic rival, Chloe, and the boy who loves her from afar, Rory. Before long, Chloe and Rory team up with each other and with Shara's boyfriend, Smith, to follow a trail of notes she's left behind in hopes of tracking her down. Along their scavenger hunt, they question their relationships with Shara, with each other, and with their town and school, as well as their own identities.

Casey McQuiston writes consistently snappy prose full of wit and charm, which makes the book a joy to read from start to finish. Below the surface of this fluffy teen romcom, though, is a deep dive into the experience of being queer in a small southern town and a private school. When the three main characters from different social circles team up to find Shara, they question what rules enforce the social divide, which leads them to ask the bigger questions about why their school and their town have such a clear hierarchy. In short, they set out to upset the status quo.

While the whole premise of the story requires a willing suspension of disbelief, it sets the scene for a rollicking high school adventure, where we can believe that teenagers can climb ladders to each other's bedroom windows and sneak around in the air ducts at their school, and disappear entirely without suffering any real consequences. Ultimately, with a story this fun and characters this endearing, it's best not to question the plausibility of the story. Just get lost in it!

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator, Natalie Nadus, is excellent.

My only question is, when are we getting a spin-off featuring the two characters involved in the secondary romance??

<i>I Kissed Shara Wheeler</i> was a book fueled by strong characters that were complex, interesting, and dynamic. There was a natural humor to the book that didn’t come across forced and made the friendships stick out in loveable ways. Casey McQuiston has a well crafted story, with John Green vibes, that still manages to be unique and sweet at the same time.

“Shame is a way of life here. It’s stocked in the vending machines, stuck like gum under the desks, spoken in the morning devotionals. She knows now that there’s a bit of it in her.”

With I KISSED SHARA WHEELER, McQuiston has taken a sapphic knife to my ex-evangelical heart and flayed it right open (twice, since that’s how many times I’ve already read this book). It’s equal parts shenanigans, romance, and the enduring gut-punch of hypocritical homophobic piety, and I loved it even more the second time, because of (not despite) how tender it felt to read. For a seemingly light-hearted book - billed as a young adult romcom with a pair of sapphic academic rivals-to-lovers at the center, compared with PAPER TOWNS for the treasure hunt and “Saved” for the absurdity of fundamentalist Christianity - it has an intense, striking core that gripped me and hasn’t yet let me go.

McQuiston nails two things, absolutely: the ways that we hide our vulnerable, soft parts to protect ourselves in spaces that won’t accept us, and how that hiding, that deflecting, looks different for each of us. The insidiousness of shame in these contexts is that it keeps us from knowing each other, and sometimes even from knowing ourselves, a tool that evangelicalism and other oppressive systems have so readily capitalized on to keep us in line. I loved how McQuiston combines this with the more traditional high school trope of different groups of teens - jocks, nerds, theater kids, stoners, student government types - realizing that they are each constrained by the stereotypes about them and finding the common threads laced between them. It was so lovely to watch these characters begin to untangle the messy webs of internalized homophobia and how those have translated into actions, to see past where they each fall in the high school food chain and unite against their shared adversaries.

McQuiston’s characters always make me want to fall into their fictional worlds and befriend them, and this story is no different. There are so many delightful, well-rounded side characters, and not one but two compelling, slow-burn queer romances. It’s hard to write a story where both the main character (Chloe) and her love interest (Shara) are oblivious to their feelings for each other, where they don’t spend time physically together in the present until two-thirds of the way through the book, while setting the stage for the reader to root for them as a couple, but McQuiston manages this, and masterfully so. On that note: two smart girls torturing each other academically to avoid discussing their feelings is definitely my kryptonite. Rory and Smith are absolute favorites, both as complex individuals and as a pair; I was cheering them on from the beginning and I adore how tenderly their second-chance romance unfolds. This book is also bursting with McQuiston's signature witty banter and enough humor and hijinks to balance out the heavier parts of the story.

