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.

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Alicia's review Mar 16, 2019 · edit
liked it

I received a review copy from Netgally. All opinions are my own.


This was such a cute and fun story. Yes, it's romance but it's also about daring you to find yourself.

Our main character Shane is wanting a do over for many reasons but mostly because she is unhappy with how her life has turned out thus far.

The best way to find yourself is to step outside your comfort zones and sometimes that means stepping outside of your time zones. I really liked that this takes place in Europe.

Shane has social anxiety and I related so much to her. If you are at all familiar with Christine and her booktube channel than you have a sense of the MC.

The speculative of magic was unique and made for an interesting take.

I felt like some of the side characters were fleshed out while others didn't. There's a lot of banter (which I normally love) but it was super repetitive and didn't flush out a personality. Also, the romance portion and the romantic lead just didn't do anything for me. It bothered me that there was a bit of cheating and dishonesty at the very least from the guy.

If you love rom-coms of the early 2000s than this is for you.

Unfortunately, this book was not at all what I expected and not in a good way. The premise had initially interested me because I felt like it would deal with issues of anxiety and mental health. However I felt like the main character, Shane was supposed to more like a quirky, awkward yet adorable character , rather than have actual anxiety. But even with that set aside, there was just so much going wrong in this book.
After starting this book, I instantly saw this book as being similar to Anna and the French Kiss, which I also thoroughly disliked. Besides the foreign aspect with Americans studying abroad, the main aspect that was similar and awful was the emotionally cheating that occurs. I won’t go into detail as to avoid spoilers, but I was not a fan of that. Even without that, Pilot, the love interest, and Shane were such a boring couple. I could not have cared less about them being together. There was no desire to see them succeed and be happy together.
The characters in the book were very one-dimensional and flat. The just threw in the side characters for the sake of having them there but they didn’t add anything to the plot. Not even Babe, who is supposed to be Shane’s closest girl friend in the group. The writing was very cheesy, awkward and stilted, and the references! Jesus, the references were insanely annoying. I usually like it when I read a reference here and there about things I like, but this was too much. I mean I actually liked stuff the author references to, like Harry Potter, The Mortal Instruments, The avengers, Taylor Swift, and so forth. However, it really got on my nerves while reading this book. Shane could literally be having the simplest conversation and then the next you know she’s going off on a tangent some pop culture reference. Also how do these college student have enough money to be going on trips every weekend?? That was more unrealistic than the magic time traveling.
This book just wasn’t for me unfortunately. I found out after receiving the ARC that the author who wrote this book is a booktuber. It’s commendable that she was able to get a book published, but unfortunately she might want to rethink things when writing her next book.

4.5*
I was lucky enough to get an arc of this amazing book from netgalley. I want to first start off by saying that this book was so good. I’ve always been into these types of study abroad books and this did not disappoint and just made me want to travel even more. I really liked how you got to know the characters really well especially during the second half of the book and I connected with them because they were so realistic. My favorite part of the book would probably have to be all of the pop culture references throughout it. Another thing that was great was how it turned into a story about finding yourself because I’m in high school now and it’s so scary trying to find out who you are when you want to fit it. The only reason I didn’t give this a full five stars was I was slightly disappointed by the ending because I was expecting something a lot different than what happened and it felt a little rushed. But overall I enjoyed this book and recommend it and I’ll for sure be getting a final copy when it comes out.

I was not aware of Christine Riccio or her youtube channel prior to reading this book, and while I am aware she has a channel now, I have not viewed it.

I thought this book was charming. I loved the fairy tale aspect of Shane spending a semester abroad in England to completely change her life. She is her own fairy godmother, even though she clearly has a fairy godmother in the book.

Somewhat shy, although not at all a realistic portrait of shyness or social anxiety, Shane has lied to her parents to join a writing course in England while her parents think it's a pre-med course and internship. Immediately upon landing she meets and begins to bond with her flatmates and finds an adorable love interest.

