Title: Again, But Better
Author: Christine Riccio
Publication Date: May 7, 2019

Synopsis:
Shane is doing college and life exactly as her parents want, which leaves her lonely, and unsatisfied. Shane discovers a way to participate in a semester abroad and study something that she really enjoys. This book tells the story of Shane getting a second chance to discovery who she is, her career choices, and who she wants to love.

Opinion:
I enjoyed this book, but definitely did not LOVE it. I thought there was an excessive amount of pop culture referenced in the book. Part 2 of the book was disappointing. I felt like Shane and Pilot should have spent more time together in London. It just didn’t make sense for the book to end the way it did when the hardly spent anytime together. Also, the time travel aspect wasn’t very well written. However, I did enjoy the friendships Shane made and some of the books and songs mentioned. I respected the way Shane’s social anxieties were present but not the emphasis of her character!

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Thank you @netgalley and @wednesdaybooks for the digital galley!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Shane feels like she has done college all wrong, so she signs up for a semester abroad to fix all her mistakes (make friends, get a boyfriend, try new things, etc). Surely some time in London will give her the chance to live the life she wants!

I struggled with this book. I loved the ideas, but the writing was very laborious and overly detailed. It didn't flow well at all. The characters all had weird names but aside from that, nothing really stood out about any of them. They all kind of blended into each other. And Shane, who is supposed to be early 20's, seems VERY childlike...not just naive and immature, but childlike in a cringey way. I had a really hard time rooting for her because all her interactions just seemed so uncomfortable (you know how cringey can still be kind of charming or it can just make your skin crawl with second-hand discomfort? Yeah, this was the latter.).

I also wanted a lot more about London and Shane's experiences abroad, and aside from dropping the names of places, that ball was almost entirely dropped. I was so disappointed!

This book might work well for a younger reader, but aiming at college students or beyond is a mistake, in my opinion.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Look, I love Christine Riccio. I remember watching her Booktube videos for the very first time when I was like 15 and felt so validated that there was another girl out there who fangirled like crazy over the Shadowhunter books. I followed all of her writing vlogs and found her struggles with the writing process very relatable.

But this book read like really bad fanfiction.

It pains me to write this. I tried very hard to look for the positives and I'll be honest, there were enjoyable parts: the travelling, the twist in the middle, the explosive drama with Shane's parents. I was even excited to see where the story was going because the first chapter or two was creepily similar to a story I had written when I was younger - like, it was almost WORD FOR WORD, kind of similar. I seriously freaked out. But the reason why I ditched my book when I was younger was because I feared it was just a cheesy, self-insert with childish writing - and that's exactly what Again, but Better is. It's pretty much 17 Again fanfiction.

Like I said, I don't want to crap on this book because Christine is an A+ amazing person. But there were nearly ten (weirdly named) characters in this book who all melted into one because they had the same personality. The whole point of the book was travelling and exploring new places, yet there was no description of anything whatsoever. The entire thing was telling instead of showing. I don't know, I'm just so bummed that this book was barely readable because I really, truly wanted to read and support it!!!

• Title: Again, But Better
• Author: Christine Riccio
• Series: Stand Alone
• Pages: 384
• Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
• Rating Out of 5 Stars: 4

My Thoughts:
While I thought it was an interesting idea and having watched Christine’s booktube journey through writing this I confess I wasn’t setting my bar super high as far as what might come out a first book. I admit I was pleasantly surprised. Issues aside, simply put it was fun.

The book does have issues. That’s just a given with anyone’s first novel and still trying to find your voice. The writing itself was decent if a bit juvenile. I’d expect to find a lot of the dialogue more in a middle grade then something geared towards younger/new adult genre.

Moving on to our cast of characters:

Shane overwhelming reminds me of our author in her personality, physical descriptions, the way she talks and just overall interacts with her environment as well as some of the experiences involved. I kept reading the novel and seeing her acting the story out. Not that it was a bad thing, but if you watched her videos it’s hard not to see the similarities and give the book a semi-autobiographical feel.

Her father is both mentally and verbally abusive no matter how Shane tries to say he’s only doing what’s best for her. She clearly suffers from social anxiety/awkwardness, but she does grow in how she approaches things. You see this much more after the second chance comes around.

Our love interest Pilot is ok. He and Shane have a similar goofy personalities and troubles at home. He's your typical music loving, comes across a decent guy with some questionable behavior type.

When it comes to our group of side characters Babe, Sahra, and Atticus I felt they were developed enough to add a satisfying element to the story even if we only get the base information on them.

