Christine Riccio is a well known booktuber. If you happen to follow her on Youtube you got to witness the process of this book being made. I couldn't wait to read it because I felt like I was involved in the entire process. This book follows Shane who is making her second attempt at college. The first go around didn't work so well so she decide to do a semester in London. We not only get to see Shane struggles of getting out of her comfort zone, but new we see new friendships and romances emerge. This book is so cute and I am so proud of Christine!

This book read like the journal of so many exchange students I have met, and it just made me cringe.

Let me preface this review by saying I might be a bit biased. I'm French. I've had far too many experiences with study-abroad students thinking that moving to a new country for a semester will magically fix everything wrong with their lives. So many who just want to find a French boy and settle down on his castle/vineyard (no, really, three separate people have told me this exact reason for coming to my uni).

So when I read the description for this book, I was actually excited: I was hoping this was going to be a book about a naive college girl who comes to Europe to turn her life around, only to discover that isn't how life works. Reading the first few chapters, I felt like this is what we were going for: I mean, no main character could be this obnoxious without room for growth. Right?

Wrong. Shane Primaveri is exactly that kind of girl, and the world works exactly like that for her. If that's the kind of sweet story you're looking for, you're in the right place! If you've dreamed of moving to Europe to explore and want a guide to how to really make the most of your study abroad time, then go for it. But this book was just too sunshine and rainbows for me.

The love story was flat and unrealistic. Pilot Penn (yup, that's his real name) is still dating a girl in the US, and yet instantly flirts with Shane. Apparently he wanted to ask for a break with his GF before leaving, but she said no. Which is a terrible sign for any budding relationship, especially if he leads Shane on - and that he does. I felt bad for Shane, falling so hard for such a jerkface.

We're in 2011, and the author wants you to know this. And FEEEEEEL the nostalgia for eight years ago. I mean, have you heard of this new game, Angry Birds? And Lost is the BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION. And Taylor Swift. Listing names of popular books. In the first instance, I thought it was rather cute, getting me to remember what it was like when everyone was excited about Lost. But then... it just got obnoxious. The reminders we were in 2011 were just so forced.

There wasn't much of a plot beside a girl using a study abroad program to study writing and trying to figure herself out. Trying to break from her family, who insist she does pre-med. But her family was... cruel. Like, not funny picking on Shane, but borderline abusive. They tease her so incessantly, that when she posts a single photo posing with a guy, her grandmother shares to her FB wall, and a cousin calls her a bitch. WHAT. THE. HECK.

It was just so juvenile and obnoxious. It read like someone's fanfiction version of their own life. But when you frame it like that, written by an author who wishes her own life played out like that, and could turn back time to change it... the magical realism makes sense. And it just feels sad, because this isn't how life works.

I studied abroad in London when I was 20, and this book gave me so much nostalgia. I loved it. I loved the writing style and getting to know Shane, Pilot, and the rest of the flat mates. When I thought that this story was just about unrequited love, everything was turned upside.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press for the eARC.

Full review to come.

Again, but Better is a clear example of the story of a different generation. The YouTube generation. I'm, unfortunately, not a fan of this book. There are too many pop culture references, numerous grammatical issues and an overall sense of underdevelopment. The style is different in my opinion, and I chalk it up to social media, and a lack of pen to paper learning. It's no offense to the author. This story has an intended audience of which I am not a member. It's sure to be enjoyed by the appropriate readers. Not for me, though. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin's Press. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was such a surprisingly joyful read for me! I would have never expected to like it as much as I did!

This book is about 20-year-old Shane Primaveri, who decides to study abroad for a semester in London, since her first two years at University as a pre-med student have not been what she had expected. Due to her lack of social interaction and failure to be as out-going as possible, she never made deep connections with her fellow students, and her missing passion for her major only contributes to her misery. She makes a bucket list of all of the things she wants to do better in England, now that she gets a second take at uni life. This list includes bullet points like "kiss a boy you like" or "start your great American novel" - needless to say that Shane has high hopes for her semester abroad, and she starts working on her dream of becoming a successful writer as soon as she boards the plane to London.
On her first night there she meets her flatmates, including quirky, Disney-obsessed Babe and artistic and musical Pilot - who Shane immediately finds herself falling for.
Will Shane succeed in her second take at University, will she make the connections she longs for and will she start her career as a writer? Even though she does her best to make the most of her experience, things soon start to crumble, as more things go wrong than Shane can mend.

