Shara Wheeler is the "it" girl of Willowgrove Christian Academy -- she is popular, beautiful, smart (her only competition for valedictorian is Chloe Green), and the image of the good Christian teenager (literally, as her picture graces a billboard advertising the Willowgrove Christian Academy, where her father is principal). The only person who does not like Shara is Chloe, who is convinced that Shara is a fraud and is intent on proving it (as well as beating her for the title of valedictorian). Chloe is an aberration at Willowgrove. She is from California, having moved to False Beach, Alabama, the summer before high school; she has two mothers (and the one from False Beach is the only person to ever come out as queer at Willowgrove Christian Academy); and she is openly queer (most of her classmates think she is a lesbian, but she identifies as bisexual), which makes her an abomination in the eyes of school administration and some fellow students. Chloe has been defensive from the start, and intentionally violates the dress code or engages in other small acts of rebellion, which gets her into trouble, but is tolerated because she has so much "potential" and because she has not done anything truly egregious. Chloe's friend, Ash, is nonbinary, which the school administration is not sure how to handle, but Ash follows the rules, so they are left alone. There are other LGBTQI+ students (and probably at least one faculty member) at Willowgrove, but none of them are open about it, having grown up being taught that such identity is a sin.

On prom night, before Shara can be crowned queen, she disappears. Chloe is convinced it is a stunt to get attention and she is determined to ruin the plan. Also, two days earlier, Shara had kissed Chloe, and Chloe wants to know why. While the Wheelers are at church, Chloe sneaks into their house, expecting to find Shara hiding there, but instead, while searching Shara's room, she witnesses Rory Heron, the school bad boy, climbing through Shara's window. He is the next-door neighbor and had come to check on her. They also find a pink envelope with Rory's name on it, and a message thanking Rory for the kiss, with postscripts mentioning Smith Parker (Shara's boyfriend, the quarterback) and Chloe. The clues lead to another pink envelope, with more clues, and soon Smith, Rory, and Chloe are working together to solve the mystery that is Shara. As they discover more messages and clues, they find out a lot about Shara that is decidedly negative.

The search for Shara and to figure out what she is doing and why becomes the single-minded focus of Chloe, which will have negative consequences for her friendships and for her academically. However, it also results in Chloe spending time with classmates whom she had previously never gotten to know, and about whom she had made some incorrect assumptions, as they had about her. While the messages and clues will reveal a number of negative things, especially about Shara, the plan that Shara set in motion will not turn out as she expected, nor will Chloe's plan to turn the tables on Shara. Yet, the intermingling of students who normally do not associate with each other will result in a number of positives, especially as multiple students develop the courage, and receive the acceptance and support, to explore and portray their more authentic selves. While there are many enjoyable aspects of the book, that is what most resonated with me, and what it is most valuable and noteworthy about the story.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Let me preface this by saying I loved Red, White and Royal Blue and really liked One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. However, I found this book just okay. It's hard to be invested in a romance between two people when one of them is only seen through memories and through the letters they leave behind. I realize part of this is that the title character Shara is meant to almost be unknowable, untouchable as all the queen bee types in high school are, but it makes it very difficult to root for her. I liked Chloe well enough, but felt the character needed more dimension past being queer and smart. By the end, you're meant to understand this is the armor Chloe has put on to protect herself in her Christian private school but it feels a little too late. I enjoyed the last 20% of the book more than the middle half. It added the dimension I craved but even then left me feeling 'meh' about the book. I think McQuiston's strength is in the banter between romantic leads and the choice to make one character not actually appear until 60% into the book is a faulty one. I will still look forward to her future novels and certainly stock this one in a middle grade library. It reads more YA than either of her other books (i.e. no graphic sex).

Casey McQuiston writes such good characters. I think this is what I enjoy most about McQuiston's books. I didn't love Chloe and Shara as people, but not all characters need to be the most lovable. I really enjoyed following Chloe, along with Smith and Rory as they try and piece together where Shara has gone.

This book essentially happens in two parts. I was expecting the clues leading to Shara to be the plot throughout the whole book, but that is really only the first half. The second half is the reflection on all the choices and implications for these teens living in a small conservative town in Alabama. I wish I had known to expect this pacing while reading it; having what I thought was the entire plot be resolved halfway though felt weird. I also thought it was a little confusing having minor characters named Ash and Ace.

Overall I enjoyed I Kissed Shara Wheeler and would recommend it to my friends and students.

I've never been a gay teenager, I've never been to high school in Alabama and I've never had an enemies-to-lovers romance but I am helpless to give Casey McQuiston's writing anything but 5 stars. This book will likely speak to others more personally than it did me, but to me it seemed to beautifully execute a unique story about being young and queer in an environment that's not easy.