When things go south, Shane grows up, but six years later has the opportunity to magically revisit her time in Europe.

The book was adorable, and I loved the cute romance, the travel details, and the sheer joy of the main character's interest in so many things, but I felt that she was so immature for a 20 year old. She reads like a young high school student, not like a college junior or sophomore.

That aside, the book is really cute and wish fulfillment for so many people who want to travel, follow their dreams, and write.

I will definitely look for future books by Ms. Riccio.

Thanks to NetGalley.com, the author and publisher for my advanced reader copy.

This is a 3.5 ⭐️ book. I’m torn a bit on my rating of this book. Part One kept the characters at arm’s length and it bothered me. Thankfully I didn’t give up reading it bc the characters did become a bit more accessible and more well-rounded in Part Two. The characters did at times feel a bit forced and cheesy though. Their quirks felt unnatural in some ways. The editing definitely left quite a bit to be desired. I’m not holding the editing against the book since this was an ARC though and I hope the final product will hit stands more refined and ironed out. I know the author is a BookTuber and I love the opportunity such platforms have offered people. It’s like there is an entirely new option now available for a person to find their career path. However, not everyone who loves books and has a successful bookish social media career is destined to be an author. This book is proof of maybe jumping the gun a bit on that fact. There is potential to this book and this story and I’m sure it will get major reads, but I’m not sure this particular book has been slotted in the right genre. With some tweaks, I feel it would have been slightly marketed better as even a middle grades book. I think the writing style is just a bit too underdeveloped for this to be a YA and definitely too immature to be considered a contemporary fiction novel. I hate saying that bc there is palpable potential energy harnessed within these pages. I feel perhaps the author was let down by her team and pressed the button too early to be published rather than waiting and publishing something truly exceptional. Perhaps being internet famous isn’t the best way to become an author bc this book will likely not be appraised based solely on its merits as a book without considering who wrote it and how it came into being. Also, too many exclamation points were used throughout the book, which was proof (amongst other things) of the underdeveloped style, skill and technique of the author. Avid reading does not an author make and unfortunately, social media status on all things bookish proves not to always an author make either. I’m sure her following will keep this book on best seller charts and all over social media and my opinions will not be in the majority, which is great for her—not so great for the future of books, perhaps.

While many people have known the author of this book from her BookTube channel on YouTube I have never heard of her so this book was my first introduction to Riccio.

This book takes place in both 2009 and 2017 in the life of Shane as she goes on a semester abroad to England, deceiving her parents, and changing up her life for the first time. There she meets a group of friends, goes on adventures, and gets a dream internship.

Then everything goes wrong and she is faced with one of the toughest decisions of her life. And then life goes on. But then maybe just maybe she gets a second chance. What will she do and can she fix what happens?

There were things I liked and things I disliked about this book. I liked the premise and I liked that some things I couldn't predict and that went differently than what I was expecting. I also liked the book more and more as it progressed and it seemed to really speed up about halfway through.

I didn't like the way some of the book was written. The first part of the book takes place in 2011 and there are so many references to the year to prove that that was the year that were really unneeded. There were many other times that things were talked about instead of just happening which made the story go a bit slower than it should have.

Overall I did enjoy this story, but it is not the best contemporary story that I have read. It is a fun read and I enjoyed it.

Again, but Better follows our protagonist, Shane, as she attempts "college, take two" on a study abroad semester in London. She's lied to her family about the type of program she is in, and is ditching her premed courses and MCAT studying in favor of a dream semester of creative writing classes. The first half follows Shane and her roommates around London and various European destinations, as Shane flirts with her taken roommate, Pilot. The semester abroad ends disastrously for Shane, who kowtows to her demanding family and resumes her premed track. The second half picks up 6 years later, when an unhappy Shane tracks down Pilot to talk about what went wrong that semester. Where would they be now if they could live that semester again, but better?

