This was such a fun read and I loved the mystery and the sleuthing. Casey can do no wrong in my eyes, I love her writing

For McQuiston's first YA book it was well written and entertaining. It definitely had an air of maturity to it that I feel often come from an Adult author writing YA. However it was charming and the characters were lovable, even the titular Shara Wheeler who you want to hate.

I feel bad because this book just left me feeling meh? I even revisited to give it the best chance I could, but the wild goose chase didn’t feel like more than a spoiled girl wasting time. I really wanted to love this, and I am willing to try again, but this flopped for me.

I loved this book! One of the most original & lovely plots in the YA Genre!! I Kissed Shara Wheeler is an incredible coming-of-age book with an underlying statement on evangelical Christians in relation to LGBTQIA+ questioning. Full of hope & mystery, Shara Wheeler will keep you on your toes from start to finish.

This was such a fun read! I loved Chloe and her dogged investigation into where Shara Wheeler went off to. I loved watching her find the clues, relive these memories, and confront what it's like being a LGBT+ teen in a Southern religious town.

The way that Chloe had to investigate where Shara is, mostly out of spite, between how close they are in grades, and how Shara is seen as this perfect Southern Christian girl, but that she also kissed Chloe right before she disappeared.

Watching this trio follow the clues, of how they would be inspired from person to person, memories that happened, and that would lead them to the next, was really great. And when it all came to a head, well, I wasn't expecting that! Loved how the story went from there!

Because this is set in a really religious town, in a Christian school, and she's not straight, there's a running discussion about that's like, some of the trauma, and I'm really glad that this topic got explored, so teens that are living in that situation, can see that it does get better, there is hope!

I loved that ending! Both Chloe and Shara have learned lessons from the events of this book, have learned about themselves and the others around them, as well as made a change for their community. And I just love the place that we leave them!

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait to read more by Casey McQuiston!

To be extremely honest, this felt like two books in a series bunched up as one.

So the first half of the book is where Shara has disappeared, leaving puzzling notes for the three people she kissed to find. (Mystery/Thriller/Adventure vibes) The second half is more of figuring out the mess and getting everything sorted. (Romance/Family/Friendship/Drama)

If you see what I mean, there's very different genres in here.

Nevertheless, while listening to the audio book, I adored the characters exceptional and wonderful. Now (months after the first time I listened in) after a re-listen, my rating's gone a bit down.

Speaking of the narrator, she is superb. Definitely one element which added lots of dimension to my listening experience.

This was my first Casey McQuiston book, and I think it was a pretty good one for teens.

First, I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book. I am leaving this honest review of my own will.

This didn’t really give me pretty little liar feels, and that’s what I was looking forward to the most.

This is the second book I have read by McQuiston and I just haven't connected to or loved them like I feel everyone else has. Their writing gives me strong John Green vibes, and not in a good way. This title specifically felt very unrealistic and I think it is time for me to admit that I am just not a fan of this author's writing. Obviously, I am in the minority here and I know many people, including my boyfriend's sister, who loved this book and the rest of McQuiston's backlist so take this review with a grain of salt.

Thank you for the arc, NetGalley.

I absolutely loved this one! I normally don't love contemporary romances, especially YA, but this was like a beautiful mix of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and Kaguya-sama Love is War. I adored Chloe and Shara and the side characters were all likeable. Casey McQuiston keeps getting better.

I had such high hopes for this book, but had to DNF it based on the audiobook narrator. I would give it another chance on the physical copy, though.

A very high 3.5! This ended up really surprising me. I actually liked this better than Red, White & Royal Blue, dare I say!

The first half of this book really scared me because I genuinely felt like we were just getting another John Green "Paper Towns"-esque YA book, but with a sprinkle of diversity and I was not here for it. The beginning felt very typical and it took a long time for me to get on board with our main character, Chloe. To be honest, I didn't really like her until nearly the end, but that surprisingly didn't affect my reading experience much. Luckily, what I thought was going to be the entire conflict of the book gets wrapped up sooner than expected and we move on to issues I found more important, relatable, and interesting. It really picked up the pace near the halfway point and I devoured the rest in one sitting. This book is extremely queer and I loved every second of it. I genuinely think having a book like this when I was a teen would have entirely changed my life. But noooo. In the early-2000s we just got vanilla heteros :/ So glad younger generations can see themselves more in literature and see from perspectives unlike their own. God, books are such wonderful things.

I listened to this one on audio and I really enjoyed it! It's narrated by Natalie Naudus, who also did the narration for One Last Stop. I love the way she brings characters to life and makes every audiobook she does feel like a full cast production. Just perfection!

