Thanks NetGalley for this audiobook preview!!

This was my first audiobook with NetGalley and I loved how easy it was to listen!
Prudence was a complex teen girl with many internal conflicts and strong opinions. There were some parts of the book where I was ready to scream about how she was wrong and needed to grow up! Quint was made to seem like the bad guy but he turned out to be wonderful! The narrator was a little inconsistent with her character voices. Overall this was a really enjoyable read!

**Review will be published November 2nd, 2020**

IT WAS CUTE.

Since I read this an audio book ARC, I wanted to mention my thoughts on the audio. I thought the narrator was great and found it to be easy listening. I kept it at 1.5x – 1.75x depending on what I was doing at the time while listening. Definitely would recommend reading it as an audio book if you enjoy that option!

I love Marissa Meyer’s books. I am a big fan of her fantasy books. Reading her first contemporary romance? ALL OVER IT.

This was a cute Beatles-inspired young adult romance. I loved the beach setting and marine ecology aspects. It felt relevant without being pushy and I learned a lot just from the setting alone. There was knowledge of rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing multiple marine animals and the center goes about achieving their ultimate goal of getting these animals back to the wild.

Prudence was our dear main character. Oh, how I struggled with her for 80% of the book. I kept expecting some more character growth from her, but felt it happened too close to the end. She leaned towards selfish and so completely single-mindedly focused that I wanted to jump in the book and tell her what she’s missing. With all of the damage done before getting to some evolution in her character it became a bit of a let down.

Quint was precious. And I’m genuinely amazed he was cool with Prudence being rude to him over and over again. I loved his interactions and banter. Quint had a great back story and was clearly devoted to helping the sea creatures in his care. I loved his nature and passion.

I did love their initial at last they kissed moment. It came at the right time and was sweet. I would have loved a longer ending with more of them because by the time I was really feeling it, the ending had arrived.

It’s overall a fun book and I’m happy that I read it. I love Meyer’s writing and will continue to read all the books by her. I’m also hoping for maybe more books with Pru’s brother, Jude (who I adored) and maybe even her friends? I thought there was some open options for more contemporaries in this world and I would love to read those too.

Overall audience notes:

Young adult contemporary romance
Language: very little and light
Romance: kisses
Violence: injured sea animals that washed ashore, someone breaking their leg from a fall

I'll have to admit this book had a rocky start for me. I was so excited for this YA Contemporary with all the Beatle's references and who wouldn't want to dole out some Karma now and again.

Prudence was a difficult character for me. There are times when I enjoy an MC who isn't very likeable but that is only when it's well done and makes sense. Prudence is just a freaking jerk for no reason. She's really selfish, self-absorbed, and entitled for no reason if you ask me. She thinks everyone around her is lazy but doesn't actually take the time to get to know them. I struggled through a large part of the first half with her but over time when the plot line picked up and more started happening I started to focus more on it and less on Pru herself. She wasn't the person I was most interested in. I wanted to know more about Quint because I knew he wasn't the type of person Pru was making him out to be.

Quint saved this book for me. He is so sweet! He helps his mom run her non-profit animal rescue center and is often late for school because he's out helping her with a rescue. He spends a great deal of his time at the center and when Pru shows up one day to check it out the competition begins. As a team they were supposed to come up with an eco-friendly plan for their biology course but between Pru's need for control she wasn't able to see what an asset Quint would have been for the project because he'd given up on trying to help her and went ahead with the paper on his own.

Now they've come to an agreement that if Pru volunteers at the center for four weeks than Quint will help her get the "A" she believed she deserved on the paper in the first place. The two of them grown on each other and Pru starts to realize Quint isn't who she thought he was and is actually a really good person. He may even be a better person than she is.

Overall there were parts that I felt weren't necessary but didn't take away from the story too much. I actually would've been fine without Pru's ability to dole out Karma because to be honest it didn't actually feel like it was a major part of the story. I listened to the audio and it was really well done and the narrator was familiar to me. I'd recommend the audio version for sure!

If you want an engaging story, this is it.

Prudence, an overachiever, earns a C on her presentation for science class. She blames her partner, Quint, because he was late to present. In fact, he was hardly around at all to help with the assignment. She wants a do-over, but her teacher won't let her do it unless Quint agrees. She's on a mission to make up that C, and if that means she has to volunteer at the marine animal shelter, making fish gut smoothies, then that's just what she'll have to do.

