I loved Meyer’s “Lunar Chronicles” and went to a book signing last year where she talked about this book and I was hooked!
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If I were to narrow this book down to one word it’s “snark” Meyer’s humor is on point in this YA Romance.
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Prudence is unfortunately partnered with Quint as lab partners. It’s been a year of disappointment and now it’s the second to last day of the school year and they need to present their culminating project and who doesn’t bother to show up? Quint. Prudence steams ahead and presents only to get an unacceptable grade and tries to fix it. The teacher will but only if she works on it with Quint.
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Prudence reads Quint’s report and was surprised to see he had interviewed someone. Thinking that maybe she can also interview this person for fixing her grade, Prudence didn’t realize it would change her life. She finds herself at the aquatic animal rehabilitation center (which she didn't realize existed) and gets roped into volunteering. This center is a major part of the book and I loved that! Yay for saving animals!
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Karaoke is not for the faint of heart, performing is half as important as how you sing. Prue takes a tumble and knocks her head, then she finds she holds cosmic power and can grant people good karma and bad karma except it doesn’t seem to work on Quint. Hey universe! Probably shouldn’t hand the reigns of handing out justice to a teenager. 😂
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This was an entertaining book full of teenage drama and again - snark! Prudence really grew over the summer and I loved all the conservation efforts with the facts dropped throughout.
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This book releases on November 3rd and you won’t want to miss it! Thank you to the publisher and net galley for the audiobook that I was able to enjoy.
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Note: Some mild language.

It’s 2020. I’ll take a full pound of sugar with a side of saccharine. Or so I thought. I was ready for this book. Pumped. And then it took so long to develop the main conflict. And then some of the characters felt one-dimensional. And then the dialogue rang inauthentic. When it’s all said and done, it was the one-dimensional characters for me. I just wasn’t invested. The narrator saved the day with her crisp, clear voice that conveyed emotion and adolescence well.

This may be good for a summer beach read. The tropes will be familiar and light-hearted. The narrator is solid, so it’s not a total loss!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
I literally shrieked when I got this advanced reader. My daughter and I are both huge Marissa Meyer fans, and we were sold on this book when Marissa read the 1st two chapters on Instagram months ago. We have been eagerly awaiting it's release ever since then.
We received the audiobook version, and it was so well done. Rebecca Soler is just amazing, and one of my favorite audiobook narrators. She did not disappoint in this book at all.
Neither did Meyers. The concept was unique and intriguing. I loved that, at times you were rooting against or at least annoyed with Prudence, but in the best way. I highly recommend this fantastic ya novel.

With thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook, all opinions expressed here are my own.

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer was a fun, feel good contemporary read. It is a completely different style of book to any I’ve read by this author previously but definitely an enjoyable read. Rebecca Soler did a great job narrating, the characters were well written, the storyline made you feel for them and it was fun. Not heavy, a recommended read for when you’re looking for something lighter but with meaning.

A solid 4 stars.

This is one of those books that I really wanted to like but I just never did. I have a difficult time being in Prudence's head. She was just really unlikable and extremely judgemental. She never really grew throughout the entire novel. Also, Quint didn't work for me as a love interest. He was critical of Prudence and her motives every time they interacted. Plus, the final conflict, to me, wasn't something you could easily forgive someone for. There were a few cute moments and some readers may really enjoy it but I was not one of those readers.

After falling and hitting her head after a karaoke performance at a local bar & grill, Prudence Daniels discovers she has the power to dole out karmic retribution to people she finds doing wrong. And if anyone deserves a bit of karmic payback, Prudence feels like it's none other that her lab partner Quint Erikson. Quint's penchant for unreliability when it came to working on their final project cost Prudence the A she felt she deserved after being forced to do most of the work by herself. Unfortunately, Quint is the one person Prue's gift doesn't seem to work on. But she's determined to complete an extra credit assignment over the summer to bring up her grade. The catch is, she needs to work on it with Quint.

Quint agrees, but only on the condition that Prue volunteer at his mother's non-profit ocean-life rescue shelter for two weeks. Prue figures it's worth it if she can earn that A she so rightly believes she deserves. But once she starts working and sees all the good the shelter is doing, then sees that they're struggling financially, Prue makes it her goal to make the shelter a success. She'll discover what it means to look past the surface to see what's underneath.

Instant Karma is Marissa Meyer's first foray into contemporary. While it does skew a little towards the Y side of YA in terms of the fact that the main characters are in the 15-16 age range just completing sophomore year in high school, I found it to be one of those reads that can be appealing for more than just the target age group. Of course I shouldn't have had any doubts being it's written by Marissa Meyer.