While I thought the concept of exploring what you would do differently if you could live a pivotal life moment over again had a ton of potential, this book fell short for me. The writing is clunky, choppy, and leans towards the juvenile in both style and content. The first half of the novel could have used a re-write and some heavy editing to help it flow better and have less cringe-y dialogue. Both dialogue and pacing improve as the book goes on and Riccio gets more comfortable writing, but the slow first half made it difficult for me to enjoy the better written, faster paced second half. Moments of the second half were truly fun and enjoyable - this concept had so much potential, but it just wasn't done right.

Shane is painfully awkward and doesn't have much of a personality outside of "quirky, awkward, and clumsy," which made it hard to connect or sympathize with her. Her constant pop culture references to remind the reader that we are in 2011 get old, fast. The main relationship is based on emotional cheating and Pilot hiding his relationship, so I had trouble rooting for them to end up together. Perhaps one of the most troubling plot elements is that Shane's parents are both emotionally and verbally abusive and publicly destroy her possessions. Despite this, Shane writes off her dad's explosive behavior as a quirk and blames herself for their reactions; the novel never acknowledges that their behavior is abusive.

Overall, I would recommend this book to younger viewers of Christine Riccio, who might enjoy seeing a fictionalized version of their favorite booktuber on the written page.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this book. As someone who has been following Christine online for years and being excited about her writing journey, I'm very appreciative of this!

But sadly I couldn't finish this book. I didn't enjoy this at all.
I don't even know where to begin. Maybe it's the self-insert that feels really uncomfortable because there's so many facts in here that make this feel almost autobiographical and I just couldn't stop wondering which of these thoughts and feelings were her own too. It felt really awkward and intrusive.
I also think this is a hugely missed opportunity when it comes to the age group and the experience Christine is writing about. This is about a 20 year old studying abroad and a good chunk of this books is even from her perspective in her late 20s. But then it reads like really juvenile YA Fiction? And I'm just really sad about it. Because I honestly related to Shane and her experiences (or lack thereof) because I was in a similar situation when I was 20 and I was also a very similar type of person. And I think it's valid to be this awkward, squealy, slightly lost in life 20 year old. But when it READS like a 12 year old? Oof, that just makes it exhausting. And I hate that I'm sure this could be so relatable for many people in their early 20s but then you just kinda find this character really annoying because of the way she's written.
Which brings me to the writing in general. I'm usually not one to notice writing at all. As long as it flows nicely, I'm fine. But oh man.. this was sadly so bad, that even I noticed. From Shane "squealing" and "squeeking" her sentences at least twice on every page to completely unnecessary tangents (that totally could've been cut because this book is long enough as it is), it just felt very clonky and not fun to read at all.
And I don't even wanna get into Part 2 and where the story is going because I haven't read it all. But skipping forward to that and seeing what happens and WHY it happens and how this all ends.. I just makes me feel very uncomfortable about this whole story. And I think it should be made clear that this is not just a Contemporary. The time travel element in this is not something small and insignificant. It is an important part of the story - but a magical part. It should be mentioned that this is something that's contained in this novel because I think it's gonna put off a lot of readers.

I wish Christine all the best with her future reading and I'll be sure to check it out. But this really was not a good experience for me and I'd rather pass for the sake of both of us.

With more and more popular YouTubers becoming authors, I always try to separate their online personality from their body of work. Though I primarily follow BookTubers across various social media outlets, I do not follow Christine Riccio's channel (I prefer smaller BookTube channels). However, throughout the years, I have watched her videos and watch her grow as a BookTubers and an aspiring author. Her online personality is infectious and her video content is fun and engaging. From a single video alone, you can see why she's such a hit with YA readers of all ages. Her backstory is pretty well-known throughout the online community. With that being said, I was genuinely excited to read Riccio's debut novel, AGAIN BUT BETTER, because she had been working on this for years and documented her progress on her channel. I highly enjoyed those particular videos, highlighting her victories and struggles as an aspiring writer.