WHAT I LIKED:
During the first half of the book, I was actually convinced that this would be a 3-star-read for me. I liked Shane's plan to go to college again and re-experience uni-life, as I complete understood, why she said that she failed the first time round. While I thought that part 1 was just fine, my thoughts drastically changed after the first half of the novel. I didn't expect the events that awaited me in part 2 and it completely blew my mind! I'm not going too much into detail, but BOY THAT TWIST WAS SO GREAT!
I really liked the main love interest, Pilot, as a character, and even though I found many YA-tropes in him (as well as in the novel in general), it didn't bother me as much, since it was still such an original take on the YA-contemporary-genre (at least for me).
I also enjoyed Shane as a main character, and since I've been following the author's YouTube channel for a couple of years (not excessively - but I do watch a video of hers every once in a while), I liked how she put a huge chunk of her own mind and personality into Shane. While I fully understand why some readers don't like it when the main character resembles the author too much, I personally find it beautiful - especially since writing can be as much as a means for catharsis as reading can be.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
Sometimes the characters were a bit "too much YA-ish" if you get what I mean - which is a thing that especially John Green often overdoes in his novel. Especially the name "Pilot" was a bit too much. Noone's name is Pilot... come on.
Further, I'm not a huge fan of excessive pop-culture references. While I enjoy one or the other Harry Potter-anectode (I mean - to name your precious notebooks Horcruxes is just brilliant!), I do not need the constant reminders that the book is set in 2011. I mean, we get it... Avril Lavigne was suddenly a big deal again, Wrecking Ball wasn't released yet and Cassandra Clare was about to publish further novels in the Shadowhunter-universe.

CONCLUSION:
I loved this book, I couldn't put it down, and it is sooo much more than the description leads on. Especially for a debut novel it was great and would definitely recommend it!

It is hard to wrap my head around this book and my thoughts. I fell in love with the main character, Shane, and all of her quirks. Add in Pilot and I loved them together. At first I did not understand where this book was headed, but by the end I was so glad to have been a part of the ride. A must read for all of us who wonder...what if?

If Again, But Better hadn’t been my first ARC that I was stoked about, I’m sorry to say I would have DNF’ed pretty close to the beginning. I really wanted to love this book and was hopeful from the start, because I mean who doesn’t love the BookTube queen herself! But unfortunately this ended up falling flat for me in the end.

Here’s what I liked.

The main character Shane is so me! The blond, shy and awkward girl who loves Harry Potter, Lost and Nutella. I’ve never met Christine, but the humor and personality of Shane made me feel like I’ve known her for ages! I was easily able to relate to Shane’s frustrations and struggles.

I always love when authors include some other type of medium in their writing. In this book it was a series of postcards and journal entries. The humor written in these were my favorite part!

Halfway through the book I was pleasantly surprised - I couldn’t put it down! I had no clue there was a time traveling element to the story and that piqued my interest immediately. Unfortunately after that halfway mark, it was beyond boring and was quite the let down! I kept wanting to skip to the end just to see where Shane ended up.
Now onto the not so great aspects.

The movie, book, show and music references were supposed to be funny, but it was done so often that it got annoying very quickly, especially when you don’t know the references at all. It was almost overwhelming at times. I felt like the references were thrown in at random just to confirm that this book was set in 2011. I would have like to see this portrayed in a more creative way.

The grammar wasn’t spectacular, which gave away the fact that this is a debut novel. Most authors grow with time and practice and I’m hopeful that Christine will do the same!