I listened to an audiobook, and it's the first one I've listened to as narrated by Rebecca Soler. I thought that Rebecca Soler did a great job brining Prudence to life. Her voice and inflection was perfect for a character that gets right to the point of a matter, takes on more than she needs to, and is maybe a little more mature seeing as how she's one of the oldest children in a house with five kids (she's part of a twin set). And I thought that Rebecca Soler did great giving the rest of the characters their own voice and personality. When someone new would speak I would know who it was. As I've listened to more audiobooks, I've learned that's not always easily achieved.

I was surprised, however, that as I started reading I wasn't immediately drawn into the story as I have with Meyer's previous books. Then it suddenly clicked: Prudence is not a very likable character. At least, at the start. She's extremely quick to assume or judge. She needs to be in control of pretty much everything, and people who don't also follow her strict work ethic are obviously lazy slackers and not worth Prudence's time. Nowhere is this felt more than when Prue is using her new "gift". The biased way in which Prue is the one to determine right and wrong was frustrating. As clearly no one can possibly live up to her expectations. And if you can't live up to Prue's expectations than you're obviously deserving of a little karmatic payback.

This fact made it a little difficult to get invested in the story at first, but the thing to remember is the story is all about Prudence's journey. As Prue begins to open her eyes a little bit more so did the story begin to pull me in. This is especially highlighted in the interactions between Prue and Quint. The quintessential enemies-to-friends (lovers doesn't feel completely right here so I substitute). They start out the book so at odds with one another, I loved seeing them inch past their preconceived ideas about the other. It's easy to say that Prue is quick to judge and make assumptions, but it's clear too that Quint has made and makes assumptions about Prue as well. Since we only get Prue's point of view, it's easy to point to her as being the difficult one - I mean Quint is painted as a very nice guy who like to help animals and doesn't really seem caught up in , but had we gotten Quint's point of view, I think it would have lessened the overall impact of the growth that Prue goes through over the course of the book.

I guess what I'm trying to say overall is that once I understood the journey we were taking with Prudence, I loved being on it with her. I loved seeing her growth and coming to terms with the insecurities that were the cause of a lot of how she acted towards others. I thought the commentary about right and wrong and who gets to decide and mete out "justice" is an interesting underlying theme that Marissa Meyer handles with care. I enjoyed how everything is weaved together forming cause and effect and how even sometimes our best intentions don't go how we plan, or maybe look different from someone else's perspective.

I hope we'll get to see more contemporaries from Marissa Meyer, although I'm not quick to leave her fantasy worlds yet, I like when an author is able to branch out and give us something different and unexpected.

Instant Karma is Marissa Meyer's first venture into YA contemporary, and I thought it was very good! I do think this may be a polarizing book because our main character is "unlikeable" and female, and apparently people expect 15 year old girls to be nice and very mature. Well, having been an overachiever who thought I knew everything myself, I found Prudence to be incredibly relatable. Maybe I didn't get the cosmic ability to bestow good and bad karma on people, but aside from that the teen me had a lot in common with her. And if I did have that ability? I probably would have been kind of petty about it too, being so sure my black and white sense of morality was the correct one. So yeah, I enjoyed this and found it to be a very believable characterization. Is she selfish, judgmental and blind to her own flaws? Yep! But honestly, so were many of us at that age.

In addition, we get a great enemies-to-lovers romance and lots of cute aquatic animals being rescued. I thought this was charming and had strong arcs of character development. The other think I loved about this was the depiction of Prudence's family. We rarely get big families on the page depicted believably, but this really nailed it. Prudence is a twin and also has three younger sisters with the youngest being 4. As someone who also grew up as the oldest in a large family, I thought the family and sibling dynamics and age-appropriate behavior were perfect.

I really enjoyed this and I think it's going to be a fantastic rom-com for teenagers. Also, the audiobook is very well done! I received an advance audio copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I have read all of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles and loved them! This was definitely a change from those books, but I loved this too! It still had the same ease in the writing that I found and loved in the Lunar Chronicles. I did miss the fantastical element in this one. While I thought the concept and little bit of magic in Prudence's instant karma power was interesting and fun, it almost seemed unnecessary. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the progression of Pru and Quint's story and found myself looking forward to having to drive somewhere (as I mostly listen to audio books while I am driving). It is a good thing that I have to commute to work because it gave me an excuse to listen to hours of this a day! I did occasionally find Pru annoying because of her judgements, and occasionally found Quint to be frustrating because he didn't try to understand Pru at the beginning either, but I definitely related to elements of both characters and it was a lot of fun to watch them develop throughout the story. This was a sweet story and the audio book narrator was fantastic! I really enjoyed listening to this and will definitely be interested to read more like this from Marissa Meyer!

I received this as an eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for giving me access.

More like 2.5 stars. Not bad enough to be 2 but also not good enough to get a 3 from me.

