Thank you @netgalley for an audiobook version of Instant Karma. Prudence is a character we all have known in high-school or either was that person in high school. To see her partnered with Quint was laughable at how angry she would get due to anything Quint did. I loved the authors main characters and side and thought the development throughout the book was nicely done. I do with the “instant karma” wasn’t apart of the story as it never felt like it belonged. Any time it happened I felt it was just a filler. I love the main story and how Prudence learns to not take everything so seriously. This book is perfect for middle schoolers or early high school. I loved the narrators voice and she did a good job keeping me entertained.

Disclaimer: I received this audiobook from netgalley and the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Instant Karma

Author: Marissa Meyer

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 1/5

Diversity: Karma is in Indian derived concept, but wielded by white characters

Recommended For...: contemporary lovers, people who like bad books

Publication Date: November 3, 2020

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 16+ (sexual content, triggering amounts of HP)

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Pages: 400

Synopsis: Chronic overachiever Prudence Barnett is always quick to cast judgment on the lazy, rude, and arrogant residents of her coastal town. Her dreams of karmic justice are fulfilled when, after a night out with her friends, she wakes up with the sudden ability to cast instant karma on those around her. Pru giddily makes use of the power, punishing everyone from public vandals to karaoke hecklers, but there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner and all-around mortal enemy. Soon, Pru begins to uncover truths about Quint, her peers, and even herself that reveal how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed . . . love and hate.

Review: For all the good that the narrator did, this book absolutely sucked. First of all, I saw the comments calling out the book for cultural appropriation and I want to note that their opinions are valid and yes, this book takes a very white character and gives her an Indian power and then takes the concept and twists it into what it’s not. It’s not pretty and that’s not cool of the author to do. Why is it 2020 and we’re giving white characters god like powers that people of another culture invented? Just because it’s Marissa Meyer doesn’t mean that she gets a pass. Anyways, overall I hated the book. The book reads like it should be a villain origin story except we’re supposed to believe that Prudence is a good character. The main character (Prudence) even sucks if you look at this from a villain’s perspective. She’s annoying, overbearing, and very much a young Karen in training. If you work in retail, you’ll despise Prudence and even in the end she doesn’t have that many redeeming moments. She’s still so hard to relate to and I just want to punch her one good time in the left eye. The book took a holier than thou approach when discussing veganism and that wasn’t really checked. The book had too many subplots for a contemporary read. The book is also incredibly boring. I went to court at one point and left the audiobook running for an hour. When I returned, the book was almost exactly where I left off. There was less than 5% progress from the characters while I progressed 7% in the audiobook. I’m also faulting the author on the many Harry Potter references. JK Rowling has been problematic for decades with her homophobia, transphobia, racism, and sexism and authors are still putting triggering amounts of HP in their works, even going so far as to name a prominent animal character after an HP character? Yea, that’s a no for me. The narrator tried and I fell in love with her voice, but other than that, I hated listening to this book.

Verdict: It sucks and is full of problematic content. It’s a swerve for me.

This was a very cute book, and I loved the various references to The Beatles’ music throughout the story, too! It was fun watching the two main characters go from enemy lab partners, annoyed by the other’s negative tendencies to friends who find a way to work together to help the marine animals they both care about. The karaoke and the magic ability to weird instant karma on any poor, deserving soul was just icing on the teen romance cake!

**I received an audio-earc of this novel on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

I love Meyer's writing so much, it's always unique and really shines no matter what story she is trying to tell and Rebecca Soler is an amazing narrator. These two in my mind go hand in hand and I really can't imagine listening to a Meyer novel without hearing Soler's voice.

While I generally love everything Meyer writes something about this one felt a little bit off to me. I couldn't connect with the Main character as much as I wanted to and the growth didn't really seem like it was enough. I'm unsure if this is a planned series or not - but I could easily see this being resolved later on. I do want to give a huge shout out to the fact that this book has a broad focus on animal rescue and preservation, something VERY important to the world around us right now that we all need to hear/see more of.

If you're planning on picking up Instant Karma I highly recommend picking up the audio version of this for Soler's talent alone!

This was a fun, cute, light read.

There were a few times where I didn’t like the main character. I could tell that we would not get along in real life, but that didn’t effect my reading experience.

I liked the concept about karma. The author did a great job at explaining the good and evil of the ability.

Overall, I’d recommend this to younger YA readers.

I thought this was really cute! Marissa Meyer did a great job blending sci-fi elements into a contemporary romance story.

Within the first few minutes of listening to this audiobook it was apparent what was going to happen between the main character Prude and her "archenemy". Even as predictable as that plot was, there were other sub plots I did not see coming. I enjoyed hearing about the beautiful beaches and palm trees of Fortuna Beach as I drove through the snowy streets of Connecticut. Fun read, light and fluffy with a hint of activism.

