I loved this book! It's well-written, enjoyable, and a great read. Christine Riccio did a great job of writing in a way that captures the readers attention, and makes you not want to put it down until you're finished! I would highly recommend it!

ughhhh I wish I had something nice to say about this because Christine seems like a really nice person and her videos are great, but man this was....so bad. I have no other way to describe it. First of all, minus the ridiculous magical element in this that came out of fuckin NOWHERE, this was basically a memoir. The protag IS Christine. Like, there are so many similarities between the protag and Christine that she might as well have said: "hi, this is my own personal diary from 2011, except I added time travel." I know all writers put a little of themselves into the things they write but GIRL, get a better editor, and better friends who will be honest with you about this story because it was SO cringe. And the pop culture references made me want to throw my kindle out the window. Like, we get it. This was set in 2011. Your character is ~ relatable ~ . You don't need to remind us every fifteen seconds. My god. And let's just talk about the unchecked verbal abuse, the absolutely horrible romance that involved cheating and girl on girl hate, and the glorification of social anxiety. A MESS.

That being said, hopefully, Christine can get a better editor (and maybe more honest friends) because I think she really does have potential. If she can find a way to remove herself from her fiction, she might make a good author one day. But this.......just wasn't it.

anyway, thanks to netgalley for the ARC! Sorry I hated it!

I was very excited to read this as have followed Christine on Youtube for many years and I was not disappoint. This is a fab and fun rom com with a heart. Christine's writing is easy and enjoyable to read. Shane is very endearing and relatable as a main character. I thoroughly enjoyed this!

I went into this book not expecting much, but ended up being blown away by Christine's writing. "Again, But Better" was a delightful read that reminded me of my own time studying abroad. I loved the two different timelines, considering I've thought about going back and changing my past mistakes many...many....many times in my life. It felt wonderfully satisfying.

This book threw me for a loop in the best way. I thought it would be same old, same old, and while some things were just run-of-the-mill YA fiction as I expected, this book was mostly more than I was hoping for!

Things concluded in a very nice, fresh way as well. I needed a light-hearted read, and this did the trick.

This book missed the mark for me. What could have been a fun read was not well written and often left me disappointed.

Sadly I had to DNF this one. I don't think the writing style was for me, and I couldn't get interested in Shane (the main character). Also I really dislike HP references in books these days. I usually love contemporaries with a dash of the magical but unfortunately this one is a no for me. Might very well work for other folks though so I would give it a try if it sounds up your alley.

I had such a wonderful time reading this heartwarming story about second chances. This is the kind of book that will keep you company on your summer vacation or be your best friend on a rainy day.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me. Firstly, I thought the book could have used a bit more editing, especially for the dialogue, which I found pretty youngish and cringey for characters who are of university age. Also, I couldn’t help but notice that Shane was pretty much a self-insert character for the author. Being very familiar with the author’s Booktube channel, the similarities between her and her character were all too obvious. There were also far too many pop culture references throughout the book. A few are fine but when they take so much of the book, then it just comes off as excessive. Also, the plot was sadly filled with far too many tropes and clichés. Shane’s decisions throughout the story also came off as questionable or illogical.

*I received this book for free through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Unimaginative and dull.

It seems Christine more or less wrote herself as the main character. The writing was lifeless and filled with way too many references. It was more juvenile and it felt like the author didn't even attempt to make it her own book. Overall, there was nothing that kept my interest in the book.

Although this sounded like a good read, I was unable to get into it. I'm sure there are other readers who will enjoy this title.

I got approved for an early ebook edition from NetGalley ages ago and I’m sorry to have lost track of this one for a little while on my tbr list.

Shane is disappointed with herself for how boring her college experience has been. She hasn’t dated at all, she hasn’t made friends, she doesn’t do anything social and she doesn’t even like her major. She’s pre-med more because it’s what her parents want. She’s only 20 and he’s not having any fun.

She kind of sneakily gets herself into a study abroad program. She is determined to travel, to have fun, to date and make friends. She’s also going to do what she actually enjoys which is writing.