But, can she tell anyone about her super secret superpower? After performing karaoke at the diner hangout with her twin brother Jude, and her bff Ari, Prudence slips and hits her head--only to discover that she can summon karma instantly.

This is a fun adventure, throwback to nostalgia for adult readers, and a pseudo-introductory course to early Beatle fandom.

Prudence is type A with a drive that is reminiscent of Sandra Bullock's character in The Proposal. Her classmate Quint is... not. He's often late to class-- even on the day of their Big Project Presentation. Suffice it to say that they didn't enjoy being lab partner this year. So imagine Quint's surprise when Prudence shows up at his mom's sea animal rescue center to volunteer for the summer. With the help of a temporary ability to mete out karmic justice at her discretion, Prudence learns that Quint --and others-- is more than her one-dimensional judgments led her to believe. In fact, second, third, and 512th impressions might just lead to unexpected warm-fuzzies and great make-out sessions.

Instant Karma follows the same theme that Meyer explores in Renegades: the world isn't black and white, there is more than good and bad-- but with a slight twist: don't let first impressions or singular judgements color your perception of a person. Honestly, when I realized that similarity, I was a bit disappointed. I loved that theme in the superheroes archetype because it was different and turned the trope on its head, but it felt tired and overdone in this genre.

I will still order this for my YA collection, but only because of the name recognition and because it'll be a good read-alike for Jenna Evans Welch's YA romances.

PS Rebecca Soler is the voice actor for the audiobook, and she perfectly executes it, as is expected.

This was such a cute book! I may have downloaded it without reading the synopsis and therefore didn’t realize that there was an odd little magical element to it. Honestly I think the story would’ve been better without that magical element, Prudence’s ability to dole out instant karma to people by simply making a fist or snapping her fingers.

But overall this was a really cute teen rom com, and I enjoyed it a lot!

The audio was good, but I did think the narrator exaggerated Pru’s uptightness a BIT too much.

The roundabout plot of this book was really cute, and the setting and romance felt refreshing. It was a welcomed read!

Title: Instant Karma
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: (ebook) Feiwel & Friends
(Audiobook) Macmillan Audio
Rating 3/5star

“Instant Karma's gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You better get yourself together
Pretty soon you're gonna be dead.”

Instant Karma is told from the point of view of Prudence Daniels, an overachiever, perfectionist who has been stuck all year with Quint Erikson, a laid back, tardy, unprepared student. Her worst nightmare. The school year ends and while hanging out with her best friend Pru gets a small head injury that gives her the ability to impart Instant Karma on anyone. Anyone except Quint.

I really liked the concept of the story. It had really great potential but I also think I came in expecting something like the books I’ve read by Meyer before. I think I would’ve enjoyed the story more has Pru not been so hard to like. She was whiny, stubborn, and gave off a little entitled vibe which I assume comes from her being a perfectionist. I felt like she had very little growth, everytime I felt she was redeemed she’d go back to “I am right you are wrong mentality”. I think having Quints point of view to see her from a different perspective might’ve helped. I kept feeling like the characters were molding themselves to her personality instead of her changing. In my opinion whatever growth she had was minimal.

Okay well that was my rant. This is Meyer’s first contemporary young adult novel.

That being said the audiobook was really entertaining. The narrator does a good job or portraying Pru. Her voice was very nice and the flow of the audio was good.

I received this audiobook from the publisher (@macmillan.audio ) via @netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Remember that these are my opinions and should in no way reflect what you may think of the book. Please still give it a chance.

#instantkarma #youngadult #enemiestolovers #animalrescue #babyotters #sealions #harborseals #rescuecenters #environmentalcleanip #beach #slowburn

I loved this so much! This has been one of my most anticipated reads of 2020, so I was so honored to receive an audiobook ARC from the publisher on Netgalley. I devoured the whole thing in one day.

Prudence has the worst lab partner who's always late and doesn't seem at all interested in focusing on the assignment. When they receive a C on their group assignment, she begs for a chance to make the grade up and is granted to chance, but the catch is, it has to be done in true collaboration with her partner. He's completely fine with the C and not at all interested in doing the assignment again.

That sets these two characters on an amazing summer of learning to work together, learning more about each other, and Prue gets to learn a whole lot more while volunteering for several weeks at a wildlife rescue nonprofit that Quint's mother works at and Quint has been volunteering at for years.

