I really really really liked this one. In the span of it's pages if made me so somber and reflective but also, as Shane says, glittery. Kudos to Riccio. Get this one, readers.

I received my book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

First of all thank you to netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review! This will not affect my review and all of the thoughts are my own!

Again, But Better is a contemporary novel about a pre-med student named Shane who makes the bold decision to study abroad in London as a part of a creative writing program. This book has got it all: witty humor, young love (both unrequited and reciprocated), Taylor Swift references, and a totally relatable main character.

Shane is honestly one of the most real characters I have ever had the chance to read about. She is quirky, weird, hilarious, and wrestles with self doubt. I loved watching her character develop and seeing the internal struggles she faced on a daily basis. She has spent her entire life trying to please her parents rather than chasing after her dreams, and I feel like this is such a common theme in today's society. Her study abroad trip is the first time she truly goes against everything shes worked for in order to find herself. Even though it takes getting a second chance at happiness to really stick up for herself, I feel like that made her even more real for me. I loved the subtle nods to Christine's personality in this character: her blog title and love for Taylor Swift- that was so fun to read.

Pilot. Phew. This guy took me on a rollercoaster of emotions: I loved him, hated him, wanted to choke him, loved him again, missed him, and then wanted to put him on my keychain. Just know that if you have similar feelings while reading PLEASE DON'T STOP READING. The frustrating parts are so necessary and extremely short lived and it is 100% worth it to push through until the end.

The flat 3 crew was so much fun and the group dynamic was perfect. I wish we could've gotten to know them better right from the start but I feel like everything came full circle in the end and the characters really grew on me. I loved how they were all so unique but built amazing friendships over the semester.

The whole meaning behind the title was a jaw dropping moment for me and I thought it was GENIUS. This is such a unique and creative story and I have never read anything like it. Christine's writing style had me binge reading and dying to know what would happen next. This book made me stay up until almost 4am reading one night, it's been a long time since that has happened for me.

Overall this was one of my favorite contemporaries ever! It had all of the components of a great coming of age novel: self discovery, heart break, friendships lost and gained, wanderlust, and choosing whats best for you even when it's hard. BRAVO to Christine on her debut novel, it was such a fun read! Anyone who is looking for a quick and heartwarming novel then please pick this up ASAP!

I was over the moon to score an advance copy of Again, but Better. I’m new to book tubers but a friend recommended Christine Ricco’s Channel to me and I fell in love with booktubers all over.

I have seen mixed reviews about this one so although excited to devour this one I was a little apprehensive but wanted to read without any biases. And My feelings on rating this book fall somewhere in the middle. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. Definitely think you should give it a try. I think it’s awesome to see her passion for reading books come kind of full circle to her writing a book herself.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy for my honest review.

I really wanted to love this book because it was written by a fellow book reviewer. Plus I love Wednesday books. It is one of my favorite publishers. This book wasn't executed well at all. The characters were boring. I literally felt like I was reading an exaggerated form of Christine's life. That just isn't a book I want to read. I ended up DNFing this book around the half way point.

This book was a breath of fresh air. I found it to be definitely a fun read, I really liked the main character Shane. The story really gained momentum, and I just really enjoyed the character growth as it progressed. I feel like this was a great self-discovery story for the character and it was very fun to follow along.

Wow, so many not so great reviews of this book! I have to say that I loved it! It was just the change in pace that I needed - something light and fun but with real meaning behind it. I am not a bit romance, YA reader but this one grabbed my attention and kept it all the way til the end. I was not expecting the twist and I am not going to spoil that for anybody - but it was fun!

Shane has been doing college - and life for that matter - all wrong. She is studying pre med because that it what her parents want. She is unhappy and has no friends. She decides to go to London for a semester abroad and study writing and journalism - her real love. She sees it as a fresh start, a second chance to be happy. She wants to make friends, find love and write. But can it really be that easy?