I wanted to love this book. I wanted to love it so much. After all, Meyer is an auto buy author for me. Problem is, I am not a fan of contemporary reads. Not. At. All. I really tried.

Where to start. I felt that this story was lacking, lacking in an actual plot. It felt as if we were just going through a day in the life of a teenager in high school.....which we all have literally lived. Nothing exciting happened until the very end.

Like I said, contemporary isn't for me, but it may be for you. And if it is, then you might love this book. Unfortunately, I did not.

Instant Karma is a YA cutesy romance definitely geared toward a younger audience. It features Prudence (Pru) a high-intensity, laser-focused, over-achieving high school student who is fixated on furthering her opportunities and adding to her list of accomplishments. She’s single-minded and leaning hard into the judgmental side. Quint, is her “slacker” project partner for science class and her own self-imposed nemesis. He is an earnest young man who spends all of his free time working with his mother at their sea animal rescue center and makes every effort to reach Pru, accept her for who she is, and encourage her to lighten up and have some fun.

As summer hits, Pru finds herself volunteering with Quint at the rescue center in an attempt to raise her Biology grade. Their enemies to lovers story progresses slowly and oftentimes painfully, but it eventually does emerge and it’s fun to see the personal transition that takes place in Pru’s outlook on life.

Thrown into this romantic mix, almost as a side-note, is Pru’s unexpected ability, after a karaoke incident, to throw instant karma at anyone whom she thinks deserves it. Anyone, except Quint. It’s a rather humorous element, but also only loosely tied to the main plotline.

This story is cute, and has its share of endearing moments, but it’s also a bit silly and again, feels a little young to me. With Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series, I was smitten with her creativity and sci-fi elements alongside her unique characters. So the YA tag wasn’t a factor for me, even though I’m not a young adult. With Instant Karma, however, I was clearly not the target audience and it simply read too young for me.

In Instant Karma, Pru is young and self-centered and lacks the ability, or perspective, to see what really matters in the world around her. It’s a wonder she has maintained a close relationship with her sweet friend and brother. Her counterpart, Quint, is a great guy. He’s very solid with a good head on his shoulders, a kind heart, and his patience is admirable. The sea life is a touching component to the story and really well-researched.

Instant Karma is a really lengthy book and probably could have been condensed, given the content. It’s definitely quirky and has its redeeming qualities in the sea animals and rescue center and the earnestness of Quint and his family. The audio-narration was great, East to understand and a really nice match for the characters. The karma bits of the plot were also unusual and entertaining, but Pru and the story as a whole, didn’t really do it for me.

I loved Marissa Meyer's lunar chronicles series, and I was excited to see this author branch out to contemporary YA. This was such a fun, cute romantic comedy. I hope Marissa Meyer writes more books in this genre.

I think I could have loved this book if Pru wasn’t so whiny. All she did was complain. The. Entire. Time.
I really loved Quint. And the idea of instant karma. Just couldn’t handle Pru. :/

I received a digital arc and an audiobook copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What if you suddenly had the ability to cast instant karma on the people around you, rewarding those who do good and punishing those who do wrong? Prudence, a judgemental, over-achieving, perfectionist, never thought this could even be possible until it happened to her. The only person she just can't seem to get her powers to dole out punishment to is her annoying lab partner, Quint, who is consistently late, a bad speller, and everything else that Prudence can't stand. When Prudence doesn't get the grade she hoped for on their big lab assignment, she is willing to do whatever it takes to raise her grade, causing a series of events that unveils who Quint truly is, who Prudence has the ability to become, and the difference between right and wrong.

I really didn't enjoy the reading experience of this book. Like at all. I was so miserable for the first 60% because Prudence is so incredibly unlikeable AND the story just feels like it drags on forever. Prudence definitely has some character development over the course of the book, but it was really hard to look past how pretentious and judgmental she was for most of the plot. And I also have to question... who in the world doesn't understand the point of rescuing animals? I would for sure question that person's morals, as I question Prudence's. She even has the audacity to tell a grown woman how to do her job and as someone who actually works with grants and fundraising, that got under my skin.

Another annoyance of mine was the fact that Prudence really had a minimal reaction to her brand new "superpower". I think most people would have just a little bit more of a reaction if they could just suddenly do something like control karma.

I really love Quint. He is just so wholesome and good and I'm here for that. He's not perfect and doesn't always communicate well, but overall I really liked his character.

I spent so much of the book dreading the part where the romance begins because I just couldn't stand Prudence. However, towards the end, I will admit the romance was pretty cute.

The actual audiobook was great! Wonderful narrator and just really well done.

This story may very well work for lovers of enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn YA rom-com stories. However, be wary that if you can't handle judgey, pretentious main characters, you probably won't like this book. I also think that this could've easily worked the same or better as a slightly shorter story because the first half dragged on and on and on. SO overall, I think Instant Karma definitely has its audience, I just don't think I'm that audience. 2/5 stars.