The overall relationship between Shane and Pilot was extremely forced. It took me forever to get invested and I’m still not convinced that I am. This could be because the humor was not my cup of tea, so it didn’t seem like a serious relationship. They’re supposed to be 20 year old college students, but they acted much like 14 year olds.

Overall, I probably would not recommend this book to anyone I know. It was filled with too much fluff and cliches for my taste!

2.5 stars - If you are part of the booktube community, you know who Christine Riccio is and that this is her debut novel she's posted countless videos about. As much as I want to support her, this book was a bit of a mess.

Christine's writing style definitely has potential but is very juvenile. The main character's POV is essentially just a stream of consciousness which barely offers any descriptions. We don't get a description of Shane (our MC) until three chapters into the book and if you're interested in the backgrounds of any characters, you won't learn anything until the last quarter of the story.

For a book featuring adventures in Europe, you'd think it would be rich in atmosphere. (Especially since Christine had the experience of studying abroad herself.) Yet when Shane gets to experience authentic gelato in Rome she doesn't have any thoughts or opinions on the taste, texture, smell, or literally anything. When she experiences Italian ravioli, it's described as "the most delicious ravioli she's ever had." Okay, but what makes it the most delicious? I WANTED TO EXPERIENCE ROME WITH YOU... When they visit Paris, they "had dinner at a French restaurant." Yeah, I figured that you'd be eating french cuisine in Paris, but WHAT DID YOU HAVE AND HOW WAS IT?!

It's a shame that the readers don't even get to experience all of the travel adventures as they take place because half of scenes are cut abruptly short and then written in past tense through journal entries. By doing this, we lack character development and dialogue that could've really helped connect us to this group of friends.

Even more frustrating than the writing style, Christine very clearly wrote herself as the main character. "Shane" is ghostly white with blonde poofy hair, her online alias is FrenchWatermelon19, she is constantly recommending books to others, trying really hard to be quirky, and obsessing over Taylor Swift. Oh, and this is an actual quote:

"[YouTube] is just a platform to jump off. People can discover you there; you can build an audience there; it's a portfolio when you're trying to get a job. It can provide endless possibilities! I spend a lot of time on the internet. I've watched it with my own eyes!"

I typically enjoy when author's mention little fandom references, but this book was over the top. Christine was trying to win over just about every fandom imaginable; Harry Potter, Lost, The Beatles, Taylor Swift, etc. It got to a point where it just didn't feel like this book was speaking for itself anymore.

The second portion of this book went in a completely different magical direction that just didn't feel like it belonged. It made the story predictable, rushed, and pretty corny. At least this was an easy book to get through?

I really wanted to love this book. I really tried, but the writing is just too undeveloped and unsure of itself. There are lots of awkward sentences and ideas that aren't fully described so it makes it hard to paint a clear picture of what's going on. I love that more College YA is being published (and II'm in love with a London exchange story), but the author just didn't get the book to where it needed to be.

This book focuses on Shane and her study abroad journey. The beginning was slow. Shane's character seemed a little flat. There was a possibility of a romantic love interest, but instead of building tension it seemed he was uninterested in Shane. What I wasn't expecting was the magical elements that were added to the book. Not to give too many spoilers, but it was possible for Shane to have another chance to do things more her way. Overall, the writing was a little more juvenile than I was expecting, especially because the story took place in college and beyond. I would not recommend this book to college kids, but maybe to the high school book lovers? It was a sweet story, but there could have been more dynamic character development.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

"Again, but Better" tells the story of Shane, a girl who has yet to have a boyfriend or a first kiss, even though she is in college. Shane makes it a goal to change her life when she signs up for a study aboard program. Only problem is, Shane told her parents it's a premed program when it's actually a creative writing program. Uh oh! Can you smell trouble? Everything is going great with Shane in London. She meets a great guy, loves her internship, has friends. But then everything falls apart. The perfect guy, Pilot, actually has a girlfriend. I can't believe he didn't say anything! Ugh! Then her parents found out that she lied. Double ugh! Fast forward to the future and Shane decides that she needs a change in her life. With the help of some magic and a cute boy Shane does the same thing again, but better (hence the title).

