Prudence, an overachieving teenager, learns a few lessons on judging people and allowing allowing people to shine rather than controlling everything while finding a true friend. The story is a typical hero’s journey, but is slightly unique because it evolves around a marine animal rescue center, The pace is slow at time and the main character felt like she was always angry and yelling at everyone, but this exemplifies how Prudence grows and becomes a more caring thoughtful person.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy.

To me, this is like the pinnacle of a summer read for a teen. There's a swoony romance (and an enemies to lovers trope to boot!) with a ~misunderstood~ boy who works at a sea animal rescue?? Come on now. It's an easy, fun read, with great secondary characters too, very hard to find!

I have not read any Marissa Meyer before, so I don't have anything to compare this to. However, I found the story to be slow at times. It felt like things were dragging on. I pushed past it, but it sort of felt like I trudged through the novel.

The characters, though some stereotypical, were written just fine, It was a decent contemporary romance.

Love the Lunar Chonicles. Purchased this YA/middle grade novel for my middle school Instant Karma
Magical realism
Ocean life rehabilitation
Family and friends

Instant Karma will knock your right in the heart! It has quirk, witty banter, sea animals and Beatles references galore!

Prudence is a type A overachier. She strives to work diligently on any school project and expects no less than a grade of an A.

Unfortunately she is paired with Quint for a ecotourism assignment and Quint lacks her punctuality and organization skills which really flusters and irritates Prudence. After presenting their project, Prudence and Quint earned a C for a grade. This incites action on Prudence’s part to do an extra credit assignment which Quint refuses to participate in but the teacher will only allow her this opportunity if she works together with Quint. As you can imagine Quint is perfectly content with a C and is not interested in working with perfectionist-Prudence again.

Fast forward through a Karoeke scene at the local taco joint and a bump on Prudence’s head, she now has the ability to dish out karmic justice to those she deems in need of it. Yet when she tries to use her ability on Quint, he is immune. In fact, better things happen to him for example, finding $20 on the ground!

Eventually, Quint finally concedes to Prudence’s groveling to do the extra credit but only if she is willing to volunteer at the rehabilitation center for ocean life. Quint never expects for Prudence to return the next day after cleaning pounds and pounds of fish and making fish smoothies. But Prudence is no slacker and is determined to redeem her grade.

The rest of the story includes getting to know Prudence’s family who owns a vintage record store, the community of Fortuna Beach, Prudence opening her heart to the importance of the work being done at the rehabilitation center and more importantly learning to work with others.

Instant Karma was a delight to read. I adored all the Beatles references, the dishing out of Karmic justice and especially enjoyed relationship development between Prudence and Quint.

This would be a great summer read. Highly recommend.

I really love Meyer's writing style. Renegades was one of my favorite series and when I saw she was writing a contemporary romance with some magic realism, I just had to read it. This was a super fun, light read that had some themes in that really expressed the importance of literature. Through-out the book, we get to experience helping ocean wildlife which I thought was really well done. You can definitely tell that Meyer did her research for the topic. This is a series topic wrapped up in a rom-com style and I really enjoyed it, enough so that I will be buying a copy once it is out in paperback!

Driven perfectionist Pru is devastated when she earns a C on her final biology project. It's all Quint's fault - if her project partner had bothered to show up on time or listen to her ideas, everything would have been fine. Just when she finds herself wishing for a way to exact revenge, she gains the ability to bestow instant karma with the clench of an angry fist. Curiously, it seems to work on just about everyone but Quint himself. As they spend the summer together working at his family's marine rescue center, Pru slowly realizes that there's more to Quint than meets the eye.

I did not enjoy this book. Pru was desperately immature, blaming everyone around her for problems and taking zero responsibility of her own. At the same time, she was convinced that she was the universe's gift to the people around her, leaping in to solve other people's problems without bothering to listen to anyone else. The way she used her powers was just horrible: if she perceived an injustice, she stepped in without a second thought. The situation with Maya was a perfect example. First, she punished Maya just for saying honestly that she didn't have feelings for Pru's brother. Then, when she knew what happened to Maya's earring, she TRIED TO STEAL $1200 to solve the problem rather than admitting that she messed up. Maybe she learned some things by the end of the story, but I honestly thought Pru could have dealt with a few more consequences. Also, why karma in particular? I don't feel like it added a whole lot to the story, and she had no particular cultural connection to it as a concept. I was leery of that part going in, and I was disappointed that it wasn't explained at all.

My issues with the main character completely ruined the romance plot for me: Quint was such a good guy, and I honestly thought he deserved better. That said, Pru wasn't the only problem. I liked them a lot more as friends, and I didn't really buy the subtle glances and such along the way. It was very realistic for a couple of 15-year-olds, but it was the sort of thing could easily have been reading too much into a one-sided crush. It all felt very young, until maybe it didn't and they were trapped alone overnight and sharing a bed and not wearing pants??? Things ultimately stayed very chaste, but I was seriously thrown off by the pacing.