This is a fun story about doing what you want to do and being the real you. Life is too short. If you get a second chance at something you need to make the most of every moment.

Thanks to St Martins Press and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

Prior to picking up this book I have been an avid follower of Christine's YouTube channel and watched her writing journey videos along the way and was excited to get to read her first full novel. Before reading this work the only thing by Christine that I had read was her short essay that was included in the Because You Love to Hate Me anthology and didn't find myself overly impressed with that. However one of the things that I really enjoyed about this book was the way the writing flowed and made me want to continue reading. Although there were a few high points they don't overpower the things that I didn't find myself enjoying about the plot of the story itself. I couldn't get past the personality of Shane and how her character read, but having watched numerous amounts of Christine's videos I could really see that she was basing the main character around herself and don't see Christine coming off as bad a person as Shane was to me. I liked that being a book reviewer herself she included things that people want to see more often in books and nods towards common troupes. Overall I would give this book a 2.5/5 rating but plan to read future works by her because her writing style is amazing.

I admit I was pretty intrigued by this title, because everyone was raving about it and it sounded like a nice new adult contemporary, so I had such high expectations that unfortunately, weren’t met entirely. This was such a personal experience, because I had a lot of issues with some of the topics this was based on, and that made my reading experience lower quite much.

My main problem with the book was how it dealt with cheating. I don’t typically enjoy books where the love interest cheats with the main character, and this one had that trope not only once, but twice with the same person, and it made me quite frustrated how it was handled. You could see how Pilot in various occasions told Shane that he was happy with his girlfriend and didn’t want to leave her, but still Shane had that I’m-so-much-better-than-her mentality that made me want to throw something at a wall, and that happened quite a few times throughout the book.

My other issue was that I didn’t click so well with the writing or the humor. Though it wasn’t bad by any means, there were certain parts that were supposed to be funny and dialogues between the characters that were quirky and smart, but I didn’t find those funny or wanted to laugh. There were certain times where there were some pretty serious things happening, and then out of a sudden the tone changed, and that made those conversations less dramatic.

When it comes to the characters, I wasn’t blown away, sadly. I feel they didn’t have much of an evolution and our protagonist’s voice and inner monologues were exactly the same, when she was supposed to be four or five years older. The dialogue at times was a bit chunky, and I guess I would have enjoyed more to see an evolution in the arcs.

The plot was fun to follow, though quite repetitive, but I didn’t really mind that. It was such a fast paced novel and I practically read it in two sittings, which was great.

I think overall, that Again but Better had such an interesting concept but needed a bit more editing for it to be top notch, because there were some parts that felt a bit lacking, but overall, it had some redeemable qualities that didn’t make me hate it

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an e-ARC of this novel!

2.5 stars, spoilery review

This book was a resounding disappointment. Christine Riccio is one of my favorite Booktubers and I had been looking forward to this debut for months. Unfortunately, the amateur writing style really shines through. The characters are one-dimensional and boring, the pacing is way off, and so many wonderful opportunities are missed when describing the settings (what kind of coming-of-age travel story doesn't provide detailed descriptions of renowned European cities like Paris, Rome and London?). The "twist" is also poorly executed and there just wasn't enough substance to the story for it to make much sense or to pull off the quirky-ness I think it was going for. I did enjoy Shane's character for the first half, since I found her to be quite relatable and funny. However, the latter half just didn't do it for me. I found the addition of Melvin (I think that's his name) to be in poor taste because he simply serves as a foil to Pilot. We know nothing about his personality or how he and Shane came to be in a serious committed relationship for 5 years or why they've even stayed together up until this point. I just felt many subjects were glossed over instead of explored in-depth. I did enjoy the pop culture references, though! And I appreciate the college setting, as many YA books only feature characters at the high school age. I definitely see a lot of ten readers appreciate this but it just didn't live up to my expectations.