But as previously stated, I always try to separate a YouTuber's online personality from their body of work. Needless to say, when I started to read the ARC, I immediately clocked how amateurish and juvenile the writing was. I definitely would've been more lenient if not for the fact that the MC is in college and this story is told over six years (speaking of which, why is this book categorized as YA if the characters are in their twenties?). Writing-wise the second half of the book does improve, but not by much. The main character, Shane, sprang off the page for me, but I think it's because she's a self-insert for Christine. Her mannerisms, her quirky personality, her thought process, how she talks, her likes and tastes. Everything was just so Christine that all I could envision when reading this was the author.

While Shane shined, all the other characters fell flat. I know some reviewers took issue with the romance arc. However, I didn't mind it and I applaud the author was taking that route. Sometimes, your crush is taken. I liked how she went about the situation. However, though I liked the handling of it, the romance itself didn't intrigue me because the MC and LI lacked chemistry. They had quirky moments, but it wasn't enough to make up for the lack of chemistry.

Though some pop culture references did take me back to my college days and make me smile, there were way too many. The pacing was alright and Shane's journey was interesting, but with college-age characters exploring the world, this story could've been so much more.

I'm very disappointed.

Again, but Better was a "meh" read for me.

I mean, I LOVE Christine Riccio's booktube videos. She's always so fun, hilarious, and engaging on her channel... what's not to love?

Her writing apparently.

Because although while this novel definitely wasn't the worst piece of fiction I've ever read, it certainly didn't knock my socks off.

It's difficult for me to name anything specific about it that I disliked... It just felt like a bland piece of fanfiction, to be honest... Cause here's the thing: While reading this book, I felt an odd sense of familiarity about it, as if I'd read it before. And then it hit me! It's so incredibly easy to make connections between this book and the beloved Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. A quirky, kind-of-awkward girl enters a foreign country to study abroad and falls in love with a cute dude who has a weird name and a charming sense of humour. See the similarities???

Don't get me wrong, there is some uniqueness to Christine's book FOR SURE, but you can definitely compare it to well-known YA books that have similar plots and characters, which isn't all that great.

I found myself very bored whilst reading this book, especially in the beginning, but at least the second half picked up the pace a bit!

Overall, while this wasn't the book for me, I'm wishing Christine Riccio luck in the publishing of her first novel! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with this ARC!

First, I really really really wanted to love this book. I was super excited to be granted an advanced reader copy. Second, if the first half of the book had been as good as the second half, think I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more. The first part of the book is soooooo slow and boring. However, the second half definitely picked up and made me want to finish it. The ending was okay, but I feel like it was rushed and should have been developed a bit more. Overall, I think a younger audience would enjoy this book.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

UHGHHHHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHhhhh

Alright. I have a lot to say about this book. First of all, I really wanted to like it. I was so ready to love this book! When I was granted an eARC I was ecstatic. My actual first thought was “who, me? Did someone do this by mistake??” I had high hopes, I’m not going to lie. Unfortunately it just did not live up to my expectations.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not a terrible book. It has some great qualities, but for me it just didn’t come together in the end. The writing wasn’t as strong as I wanted it to be, the plot was questionable and the characters were frustrating me hard. The thing is, I can see how this could be good. The right foundation is there, but some things would really need to be changed in order for me to fall in love with it.

The first thing that made me excited about this book was the setting. Our main character, Shane, is in college. Yes! In college and studying abroad. Double yes! Finally, a character who’s a little older and a little wiser. Possibly making some hard decisions and learning along the way. While reading the first half of this book, I realized the writing was far more juvenile than I was expecting. And, there’s nothing wrong with that, this is technically YA, right?

The problem is the writing did not match the supposed age of the mc. It’s not even about it being light-hearted and bubbly! I’m all about an easy romantic contemporary. Half of my tbr is full of mind-numbing ya contemporary that is full of uncomplicated writing (and I mean that in the best way possible!) The writing here just felt lacking. There are some parts when the mc has some anxiety/social anxiety and I really think that could have been fleshed out more. It seemed almost as though the anxiety only came on when it was beneficial to the plot? Not an actual problem the mc was experiencing. I understand everyone experiences anxiety differently, but it didn’t feel accurate to me (but it could definitely be a genuine experience for her.) I could tell in the second half of the book she was filling out her voice a little bit, but imo the first half really needed some additional work.