There was also this thing that played a big part of the story, where Prue had a head injury that she believed gave her the ability to inflict "instant karma" on people she observed doing mostly bad but some good things.

What I loved so much about this book was how Prue got to learn that there are always other sides of a situation that may not be visible to others in the moment, or maybe ever, that when taken into consideration makes something that looks bad not seem so bad after all. You never know what other things might be at play, and I think that's a lesson we could all stand to learn.

The romance between Prue and Quint was a hate to love, slow burn that I thought was done so well all the way around. There's something so satisfying about a good hate to love romance when the story really lays the foundation and builds and builds and builds on it the way I felt this one did.

There was a lot of reference in this story to oceanic wildlife that to me was reminiscent of 50 First Dates, and that really took this story from good to great for me. Lots of rich detail. It seemed like a lot of research went into this book in that aspect. Also, for the record, this book was also a bit reminiscent to me of What You Wish For by Katherine Center.

As for the audiobook narration, I thought this was well done for a single narrator. Nothing detracted from the story at all.

Even though this was a YA romance, I do think readers of Contemporary Romance will enjoy this story, even if YA isn't usually their cup of tea. I tend to prefer my YA to be fantasy when I do read YA, but I really just loved this one.

5/5 ⭐️
Aaaww! This is such a cute book! I loved Meyers Lunar Chronicles so I was super exited to read another book by her! I really loved the message this book conveys, and the choices you make throughout your life. The romance was cute and I loved the extra add of the sea creatures!

First off, I loved that the whole book revolves around a marine life rescue center- always good to encourage people to care for wildlife and the environment. However, I was not a fan of the protagonist or her love interest. She was pretty insufferable throughout and their relationship feeds off the old trope that if someone is mean to you then they must actually have a crush on you. Barf. Then there's also the whole sorta supernatural thing where the insufferable girl gets the power to clench her fists and give people what they deserve (either good or bad), where she ends up coming across like a mini Karen getting mad at people and making them pay. It's a cute concept and teens may like it, but the protagonist got on my nerves.

A really cute book. I loved the backdrop of the animal rescue and vintage record store. I do wish there was more of the secondary characters in the book. They were all so well written. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was great. I’m glad I listened to this even though I don’t generally go for high school based characters. I’d definitely read more by this author.

I was so excited to see this author coming out with a contemporary romance and it did not disappoint! I loved the slow burn enemies to lovers romance and the whole whimsical magical made for a super fun plot.
It took a bit for this book to grow on me but once it did I couldn't put it down! The main characters Prudence begins as a sort of stuck up and selfish character but I do think she grows and learns over the course of the story.
There are quite a few cheesy parts but I felt like that made the book more fun and light-hearted.

"This. Is. So. Unfair. Maybe I can talk to the principal? Surely this can’t be allowed?"

I have so many feelings and none of them are good. 

This story is about Prudence Daniels and Quint Erickson. She’s a narcissistic “Karen” in training and he’s an animal loving sweetheart. I honestly do not see them working out, but I digress. The concept of this novel was so appealing. I’ve never read anything by [author:Marissa Meyer|4684322] before and I was looking for a cute YA romcom. And for the most part it delivered. It was super cute and the idea of hitting your head after singing Instant Karma by John Lennon and getting powers to serve instant karma when needed was genius. 

To bad Prudence is the most narcissistic, immature, selfish, arrogant, narrow minded human being alive. I could go on, that’s how much I disliked Prudence. Of all the people in the world to be granted this power she should not have been it. I’m surprised she didn’t become this massive villain with all that power. Even though she kind of did. Maya is the popular pretty girl her brother Jude has a major crush on. When she over hears her talking about not returning his affection but defending him to her friends. This girl literally told them to stop making fun of him. She called him sweet and kind but not her type. Prudence took it upon herself to punish Maya. Not liking someone back is not cruel or deserves punishment. I had so many feelings about this. So many. Again, not good ones.  

Prudence was literally a Karen in training. She felt justified in the instant karma she dealt out AND didn't learn anything from her experience. If anything it gave her an even bigger head.

I've never read anything by this author before, my biggest critique wasn’t even the very dislikable Prudence (because she was bossy but will make an awesome politician or business person in the future, hopefully use that big brains of hers for good) but the number of pages in this book. There were at least 20 side stories inside this story. 