As a former evangelical and graduate of a Christian college who’s now queer, who has both resented and felt the loss of the faith communities I was once a part of, it's immensely meaningful to see some of my experiences represented so accurately in the journeys of Chloe, Shara, Rory, and Smith. I’m grateful, again, for McQuiston’s writing and for Wednesday Books for the review copy of this inimitable YA novel. And finally, a message for my past, present, and future selves, and for all of you: “Show them you’re not someone to fuck with.”

Content warnings: homophobia, bullying

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is as sweet and lovely as all of Casey McQuiston's previous books! The main character Choe is a month away from becoming class valedictorian, when her rival, Shara, suddenly kisses her and disappears. She leaves a trail of pink clues, and Chloe soon discovers that she's also kissed the school quarterback and her bad boy neighbour. It's partly a coming of age / coming out story, part romance and part mystery. It also gave me some Breakfast Club vibes, but with a 2022 twist. I did feel like I was a little too old for this one, it's definitely more of a YA story than McQuiston's previous books, being set in high school and dealing with all the problems in an unaccepting religious environment, but I think younger readers will identify with it more. I loved how it represented many different LGBTQIA2S+ identities, and the characters who supported each other's journeys of self discovery, and really appreciated that the trigger warnings were announced at the beginning of the audiobook.
Natalie Naudus was the perfect narrator for the audiobook, she really brought all the characters to life with all the angst and drama of high school.

🔊Song Pairing: Kiss Me - Cyn

💭What I thought would happen:

I figured Shara Wheeler must be the hottest thing since sliced bread

📖What actually happens:

Chloe, top of her class (at least attempting to beat the pants off Shara Wheeler) was just kissed by the sensational, gorgeous and overall perfectly cis Shara Wheeler…now Chloe’s head is clouded with Shara’s sweet scent and taste. What has happened to her and their competition?!

Shara has left notes and clues around for Chloe, her neighbour (the perfect angsty boy next door) and her boyfriend (jock of the school) letting them know that all things will be explained soon enough. That is not good enough for any of the parties. They want to find Shara and get a proper reasoning behind her Gone Girl predicament.

🗯Thoughts:

This one is definitely my favourite from Casey McQuiston. I won’t lie, I didn’t like One Last Stop and Red White & Royal Blue was super cute but just a-ok. I was happy that this one exceeded my expectations!

One thing all of Casey’s books in common is that the covers are sooo freaking AMAZING and gorgeous! I mean seriously!

The whole concept of Shara Wheeler missing and leaving letters around town felt super Paper Towns but at least a) McQuiston made reference to John Green and b) did it better than that lousy story.

Overall, this book a Taylor Swift song in the making and I feel like this one is a great spring read with graduations coming up.

This book is *Chef's kiss* and I loved listening to it! I will definitely be rereading the physical copy because of it. The narration was brilliantly done and I could picture each individual character so well. I love the complexity of the self discovery and rebellion and love that were all involved with this plot. Chloe's character development was amazing and the way she was able to take a step back and see what was there all along was beautiful. All of these characters deserve the world, and Smith is definitely one of my favorites.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to this early audiobook

I heard this book was very dull and a lot of people DNF-ed.
My rating is not due to the book content (as I didn't consume it), but rather speaks to the fact that word of mouth and other interests caused me to de-prioritized this title in my stack.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is an entertaining, complex read that has two main problems (1) it has a bit of an identity crisis, and (2) it's a little bit too similar to One Last Stop.

To understand that, you need to know the premise of the book, though: bisexual LA transplant Chloe Green was kissed by Alabama prom queen Shara Wheeler just before Shara disappears. But soon Chloe finds out she's not the only one Shara kissed before she pulled a Gone Girl; she also kissed her quarterback boyfriend Smith and stoner boy next door Rory. And to make matters more interesting, she's left them all a trail of pink stationary clues to her supposed whereabouts.

This is where the identity crisis bit comes in. The first, roughly half to two-thirds of the book, is Rory, Smith, and Chloe on an exciting adventure to find Shara, following clues and breaking rules. The second half of the book is what happens when Shara comes back. And there's a tonal, and kind of genre shift there. The folks who like the exiting scavenger hunt element of the first part of the book may find the second part of the book a bit mundane. Personally, once we finally meet Shara, I wondered how there was still so much book left. And I loved the first half SO MUCH that even though I didn't dislike the second half, it made the second half of the book a bit of a letdown.