Okay, the plot. Dude what even happened?? The first half was boring, slow, and the main character made some terrible choices. I understand for the structure of the book that was kind of necessary, but I think it could be improved so that it didn’t feel as though it was dragging. I wanted more believable decisions or more extreme? Something was just missing here.

*spoilers* I’m so confused by the random magic time travel and spirit guide situation here. I wanted either more explanation or maybe a reason why this complete stranger of a woman was doing this? She came out of nowhere and there was no reason she was there (other than to continue the plot)

So Shane decides to just drop by Pilot’s work in 2017. She’s just now realizing she’s basically hated her entire life for the past 6 years. She has no interest in her boyfriend, she hates gastroenterology (and only did it because her boyfriend was so passionate about it??) and never talks to her family. Pilot has been dating Amy for the past 6 years, and just because they go back in time decides that those 6 years mean nothing and it was all a mistake! Like??? I understand people have regrets, but if you’re so willing to give everything up in A DAY that you’ve been living with FOR YEARS like. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. There’s just something missing here that would make these decision believable.

And at the end of the book, they just decide to stay in the past and RELIVE the next 6 years of their lives? Like. Again I think this goes back to how this book seems juvenile to me. Maybe that wouldn’t seem like such an insane choice to make when you’re younger, but just thinking about it now I’m like wtf! This really might just be me, but it seemed very unreasonable.

And finally, the characters. I felt nothing for almost all of them. It seems pretty obvious that the main character Shane is based off of Christine herself. There are so many allusions to her online presence, her book, tv, and movie interests, and her personality in general. I really don’t have a huge problem with this as a whole. Like if you want to put yourself in your mc, sure. The thing is, she is such a personality already on her YouTube channel. If you know anything about Christine, this character will immediately become her once you begin reading. There is no separating the two. It just got to be kind of annoying after awhile, but also not my biggest gripe with this book.

The romance was kind of cute, but ultimately meh. The supporting characters were pretty flat. I really can’t remember much about their personalities.

Her parents! Wow. They were something else. I can’t believe the casual verbal abuse was never brought up, and her parents are just absolved of all the shitty stuff at the end?? Like, she was successful so they decided what she wanted to do was worthy of their praise and love??? Smh.

I feel like there is a lot more I could say, but in general I did not enjoy this read. The second half definitely was more exciting, and made me want to figure out what happened, but the first half was dull and the ending was unsatisfying. I really feel like this could be something special with some revision?? I don’t know. Maybe I would have liked this book when I was younger.

And if you are a younger reader, this may be the perfect book for you! I would definitely give it a read and decide how you feel about it for yourself.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC

I'm not really big on Booktube...look I am lazy and get distracted by videos...I know that sounds weird, but it's just not my thing; however, I knew of Christine's name because she is a pretty big booktuber. So if you have ever dabbled in that part of the book community, this author is probably familiar to you. This is a debut, so I tend to be a little more lenient in my reviews, but for me this book was just okay. There a certain tropes I hate in books, so it makes me rate books lower had they not been included. Let me explain.

I absolutely LOATHE the trope in romance books where the love interest already has a partner. I HATE IT! (Looking at you Anna & The French Kiss). So when we meet Pilot and find out he has a girlfriend, it really annoyed me about this book. I really don't like cheating, so this really rubbed me the wrong way, even though in part one no cheating happens (unless you count emotional cheating, which I would argue that you can.) Look, I know that love is messy and I'm not saying that I have never had a crush on someone who had a SO already, but I just don't want that extra drama in the romance books I read. For me, that was a big issue I had with this book. It bothered me so much!