Overall story:
The last half of this felt like it flew by as I was reading it. It’s a fun take on how awkward and embarrassing those late teens and early 20’s years for all of us. When we’re not quite ready to be out on our own, still trying to figure what we’re doing and where we want to go, and what rules we’re willing to break. More importantly, what you would change if you could go back and do it again with what living through those experiences the first time taught you. If you want something quick and feel good, I do recommend it.

EARC kindly provided by NETGALLEY and Wednesday Books in return for an honest review.

I received a free copy of this book through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Actual rating 1.5

Warning: this review will be full of spoilers because it's the only way I can explain why this book didn't work for me.
First of all, I'm sad to give such a low rating because I love Christine, she has a great personality and funny videos. But I'm not rating Christine, I'm rating this book. So let's dive in.
Let's start with the writing. It's very juvenile, almost like it's written by a 10 year old. And it's very robot-like, almost as if I'm reading a report and not a novel.

"Sahra stops in at about 3: 30 to grab a drink before heading back out to get groceries. Atticus storms in at 3: 45, stuffs a microwavable meal down his throat, and runs out, sputtering about being late for his internship interview. It’s about 4 p.m. now, and I’m staring at my Gmail."

It's overly descriptive.

"There’s a boy in the kitchen. A boy right up at the window facing me. How did I not see him immediately? He’s washing dishes with a big, fluffy, yellow sponge."

Do we really need to know that he is washing dishes with a sponge? What does it bring to the story?

The story is very slow paced. In fact, absolutely nothing happens in the first 10 chapters. I was honestly bored the whole time. The first part of this book takes place 2011 when Shane goes abroad for a semester. And she does it all wrong apparently because then she, are you ready for it? Time travels back to 2011 from 2017 to redo the whole thing. All because she didn't get the guy by the way.
Let's talk about characters. Shane is the worst person ever. She wants to find a guy and she does. She falls in love with the first guy she sees. There is no chemistry between the two. And, Pilot (oh did I mention that his name is Pilot Penn?) has a girlfriend. And what does Shane think of that?

"Jesus, Pilot, you said in front of all of us that you asked her if she would put a pin in your relationship during the time you were abroad!"
Wow really low Shane, are you that desperate for a guy?

“Shane, I’ve been with Amy for six years,” he says the words slowly, like he’s proving a point. His forehead scrunches in discomfort. “Okay, are you two engaged?” I ask quietly. He looks into his cappuccino. “No.”“Is she the one? Are you happy?” chill down crazy sticker, he just said he doesn't want you and has a girlfriend."

Exactly, Shane, chill down.
But this is not the worst part. The worst part is the way the author handles sexual assault. Shane goes to a party and then gets cornered by a drunk guy who forced her to kiss him. She doesn't like this guy, doesn't want to kiss him. He is forcing her!!! Her friend Babe (oh, did o mention that everyone has just the best names ever?) sees that and, instead of helping her friend, accuses her of being a slut. Wow. And Shane just pretends that nothing happened. Why? This passed off as a normal male behavior. It is not! No! But, then again, in a different bar, same thing happens again. And the whole time Shane thinks "I don't like it but I let it happen". I let it happen!! How is this ok? Did none of the editors noticed that this is wrong? And since Shane is basically Christine, makes me wonder that same thing happened to her and it makes me worried. Girls, this is not ok. Don't let some random guys take advantage of you. That should be the message.
Another thing that bugged me a lot, was Shane's family. Oh my gosh, her dad is a total asshole! He forces others to go to dinner with him by saying "what you don't want free dinner?" What an asshole, he is so rude oh my gosh, worse than a child! He proceeded to interrogate Shane's friends and when they don't answer, his reply is: “Now I’m gonna say this one more time, Sahra.” what is that??? A threat? Fuck you mister asshole!
And then he publicly screamed at Shane and calling her names. He is abusive! Does noone else see that?

“End of semester, the second you’re home, you start work at my office. Don’t call us for money. Don’t call us for anything. You’re on your own.”

So, if she's on her own, she doesn't need your money she can do whatever she wants right?
Classic story of a poor girl who has to do something her parents want for her, when all she ever wants is be a special snowflake. And she is 20 by the way. She is an adult but everyone acts like they are 10!

I did like that when she goes back in time, she stands up to her family and talks to her cousin who was going through some stuff. But other than that, this book was a flop for me.

I really really loved this book. I couldn’t see where it was going in the middle and almost felt a little cheated until the elevator scene. At that point I felt it could be a bit cheesy but it wasn’t! I loved the direction it went in I applied the book to my personal life and was able to keep thinking back on decisions I made and ‘what if....?’ I love the idea of a spirit guide wandering among us keeping us on the right track. I definitely want to read more from this author.