I received an audio-ARC of this from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review!

Things I liked about this book:
-Rebecca Soler is an amazing narrator!
-Marissa Meyer’s writing style is unique and really shines through.
-The focus on animal rescue and preservation! This was very informative and eye opening for me and had me wanting to research more about it after I finished the book!

Things I didn’t like;
-I didn’t connect with the characters as well as I wanted to
-I don’t feel like the MC had enough substantial character growth and really struggled with being in a constant state of annoyed with her.

With all that being said, this book overall was a miss for me. The author has so many other amazing books that I cannot recommend enough, so if this is your first MM book and you aren’t loving it: give her Renegades trilogy a shot!

Prudence Dancels wakes up and can cause instant karma on people. She begins punishing everyone she can.

A very cute story. Pru has a special ability, but it doesn't feel like ti is the focus of the book. It has more of a realistic fiction vibe. The special ability almost seems like it is a side story. Which I actually really liked. I think my students would really enjoy this book.

What a cute, young adult romance to snuggle up with on a cold wintry day! I realize from some older reviews here that this book didn't quite hit the spot for loyal Marissa Meyer fans, but for a first-time reader (listener, actually) like me, this book was great! The dialogue is witty, the romance is fun, and the karmic justice part brings some magic. And full kudos to the narrator for adding that extra sparkle to the story. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

I was immediately reeled into this hate-to-love romance about Prudence, an overachiever who is suddenly gifted with the power of instant karma and her laidback, lazy, always late lab partner, Quint, who is hindering her from getting a great grade on her project. But is everything the way she makes it out to be? This cute YA contemporary romance will not let you rest until you finish reading the last page.

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for this audiobook for an honest review.

I really loved Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicle series so I was excited to try out a contemporary with a magical twist by her but unfortunately this one fell really short for me. While I enjoyed the writing I really hated Prudence which killed a good majority of this book for me. It's really hard to care for the romance when you know the love interest is too good for the main character. Also, the magical "twist" to the story was underwhelming due to how little of it was explained.

It was an okay story to listen to on audio but I probably wouldn't recommend it further than that.

Karma. A word we all know we should live by but what if we were given the ability to instantly dole out the karmic pleasures of the Universe as we see fit? Well, after falling while singing karaoke this is exactly the power Prudence Daniels finds herself with.

Normally, I would take the time to craft the perfect way to lay out my thoughts and explain what I liked and disliked about this book, but today that seems impossible to do. Life is so much bigger than the judgments we place on ourselves and others. Our thoughts are in fact our own. Our ideas can be beautiful but also dangerous.

As we navigate our lives we think we are looking at life as everyone sees it, but that is a lie. We all have a lens in which we create our own reality. When we try to discuss karma we are really just creating judgements that are not ours to make.

We think we know what is in the heart of others, but in reality we never will. The characters in this book are fueled by environmentalism and saving sea life, yet discuss the seafood soup they will have for dinner. Do they realize the dichotomy of their actions? Do you consider yourself an animal lover yet choose to eat animals on a daily basis? Is vandalism warranted if it is for a just cause? Who decides whether a cause is just?

So how do we navigate this karmic paradigm we call life?
Step 1: Let go of judgement. Stop judging others and yourself.
Step 2: Surrender your ego and listen. There is always something new to be learned and a new perspective to be had.
Step 3: Trust. Trust that you are doing the best you can everyday and on the days you know you could have done better trust that tomorrow you will try again.
Step 4: Relax. Stop making your life so complicated. Take it day by day, minute by minute, and second by second.

This is the depth at which I think this book lighty tries to express. People like to believe they are open minded until their beliefs and thought structures are questioned. Marissa Meyer sets out to make you think about these deep things through a lighthearted love story.

this was super cute and adorable and i really enjoyed it! i don't read a ton of YA anymore but i couldn't resist this one being marissa meyer. love the lunar chronicles so much!

I really enjoy Marissa Meyer's writing. It is so fun and engaging. It took me a while to like Prudence as a main character, but I definitely loved her as I got deeper into the story. Quint is great and made sure to push Prudence out of her comfort zone. There was a lot of character growth in Instant Karma.

I always tell my students to avoid judging books by their cover...with that being said I absolutely do judge a book by its author! If I see an author I love or my students love, I'm totally grabbing their next book based on what books I've previously read or what I've heard so much about in the library with my students and this book was no different.

I cannot keep Marissa Meyer's books on our shelves in our school library. My middle school students love them, they rave about them and they are always excited when something new of hers comes out. So this time, I thought I'd be the first to be able to rave about her newest book to my students, and I'm disappointed to say I cannot lie to them. I just did not love this book, at all.