This one was so cute - a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ for me. This was fun story about 20 year-old Shane & her trip abroad, hoping to finally fit in somewhere. At first, I found Shane a little immature, but I tried to remember this was a YA novel & I definitely wasn’t perfect when I was 20. Shane grew on me as the novel went on- finding a group in college that you fit into, deciding how you might want to spend the rest of your life, figuring out where your niche is and who you want to be as a person - all things that I could relate to and I empathized with Shane’s journey. There was a surprise element that I didn’t see coming, and I thought this book was a refreshing change of pace. At one point, you find out the Shane loves Taylor Swift & her favorite song is “All Too Well’ (OMG SAME), so I loved Shane regardless at that point. The story was a little long, but I really enjoyed it overall. If you’re not a YA fan, I’d skip it, but I think even some chick-lit/new adult fans will find this one endearing.

I made it a few chapters into this one, but it wasn't for me. I ended up putting it down. I don't read a lot of YA, and I prefer ones that have a bit more depth. This would have been a book that I appreciated from ages 13-20 though, and I recommend it for that group.

I don't feel comfortable rating it, but I can't post this review without a rating. Giving it three stars as an even medium.

I received this e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and apologize now for this very long rant of how much I loved this book!!!! I probably discovered Christine's youtube channel sometime in 2014. When I started getting super obsessed with books in 2012 I made a lot of friends on Goodreads that I was able to talk books with since I didn't really have many friends that read. Then in 2014, I found out about booktubers and Christine's channel was my favorite. I remember how much I could relate to her in my feelings about the books I loved. When I finish an amazing book I still to this day go find her reviews on youtube.

Anyways, when I found out that she was writing a book I knew I had to have it. It was one of my most anticipated reads of 2019. I was equally excited when I found out that I could request the arc on NetGalley! You can imagine my excitement when I was accepted for that arc. I seriously jumped up and down and did a little dance. I knew that I was going to love this book, and I did!!!

This book has everything you would ever want in a contemporary. Great lovable characters, misunderstandings, fun trips, amazing friendships, love, and a little bit of magic. In this story we follow Shane. Shane is on track to be come a doctor, and her parents couldn’t be prouder, but she is not completely happy about this. She feels like her college experience didn’t go as planned and she isn’t quite happy with how her life is right now. Shane finds out about a study abroad writing program that goes to London for a semester and decides that it is exactly what she needs.

Shane writes a list of what she has to do while on this trip, like making friends, being confident, and meeting a boy. She gets to cross everything off while in London, but the trip definitely wasn’t at all what she expected. She hits lots of bumps in the road, but they add to who she is. Again, this book just blew me away! I loved everything about it and didn’t want it to end!

The other day I watched Christine’s video about the audiobook and have decided in the next few months to listen to it! I am so excited to hear my favorite characters come to life! You definitely need to go out and get this book and read or listen immediately. After your done come back and read my spoilery review and let’s chat all this Again, But Better!!!!

DNF @13% (Stopped at chapter 7 exlusively)
I received an ARC copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This has no impact on my review/thoughts.

First, let's get this out of the way. I like Christine Riccio and watch her youtube videos from time to time but this book was definitely not for me. Shane reminded me a lot of Christine even for the first seven chapters I read. However, what ticked me off was the way how Shane was SO obsessed with Pilot the moment he comes into the picture. It just doesn’t make sense. Maybe a crush but she was literally IN LOVE with the guy that she saw for a minute! It was definitely an insta-love trope there.

In chap 5, she likes freaking out that they are going to travel to another country to visit after having arrived just the day before and here she is falling in love with a guy that she met on the same day she arrived in London... and she's NOT freaking out about that (go figure).

I just can’t help but roll my eyes for the entire six chapters that I read. It was really boring for me and the writing/storytelling didn't mesh with me.

Pros: I enjoyed the writing style and am looking forward to seeing Christine grow as an author in future books. I really appreciated seeing the main character, Shane, grow in her journey and prove that this was more than just a love story.