I am so impressed with how good this book is! It’s so cute and funny and I love all the travel aspects! The romance was super adorable and all the friendships were great. I loved reading this and I’m so happy with how it ended.
After watching all of Christine’s writing videos and watching her go through the process of writing Again, But Better I was so pumped to finally read this. I really appreciate this book after seeing all the hard work she’s put into it.
Knowing that this is her debut novel and watching her process through the book I can easily gloss over all the issues I had with the book. I will say that at the very beginning it feels very rushed. I needed a little more time to adjust to everything that was happening. I feel like all in the matter of a couple of pages we met the main character, was introduced to her life, thrown into study abroad and already met the love interest and basically already knew that they had a thing for each other. I would've loved more time seeing them interact and flirt and get to know each other before they were "together". It felt very insta-lovey to me. The entire first half of the book felt like a full novel in itself, then once you get to the 'twist' and they go back in time it just feels very long. I understand it all had to be in there but it just felt like a lot. I don't want to criticize this work too much because overall it was a wonderful book and Christine did an amazing job.
I cannot wait to see more from her in the future!

<b>Actual rating:</b> 3.5/5

Going into this book, I had absolutely zero expectations. I just wanted a cute contemporary romance. And that's what I got... in a way (let me explain) (no spoilers ahead, no worries).

I absolutely loved the first part. It took me some time getting into the story, yes, but once I did I was completely swept away. I loved the characters and their relationships, I loved the story, and once Christine started mentioning certain books (YA or not) and throwing nerdy references, I was done for. I could relate to Shane a lot and on pretty much everything, and I absolutely adored her. So you could say that this book was perfect for me.. Until it wasn't.
The second half of the book was the reason why I had to lower my rating to 3.5/5. Without going much into details, I thought this part could have been a great idea, but to me it was just too weird. It did make the plot of the book interesting, and I admit it was funny to see things this way, but I just didn't buy it (sorry not sorry).

This book was still great though, and I would definitely recommend it, I just think it was an okay read (at least for me).

I was fortunate enough to get this copy from NetGalley. I loved this book! I finished it in two days, I was hooked right from the beginning. Shane was very relatable to me in the way that she gets teased by her family as do I and they way she used a new environment to her advantage and be herself, but with a fresh new start. I totally shipped Pilot and Shane together and knew that the moment they layed eyes on each other that they would get together. I totally didn’t expect the girlfriend, the lady from the plane and the elevator scene at all! I really did feel for her when her parents surprised her in London, but all we do is try to please our parents and make them proud. I wish I could travel as much as they all did.

there was a lot of hype surrounding this book so I was very skeptical about reading it. I don't think the hype is all that justified. The book isn't bad or anything but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

I was sent an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for making this possible!

The copy of the book I was sent is still not the final published copy, so that is something to keep in mind when reading my review. Again, but Better will be published on May 7, 2019.

WOW, I can’t even begin to explain my excitement at receiving this book!
I have been a member of NetGalley for many years and have only ever been approved for a couple of books here and there, but never anything too mainstream or exciting. When I requested this book, with so much hype surrounding it, I figured it was a shot in the dark.

BUT I GOT APPROVED!!!

Goodreads rating: 4.5 stars

The Blurb:
From one of the most followed booktubers today, comes Again, but Better, a story about second chances, discovering yourself, and being brave enough to try again.

Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents…sounds ideal—but Shane’s made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance…what’s that?

Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time’s a ticking, and she needs a change—there’s nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She’s going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure!

Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart.

Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic—the possibilities are endless.

Color me impressed!

I will be the first to say that Christine is not one of my favorite BookTubers. It’s nothing against her, I just find that her personality and energy level do not match what I’m looking for in videos. However, it can’t be denied that she’s the queen. Without Christine, would we even have BookTube?

But since Christine isn’t really one of my favorite people to watch, I was walking into this book a little bit skeptical. Another book was written by a booktuber that I wasn’t really interested in *cough* Zenith *cough*…

BUT OH MY GOD

There was not a moment that I was reading this that there wasn’t this huge cheesy smile on my face, and it wasn’t uncommon for me to laugh out loud. Christine’s tone translates so well into a book character! There’s a lot to say about this book, so let’s get started.

This book starts off with our main character Shane on a plane ride to her study abroad in London. She has a lot in her life that she wishes she could fix, but instead of doing that, she’s running away to London to try to get a new start. She makes notes to herself in one of her notebooks (which she lovingly refers to as horcruxes throughout the book, because they each hold a little part of her soul. Cute, right?) about the things she’s going to get “right” this time around: the normal stuff, like make friends for the first time in her life, and have her very first kiss at the age of 20. As cliche as all of this is, I think Christine set up this pattern intentionally, because she quickly threw in an extremely anxiety-ridden moment when the lady next to Shane on the plane starts to read over her shoulder and make fun of her for not having any friends – this never happens in the books when people are writing weird notes to themselves, and thanks to Christine, now I know I’ve always wanted it to.