"Again, but Better" was a really fun read. I related to Shane so much! College was about school to me, not parties or boys. Can I get a redo? This novel is fun and cute to read!

I was very lucky to be sent the eARC of Again, but Better by Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press; this was a release I have been highly anticipating.

That being said, let me start out with: I really, really, really wanted to like this book. Christine is one of my favorite Booktubers; her book talks are some of my favorite videos, and my friends and I all discuss her videos and eagerly await each one. Her passion and enthusiasm are evident in all her videos, and this book is no different.

The story follows Shane Primaveri, a girl who studies abroad in London in search of adventure. She feels as if she’s been missing out on the true college experience, and wants to push herself to make new friends and explore new cities. Soon, she runs into a potential romance, which she must quickly learn to deal with. She’s just starting to learn how to juggle her family, her career aspirations, newfound friendships, romantic aspirations, and trying so hard to stay on top of it all.

I loved the premise; it seemed like something I would immediately fall in love with. Sadly, Again, but Better, didn’t live up to my expectations. Initially, the writing was hard for me to get past. One of the things I can’t stand about books is when they are written in the present tense, and this story was entirely in the present tense. For whatever reason, present tense takes me out of the story, and it takes so much more concentration for me to dive into a fictional world. That was my first hurdle.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize some of aspects I dislike about the way certain books are written. I don’t like when there are large portions of the text dedicated to the character getting dressed, or detailed descriptions of outfits characters are wearing. It always takes me out of the story, and actually, makes it harder for me to visualize the character, what they look like, and what they are about to do. For some reason, I hate it. I also dislike when there are too many references to pop culture, especially when they are not well-incorporated, like consistently putting in song lyrics as if they are part of normal dialogue. This book had a lot of that, and it was hard for me to overlook my pet peeves and dive into the story.

Another issue I had was with the characterization. I love Christine, and Shane seemed like a fictional portrayal of herself. However, in book form, I didn’t find it endearing, as I do in real life. In fact, it seemed borderline unrealistic at times: a twenty-year old doesn’t act or think like the character is written. Perhaps, if Shane had been a bit younger, I could’ve found it to be more believable, but at the beginning of the story, it was a bit annoying.

It was also hard for me to get over the names. Shane, I could deal with. Her flatmates, Pilot and Babe, were names that continually took me out of the story every time I came across them. However, I do read Sarah J. Maas, so I guess names shouldn’t be that big of an issue for me.

I also had some problems with the portrayal of the romantic relationship in the book. The potential love interest is Pilot, but you find out very early on that he has a girlfriend. Though it’s clear that Shane is not happy about any prospect of Pilot cheating, their banter and flirtations still continue. Personally, I strongly dislike the cheating trope, particularly how it portrays another person as an obstacle to get to “true love.” It’s overdone, and I’m tired. Also, at least twice in this book, two drunk guys kiss Shane without her consent. This is a little nitpicky, but I would’ve loved a little more discussion on that; I don’t want to see sexual harassment or assault normalized.

To put it frankly, this book was a complete rollercoaster for me. I truly don’t want this review to be all criticism; there were some parts I enjoyed. Though Shane annoyed me at first, as the story progressed, I began to root for her more and more. I began to like her right before the twist (which I won’t spoil), and I particularly liked the emphasis on her finding herself. Whenever I got annoyed at something that Shane did, a couple chapters later, she would realize that herself, and grow from her mistakes.

I think the book also did a really good job of capturing the study abroad experience. In my personal life, studying abroad felt like a do-over of freshmen year of college: you’re thrown into a new city, and become friends with everyone you meet, mainly out of necessity. It did a good job of capturing both that confusion and camaraderie, even though, at times, I found Shane’s inner monologue to be grating and over the top.