Cons: The two timelines of the story were just so detached from one another, that to me, it felt like entirely different books. I also really hated how I couldn’t envision Shane as a character without seeing Christine. Every single aspect of Shane came from Christine and it was just too overbearing for me to look past.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Again, but Better follows Shane, a college student who is convinced that she’s been doing college all wrong. In an attempt to fix this, she decides to follow her dreams and take a semester abroad in London. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worst when her parents show up, and she starts to reconsider everything. Years later, a magical opportunity comes up, that could give her the chance to change everything.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I had a difficult time putting it down, because I wanted to know what would happen next with Shane. On the other hand, I wasn’t a huge fan of the first half of the book, because I found Shane’s internal monologue to be immature and annoying. On the third hand (yes, let’s pretend I have three hands), I really enjoyed the second part of the book when Shane started focusing on herself and her goals.

My favourite thing about this book was all the travelling that Shane did. I liked seeing London, Paris, Rome, and other European cities through Shane’s eyes, and this book made me want to do some travelling. I also liked the friendships that Shane made in the second half of the book, and I loved how much travelling and exploring she did with her roommates during their term abroad.

The other thing that I liked about this book was watching Shane mature. I liked when she started making decisions for herself, instead of trying to do what everyone else wanted her to do. I thought that she had great character development, and I went from not liking her much, to being inspired by her.

One thing I didn’t like about this book was all the pop culture references. I understand that sometimes pop culture references are useful and that they can make a story seem more real, but the amount in this book seemed excessive.

Overall, even though I enjoyed this book, it wasn’t the book for me. I think if I was a little bit younger, or still, in university, I would have enjoyed this book more. I do recommend this book to people in college or university who are unsure of what they want to do moving forward.

DNF at 4%

I'm really not feeling this writing style.

70% of the sentence begin in I, and the majority have filter phrases.

I've now gleaned the code to the kitchen (which was, in fact, buried in the blue folder paperwork), grabbed Sawyer, and settled in at the table to write. I want to write about my experience in England, so I've started working on a blog post about my first few hours here.

Hours that have been incredibly boring. She got her bags, got on a taxi, nearly fell down some steps because you can't have a YA novel without a clumsy MC, awkwardly met her new roomies, saw a cute boy (his name is Pilot, and his friend's name is Atticus—these are reasons enough for me to DNF), and went to an orientation where she was separated from her friends like a sheep being led towards the slaughter. But all this was related in a way that made me feel supremely disconnected from Shane, almost as if she's narrating it from outside her body.

Anywho, not for me, even though I was incredibly intrigued by the premise because I was kinda hoping for another awkward college coming of age story like Fangirl.

I'm sure others will enjoy it, but it's not intriguing me enough to continue.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Again, But Better is exactly what you would expect: a rom-com romp through Europe with a boisterous narration that carries you through giggles and heartbreak from start to finish.

Me, being an extremely picky reader when it comes to contemporaries, had my qualms and worries. But, more than anything I was excited to see another book internet personality being able to make their mark in the traditional publishing world. And it exactly met my expectations.

One thing this book excels at is its voice. It grabs you from the first page with the author’s unique and unmistakable mix of overzealousness, awkward charm, and silly commentary that she’s crafted to perfection. Shane feels so real and like you’ve been her friend your entire life; You feel for her struggles, choices, and decisions, and only want the best for her by the end of the story.

The rest of the characters, however, did fall a bit flat. Every one of them had defined characters and backstories, and it was a well-thought out and diverse cast, but there wasn’t anything particularly exciting about any of them, and none of them really lent anything to the overall story besides just extra bodies there. I wish I was able to see more of them, and maybe even see more of how Shane plays off of them and how their relationships affect the story as a whole.

Which then brings us to the love interest: Pilot. He unfortunately fell into the same predicament as the rest of the side characters. I never really felt anything for him, except for a couple of really well written scenes between him and Shane. But truthfully, if this book were just a story of personal discovery with a dash of romance instead of the other way around, I think I may have been completely head over heels for it.