The author, Christine Riccio, did this a couple of times – she drew attention to the tropes she was including and did her best to represent the thoughts that always go through the readers’ minds when we read them. That’s something so special about this book, in my opinion – it was written by a reader. Finally, an author that can provide closure to the how-the-hell-could-the- main-character-not-know-they-were-holding-their-damn-breath issue. Riccio writes:

“I expel the giant breath I’ve been very aware of holding for the past thirty seconds.”

If you know, you know.
A third time that I was very proud of the author’s representation when it came to a main character that had never been kissed at the age of twenty. The main character said something along the lines of “It would be different if I didn’t want to kiss boys, but I do,” which I just think is so important! It’s clear that Christine put a lot of thought into making sure she wouldn’t be misrepresenting anyone when Shane thought she was a loser for never having been kissed.

When Shane gets to London, she jumps into making friends with her flatmates (who all have very interesting and very weird names – Babe Lozenge, Sahra Merhi, Atticus Kwon, and Pilot Penn). She might feel a little spark with Pilot, but she’s new to this whole boy-liking thing, and isn’t quite sure. Shane spends her semester going to her creative writing class, working at an internship at a cool magazine, and exploring as much of Europe as she can with her flatmates. All the while, her parents are under the impression that she is continuing to study pre-med while she is here and they have no idea that she’s divulging in the creative arts.

As you can imagine, there are many shenanigans to get into for this group of young travelers. Even more shenanigans are to be had when that same crazy lady from the plane makes an appearance and a little bit of magic is involved…

The inner monologue of Shane read so personally. It was amazing. I really felt like I had a strong connection with her in so many ways. The writing never lagged and I was hanging on every word, even if it was something as corny as a comical overuse of the words “shawarma” and “lamppost.” And I will say, it takes one hell of an author to get readers to enjoy reading the same story twice…

I would recommend this book to just about anyone. However, the love story included is a little bit of a sticky situation because the guy has a girlfriend, but he and Shane are still kind of a thing…so if that’s a sensitive subject, I would stay away.
It didn’t really bother me as much as it maybe should have though, because I think both the author and the main character handled this situation very well. There was magic involved, it all made sense… I can’t explain it, JUST READ!

I’m happy to announce that while reading this book, I had my very own character development and decided that maybe I had judged Christine too harshly since I hadn’t watched her in a few years. I watched some videos and subscribed! I know, you’re proud of me.
And, WHILE WRITING THIS REVIEW, Christine Riccio liked AND responded to my comment on her YouTube video, thanking me for reading Again, but Better! The pleasure is truly mine, Christine. Looking forward to the next one!

I really liked this book! I didn't know the author was a famous Booktuber until after I finished the book, so that didn't have any influence over my opinions regarding the book. I think the premise of the book was really interesting- and I love the magical realism twist! The characters were cute, funny, and relatable. I really got the itch to go travel abroad.

Aside from all the lighter stuff, I really liked the bigger meanings in the book, like living boldly, going after what you want, standing your ground, following your own passions, and taking chances. The characters learn these lessons firsthand through very unique means.

Overall, I think this book was charming, funny, and and an emotional rollercoaster.

Would not recommend picking this one up. There are plenty of other well written New Adult books to pick up.

The writing is very cringeworthy, the plot is boring, and the characters are forgettable.

Let’s break things down a bit more. First up, the cringeworthy writing. The dialogue is worse than a cheesy, D-list rom-com. The author over describes everything (which is the only reason this book is long enough to be a novel, but I’ll get to the lack of plot in a minute). Half the situations and conversations in this book are unrealistic. The author tries WAY too hard to includedevery popculture reference possible. Was this an attempt to pander to a millennial audience? I’m not sure but it was a mess and distracting.

Th plot? So unoriginal. The author spent more time describing mundane things and gushing over tourist attractions than building character arcs and plot points. The premise of the book is that the MC will get over her fear of making friends and have some internal growth. But we don’t see the character actually grow from experiences. Also, I’m a little confused if the character has social anxiety (an actual chronical mental health condition) or if she is simply shy. If the author was trying to portray social anxiety.... yeah, this isn’t it.

Speaking of the characters, they two female MCs are pretty interchangeable. The author fails to develope individual character traits, mannerisms, personalities, interests, heck their physical descriptions are even the same!