Side note, unrelated to the book. Have any of you watched the 13th floor? This guy wakes up bloody and doesn’t remember killing someone. We later find out that it’s all fake. Like people are living inside simulators. But there's more than one. So people are living inside people, that are inside people, inside other people. It’s some very dark Inception shit. This is how this story felt!!! I was reading one story with so many little stories inside. Like a story, inside a story, inside a story. You get the picture. I was not a fan of this. Every character had it’s own story literally within the story. Ari, Prudence’s only friend, had many stories. How they met. Her parents money. Her car. Her music collection. Each part was pages long. Seriously, just Ari had her own book within this book. Does Marisa Meyers not have an editor? Does she need to find a better one? These pieces did not belong. They should not have been here and worst of all, did nothing to help the plot or story move along. If anything it added unnecessary stops. They were so unnecessary!! Just write a series Marisa. Focus!! Focus on the main characters in this story and write about all the other people later. It could have very easily been a 200 page book, not this run on monstrosity that never ended. It was so frustrating. 

What was awesome and I quite enjoyed was Quint's mother’s animal center, The Fortuna Beach Sea Animal Rescue Center. I loved everything about this addition to the story. How it taught me about sea animals and how these centers care for them. I also loved their biology project and teacher Mr. Chavez. I really enjoyed reading a story where teenagers are smart and want to make a difference in the world. As an educator this spoke to my soul. Kids are smart and capable and brilliant. I loved how the adults in the story also believed this. Kids are the future, literally. And the adults in this story know that. The grown ups in this story were also pretty amazing. Genuinely cared for the kids and gave great advice.

"In life," he says, speaking slowly, "we rarely get to choose the people we work with. Our bosses, our peers, our students, our teammates. Heck, we don’t even get to choose our families, other than our spouses."

Did Prudence listen or even attempt to understand. No. She was above teamwork and group projects. How dare her teacher give her advice.

I digress, again.

I also loved how these characters had passion. Passion for music, animals, projects, of sharks, didn’t change the fact these teenagers were living a healthy life full of possibilities. They were thinking of college. They were getting summer jobs. They felt so normal. This is what kept me reading.

I know I’m being over critical of Prudence but she really rubbed me the wrong way. She was a sophomore in high school!!! I equally feel like she’s too young (immature) and too old (jaded and arrogant). She confuses and angers me.

I do feel that teenagers are going to love this story because of the teenage shenanigans, the siblings, and friends. It really was a cute story. I also really enjoyed their teenage activities and most of all Quint, Jude, and Ari. If you can get past Prudence (I could not) this will be the perfect summer read.

This was the cutest book that I have listened to a long time!! Even though it was the longest audiobook that I have listened to, it was so worth it. I didnt want it to end! Prudence wakes up with the ability to give instant karma to anyone that she thinks deserves it. During this time, she has to work with a given lab partner, Quintan. This big year long school project that they have had to work on, hasn't worked out at all. What happens when she realizes her "powers," but really that her lab partner isn't a bad guy. Will she work the summer with him at a cool sea animal rescue center to get a better grade? Will having the ability to give instant karma not be all that it cracks up to be?

A HUGE thank you to MacMillan Audio, Marissa Meyer, and NetGalley for sending me an audio eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book so much. Prudence wasn't one of my favorite MC's, she was a bit whiny, but she did make some great decisions. I liked her better at the end than I did at the beginning, so that was an improvement, she just wasn't my favorite.

Quint, however, was a delight. I loved how much he pushed and challenged her once he had the opportunity. The world that Quint lives in is such an amazing world to be thrust into. I loved some of the little bits of ocean conservation and marine life conservation in this book, it's a great place to start some of these conversations.

Then there were the animals. I loved every single one we got to know and I love that I can picture all of this so easily. It was such a great book and there was so much progression with the story. This was a cute read and a great coming of age story.

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer is a cute young adult romance.

Prudence (Pru) is an overachiever that is always trying to do the best in school and working towards going to an elite college. Quint, a laid back slacker who is usually late to everything, is Pru’s lab partner. When their grade doesn’t turn out like Pru expects, she ends up volunteering at the rescue center for local sea animals with Quint.

The wildlife center is in trouble, so Pru and Quint come up with plans to try to raise money. Pru and Quint did not get along until they start volunteering together. They find out why the other does certain things and what is actually important to them. Pru discovers the importance of the rescue center and begins to think of others. She finds out more about Quint and the reasons why he always seems to be late. When Pru and Quint get to know each other can they put aside their differences and form a romance?