There are things about the character of Shane that felt a little too familiar to me. Her blog name, and her personality seems to match the author a little too much. There's isn't a big deal breaker, but it felt like I was reading a fantasy of the author and not a story about a newly developed character. I also could have ever done without all the constant Harry Potter references.

There were some things I did like about this novel, and one of the things was the magical realism element to it. It's kind of hard to talk about this in a review since it gives away a lot, but something happens half way in the point that makes things really interesting. I thought this was really cool and got me more interested in the book...although not much about it is really explained. I would have like some explanations on it.

Shane's struggles with her parents paying for her school and wanting her to be a Doctor felt really relatable. It made me realize that I was seriously lucky that my parents helped for my school and let me get an English Degree. (Don't worry! you CAN get a job with that degree!). I liked this part too, but I do feel like the conflict isn't really resolved, like it's just glossed over in the epilogue. It would have been nice to have seen her and her parents really get through it with each other.

I liked this book enough, but there were just some minor things that just made me not like it as much as I had hoped I would.

*I received an review egalley via netgalley from the publisher in exchange for my review.

I have never seen myself so well represented in a YA novel before. I related to so many of the struggles and fears that the main character had it was unreal. I definitely recommend this book to other YA readers.

I really enjoyed this magical "Do-Over" story. The writing was good. The characters were likeable, and who wouldn't want to have another chance to fix the major mistakes of our past?! (I was downright envious!)

There are two parts to this novel: Shane Primaveri is a pre-med student who tricks her parents into permitting her to enroll in a study abroad program in London, England. She meets fellow student Pie (Pilot) Penn, an aspiring musician - and it is clear from the beginning that there is "something special" happening between them. But (spoiler alert!) Pie has a girlfriend back home in the U.S.. Tricky, right?

Because this is a Do-Over trope, it is obvious that In Part 1 of the novel, things will not end well for the star-crossed protagonists of this very intriguing story. But never fear, there is a magical red- haired "fairy godmother" who gives the skittish couple a way to undo the current unsatisfactory mess that their past fears and hesitation made of their current lives.

I was pleasantly surprised with Do-Over portion of the book.
In Part 2 - Shane - who in the past lived to please her parents and "do the right thing" - struggles mightily with her desire to fall in with everyone's expectations, while at the same time seeking fulfillment of her dreams to become a writer. Pie is downright terrified and wants nothing to do with the "Do-Over" - at first!
Both Shane and Pie must decide between the certain, but emotionally sterile, material success of their "Part 1" lives versus a chancier, but happier version of their "Part 2" lives.

The path to self-realization is not an easy one, and I hope you enjoy this young couple's journey as much as I did. If for nothing else, read this book for the descriptions of London and Paris, and the romantic dance scene in Versailles. Adorable! A 4.5 out of 5 for this imaginative novel. My thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest opinion.

I received an ARC of this book from Wednesday via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review & I’d like to thank them for that.
This was one of my most anticipated of the year and my feelings about it are meh.
This book gets like a 3.5/3.75. Though I love Christine and her videos, I can’t give this book higher than a 4. You can definitely tell that this is her debut. There is a lot about it I like, but there were a few things that kept pulling me out of the story.
There is essentially no description in this. I was very much told, when I should have been shown. She didn’t really do much in talking about the great European cities that were visited. It was like “I went to Prague. It was cool...next!” That really made me mad. There’s such cultural history that effected the people & the architecture in all these places and those are just ignored.
I also think, based off her writing videos I was expecting the plot to go one way, but it definitely didn’t. The twist almost 40-50% in threw me and idk if I could every recover.
What I did like was the voice. Christine really understood Shane (who I’m assuming is her self insert cause she is very similar to xtine and has a YouTube/blog that’s just a variations of xtine’s). The characters could have used a little more depth & I wish I got to know more about Pilot so I could fall for him too, but sadly I couldn’t. It was pretty one note the whole time.
I would read more from her, but overall this is prob a 3.5