Just skip this one.

This was a rare DNF for me! The writing wasn’t up to the mark and the characters not well developed. I just couldn’t get myself to power through this one.

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have watched Christine's Booktube videos for years and I was intrigued to hear she was writing a book. I went into reading Again, but Better with an open mind. I was excited to see a story about a college aged student since that does lack in YA/YA contemporary. The idea of getting a second chance to change a major moment in your life is a great concept and had potential. Sadly, it just fell really short in ABB and made it really hard for me to get through. It was really underwhelming and not well written. I found myself constantly wanting to DNF this book, but I powered through hoping it got better. It didn't.

The story is supposed to follow a 20 year old girl studying abroad in London, but read like a Wattpad fanfic through the eyes of a immature teenage girl. There was a major self-insert to the story feel with Shane's personality in comparing it to Christine. I just could not differentiate the personality of Shane to Christine. This kept me thinking about Wattpad fanfics where the author's write (insert (Y/N)(Your Name) here) every time the main character's name came up. Now putting a tiny bit of yourself into your characters isn't bad, but this just was so blunt and not appealing. It's supposed to read as a first person story, but I didn't feel like I was reading it through Shane. It felt like reading it through Christine because of no character/author difference being established.

On the topic of the writing it is terrible. It doesn't read as someone who is a responsible 20 year old young adult overseas on study abroad. It reads as a young child who is immature and whines. I could not find anything mature in the writing style about Shane. The writing made it really difficult to get through this book.

The characters were not interesting and I didn't connect to any of them. They were really flat and had no growth. The only part of Shane's personality that I could find slightly relatable to was her love for pop culture. I got a lot of second-hand embarrassment reading about her. Her quirky and socially awkward personality plus her clumsiness felt pushed to the extreme so often. There seemed to be a lot of falling and knocking things over. She also felt really immature for majority of the novel.

Pilot was horrible. I absolutely hated him. He is your basic boy character and there was anything slightly intriguing about him. His personality was dry as can be and I could never see what Shane saw in him. The insta-love, but not insta-love with Shane was not cute. You could clearly tell from the start he liked Shane more than just a friend. Learning he basically had a GF back in the US and was being flirty with Shane was not cute. It would've been cheating if he went further with Shane which he probably would have to be honest. Especially that one scene in Part 1 where they almost kissed. Sir, you have a girlfriend. Break up with your girlfriend if you found someone new, don't cheat.

Shane's parents are absolutely horrible people and the actions of her father were disgusting to read. They were really toxic and abusive people, especially her father, and you can see if affected Shane tremendously. When her dad blew up on her and called her a vulgar word in public in front of her friends I had to stop reading. It made me feel so uncomfortable to read. They had no confidence in their own daughter and tried to plan her life for her. Yeah no thanks. I was happy to see Shane stand up to them in Part 2 and fight back for control of her life.

As I stated, the only relatable trait to Shane is her love for pop culture, but this got annoying. All the references mentioned the Beatles, Harry Potter, The Mortal Instruments, Vampire Academy, Taylor Swift, etc. got really annoying. Now I love HP, TMI, and VA, but the references got played out real fast. Again the self-insert is at play and it felt forced into the story. Also some of the references would be really specific which again made me feel as it was forced into the story because it's Christine's favorites. The professor we meet is named Professor Blackstairs. Clearly this was in reference to the Carstairs in The Shadowhunter books. There were two points where Shane mentions she is reading Shadow Kiss (from the VA series) and later on Prisoner of Azkaban (from the HP series).

The representation of social anxiety was not good. It felt more as hahahaha I'm so awkward and introverted not of someone having anxiety. It word was used to describe everything and anything slightly nerve-wracking. It wasn't good. Social anxiety is when you literally cannot do a thing or even move, not getting a nervous tingle down your body cause a boy stares at you. It is tragically misrepresented in the book. Honestly, if you don't know how to properly write about the subject then don't.

The plot is terrible. I got turned off when these characters all just meet and three days later they are flying off to Rome together. Like I know it's fiction, but who in their right minds is flying off to a foreign country with people they just met?? Also who has that type of money to be traveling every single weekend??? It's not realistic. Part 1 was agonizing to get through. It felt like there was nothing going on, but stuff did?? I thought the book title was just reflecting Shane re-doing college, but then we got to Part 2. The whole weird spiritual guide time travel magic plot just popping up was weird and bizarre. Realizing Part 2 would be us re-reading Part 1 from a different Shane/Pilot perspective I really didn't know if I could finish. Part 2 went the exact way I knew it would and that's why I was mostly skimming some parts of it. When we got to re-reading their trips to Rome and Paris I only didn't skim when there was details.

