I loved this little ya romance. I have read Marissa Meyer’s sci-fi and fantasy in the past and I’ve always enjoyed them. I was glad to see this realistic fiction from her!

I hadn't read or listened to this author before but I can easily understand why she is so popular. This romantic, sweet story is certain to resonate with YA readers. It's a combination of a coming-of-age story interspersed with a fantasy twinge that was so much fun. I wish I had the capacity to issue "instant karma."
The book , also, served as a learning tool. The discussion of businesses, non-profits versus profits, and how things can go up and down so quickly, was a great learning tool.
Looking forward to catching up on the author's past reads and future ones!

Harmless but consequently less dynamic than Meyer's other work, especially Renegades which I read most recently. I suppose I prefer her spec works.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced audiobook copy of “Instant Karma” by Marissa Meyer. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was so excited for this narrator who also narrated ‘The Hazel Wood’ series. She has such a great voice especially for YA and she made the book easy to read especially since it was so long. This is a lengthy contemporary book. I’ve listened to fantasy books with shorter play times.

The story follows overachiever Prudence who gains “the powers of the universe” in the form of “instant karma” she can inflict on people for good or bad (although it takes a long time for her to realize she an also use the powers for good as she’s too focused on punishing people.) While the title comes from a John Lennon song, the way the author utilizes the concept of karma is cultural appropriation that doesn’t even need to be there. Prudence’s powers become such a minor subplot that I forgot she had them multiple times. I’m sure the author liked having the title tie into Prudence’s powers as the book is full of nods to music and bands like The Beatles, but I feel the author could have called Prudence’s powers something else or taken them out entirely since they become an afterthought.

I also think the romance could have been taken out and the focus shifting to Prudence and Quint learning to be friends. This is pitched as enemies to lovers but I was not rooting for the couple at all. In fact, I wasn’t rooting for Prudence in general. She’s extremely unlikeable and doesn’t learn or grow from her mistakes. I would have liked to have Quint’s POV or just let him be the protagonist. It didn’t feel like Prudence deserved the titular powers bestowed on her. If anything, they made her even more unlikable as she then thought the universe was acting through her and refused to take any responsibility. She twists herself into some convoluted mental gymnastics to justify taking money from an animal rescue center (Prudence by the way doesn’t like animals if you need more evidence of her being unlikeable) but someone else steals the money first. In fact, the whole book’s plot crawls and not a lot happens so this mystery doesn’t occur until late in the book. Prudence is accused of stealing the money she was totally planning to steal and then has to clear her name. Quint says horrible things to her and is mad for weeks until Prudence clears her name. She then confesses she was going to steal the money and he barely reacts and is totally fine with it because the author had to shove them back together at the end.

There are also additional subplots that go nowhere and serve little purpose whereas subplots like Prudence’s parents failing business are completely ignored when they could have used more page time. Prudence’s best friend Ari is a waste of pages. She does nothing but act like a mouthpiece for the author to criticize teens not appreciating “classic” artists like the Beatles which seems like an odd choice since this is a YA book?

In conclusion, the setting showed some promise and some of the side characters were interesting but Prudence needed a serious overhaul. I would have rather read this book from Quint’s POV and had it not be a romance and not have the karma cultural appropriation. I love romance books but the romance here was lacking. It would have been more interesting and unique to have Prudence and Quint learn to understand one another and grow to be friends.

2/5 stars

This wasn't my favorite Marissa Meyer book honestly. The romance was cute but I didn't love Prudence a ton and the whole instant karma I don't think added to the book. Again it was overall cute but I didn't love it sadly.

I found this book really hard to get into. I usually don't mind MC who can be annoying but Pru was extra obnoxious. She was mean and judgmental and I didn't find that her character grew too much during the book. The romance also felt a little off to me. Like there wasn't much of it and I felt there was no spark.