Overall, I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. For one thing, I'm not much into YA anymore but I love supporting authors that are diversifying and adding new topics to certain genres AND I absolutely adored One Last Stop so I wanted to continue in my McQuiston journey. It took me three tries to get into this book, but I'm really glad I stuck with it. I'll definitely be picking up whatever Casey McQuiston writes in the future no matter the genre or target age. I'm a die-hard now.

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reading thoughts

11%: i'm not... loving this at all. picking the audiobook up for the THIRD time now and it's still not grasping my attention. it just feels like a paper towns remake. i love mcquiston's writing, but the plot itself is so blah to me at this point.

12%: how the actual fuck are peach rings “so middle school”???

14%: ok at least this is self-aware and literally brought up john green/paper towns, but still. we didn’t need that story over again.

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Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced audio ARC. All thoughts and opinions are, as always, my very own.

I’m obsessed with this book and even more obsessed with this audiobook by the incredible Natalie Naudus. So, so good!

📚Book Review: I Kissed Shara Wheeler 💋

By: Casey McQuiston
Published: May 3, 2022

Chloe Green is so close to winning valedictorian, beating out Shara Wheeler- prom queer, the principal’s daughter, and her archenemies ever since her moms moved her to Alabama from SoCal for high school. Then, one day, Shara kissed Chloe and vanishes. Chloe teams up with the other recipients of kisses from Shara to find her via the clues she left behind. While on the hunt, Chloe discovers there’s a lot more to Shara and the entire town than she first suspected.

First off, this photo…🤣🤣🤣 I pictured it my head this way and it turned out even funnier than I anticipated. I’m tickled by how ridiculous it is! 😂

Second, what a sneaky book! This is McQuiston’s first foray into YA and is so much more than the synopsis offers.

Yes, this book has this fun scavenger hunt element, where Chloe and company try to find Shara, but that plot line gets resolved a whole lot earlier than you’d expect and, for me, that’s when the real story begins. These days, folks are coming out earlier in life, but there’s still a whole lot of hate in world, especially concentrated in small towns in the South. This book is about those kids, queer or not, who don’t fit into society’s rigid norms, carving out a place for themselves to live and thrive in. I also really loved Chloe’s moms and teacher, who really showed up for these kids in a community violent towards anyone they deem different.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

A scavenger hunt and a missing girl will reveal hidden secrets that may cause more harm than good. McQuiston infuses this Young Adult novel with wit and sarcasm that makes the conversation realistic. The witty banter does not add to the depth of the characters and they fall flat, almost on the edge of annoyance. The whole reason for the notes and the final climax was frustrating in its self. The secondary characters where ignored and pushed to the side.

I like this book, but I can't quite put my finger on why. I think it's how Shara is portrayed in this book. She's a mystery to everyone who knows her, basically, because there's so much about her actions that doesn't make sense until you get through the book. I think it was told in Pretty Little Liars style as well, where there's things you think you know about Shara until someone or something reveals that you might be wrong as the mystery of Shara's disappearance continues.

A great read for fans of Paper Towns. Funny and with a lot of heart. I also appreciated the range of LGBTQ+ characters represented.

I really enjoyed this cute YA thilleresque romance. This story mainly follows Chloe in her final days of high school after a strange event has occurred Shara Wheeler the it girl in school just kissed her and then disappeared . Chloe curious what happened meets Rory, Shara next door neighbor while breaking into Sharas room they find a letter that begins a scavenger hunt that she, Rory and Smith (Sharas boyfriend) must work together to learn where Shara Wheeler disappeared to.
I thought this book was very cute and entertaining while highlighting social issues that many teens face today. The characters were great they were relatable and really made you root for them as they are discovering theirselves in a small rural town. My only complaint was it felt very similar to Looking for Alaska by John Green many times kind of pulling me out of the story when I noticed it. I listened to the audiobook and really loved the narration it kept me engaged while being easy to understand and distinguish between the characters. I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this book. I really liked reading the different letters that Shara left for the 3 other characters. I did find parts of the book dragging a little for me. So I would be getting pulled out of the story sometimes.

I will read anything Casey McQuiston writes! I loved all of the relationships they created in this book, and how great the found family turned out to be.

Thank you to Casey McQuiston, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners, and Netgalley for this free advanced reader audiobook copy of "I Kissed Shara Wheeler" for an honest review!

BOOM! Casey McQuiston does it again. Every single book this lovely author puts out steals my heart. Narrated by the amazing Natalie Naudus, I fell deeply in love with all of McQuiston's main and tertiary characters (which she balances magically, making both center stage and not feel just as much like real people) almost from the very first second they walked on the page and into my ears.

I love the way love is pulled apart, and talked about in very different ways. I madly enjoyed the scavenger hunt mystery of it. Mean Girl & Breakfast Club high school themes were all over this book, too, in the way groups are hypothetically set up all through schools the way 80-90's films showed the world.

Looking forward to her next book and every other to come!