I want to be clear: romance for younger teens is great. In fact, I struggle to find enough of it for my library! I also usually love seeing teens realistically portrayed as not having it all figured out just yet. It's great to see stories of teens messing up safely and learning from their mistakes... but that's not what happened here. I already bought a copy for our system, but I don't have a clue how to recommend it.

This i an adorable rom-com. Over achiever girl and bad boy are assigned to the same project for Science class. What they learn along the way is that he isn't the bad boy she thought he was and she's not perfect. This is a really great read!

Prudence is an overachiever - until her lab partner Quinn ruins her marine biology grade. Pru is quick wish bad karma on Quinn (and others around her). After she sings Instant Karma by the Beatles at a karaoke night, she takes a tumble and hits her head. When she wakes up, she realizes she is able to cast instant karma on those around her - everyone except Quinn. Forced to work with him all summer at the marine rescue center for extra credit, she begins to realize her first judgement isn’t always right.

I really, really, really liked this YA book! It was super fun. The audiobook narrator was great - highly recommend!

Thanks to @NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for my ARC!

This is a sweet romance and friendship story. I can’t wait to put it in the hands of middle school girls, and some boys too.

I love Marissa Meyer's fantasy/sci-fi books and was excited to see her trying something new. And while there's nothing inherently wrong with this book, I just didn't like it as much as I expected to. It seemed geared towards a younger audience than I usually read, which could be another reason that it didn't click in the way I had hoped. I'm sure many other readers will love this book. I look forward to seeing what Meyer writes next!

Well this may be my first non 5 star review for one of my fave authors. While well written, the main character drove me crazy to the point of wanting to smack her and I felt for her poor lab partner. I was hoping she would get a bit more karma back at her 😂.

This is a wonderful book by the author of the Lunar Chronicles and the Renegades Trilogy. I would highly recommend this book.

I really wanted to love this one but I found myself pushing through.
I didn't connect with our main characters AT ALL. I thought it was a little slow paced, but I've heard so many good things, maybe just a bad reading week for me!

Marissa Meyer is known for her fairy tale retelling taking place on a futuristic world. This her her first YA romance following Prudence Daniels aka Pru is a overachiever and dispenses everyone else who is not. She wakes up one night with the ability to put instant Karama on anyone who chooses. But her powers don't work on her longtime nemesis, reluctant lab partner Quint Erickson. He is always late and running behind. Never helping them with group projects. Pru and Quint end up with a C on their project and the teacher gives them a chance to resubmit. he finds out Quint’s mother works at Sea Animal Rescue Center and Quint also works there as a volunteer. To convince Quint for redoing the project, she offers her help to work at the center for four weeks. This allows Pru to see the real side of Quint and why is always late or not caring about school projects. This is a cute teen romance about enemies who find good in each other.

This was my first book by this author and I will definitely be reading others. This YA romance was totally delightful. Quirky characters, awkward teenage interactions, and a smattering of some kind of magic make this book highly enjoyable. Lighthearted and fun, with a wonderful ending. Highly recommend this to lovers of YA Romance.

I was interested in reading this book after reading Marissa Meyers “Lunar Chronicles series. I enjoy the character development in this book. Prudence and Quint have endearing qualities. They both grow over the span of the summer together. I love the twists that the layer of ‘karma” brings to this book. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys cute, lovable YA novels.

This book is sweet and charming, although the sophomore lead means it definitely reads a little on the young side for YA. That's not necessary a bad thing; I think that the enemies-to-lovers trope, the sweet cast of characters, and the unique subplot involving a sea animal rescue center makes this a good book for youth who are looking to transition from MG to YA.

While I love Marissa Meyer's previous works, Instant Karma fell a little flat for me. Though the premise was original, there didn't seem to be enough...what's the word...karma extracted on the protagonist herself. A fun read, but predictable.

I have been excited about this book for so long now. As I very much adore Marissa and would read anything by her. Despite not really having a thing for contemporary, I was excited to try this one. The cover is gorgeous. The story sounded awesome. Felt sure I would love this. And yet, I ended up not loving it. Oh.

Which is breaking my heart just a little. Giving this book three stars. There were parts that I found to be all kinds of adorable. But there were too many meh parts for me, and things I just did not like. Will still read anything by Marissa, but yes, hoping she will write more fantasy books, as those are more my thing, ha.