The story starts with Prudence Barnett, an overachiever, and her lazy, annoying, and chronically late lab partner, Quint Erickson, getting a bad grade on their final science project. Pru has an accident later that night which leads to her being granted the ability to cast instant karma on anyone she feels deserves it. Of course Quint deserves it in her eyes, especially since he doesn’t want to help her redo the project over the summer, but every time she tries it backfires. Pru soon learns not everything is as black and white as she thinks it is.
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As soon as I started listening to this audiobook I knew I was going to have a hard time pausing and stepping away. It caught my attention right away and kept me interested the whole time. It was fun to see all the musical references and I really enjoyed all the adorable sea life we learned about.
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Character wise, I feel like Pru was super judgy and self-absorbed, but as the story progressed it was nice to see her finally changing her ways. There were parts where she really was trying to do the right thing but refused to ask for help so it caused a few issues in her personal relationships. I felt this was actually pretty realistic since teenagers rarely ask for help, but it still annoyed me. On the other hand, I really liked Quint’s character right from the beginning and grew to like him even more as the story went on. I enjoyed all of the side characters and their relationships felt very real and not forced. I did feel the romance wasn’t explored as much as I would have liked and took a bit to long to get going.
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Overall this is a great book about learning how others can be going through things they don’t want everyone to know about, and how you should not make judgements before you know their whole story.
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Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

Much different then Meyer's other novels- slower and a little more character based than plot driven. I enjoyed the story, but the Instant Karma piece was not as prevalent as it was made out to be.

God this was so bad... First. Let's talk about cultural appropriation. Marissa Meyer is a white woman. Prudence was a white girl. Marissa has no business talking about karma and that magic. It's not her place. It's not her culture. I had the same problem with the Lunar chronicles white washing Chinese culture.
Second. Prudence was HORRIBLE. Some people just say she was judgy and a lot of teenagers are like that so it's good to be seen. But that wasn't it. She was dumb. She was judgy. And it was so repetitive that "she was smart". Just no.

This is book is nothing you have read by Marissa Meyer, this YA contemporary, gives us Pru and Quint's story, where they meet as lab partners and they now find themselves having to work together. It was a cute story wanted to see how karma was going to play into the plot and this is the only part I thought it was missing a bit. It was overall a good story, one I heard as I got the audiobook, and the narrator Rebecca Soler did a good job portraying the characters, the edition good as well.

This is such a big deviation from other books I've read and loved by Marissa Meyer.

I found Cinder on a bookshelf in a library 7 years ago, and proceeded to first devour it, then continue on with everything else that she's written. And, although all her books are YA, this one is very contemporary YA.

But if it doesn't have any sci fi elements, there is a bit of magical realism to the text, inherent in that mid-80s way where the main character bumps her head and ends up with temporary magical powers. In this case, it's to inflict good or bad instant karma on those around her.

Prudence is a fairly uptight character and we see only her point of view when it comes to the end of term and she's lumped with a bad grade due to a group project that she has done the majority of the work for. She really doesn't like her group partner, Quint, who she sees as lazy, always running late, and basically only there to be a thorn in her side.

What she doesn't know is anything about his history, why he is late, why he might need passes from school.

Over summer, however, she finds out. What starts as her attempting to redo the group project with him turns into the two of them volunteering at the animal shelter that his mum runs as a nonprofit. She manages to loosen up over such instances as snorkelling and a viewing of Jaws. Quint brings Prudence out of her shell, and the two of them both begin to find redeeming qualities in the other.

I quite liked the element of literal instant karma being given by someone who always thinks they are in the right. It served as a really wonderful way of showing her that maybe her experience and understanding of the world weren't correct as soon as she understood what she was doing and how she was doing it. In addition to Quint's kindness and patience, it allowed her to open her eyes and question what she was doing and the way she was seeing the world in a way that made all the difference as to whether this was a fun story and whether she was a readable character.

Although I didn't love it as much as Marissa's previous books, it was a decent read.