What really caught me off guard and caused the scales to tip from an okay book to something good was the plot twist halfway through. It was well-executed and c=so far out of left field that I never saw it coming. It made the story so much more fun, and I found the second half of the book far more exciting and engaging than the first.

Above everything else, this is a book that Teen me needed. If someone put this book in my hands at age 16 I would’ve read it and cried and feel so incredibly seen. So, that also clearly factors into my opinion. While maybe it didn’t quite hit the mark for me now, I know its something that will touch the hearts of so many readers, and honestly, that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?

Christine Riccio, from PolandBannasBooks, was not the first YouTuber I ever saw, but definitely the most impactful on my reading, and eventual bookstagramming. She was either the second or third YouTuber I ever saw talk about books, and her passion and energy made me want to revisit my love for books and made me think that books could be "cool" and that maybe others were still interested in reading too. So when I heard she was not only writing a book, but getting it published, I knew I wanted to support it. That being said, I received an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review and all opinions are my own.

Again, But Better follows Shane, a college student who has lived a mostly unexciting life and who hasn't really enjoyed her life to the fullest, especially concerning college. She has tremendous pressure from her family to become a Doctor, even though she actually enjoys writing and wants to intern for a Travel Magazine. She goes on a Study Abroad trip to Europe with her parents under the impression that she will be interning/studying in a clinic.

Personally, I found the beginning to be rather dull and difficult to read as it felt very juvenile. The writing is very basic, and there's a lot of jumping around from one scene to the next that never felt very cohesive. The characters were difficult to relate to as we didn't see much about their lives apart from their interactions with Shane. And Shane seemed very awkward to the point where sometimes I found her interactions with her friends to be even too difficult to read.

Shane herself is very much like Christine, from enjoying Yoga, Taylor Swift, Harry Potter, reading in general, blogging, having an obviously Italian last name (Primaveri), and even having a relationship with her cousins that seemed more like a brother-sister bond. These huge similarities ended up making some very personal Shane moments feel as if I was reading Christine's diary at some points.

After the first 55%, the book got better in a big way.

It seemed very clear to me that the second half of the book had been rewritten or edited more times than the first, or that Christine's writing had developed enough over the time period writing the first half that the second half was much better.

The plot line picks up big time. The characters are less awkward. The dialog even gets better. I really can't stress enough how much the book changes after the first half to be such a great read.

I almost dnf'ed (did not finish and put the book down for good) during the first half several times. But as I received this book for review purposes I pushed my way through. And I'm glad I did, because I loved the twist in the second half, and I really loved the formatting and writing of the second half soooo much. It saddens me greatly that the first half was such a bust for me, since the second half was truly amazing.

One little thing that really bothered me that doesn't really have anything to do with the story, and was kind of necessary in order to make the story happen was the obvious privilege that Shane has. And what do I mean by that? Shane goes to Europe for a pretty decent amount of time (which is expensive) and has her parents pay for the whole trip under the guise that it's a medical internship when it's not. During her time there, she also asks her parents for money occasionally, and then throwing in that she "has money saved up from summer jobs." And I just wanted Shane to say just once how lucky and fortunate she was to even have the opportunity to go to Europe and study abroad. Maybe it was different for Shane, but when I was in college, study abroad worked out to be around $4,000 not including food, extra travel, or souvenirs and the likes.

Overall, I would give the first half a low 2 stars almost 1.5, and the second half a 4-4.5. I would recommend this book for fans of Christine and also those who fit in the younger YA category as it was mostly mild. I think those of us that fall into the "older" YA reader category might not enjoy this one as much.

Who hasn't thought about what it would be like to be able to go back in time and change the course your life has taken by altering some decisions. This book explores this question. It was very interesting and kept me engaged throughout.