The book also emphasized friendship, though not to a huge degree, but I still appreciated it. The relationship between Shane and her flatmates is important to her, and it comes across how they they have each others’ backs, no matter how close they seem, particularly when Shane has trouble with her parents. I liked that there was a strained relationship with her family; it gave her character a bit more depth. I also found Shane’s struggles to follow your passion very relatable. However, at times, the family dynamic seemed to be too over the top, particularly when her cousins make fun of her on her Facebook wall. For me, it’s a little hard to believe your cousins are willing to blast you on the internet like that, especially on such a public forum.

I liked how Shane and Pilot needed to be friends first, even if that was necessary because of Pilot’s aforementioned girlfriend. Though, the banter between the two came across as if you were talking to Christine in real life. Of course, I don’t know her personally, but as one of her viewers and now a reader of this book, there didn’t seem to be a big distinction between fictional Shane and Christine in her videos. At times, I liked I didn’t mind the similarities - it was cute, and established a precedent for Pilot and Shane’s friendship. At other times (going back to my pet peeves), there were too many contemporary references that threw me out of the story altogether.

The twist in this book is what (partially) redeemed it for me. At first, I was unsure if I could finish it. Around halfway through, I was glad I decided to finish it, because it did get slightly better. However, the problems I had with the book and the writing didn’t go away, but…I no longer hated the book. By the ending, the story was less focused on Shane’s love life and more about her personal growth, and that, I could get behind. I still don’t love the book, but I’m glad I read it.

This digital ARC was sent to me by Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 3/5

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Release Date: May 7, 2019

This was a cute love story. I did enjoy reading it but it wasn't anything new for me. I have read this story and seen these characters before. I am always looking for something a little bit different to draw me in and unfortunately this didn't do it for me.

*DNF @ 195 pages

To summarize, this story is about a girl named Shane who goes on a study abroad trip to London and lies to her parents about the courses she is taking. She desperately wants to be a writer, conning her way into the program by telling her parents she's doing a pre-med program. Once arriving, Shane makes it a goal to push herself out of her comfort zone to make new friends and go on new adventures, eventually finding herself in a series of wild events.

I have to admit, I was really excited for Christine's first novel, but upon getting nearly 20 pages in, I knew this book was not going to be for me and ultimately, was not well done. I found AGAIN, BUT BETTER to feel like it was trying too hard to be the next big YA novel when it severely lacked in plot and character development as well as effective prose. What angered me right from the start was the insta-love. Almost immediately upon seeing Pilot, Shane falls in love with him. Not only this, but they start flirting instantly although it is revealed that Pilot has a girlfriend back home and was never truly sure of his feelings for Shane. While some insta-love plotlines can be done well in my opinion, Shane and Pilot's relationship seemed to move quickly not as a meet-cute scenario, but more out of convenience for an author who had no experience writing a genuine relationship.

My second biggest problem with this novel was how obvious it was when elements of the story were researched versus when they weren't. Often times when something new was being introduced - specifically when the group of friends was traveling around Europe - there would be a lot of information that read as though it had been paraphrased from a travel brochure. Alternatively, there would be other key events that would arise and would simply be mentioned without going into any detail to gauge their significance to the story as a whole. Basically, not a fan of the random info dumping.

The last problem I had was that it was painfully clear that this book was written by a YA booktuber and that the main character was based on her. With constant specific references to "TBRs" and old young adult novels such as "The Mortal Instruments" series, it felt as though these were included more as plugs rather than a following of the progression of the story. Moreover, to non-booktube-watching readers, I feel like some of the terminologies will be lost or glazed over.

Given all the above and so many other minor issues that continued to pop up, once I reached the time travel portion of the story I just couldn't do it anymore. Quite frankly it was childish and overdone and absolutely not what I had hoped for the story in the maturing of the characters (or lack thereof).

With all this being said, this is Christine's first novel to be published and I don't think I wouldn't read another book by her when she has had more practice, however, like most new, young writers I think she needs to explore her writing more and really focus in on the fluidity and the development aspects that are necessary to a story before continuing on.