I really wanted to like this book. While it was a step away from Meyer's usual retellings I found the main character Prudence very annoying and self serving. It's like for a good portion of the book she didn't want to even try to give Quint a chance let alone a break. There was also no rhyme or reason to her getting this "power" when it happened so I just mainly felt confused. Hopefully others found it a little easier to swallow.

I read this book in literally two days. It’s not what I expected. I am so used to this author’s fantasies, that I was not expecting her to blow my mind with this most adorable romantic comedy. I would recommend this to EVERY one!

This book was so much fun! I loved the characters and their relationships they all had with each other. I loved all of the beatles references and I loved the beach town setting.

Prudence was such a fun character, I loved how determined and passionate she was in everything that she did and how she never got discouraged by setbacks. I also loved Quint and how charismatic and sarcastic he was but also how much he cared for all of the sea animals at the rescue center.

I will definitely be reading this book again and could not recommend it enough this book was just so much fun and I loved it so much. I feel like this review doesn't even describe just how much I loved this book.

This was a fun story. I struggled at times connecting with the MC but she had a great character ARC. The narrator was fantastic and overall it was a really fun read.

4.5 stars

I love Marissa’s writing! Whether it’s a sci-fi take on a fairy tale or a cute YA, the writing is always spot on.

Instant Karma was so fun to read, the characters were lovable and this story was actually informative for teens. I loved how she intermingled environmental topics along with a young romance.

I also have to say that the narrator that Marissa uses is fabulous! She did all of the Cinder series as well as this book. She is one of the best narrators out there. She does such an awesome job that you sometimes forget it’s only her on the audio.

Overall I would highly recommend this audio, the narrator, the storyline and the writing are all fantastic!!

I really enjoyed the eARC I read of Instant Karma, so I wanted to listen to the audiobook! While I really enjoyed the narration by Rebecca Soler, I recently learned more about the roots of Karma, and I don't feel comfortable giving a full review for this audiobook.

I absolutely LOVED this book! It took me a minute to get into but once I got a few chapters in, I was immediately in love with the characters. Prudence is the quintessential know it all and the perfect yin to Quint's laissez-faire yang. The classic enemies to lovers trope is one of my favorites and is done in the perfect YA way by Marissa Meyer. This is a book I will be recommending for a while!

I want to start off by saying that contemporary YA is not normally my favorite genre. In fact, I would probably never have picked this book up except that I generally love Marissa Meyer's books. So, it's possible that some of my issues were just because this genre isn't usually my cup of tea.

That being said, this book was okay. It had some really cute parts, and the banter between Quint and Prudence was delightful. And the writing was great!

But I had such a hard time with Prudence at first. She just drove me absolutely insane. I did appreciate that she had a very clear character arc, and there was certainly a lot of development on her part. But I disliked her so much at first that I almost stopped reading.

Also, being a huge fantasy and science fiction buff, I struggled a little with the magic--or, karmic powers. I wanted to know more about them and how they came/went. I know most of that wouldn't necessarily have been important to the plot, but not knowing much about Prudence's powers made i a little harder for me to truly believe in them. All in all, this was a fun read. Once I stopped thinking too deeply about the story and let myself just enjoy two young people learning and growing together, I enjoyed the book a lot more. If you like contemporary YA stories, I think you'd enjoy this book!

Prudence is an overachiever and well slightly controlling when it comes to life and academics. Everything has a plan and she can manage it herself. That is until Quint Erickson stands in her way of a better grade, she may have to rely on Karma. Instant Karma is a heartwarming romantic comedy based on the premise of karma for negative and positive deeds and how these actions can have repercussions in the future. Prudence is an over achiever and wants to control everything and one around her. She wants to prove to herself she can be a models student and get into a great college. Quit is the typical class clown who seems to not give much thought to anyone. What Prudence and Quint lack is the relatability and depth that make great characters. Both do not have much history or tangible qualities or experience the reader can attach to. The karma twist is flimsy and does not hold much weight in the plot. Yet, overall Myer does present a fun and humorous love story, although it could have used a little more depth.