Shane Primaveri’s college experience hasn’t exactly gone as she’d hoped. Stuck in a major she’s not passionate about, she’s slogged through her first two years without making any real connections. When an opportunity to study creative writing in London appears, Shane lies to her parents and sets off to have her college experience the right away.

Again, But Better is a crossover NA novel by booktuber Christine Riccio (polandbananasbooks) and was one of my most anticipated reads of this year.
Let’s talk about why it was lukewarm for me.

What I Liked
The study abroad element. Do I think there are far too many stories about this experience set in Europe? Yes. Do I still fall for it almost every time? Absolutely. I’m a Sagittarius; wanderlust controls like, 80% of my emotions.
Shane’s (intended) major. There are a lot of creative main characters in YA, but they usually skew towards studying photography or painting. As a creative writer myself, I love seeing characters just as excited to build worlds with words as I am. Even though Shane was hiding it from her parents, her passion for writing really shone through and made me smile.
The twist. It happens about halfway through the book, and I should’ve known, honestly. I won’t say what it is (though I’m sure you can guess!) but it was an interesting concept that made the story even more fun.

What I Didn’t Like
The pacing. On one hand, this book can be easily read in maybe two sittings. It’s generally fast-paced and has enough going on to make you want to keep reading to see what happens next. On the other hand, sometimes things happen way too fast and suddenly things start going kind of slow and I’m sitting there with whiplash. We’re thrown into a scene and just when we get comfortable with it, there’s an abrupt cut to Shane’s diary entry detailing the rest of the day — which brings me to…
Telling and not showing. Much of this story takes place in European countries, and there’s understandably a lot to explore. Some of the descriptions were great, but others felt lacking and I could hardly build a picture in my head of the character’s surroundings and activities. One moment in particular is in Rome, where an *incident* occurs and once I was super invested in the moment, we’re ripped out of it and it suddenly cuts to Shane’s diary, which gives a bare bones detailing of the rest of the day. I was so excited to see what happened after that incident!
The romance. Can I even call it a romance for the first 50-something percent? It’s a bit more like an obsession. Shane develops a crush fairly quickly on a guy she sees on the first day of her exchange program, and I don’t… particularly… like him. Or the romance at all, for that matter. There’s a lot of attention on him that makes me a bit sad because Shane is in a whole other country trying to be braver and explore the world and she’s hung up on a guy she met within the first 0.5 seconds? Their relationship is also the catalyst for The Twist and I won’t lie, that hurts a little.
**SLIGHT SPOILERS??**
I thought that after the twist, Shane would focus on him a lot less, maybe even discard him from her life. Let’s be real: he deserves it. But that wasn’t the case at all, and as proud as I was of Shane for what she did in the second half of the book, I’m disappointed in her choice to keep this guy around.

Things I’m on the fence about
The dialogue. Some of it was just not a fun time to read, but some of it, like the banter between Shane and her love interest, felt easy and fun. While there were a few lines that felt unnatural and unrealistic, I think there were still a good chunk that felt pretty good.
This story reads so… young? Let’s not forget, friends: this is a New Adult book, NOT YA. Shane begins the story from age 20 and the story overall covers about six years after. Despite this, the story seemed to read a younger to me. Mostly, it was because of Shane. But on the other hand, I was relieved to see that Shane was closer to how I sounded at 20 (and honestly, probably still at 25) than most New Adult books that paint a person’s early twenties as a time of Sudden Maturity; I’ve always felt so out of place reading them even if I am their intended audience.

Overall Thoughts

I didn’t dislike this book, but I wasn’t crazy about it either. The premise was something I was really excited for, and while I was sort of disappointed in the end, I still had fun reading it and even feeling inspired to write as well! Christine’s writing is also blazing with potential, and there were moments where I was reading and just knew that I would be picking up her future books as well. I can’t wait to see what she writes in the future! It wasn’t really for me, but it could be for others!

If you’re a fan of The Summer I Turned Pretty or any Sarah Mlynowski books, I think you could give this a try for a light, easy, and fun read.