And now we come to the similarities with One Last Stop. And don't get me wrong--the story is completely different, and this one is YA, so maybe the same people won't even read both, but they follow the same overall arc and kind of pacing and message, so it feels very similar. For example, they both start with some kind of big mystery (where has Shara gone/why is this girl always on the train), that then gets solved, and they gang has to put together some kind of big pep rally/protest/charity event for an LGBTQ cause, before everyone lives HEA in New York City. I think the similarities were probably exacerbated for me because I listened to them both on audio, and I'm pretty sure they had the same narrator; maybe if they had had different narrators, I wouldn't have compared the books so much.

Here's the thing, though; I really did love this book. The clues in the notes were just so much fun, and I loved the side characters. I just almost wish we had more of the parts I loved (the adventure), and less of the parts that dragged.

Thanks to Libro.fm and Macmillan Audio for my ALC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4 stars - 8/10

One weekend, a month before graduation, Shara Wheeler kissed three people: Chloe Green, her competitor for valedictorian; Rory Heron, the boy next door; and Smith Parker, her boyfriend. Then, Shara vanished. However, before she vanished, Shara left each of them a letter with clues to where more letters were. If they find all the letters, then they may be able to find out where Shara is and why she vanished.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is basically a scavenger hunt in which three people that didn’t really talk prior to Shara disappearing have to work together to find the letters Shara left. Throughout the story, each of the characters undergoes transformations and learns things about themselves. They both discover and come to accept who they are as individuals.

What really makes this book is the way Casey McQuiston writes the characters. The main character, Chloe, in particular. Chloe is sarcastic and full of teenage angst. She is the daughter of two moms. Her family moved from Los Angelos to False Beach right before she started high school at the local Christian school. Chloe experienced a huge cultural shock when she moved. She went from a big city that was accepting of everyone’s differences and sexualities, to a small town where you are treated as an outcast if you are different. This story is about the pressure to conform to the expectations of others. In the end, the characters in the story learn to accept others’ differences and not be afraid to be who they are. I highly recommend this book!

*NO SPOILERS*
Firstly, I want to say that I am so grateful for being given an ARC of this audiobook to review! Secondly, when picking up this book, I don't recommend going into it expecting it to be the cutesy romances of RWRB and OLS that McQuiston has written. They are wildly different in my opinion (beyond the obvious difference in IKSW being YA and RWRB+OLS being NA, the stories are very different themselves). IKSW is more of a mystery, coming of age, high school rivals kinda romance and takes a while to get to the main romance bit. Anyways, now that I've said that, I did quite like this book. I liked the premise of the mystery and how it was figured out and why there was a mystery in the first place. However, I feel like something was missing that could have made the story even better. That being said, I am still very likely to recommend it to people and I'll also probably reread this in the future because it was a good, well-paced, interesting story. Not every book is everyone's cup of tea, so if you're wanting a high school mystery, romance, coming of age story, definitely pick this up and try it, you might love it!

“You hide the things that matter most before anyone can use them against you. That’s what Shara did, that’s what Shara does.”
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for my advanced readers copy of the audio book.

Chloe Green and her moms moved from Calforina to Alabama at the start of highscool. Now Chloe is a senior and she’s so close to winning valedictorian. Her only rival is prom queen Shara Wheeler. But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes. Shara places clues for Chloe, and the two other people Shara kissed, to find. The three have nothing in common except the cryptic notes Shara left behind. Chloe wants to find Shara, so she can fairly beat her at valedictorian. Together they got on a hunt for Shara and find out secrets about their town and themselves along the way.