Again, but Better was such a charming read! I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Shane goes to London for an internship and while she is a pre-med student back home, here she is cultivating her secret desire to be a writer - for real. Books are the one thing she has held on to as a means of escape, her parents push her to be what they want her to be. While she wants something very different, only she is too afraid to tell them. Writing comes naturally to her, she has her own blog, her internship she hope will end in a job offer and then she will show her parents she won't be another starving artist. But what will it take to get there?
She falls in love, discovers friends, and discovers how to be bold, and what it means to work hard and to take control of this one life we have.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5! Really looking forward to more books from this author!!

Again, but Better was one of my most anticipated novels of 2019, so you can imagine how excited I was when my “wish” was granted on Netgalley! While I’d followed Christine’s writing progress on her YouTube channel, I still wasn’t entirely sure what to expect but this time, I think going into the book blind was the best thing I could have done.

The story follows pre-med student, Shane, who has supposedly done college wrong, and needs a new slate to start over. A semester abroad in London was just what she needed! The cast of secondary characters were so much fun to read about and get to know, Atticus and Babe being my favourites. But of course there was the love interest, Pilot. Shane finds herself navigating between a new country, new friends, and a whole lot of drama.

I refuse to spoil this book for anyone looking forward to reading it, but I can tell you that it spoke to my heart in so many ways. Again, but Better is the story of first loves, but it’s more than that. It’s about meeting expectations we put on ourselves to make other people happy, it’s about the mistakes we make as young adults that we wish we could take back, and it’s about second chances.

It makes you question what you would do if you could do it all over again?

Again, but Better is written with the amount of heart I expected from Christine Riccio, and in my opinion? An excellent debut novel.

A million thank you’s to the publisher and the author for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review. Now I shall sit and wait patiently for my pre-order to arrive.

This was amazing! I did not know Christine beforehand and I did not know what the book was about, but I really enjoyed reading Shane's adventures in an upside-down world.

Shane and Pilot are the lead pair in this YA novel about discovering one-self, second chances and love. I did not really like Pilot at first, and the first half seemed kind of slacking, but it all came together really well in the end. The characters are very well-developed, especially the lead character. The romance seemed superficial at first too, but it developed pretty well by the time the characters get together. I loved the travelling and blog-post parts. All-in-all, this has made me want to check out Christine Riccio's booktube and I'm sure it would be great!

Recommended to all YA fans, writers, and readers; this is simply too beautiful ❤

Hello Wednesday Books,

I regret to inform you that I will not be finishing this novel. I was so excited for this book because of the plot, stunning cover, and the author. However, I have decided not to finish this book based on the writing. I just cannot connect with the immaturity of the main character and direction of plot. A lot of the wording in this story is awkward at times and makes me feel a bit uncomfortable when certain things are mentioned. I think that this book would have benefited more through a couple more rounds of editing and feedback. I just cannot continue this novel despite how much I wanted to love and support it. I do wish this work all the best though, and I hope others will enjoy it.

Kind regards,

Brittney

I have mixed feelings on this book. I really struggled with Shane at the beginning of the book. She came across as very immature. Her behavior and emotions were more in line with a 12 year old, rather than a college student. I realize that her characterization was probably intentional in order to show the growth later in the novel and to account for her lack of experience with boys, but it made for difficult reading. It just seemed implausible that a girl who made great grades and was pre-med could act like a boy-crazed 12 year old all the time.

However, after the time jump to 2017, I found Shane more tolerable. She had gained some maturity. I enjoyed the second half much more than the first. I wish, however, that more time was spent on her familial relationships rather than her relationship with Pilot. In my opinion, the storyline with her parents and cousins was far more interesting and meaningful than her romantic relationships.

Overall, I think this is a cute read that will appeal to fans of YA romance (with some magic realism thrown in).

Writers are often told to write what you know. Even now, when I think of Shane Primaveri; I see Christine Riccio, I hear Christine Riccio, I feel like I fucking know Christine Riccio. So yes, she did write what she knew, because she wrote herself.
_______________

*cries in YA*
I was really hesitant to read this book, but I made an effort to read it independent of its booktube writer. I tried focusing on the story and stayed away from any reviews. It really did not let me, I felt uncomfortable, like a fly on Christine's wall.