I am going to end up writing way too much about this book. And so I am apologizing in advance, haha. Turns out I have much I need to share about this story. And a few spoilers with warning farther down. Will try my best to explain what I liked and what I didn't like about this book. I might just ramble a little too much. I simply have so many thoughts about this book. It's told from the point of view of Prudence, about sixteen years old. She lives in a smallish town near the beach. Which I found to be interesting. This is a story about her and Quint getting to know each other better, getting to become friends, maybe something more. It is a book about Prudence learning so much more about life, as she was so clueless in the beginning of this book. She did get better, though, thankfully. I fully liked getting to know both of them.

There is a little bit of magic among the contemporary of this book. Prudence begins this book by falling down and hitting her head. When she wakes up, she had this special kind of power. She can bring instant karma on people she sees. If she witnesses someone doing wrong, she just has to squeeze her fist, and karma happens to them. Which she loved taking advantage of. It was fun, except that it often led to bad things happening to others, which was not a good thing all the time. Still, this was a twist that I did enjoy.

We see a little bit of Pru's family in this story. Her twin brother Jude, whom I liked a lot. More there during the beginning of this book, then mostly missing. She had three younger sisters, all of them pretty much adorable. Their parents were pretty great too. I liked that they owned a vintage record store. But liked less that they were haven't trouble keeping it, and that Pru could have helped more, but always said she didn't have time for it. Which was true, but oh, I wish she could have had time to help her family out a little too.

We meet her friend, Ari too, mostly during the beginning of the book. And I very much adored her as well. I loved her love for music. And I loved their friendships. We get to know Pru a lot in this book as well. And for the most part I adored this girl. I loved that she was curvy, that she was insecure about a few things. It made me love her more. I had a few issues with her thinking she was the best at everything, better than everyone else. A few of the things she did made me crazy. Ack. But for the most part, I liked her a bunch.

Then there was Quint. He and Prudence did not fit together at all. They had been school lab partners for nine months. Hating each other the most, not working together like they should have been. And so their final grade before the summer was low. Pru wanted to change it. But they had to work together. Which seemed impossible for two people who hated each other. But they tried. Prudence went looking for an animal rescue center he had mentioned in his report. Where she found out he and his mom worked at.

Which is what this book is all about. Prudence and Quint trying their hardest to work together. Pru having to volunteer at the rescue center. Her not knowing anything about animals or caring about them before she got there. Quint trying to make her understand why rescuing these animals were important. And I did like that a whole lot. The scene with them snorkeling was the best thing. But then, a time jump. I did like Quint a lot, mostly. And I did ship them too. I just wish there had been more, more details, more together.

What I disliked most about this book was the time jumps during the one summer. We get to see Prudence have her first day as a volunteer at the animal center, which was pretty great. But then it jumps forward four weeks. So we barely get to read about her being there, four days a week. Which was depressing to me, as I wanted to know more about the animals and the work done there. Then at the very end of this book, there is a three weeks time jump. And that bothered me the very most. I did not like it one bit. Sigh.

Especially because of why this time jump was there. So, spoilers. Because I cannot not talk about it. As is always the case with every contemporary book I have read, there must be a part where the couple breaks up, because of some insult and such. And of course, that happened here too. Sigh. The reason for why I almost always hate this genre, ha. In this book, it was because Pru was accused of stealing money from the center. Quint and his mom was sure she had done it. He was awful to her, didn't listen. And I hated it.

But also because Prudence did not even try hard enough to explain how she had not stolen the money. And so they broke up, the very day after they had first kissed. Sigh. And then there was suddenly three weeks gone by. With Pru alone and hurt, no one trying to find out the real truth. And Quint and the rescue center continued to plan Pru's gala idea, doing all without her, without giving her credit for anything. And I just. No. That was not okay for me. It was all her idea. Prudence was the one who got it to work. Hmph.

And then the book ended. With Quint apologizing, and Prudence just forgiving him. To me, it was way too little, way too fast. It had been three weeks. He had not gone to see her, he had not tried to find out the real truth. I am still angry with him. And a little with Pru too, that she didn't try finding out the truth either, until the day of the gala. Sigh. But even so. I did like the ending. I just wish there had been more, done a little better. I wish that there had been more romance too, ha. They only have two kissing scenes. Rude.

Even though I was a little disappointed, Instant Karma was still a great book. I liked reading about the sea animals and how this small town had a rescue center for them. I liked reading about all that they did. And I did like Prudence and Quint, despite having some issues with them both. I liked their friends too, though they weren't there much. The small magic part of this was good too, but felt like it was forgotten about for much of the book. I am glad that I read this one. Only sad that I couldn't love it more. You must all read it.

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(I read this book in December 2020. As a hardcover, as I was too slow to read the eARC.)

I love Marissa Meyers books! I think the cover for this book is great and very appealing. I liked this story enough but didn't love the story. I would recommend it but I don't think I'll remember a ton from it.
Cute story but not overly memorable

Thank you netgalley for the ARC