If you're reading it because of the fact it's a Booktuber's book go ahead you do you. But just focusing on the story itself and not who it's by, I don't recommend this book.

Let me start by saying that I wanted to love this book so much that I may have set unreal expectations. I love the title, the cover, and the premise. But, this was harder to get through than I expected.

I can't really explain why I didn't rush through this book, but I was just very ambivalent about the book; I knew I wanted and needed to finish the book, but I never felt pulled to get back to the story. However, here are some thoughts.

- The writing was a bit clunky and millennial for me.
- I felt that character development was lacking for all the characters besides the protagonists. I felt like Pilot's development came way too late in the story; I wasn't really understanding why Shane was so taken with Pilot. For the first half of the book, I was wondering if it was because he was her first love or something.
- The spiritual guide was a bit disjointed for me; it felt like she was thrown in because someone said that she needed one.
- The ending seemed too pat.

Again, but Better is an amazing title for this novel. I had no idea what it would mean going into it but I loved the turn out. This is a great coming of age story. Shane is a cool, clumsy, and funny fangirl. I enjoyed all the characters and their quirky names. However I hated Shane’s dad. He didn’t seem very mature and understanding. Definitely did not enjoy his character arc. I liked all the Taylor Swift and Harry Potter references.

ARC from NetGalley, all opinions are honest and mine!

First off, my Christine credentials! I have watched her videos on and off since 2012 probably. She was certainly in the first wave of booktube people I found out about and it at least in part responsible for shaping what I was reading at the time. I genuinely think that she seems like a great person and I will continue my low-key viewer status. Just wanted to put this up here to head off any ‘you don’t dislike this book you just hate Christine!’ type thoughts.

I was so so disappointed in this book. I went into it sure I would at least like it a decent amount. I low-key thought that the other reviews I was seeing were just people who wanted to hate it because they don’t like Christine, or because they think she probably got an easy book deal. I thought worst case scenario its 3.5/4 stars because it is not excellent but I still have fun with it.

I felt like I was perfectly primed to LOVE this book. I studied abroad in London when I was in college. I had flatmates that I thought were excellent people! We traveled around the city together and had the most amazing time. After classes, myself and 9 other students city hopped until we were too poor to keep hopping. In London, there was a cute boy! And most importantly I feel deeply in love with London. I was SOLD by this pitch.

I think that if I was sat down and given a spoiler-filled three minute summary of this story I would probably still love the story. Unfortunately, the execution left so much to be desired.

If I had not wanted to finish this book so I could review it I would have DNFed at Chapter 3. Then I wanted to again at 15%, then I thought that I could justify a review with just 25%, same thought at 50%. But I really don’t like to DNF stuff. So I read the whole book. I did skim from about Part 2 Chapter 3 until about Chapter 21, then I read normally until the end.

I was not bothered by similarities between Shane and Christine. Mostly because I am sure tons of writers, especially newer writers, do this and we mostly never notice because we don’t have access to a ton of information about them.

The Writing

The writing in this book was just so clunky. I continuously was pulled out of the story because something was phrased oddly, or it just felt slightly outlandish.

I didn’t find sleep, but I did find the taxi line outside the airport, so here’s to that.

I secure the bookbag high on my shoulder, grasp the carry-on in my front hand, and prepare to drag the suitcase behind me.

“Uh, actually I think that was pretty witty,” he responds, using the male version of a valley-girl voice,

I was BAFFLED by the constant use of fashion as a verb. Do real people say this? That question popped into my mind over and over with almost all of the dialogue. It is so stilted and does not feel like a real human conversation.

I could tell what she was trying to do often, it was just the gap between intention and result was massive. I was not charmed by the characters, I was not interested in the plot, I was not sucked into the setting, and all of these problems are because this book is not written well. I completely believe that if Christine did not have the following she did this book would not have been published. I feel a little harsh saying that, because I have positive feelings towards Christine, but that is truly how I feel about the writing.

Often times, the reader would enter the scene after a decent amount of action had taken place, so the scene would start with Shane recapping us. It would have been much more enjoyable if we had experienced the scene set up with Shane to some extent. There was a constant problem of telling not showing. It was also why the journaling bits didn’t work very well for me. They were fine for character voice stuff, but they made the pacing drag and totally removed the interest I had in what was going on.

Also, I know this is an ARC, but MAN! This editor has a lot to do.
I just kept becoming more and more frustrated with how unprofessional the writing seemed.

The opening sentence of this book is fine. It is not great. It is not terrible. But this book calls out the importance of opening sentences three times and it makes me think that I am meant to be mega impressed by “I’m leaving the country because I have no friends.” And the more I think I should be floored by it the more I resent it.