Once she arrives she immediately has a crush on Pilot and makes friends with the girls in her dorm. Everything is much better at first. She’s having fun and she’s happy.

But Pilot isn’t exactly available. He left a girlfriend back in the US. Shane is devastated when she finds out. She’s placed so much importance on Pilot that she nearly ruins all the stuff that’s actually going right.

I didn’t always love Shane. She’s a lot. It’s good that she found people who understand her so easily in the UK. You can tell that she’s made these friends and this live interest by being exactly who she is. And if she had no friends in the US it must have been really tempting to try to reinvent herself in the UK. So, I give Shane lots of credit for being herself.
That said, I didn’t respect the way Shane lied to people about her year abroad and how she had zero respect for the fact that Pilot had a girlfriend.

Sometimes I also started to wonder if her crush on Pilot was actually unrequited.

With about a hundred pages left there was a fun twist to the story. This is when the magical realism kicked in. And this part of the story is what drew me into the book more, it’s when I started to get a lot more interested in how the story would resolve.

I thought the twist was a great addition to the story and it made the ending if the book less predictable.

I could not finish this book. It was disjointed, it felt like it wasn't edited and the voice seemed extremely immature and juvenile.

This book is one I hope to come back and read sometime but right now I am very deep into fantasy and romance and this is a book that is just not captivating me at the time.

I really liked this book. The setting was imaginative and the characters were memorable. Thank you for the ARC, I will definitely recommend this book and this author to my peers.

The book felt formulaic and I really didn't gel with the characters or the plot. It sounded much cooler in the blurb than in practice.

Loved watching her YouTube videos of the writing process for this book. Had high expectations and she definitely didn't disappoint.

I’ve been seeing this YA book around, but it wasn’t until it popped up on audiobook availability at my public library that I decided to give it a try and WOW! I’m so glad I did!
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Shane is terrified. She’s flying off to London to do study abroad after lying to her parents saying it’s for a premed program when really it’s a creative writing semester. Also she currently has no friends or romantic prospects at age 20. Quickly in London she finds a boy she has a mad crush on, new best friends, an amazing internship at a magazine, and travel opportunities all over Europe...that is until her parents find out about her BIG LIE when they come to visit. Now, six years into the future Shane is living a life spent pleasing everyone but herself, regretting all the things she didn’t end up doing in London. You can never go back and erase those mistakes...or can you?
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This novel is labeled as a romcom and while I 100% agree with that description I also love how it focused on the main character finding herself and being happy on her own. I loved the narrator for the audiobook! Homerun for sure. This is a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for me and any young adult readers who pick this up will love it! I’m a fan!

Again, but Better was a light and fun read as long as you don't take it too seriously. Don't ask questions, don't ask why the characters made the choices they made, just go along for the ride as Shane relives her college travel abroad experience several years after it happened due to unexplained time wimey-ness. I'm a sucker for friends turned lovers, even when the book undermines it a little by giving it few stakes the second time around.

"It's weird how we have to get a little older to realize that people are just people. It should be obvious, but it's not."

I've had this book on my radar for a few years and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. I definitely loved the author's note at the beginning about how this book is for anyone who felt like they hadn't experienced everything as a teenager and was still figuring things out as a college-aged person. This is a demographic of character we don't often get to hear from, and I really appreciated this twist on a coming of age story.

I really liked the first half of this story. I had no idea going in this book featured some magical realism but I could tell quickly that I was going to get some magical realism whether I wanted to or not. The magical realism was well done, in my opinion, but it was not what I wanted in a coming of age story centered around a 20-something. I would have preferred a coming of age story that was more realistic fiction rather than playing with magical realism. The other thing that really irritated me in this book was all of the names: Shane is our female main character, her best friend is named Babe, and she falls in love with a Pilot she nicknames Pies. I am all for unique names, but these names bordered on irritating for me.

While entertaining, I would definitely recommend other stories featuring 20-somethings over this one. Can I think of any at this time? Of course not, but I know I've read books that feature college aged characters that I liked better than this one.

TW: difficult relationship with parents