I was so excited to read a YA mystery book by Casey McQuiston. However, the mystery only lasted half of the book. The other half wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. The beginning of the book felt so compelling to me, I couldn’t stop listening to it. I was interested in all the clues, where they would lead, and the action. Not to mention the secondary characters themselves were the highlight of this book.
The characters are what made this book so enjoyable to me. I kept reading because I wanted to see who would end up together and what would happen to their friendships. Chloe, the main character, had tons of personality. She was a very enjoyable character to read about. I could feel Chloe’s emotions while listening to the audiobook. When she was annoyed, I was annoyed. When she felt confused or happy, I felt the same. Natalie Naudus did a fantastic job narrating this story.
Overall this book was fun to listen to. My only critique is that the mystery ended way too soon. Other than that the book was funny and full of heart. Not to mention all the social issues that were brought up through the story. This is a good book for young adults to read, because they will be able to find themselves in one of the many characters. I can’t wait to read more by Casey McQuiston.

Four and a Half Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭒

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston is an adorable, angsty story of a high school senior’s quest to find her missing friend, Shara Wheeler.

Chloe Green, a high school senior at Willowgrove Christian Academy in Alabama, is getting ready to graduate with her friends and has everything planned, until Shara Wheeler, the perfect popular girl in school kisses her, and then disappears. Chloe, a lesbian, with two moms, is a bit of an anomaly at the Christian Academy, but still has a close group of friends who support each other.

After Shara’s disappearance, Chloe teams up with Shara’s quarterback boyfriend Smith and her bad boy-next-door neighbor, Rory to find her. Shara leads the team on a scavenger hunt, by leaving notes in places with clues for the next task. The clues are hidden well and only her closest friends will be able to figure out where to find the next clue.

I just loved this coming-of-age story, mostly because the narrator, Chloe Green is very authentic. Her snark, cynicism, and insecurities are very realistic and I loved that the entire story was told from her point of view. Being a lesbian at a Chrisitan Academy in Alabama isn’t the most supportive environment for Chloe, and add in that she has two moms, and it could be a recipe for disaster. But, Chloe has a way with people and a strong personality that makes her able to make friends and dismiss those who don’t accept her for who she is.

The book is funny, adventurous, and fast-paced. Chloe’s friends jump off the page and I felt like I was in high school with them all. Chloe, Smith, and Rory make an unexpected team of sleuths as they all work to find out what happened to Shara. I loved the bond the three unexpected allies form as they worked together to figure out the clues and hunt for the next one.

I highly recommend I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston to anyone who enjoyed Young Adult fiction. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler 💋

Chloe Green had a perfect life in SoCal, until her moms decided to move to Alabama. Now, four years later, the only thing that has helped her get through high school at Willowgrove Christian Academy is getting perfect grades, trying to win valedictorian and the idea of moving to New York for college with her best friend. The only one that can get in her way is the annoyingly perfect Shara Wheeler, the principal’s daughter and her long-time rival.

One day, Shara kisses Chloe and the next day she vanishes. No one knows where she is. Chloe is very confused so she starts looking for answers. Then, she discovers that she wasn’t the only one Shara kissed. She also kissed her boyfriend Smith and her bad boy neighbor Rory before disappearing. Later, they start finding cryptic notes with clues about where she is. As they follow Shara’s clues, they get to know each other and develop an unlikely but heart-warming friendship.

I really enjoyed this coming of age story about finding and accepting your own identity. The character development was great and the relationships between all of them were the thing that I enjoyed the most. It truly was another very well written book by Casey McQuiston.

Thank you @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for the advanced audio copy. The book is narrated by Natalie Naudus, whose voice kept me engaged through the whole story.

Read this queer contemporary YA if you like Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, Mean Girls and John Green’s Paper Towns.

This is such a quintessential rivals to lovers romance. One of the things that I absolutely love about Casey McQuiston’s writing is they are so amazing at writing side characters and making you care about the people around the point of view characters as well. Everyone is part of this lived-in world, in a believable town and you can see that all of the characters, even those that aren’t friends, have known each other for their entire lives. I love Chloe and Shara so much but I was just as invested in all of the other relationships that are in the book.

This book definitely does feel like you’re reading a John Green novel but you get this really interesting aspect of Chloe isn’t seeing Shara’s perfect mask which is what everyone else sees! I feel like pairing this kind of running away story with a rivalry where they know each other’s greatest weaknesses it’s just so smart and I love it so much. This is literally a romance novel between two people who are too smart for their own good!