Pru is always judging people. One day she notices she can now enact instant karma. However, only when the person deserves or karma attacks her instead. I really enjoyed Pru discovering her power for instant karma and learning how this power works. Pru’s instant karma power helps her determine what is right and wrong. While Pru is selfish at the beginning of the book, she begins to look closer at others.

I loved the wildlife in Instant Karma. Pru learns about different sea animals and gets to experience them being reentered into the wild. Quint is very passionate about the relief center and sea animals and expresses this many times to Pru.

I really enjoyed Pru and Quint’s interactions. Their romance was exactly what I look for when reading YA romance. Pru’s and Quint’s family and friends were also an important part of the story.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Rebecca Soler and she did a fantastic job narrating. Rebecca Soler is one of my favorite narrators and her narration never disappoints.

I love all of Marissa Meyer’s books and Instant Karma was a great read. I recommend Instant Karma to Marissa Meyer fans and fans of YA romance.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio/Feiwel & Friends for the Instant Karma audiobook.

I absolutely love everything I've read by Marissa Meyer, so when I was able to get an advanced audio copy of this book, I jumped at the chance. I was completely engaged the whole time, but the beginning was kind of annoying.
I really didn't like Prudence. She seemed very immature and super annoying. I feel like in the beginning we are supposed to be on her side in the whole hating Quint thing, but she was just so annoying and abrasive that I was on Quint's side the whole time even though I didn't know his side of the story. After Prudence hit her head and got her "instant karma" power, a chunk of the book seemed like just random things she saw that needed punishment and she took it upon herself to dole out that punishment without knowing the whole story and it got a little bit repetitive. Since the name of the book is Instant Karma, I thought the karma part would happen more throughout the book, but there were large chucks of the book where Prudence's power seemed to just disappear.
When Prudence finds out the reason why Quint has always been a "slacker" in class and Prudence kind of got into it, I more enjoyed the book.
I loved the cause of saving sea animals and that's what really drew me in. I loved Quint's absolute love and dedication to these animals. Heck, I loved Quint! There was so much detail around the center and around how much work and effort goes into what they do. I think it really could push people to go into their own lives and really make a difference.
I also really loved Prudence's family. Her parents were fantastic, her siblings were typical siblings. It was just a really great family dynamic.
The one thing I did like about Prudence after the book got going was how dedicated she was to helping Quint and the animals. Her ideas to help were great, I just feel they made her almost entitled.
The big kind of "event" that happened at the end, I saw coming a mile away. It was weird though, because the first thing happened, and then a lot of the book happened without mentioning it, and then all of the sudden it was figured out and resolved.
The last half of the book as well as the characters that weren't Prudence and all the adorable sea animals and rescue awareness really brought this to a 4 star read for me. Overall, it was a really cute, fun read that had a really great cause rolled in.

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer
Narrated by: Rebecca Soler
Publication Date: November 3, 2020
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Description from NetGalley...
Chronic overachiever Prudence Daniels 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 mean gossips, but there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner. Quint is annoyingly cute and impressively noble, especially when it comes to his work with the rescue center for local sea animals.

When Pru resigns herself to working at the rescue center for extra credit, she begins to uncover truths about baby otters, environmental upheaval, and romantic crossed signals—not necessarily in that order. Her newfound karmic insights reveal how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed . . . love and hate… and fate.
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Thank you to @NetGalley @macmillan.audio and #feiwelandfriends for the audiobook ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts...
The narration was okay. Sometimes, I felt that the voices she used were not very consistent. However, I was surprised how much I enjoyed the story. I was expecting it to be the typical YA romance/romcom with a lot of drama, but it really was not. The description above is pretty much on point. I appreciated the information on the rescue centre and it’s’ work in saving sea creatures. There was a moment with a sea turtle that reminded me of my very first sighting of one while on vacation. It was a magical experience for me. Pru was very relatable because she reminded me somewhat of my high school self 🤦🏻‍♀️. Overall, it was a fun story.

This is a story about Karma

I really enjoyed this book! I wasn't initially sure how I would feel, because i don't typically enjoy romcoms; however, the magical realism was a fun twist and I enjoyed the enemies to lovers plot thread.. with a super fun beachy backdrop! I also appreciated that while it is a YA romcom, the book had something to do about important issues- acts of service within the community, empathy for others, and the value of giving others a chance.

3.5 stars, rounded to 4!

Thank you Negalley & Macmillan for this audio arc!