I listened to the audiobook and am afraid if I had the hardcover copy I definitely would not have finished the book. I really think Rebecca Soler did a great job narrating perhaps that is why I actually finished the book. Part of my reason for not loving this book is that I felt like the story dragged on for me, it was an investment to listen to a 14-hour book and not love that book. I also did not love the characters. I just didn't feel connected to them or with them and there were more times than I'd like to admit that I thought it may be a DNF for me. Pru was just not someone I cared to listen to and just felt like her whining was beyond annoying. Perhaps my middle school students will have different feelings, but I just couldn't root for her and felt like she really didn't grow in the story.

There were parts of the story that I liked, perhaps there were just too many subplots that got in the way for me. Maybe it's time I finally read the Lunar Chronicles to see what I've been missing because my students insist it is impossible to put down.

Overall Rating: 2.5

**I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.**

I loved the Lunar Chronicles. Naturally, I thought that I would love Instant Karma as well. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

I honestly don’t think that the heroine and hero should have been a couple. It’s hard to like a romance where you dislike the main couple. Plus, I didn’t like the magical aspect that was thrown into the book. I thought that the magic drove the story far too much for how little it was explained.

I’m looking forward to Marissa Meyers’s next book, but this one wasn’t for me.

I received an advanced copy of the audiobook from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

This was ridiculously cute and sweet and makes you tear up a few times throughout the novel. This novel follows Prudence as she has a life changing summer and realizes not everyone and everything is as one expects or assumes it to be. I love that Pru and her twin, Jude, have parents who are Beatles fanatics and named all the kids after Beatles songs! I love all the musical references throughout the novel.

I can appreciate that this novel giving information about various organizations working to save animals and so forth without shoving it down another person's throat and making them uncomfortable. I also can appreciate that their was a side character who was EXACTLY that extremist and learned to be less judgmental.

All in all this was a very sweet, fun novel and I quite enjoyed it!

Prudence Barnett has it all figured out. She doesn't understand why everybody around her is rude, hurtful, or so full of pride. Most of them haven't done anything good lately anyway. It seems like the universe agrees with her when she wakes up one morning to find that she can punish people for their bad karmic actions. For someone like Prudence, this feels rightly deserved, and all is right with the world (thanks to her!) until her karmic magic suddenly won't work on Quint Erickson, her do-nothing lab partner. Facing a low grade because her teacher says she can't work well with others (it's Quint's fault for being such a lazy putz!), Prudence aims to fix her grade in spite of Quint. Only the more time she spends with Quint volunteering, the more she realizes that maybe her impression of him was just the tip of the iceberg.⁣
⁣
I had a lot of fun with this enemies-to-aquarium-scrubbers-to-lovers story! Prudence is your typical type A teenage girl who thinks she's got the number of everybody around her, and her karmic powers reinforce that perspective, at least at first. Quint is definitely misunderstood at first, and as the story goes on, Prudence sees more of his positive traits and his reasons for diminished classroom participation. Prudence is a touch vindictive and petty at the onset, but because of her volunteerism and getting to know Quint, she begins softening as well. This is Marissa Meyer's first contemporary romance, and I enjoyed it! I listened to Instant Karma as an audiobook, read by Rebecca Soler, and Rebecca does a great job of bringing Prudence and Quint to life. Rebecca has also narrated many of Marissa Meyer's other works, and I have enjoyed her other renditions I have listened to. Go read (or listen!) to a great book today, and give yourself some Instant Karma!⁣

I was super excited when I saw that Marissa Meyer has a new book out! I had to get my hands on it! At that point, I didn't even care that it was a romantic novel (which I hate lol). The Lunar Chronicles is one of my all-time favorite series and Thorne is my book boyfriend :-p So, I had great expectations going into this book.
Pru drove me bonkers with her selfishness, her self-righteousness, and her über-ambitious attitude without regard for other people's feelings! Many times I thought "Please, Karma, striker her instead!!!!" If I had been Quint, I would have requested a different partner early into the project. I wouldn't have made it to any kind of presentation with Pru! I tip my hat to Quint. That guy has an abundant amount of patience. Speaking of Quint, he was my favorite character in the book. I knew there would be much more to him than met the eye. Pru was way too blind and ambitious to realize she had such a gem for a project partner.
Was this my favorite MM book? No, not really! Was it a great book! For sure, especially for a book involving romance. Thank you MM for making this an "Instant Karma" and not a "YA instant love" novel!! That is one of the reasons I usually hate YA novels, all this instant love stuff is just not for me. I appreciate that this book was a lot more realistic in terms of romance.