The pop culture references do not seem to help the book. They pull me out of the story and sometimes also make me cringe a little bit. Even with references to things I like. EVEN TO HARRY POTTER.

This book just feels very inexpert. Which is fine. I just do not believe this could have been published if they did not know it was going to sell regardless of quality. It reads like okay fan fiction. Nothing is fleshed out, the writing is so not tight, I just do not know how to process this book in the form I have encountered it.

If Christine writes a book in 5-10 years I will totally check back in. She has the potential to write something good, more about that later, but she really needs more time to grow as a writer.

The Setting

This book could almost take place anywhere. She gives what amounts to shopping lists of landmarks and museums in a smattering of cities and occasionally points out small differences from the US, but I never felt a sense of place.

I have been to every location described with more than a sentence (I never went to Berlin, but that is just mentioned in passing). I am spent a significant amount of time in London, a little over a week in Paris, and a few days in Edinburgh and Rome. And if I had not already been to these places I would still not have any sort of feel for them. My brain kept wanting to jump in and add prose to develop the setting because it was almost nonexistent. There were two sentences of describing a street in London HALF WAY THROUGH THE BOOK that were getting close to what I wanted. I keep seeing people in reviews being like “total Anna and the French Kiss vibes” and no. Paris breathes in that book, London does not feel like it even has a pule in Again, but Better.
As someone who has been to all of these places, it is so unrealistic the amount of stuff they are able to do in a day and that the price of some of this stuff doesn’t come up. I’m pretty sure a Paris Pass is almost 200$ so that seems like something that someone else wouldn’t get for you. And something that you would at least note the price.

It drove me absolutely bonkers that this book was just sort of listing places to go and things in them. I really got no sense of what these places are like at all. AND I HAVE BEEN TO THESE PLACES. There is no atmosphere at all in this book. Why would you want to read a book based on travel where you do not get a chance to fall in love with the places.

Something else that bothered me: the lack of language being an issue for anyone? Only Shane was mentioned to speak Italian, no one is said to speak French. Why do language barriers not come up? That is such a wonderful place to insert funny moments or some plot conflict, it also adds to the setting so much.

I was expecting someone who reads a blend of fantasy and contemporary to really understand how important world building is to all genres.

The Plot

I often felt like I was just being told a series of events in a list and not like I was being told a cohesive story. This feeling was more intense in the first half of the novel and did get a tad better in the last few chapters.

The only part of the plot I was genuinely interested in was how horrible her family was. That did genuinely make me sad, her parents were straight up monsters, especially her father.

Again, the idea for this book isn’t bad. The idea is sort of cute and fun. The pitch for this book totally sold me. I just don’t think that Riccio is really skilled enough to execute this book well.

I was not compelled by the romantic aspect of this plot. And this book was mostly the romantic segment.

Nothing about the romance felt natural, the conflict mostly felt haphazard and contrived. I was not sold by this at all.

The love confession bit was sort of cute. Also a little pathetic. But he has a SIX YEAR relationship with a girl going on. So it felt massively shitty of Pilot, the terribly named love-interest, to kiss Shane in Part Two, it would have been far more palatable in Part One. I kinda get being able to easily change your mind about a girl you have known for 3 months. But six years is a long time. I just feel like we know not much about Pilot’s thoughts and if we did they would probably make no sense.

I am of two minds about chapter 23. Do I think the gay cousin is a fleshed out character? No. Do I hate the ‘gay kid teaches homophobic parents how to be accepting’ trope? Yes. (It didn’t go down that path but you can see the first steps in the direction.) But despite that I liked her having a real conversation with someone in her family. Most of her family are still semi-abusive garbage people. Her dad is straight up verbally abusive. And her mom has absolutely no agency. And she is still mean.

Chapter 22 of Part 2 (I think) I mostly stopped skimming. This was really when the plot stopped focusing on Pilot so much and turns out I like the book better without Pilot. This four-chapter stretch is what will probably bump my rating up to 2 stars for me. I wish I had really gotten to know and like Shane earlier in the book, it would have been delightful to have somewhat enjoyed the first 40 chapters.

The epilogue was horrible. Shane went from having a ton of problems left to solve to having magically fixed everything and being massively successful. The reader needs to see some of that emotional labor if I am supposed to give credit for wrapping those plot lines up like this. It felt very cheap and poorly thought out.

The Characters

Shane was a fine main character. I did not really care much about her at all until Chapter 21 of Part 2. I saw a ton of Christine in her, which isn’t bad, but I just didn’t really have strong positive or negative feelings about Shane throughout most of the book. I did hate that she kept being described as yelling things at times when it was so not appropriate to be yelling, but other characters did that as well. It was also through Shane that most of the jarring pop culture references were mentioned, and I clearly did not enjoy most of that.