Firstly, I want to say that I have no problem with Booktubers getting book deals. I think that it's brilliant that readers, reviewers and writers of Wattpad, Booktube, Goodreads and even Fanfiction are getting some seriously needed exposure. A writer can be successful regardless of how they started. We really are in a time where publishers want to take and make "smart deals," so giving a person that has a high following a book deal is more monetarily productive than giving an indie author a shot. Which understandably, can go really swell or fucking-jump-ship awful.

This was the latter for me.

I felt like this book had a check list that needed to be fulfilled but each point was taken to the extreme and failed miserably. The check list, was the "ultimate" guide to creating a "popular" YA novel. *ahem* Hello, my name is Alex and welcome to my TED talk;


Step 1) Unique Writing
From page 1, I shit you not, page one - this book had an odd writing style. It was like it was trying to reach for poetic prose but instead fell into something riddling. For example, we are being told she is in a plane here:

"Now, I’m thousands of miles over the Atlantic in a giant hollowed-out pen with wings"


Then there were times where I think humor was added, but again maybe I'm just a soulless sock that doesn't understand comedy. So all in all, this started pretty rough for me.


Step 2) Remember to like, be like, relatable
Of course, EVERYONE loves knowing that their issues aren't only their own and somewhere somehow, someone else is also fighting the same issues. Enter Shane...

The romance was very two dimensional, and maybe because the characters felt under-developed to me. A lot of the time, they came off as cartoonish and unrealistic. I mean come on, if you are going to name the love interest Pilot Penn, he's got to have something going for him? Poor guy got a name from a stationary set.

The romance was all over the shop and insta-love, and as a romance reader, I've read my fair share of messy love stories. Pilot was a character I really didn't enjoy and being 50% of the romance in this story, it was really hard for me to cheer on Shane and him. The underlying cheating throughout the book added angst but it also makes me wonder why a romance is going on between them in the first place?


Step 3) Let's add an unrealistic depiction of a mental disorder
In all seriousness, this was the asset of the book that I really didn't gel with. Shane has social anxiety and at first, I was happy that this was represented in the book. But then, I saw her "social anxiety" and I wanted to literally curl into a ball. Whoever has anxiety or any mental disorder for that fact, knows that it is not just an excuse for awkward and odd social behavior. It is your mind coming up with 10,000 paranoid alterations of reality and it leaves you feeling completely helpless.

I hated the portrayal of anxiety through Shane and if there is one thing I cannot handle is the way people use actual mental diagnoses to sensationalize and romanticize "regular" behavior.

Like when I hear people say shit like "i like having my pens in order, i'm soooo OCD" or "wow, i hate this traffic, I'm actually gonna commit" or "shit, it's monday tomorrow... i'm depressed"

uhmmm NO.

Also the fact that Shane is magically going to cure her anxiety and social nervousness by going to another country and falling in love and making friends and etc etc etc. is false advertising. You cannot measure mental health progress on a linear scale and say this is the start and this is the end. It's such a distorted representation of how truly unforgiving mental health can be.

Step 4) Diversity! YAY!
Any progressive reader knows that diversity in any book is a fucking gift from heaven. I would love to have a shelf solely for diverse reads, our own voices and minority representation. Even better, I would love for those characters to be the main characters *cough cough* but moving on.

But I hate when authors force diversity, like they are doing something just to check it off. That's not the point of what you are trying to achieve. So yes, I will give a point to Christine for trying to add diversity to her storyline but then just because I wish the execution was better, I'm going to take back half that point.

Which brings me to the character dialogue. Everyone shared the same voice. Everything ended with a '!'

Step 5) Writing what you know
Shane is the main character.
Shane is Christine.

I'm not even going to get into this one too much because I'm pretty sure I've said enough already. Everything about Shane Primaveri was Christine Riccio. Their habits, their dialogue, their hobbies... If you want to know Christine on a really personal level, then this might be for you. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me.