I’m literally going to recommend this book to everyone it’s going to be a little bit embarrassing after a while.

Came for the title stayed for the side characters.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is an interesting book for me. There are some bits I absolutely loved and others I really didn't. Casey McQuiston's strengths are writing dynamics and introspective feelings, where they don't succeed in satisfying endings and the main couple's romance. I loved One Last Stop, and hated Red, White, and Royal Blue- so I wasn't sure how this one would make me feel. I guess my general thoughts are this is an okay book.

What I Liked:
- Casey McQuiston's writing style is easy to fall into. There's a realism to her characters, to the setting that other ya authors struggle to create. One thing about McQuiston I notice is they write books that would make perfect adaptions. (I think they would excel in screenplays.)
- The general idea of Chloe and Shara. (Someone said they feel like the ship "faberry" (Quinn Fabray and Rachel Berry from Glee), which I have to say is so accurate.)
- Smith and Rory! Smith and Rory together. Separately. As friends. As two people solving this Shara mystery. The growth of their characters was done beautifully. Smith especially. I didn't care for this character at first but so quickly I fell in love with him and his journey. <spoiler> Reading/listening to a traditionally masculine character discovering their gender identity in a safe environment almost made me cry. Smith's journey learning about what nonbinary means to putting flowers in his hair! The flowers! Please. If Smith's scenes were the only ones I would've been satisfied. Rory's and Smith's relationship made so much sense to me, and a unique approach to how someone would react to crushing on their same sex friend. I really liked the almost slow burn of their friends to enemies to friends to lovers? Genius. </spoiler>
- The general message of the novel isn't one I'd disagree with. Some bits were hitting the nail on the head a little too hard.

What I Didn't Like:
- It took so long for me to get into the story. Up until around the halfway mark I was considering DNF'ing. I'm happy I stuck with it though. There's also a point around the 70% mark where the novel begins to drag again. I appreciate everything wrapping up but I was racing to the end.
- The mystery wasn't good. Not that it was bad. It just wasn't good. If you've read a certain John Green book (who's referenced in this btw), you'd catch the "twist" very easily. I didn't understand <i>why</i> what happened, happened.
- Shara. I understood what McQuiston was doing. The execution wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. Shara wasn't a character I liked by the end of this nor did I hate her, just felt lukewarm- similar to how I felt about the relationship entirely. I didn't feel the romance at all. I didn't see any chemistry- despite what McQuiston tries to tell me.
- Oddly, this book feels dated. If you told me this was written in 2013, I'd believe you. <spoiler> There's a scene where Chloe goes all "one day you'll be pumping my gas!" and it's just so cringy. I half expected everyone to just laugh. Would that kind of speech still work nowadays?</spoiler>

Lastly, let me discuss the narration for the audio:
Yeah... no. Natalie Naudus wasn't a good choice for this particular novel. Some of the voice choices for the characters were almost unbearable to listen to- especially the male ones. Everyone guy was a slightly altered version of Patrick Star from Spongebob. I do think the narrator hindered my enjoyment of the book.

TLDR
Good but not great. The mystery wasn't as compelling as I wanted it to be but where the novel excels is the side characters and the friendships they develop throughout the course of the story.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Classic readability of McQuiston’s catalogue, I Kissed Sahara Wheeler takes a lot of its foundation from John Green’s Paper Towns, even making reference to it, but about halfway through the book ventures off and becomes something more of its own. Chloe is a great main character but it’s really the cast of people that surround her which makes the book a great read. A great book that deals directly with being queer in an environment that wants you to conform.

I have been a fan of Casey McQuiston's books for a while now and this newest one does not disappoint. While it's far less steamy that her previous novels, I KISSED SHARA WHEELER, is still very worth reading for the sake of the developing relationships, fighting back against religious oppression, and building community in unexpected ways. There were about four different times I thought the book was ending, but there was always something more coming. I definitely recommend this book and the audio narration is also top notch.