Her friends are fine. They don’t really have personalities and seem like tools just to push the romantic and family drama plots forward. Babe and Sahra are just kind of there. I especially felt Sahra was just there to ruin the family dinner situation by being uncharacteristically stupid.

I have seen a lot of shade about the names of everyone in this book. I was personally not at all bothered by any of the names except Pilot. Like the first episode of a tv show. I assume it was because he was their first kid. And his sister’s names were so bland I cannot remember them. I hate this name. Also, I did not enjoy this character at all. Such a boring YA cool boy amalgamation character. He was not charming and I was never really interested in him. This felt especially damning because I am a massive sucker for romance. Basically, every love-interest that is endgame works for me. You can’t just keep telling me he is smirking and that make me like him. He is too flaky and uninteresting.
They legit almost kiss before the reader has the time to know if they are into it? That was a character and a pacing problem! I also would not have gotten that they almost kissed if I was not told by Shane.

I hate how often our main characters tell us they are being clever. That does not make me think they are clever. That makes me think they are tweens.

So. Not. Charmed.

The parents have textbook abusive language. Pretty much the only thing I am found interesting about this book is the terrible family subplot. And it was resolved so poorly. These people have a terribly dysfunctional family all around. And the straight up yelling at your kid in public like that was terrible.

When she was adding drama to Babe’s life by having her love interest be trash I was rolling my eyes so hard. His characterization felt so forced and one note. Why would this girl b friends with this terrible boy who is shown to have no redeeming qualities? And I keep rolling my eyes at “I like short girls” WHO TALKS LIKE THIS. As a short girl, I can tell you no one ever comes up and says “ohhh I like short girls” when they are being creepy/thinking they are complimenting me.

The way characters talk to each other is so juvenile. Christine’s voice would probably work better with a younger YA and not for college (and post-college) aged people.

I think Chapter 21 (in part 2) would have been powerful if I cared at all about these characters. This book is a reminder that I need to get my grad school applications finished. But I am still not emotionally involved. And I am SO easy to make cry.

Nitpicking

- I HATE “Pies” as a nickname. It is so cringeworthy.

- YOU NORMALLY WOULD NOT HAVE YOUR PASSPORT CHECKED IF YOU ARE TRAVELING WITHIN THE EU. I now see this was mentioned so there would be some plot. But anyone who knows anything about travel in Europe would know that this is not a concern. Like you need ID to get on a plane but you do not need a passport to travel within the EU. And then this doesn’t even really become much of a plot point. Why have something that is inaccurate for this little payoff? We don’t even get to see her get it back.

- There is NO WAY you could go to Versailles (opens at 9) take the train back (takes about an hour), go to the Louvre, go to the Eiffel Tower, CLIMB TO ALMOST THE TOP, go down and it only be 5:45. This book is so poorly researched.

- The TFioS rip-off moment is not any less a rip-off moment because it was mentioned.

Another positive: I liked the acknowledgments a lot. They were so sweet and it made me feel very guilty that I didn’t like the book.

I much prefer to like things.

This review will be posted on my blog on April 9th and will be reblogged on Tumblr the week of publication.

Christine Riccio's debut novel was hilarious and charming. The romance was incredibly swoon-worthy and the love interest was beyond adorable. I was constantly shocked by the surprising twists and turns the book made and even when I was apprehensive of the direction the story seemed to be taking, I was always reassured and pleased the more I read on. Again, But Better was a page turner and while Christine's writing is not the best and a little too juvinile for a twenty-year-old main character, her plot and characters were incredibly entertaining and relatable. The novel did, however, feature the word 'stuff' way too many times than necessary and I had doubts that Shane was as good a writer as the story led on (especially after reading her seemingly mediocre journal entries). This aside, I loved traveling Europe alongside Shane and her friends. I had no doubt that her travels read as anything other than authentic. In fact, I was not surprised at all in the acknowledgements to find that the author had studied abroad herself.

I really, really liked this book, which is surprising because I generally don't like books that have elements of fantasy in them, but I liked Shane and Pilot (his name is wacky, though) and I liked their story and I liked the fact that even when it started over, it wasn't all smooth sailing.

Also, I liked Atticus and Babe and the trips to Rome and Paris. I think their first future seemed very realistic and their second seemed less likely, but I plan to buy this book for my nieces when it's released.

I read this book in a day on the beach. It's just well-written and the characters are good and I liked it despite my usual dislike of fantasy, horror and scifi.