I received a copy of this book  NetGalley in exchange for an honest Review.

Okie, I was seeing this book everywhere and didn't hope to get it, But luckily Netgalley granted my wish which happened only twice which is way too rare as compare to I got the wish option on 90% books( Yes I am a suffering International blogger).

So I didn't know it is written by a booktuber and It was a hype one.

I like a boy. He has a girlfriend who isn't me, and it's the worst.

This sentence summarizes 50% of the story...This book is divided into 2 different years, 2011 and 2017. Shane a smart student and obedient student decided to go to London, by lying her parents for creative writing course which doesn't even come close to her major but her passion.

Pilot(Seriously I can't still digest his name) who is resident of her neighbor room and love interest, he is fun. There are many minor characters which were developed really interesting.

So Let me talk about the story, I loved the first part it was all goofy, quirky and cheesy, you expect from a YA...But the second half *sigh* don't ask about it, It was boring, sudden change of genre isn't my kind and the events turn around were cringe-worthy and the character development almost made me DNF it. The teenage version of characters was smarter and reasonable but the older selves...Guys where did you spent those 6 years???

Okie I get it, It is written by a book lover but those trying so hard to calmly mention a book with authors name casually here and there...No Dude It is not me.

And those overloaded references of the TV season, HP, Dan Brown seemed too forced to me....and How can I forget that Shawarma obsession, It was out of the hand...I personally loved Shawarma but this obsession was so annoying.

I also think the book was dragged too much.

I did not enjoy the book very much. I had high expectations for this one perhaps. The writing style was a bit off that I did not enjoy the story.

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.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
The minute I knew Christine was getting published I knew I needed to get my hands on it!
I devoured this book in two days! I found myself relating so much to the MCs. Shane and her dreams versus what her family wants for her. Such a fun travel novel finally with characters closer to my age! The wanderlust is evident as you read about all of these incredible places across Europe. All I know is my travel bucket list has officially expanded!

I think my favorite part has to be the fact that this book was told in two parts. The first was 2011 when Shane is 20, then we fast forward 6 years to 2017 when Shane is 26. Her life was not going the way she wanted it. Then she seeks out Pilot and they both have a chance to rewrite the past.

If you had the chance to rewrite your past when would you return to?

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.

I really tried to like this one, but with a TBR list taller than me, I DNF'd after 75 pages. It was a cute read, for someone much younger than me. I was in college in 2011, and this college student narrator felt even more juvenile than I was at that age. I also felt like the 2011 references were forced, and because it really doesn't feel like that long ago in my mind, it was just odd. This book is definitely geared towards a younger audience -- a high schooler about to embark on their own college journey. Just wasn't for me.

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.