Yes! I haven't had this much fun with an audiobook in a long time. If you're looking for a spectacularly narrated YA romance with a philosophical touch, THIS IS IT.

This is the story in a nutshell: a particularly judgemental girl Prudence wakes up with an ability to cast karma on people, so she enjoys the heck out f her unusual ability until it backfires with Quint - Pru's lab partner and main enemy.

If it sounds delicious, you are right. I just had so much fun following Pru's mis/adventures with her new supernatural ability to give people karma, which, seriously, who wouldn't want to do that?! It was wild, it was cute, it was funny and weird. The romance between Pru and Quint is EXACTLY what I look for when I want a YA romance, which I have very high standards for when there's little steam to make up for the real content. What's more, this book gives you so much to think about when it comes to morals, the right and wrong as well as love and hate.

With the superb narration, I am compelled to rate this one 5 stars.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The audiobook quality on netgalley is poor on 2x speed which is what I prefer to listen to. Has a weird echo. I decided to check this out from the library instead. I enjoyed the story - very sweet!

2.5 rounded to 3

I thought the idea of instant Karma was pretty interesting but almost wasn't highlighted enough. Definitely a cute YA romance story and I liked the Beatles references. I found it hard to connect with the main character but she did grow as the story went on and there were some good supporting characters. The narrator on this audio version was good!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an ALC of this book!

This was so ridiculously cute! And not just because of the baby otters (although that definitely helped).

Prudence and Quint have had a horrible sophomore year as lab partners, clashing with everything they do, and because of their lack of teamwork they get a C on their final project. Prudence the perfectionist can't stand to have this blip on her record and want to redo the project, but can only do that if the perpetually tardy Quint agrees, but why would he want to work with her more when she's made the whole year miserable?

After a concussion may or may not have given Prudence the power of karmic justice, she spends her summer volunteering at the sea life rescue that Quint's mother runs in an attempt to convince him to help her redo the project, but she might learn that Quint wasn't the one in the wrong this whole time...

Prudence is SUCH an annoying character for the first half of the book. I could tell she had a ton of growing to do, and she definitely accomplished a lot of change throughout the book. Quint is sweet and adorable and I fell in love! I also loved Prudence's family, and who can resist the cuteness of sea lions being rehabilitated?

I loved the way this story turned out and was so happy with the ending, however I do wish there was more diversity among the characters.

Review will be added to Amazon, Audible, and Instagram the week of its release.

“Instant Karma's gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head”
~John Lennon

What if you were suddenly given the ability to bring Karma instantly to anyone you thought was unkind, or unfair? Do you think it would make life better, or at least make you feel like life was more fair? That is a dilemma that Prudence Daniels, Pru, is faced with in Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer. Pru has always been an overachiever, and a bit judgmental of those who weren’t. And no one seems to exemplify under achiever to her as much as her assigned lab partner Quint Erickson. When their end of year project doesn’t go the way she had hoped, Pru feels forced to work with Quint even longer than she anticipated. And her new found karma ability always seems to backfire where he is concerned. The more she gets to know Quint the more she realizes there might be more to him than she was ever willing to see.

I was given an advanced copy of this book as an audio book in exchange for an honest review. Marissa Meyer is fabulous about creating lovable but flawed characters who seem relatable. This book was no exception. I loved all of the characters of this book. I especially loved Pru’s Beatles loving family and all of their quirkiness. Her twin brother in particular added a lot to this story for me and how well he knew his sister and almost balanced her out in a way. Instant Karma had me feeling all the angst and drama of a teenage rom-com and had me laughing out loud.

Overall it was a fabulous ride. The only critiques I might have is at times Pru was over the top in her judgements of others and it was hard to listen to/read. Also it was a bit predictable, but honestly it was predictable to me in that comforting way that most romances are.

The reader for the audio version is fantastic. She did a great job with distinguishing characters with her voice and was a delight to listen to. I give this audiobook 4 full stars.

I was so excited to see Marissa Meyer had a contemporary novel coming out and it did not disappoint. I always enjoy a good hate-to-love story. This one had an especially unique twist. The growth that the main character, Pru goes through is both well thought out and realistic. The setting being a marine animal rescue was even better. What can I say this had all the elements of a great story. If you enjoy YA contemporary romances then this is definitely one to pick up. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did an excellent job at capturing Pru's voice as well.

I enjoyed this book but I did find the MC a bit annoying. She complains a lot and seems a bit stuck up. People make mistakes and we should try to be more understanding. Fortunately she learns this lesson after making a fool of herself a few times. I loved the saving the ocean vibe this book offered and I hope it opens awareness to the reads like it did the MC.

The audio version of this book was entertaining and I appreciate the early copy to review!