I don't really know how to talk about this book without spoiling it. It's so different from their new adult books, and i'm looking forward to re-reading it and seeing everything I missed.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is all the sticky bits of high school, the sweet and the sour. McQuinston takes readers on a powerful and personal journey to Alabama, where powerful misconceptions are challenged. There, Chloe Green, high school senior and California-transplant, withers at her ultra-religious and stifling high school. The tension between Chloe and her competition-for-valedictorian Shara Wheeler is palpable, even though Shara is at first only present through her letters.

At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about these very clever and devious teens, but as pages flew by, I was quickly enraptured. In particular, I love McQuinston’s care for following various character arcs through the story. Smith and Georgia are total standouts.

What is most remarkable to me about this story is the love and affection for untangling the complicated feelings one might have about their queerness, their southernness, their religious beliefs, and more. It would be easy for another story to be about how the evil-south has hurt these teenagers, McQuintston takes another route. I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a love letter to the south, and the characters grow, change, live, all while reconciling their feelings about their small town and their relationship with Christianity.

Also, the romantic twists and turns will have you on the edge of your seat. These teenagers are disasters in the best way.

Think “Mean Girls” meets “Paper Towns.”

“I Kissed Shara Wheeler” is the type of book that teenagers need in the world. As someone who grew up in a small, Christian, conservative town, I strongly relate to the queer characters in this novel that feel like their voices are demonized. However, these characters take a horrible situation into their own hands, and they create change. Even as a adult, I learned from this novel that standing up for what you believe in is never a small feat. It takes bravery and cooperation, and this shows that teenagers have the power to create change, even when it feels like their voices are ignored. Although the beginning of this book relied heavily on high school stereotypes that demonized jocks, cheerleaders, and anyone else the main character felt inferior to, eventually these stereotypes are overturned. The characters learn to work together, and through that, multidimensional and complex characterization comes through to show that people are more than just what we can see on the surface. This is a powerful message for teenagers and adults alike.

McQuiston delicately handles complex topics that high schoolers are dealing with, like identity and religious trauma. As a Southern girl at heart, I appreciated that this book didn’t totally demonize Christianity. Instead, it highlights how a person can be queer and still practice Christianity, but it doesn’t undermine how the institution of Christianity has harmed so many LGBTQ+ people.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this e-ARC. Another 5-star read from Casey McQuiston. May 3rd can’t come soon enough!

I loved both of Casey McQuiston's new adult novels, so I was very excited to read her first Young Adult book! This is a sapphic contemporary novel that is part mystery, part romance. The reader follows Chloe Green, alongside Smith and Rory, as the trio is sent on a hunt for clues to figure out what happened to their classmate Shara Wheeler who disappeared on prom night. As always, Casey's writing is filled with sharp wit, a good dose of romance, but this time with a teenage twist.

After reading One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler, I have to say that Casey's good at writing stories about found families. After Shara kisses her and goes missing, Chloe Green makes it her mission to find her. Chloe reminiscing about their time trying to one-up each other was okay, but their chemistry comes to life when they're in person with each other. It took me a while to get into the story and enjoyed it more when we finally meet Shara. I do wish it happened earlier. I think the premise of finding Shara was interesting, but ultimately wanted more time between Shara and Chloe. Overall 3.5/5

This is such a delightful, satisfying, and enjoyable story. I loved the characters and the setting, the mystery of Shara, and the sensitivity of the handling of the characters' challenges and triumphs. A thoroughly entertaining book with a big heart.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a young adult mystery that fans of Casey McQuinston’s previous books will love. The premise of the book was good but it felt superficial and surface level in execution. The character development was lacking but I did enjoy some of the character relationships and Smith as a character. The first half of the book was great and I would absolutely recommend for fans of her previous books.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC version of this book in exchange for my honest review.


Casey McQuiston is a master storyteller and this book is no exception. I think I fall in love with her cast of characters in every novel—it is about the main character, but there’s clear themes of friendship and community, and I love that. Also, they read like genuine, relatable human experiences and it’s a breath of fresh air.

This book connected with me at a level I didn’t expect. I attended a Christian private school in a little southern town for many years, and I could relate to Chloe’s friends SO MUCH. The mindset, it was really accurate for me. I’m really glad books like this are being written.

The plot was exciting—I really wanted to solve the puzzle, just like Chloe—and the ending was perfection.

More books from Casey McQuiston, please!!

Chloe Green’s moms move her from California to small town Alabama at the beginning of high school. Her new town is not only small but very religious. To Chloe, it’s downright puritanical as well as intolerant. She goes to a private Christian school because it offers the best academics but it is also a very different world than she is used to. She finds her purpose in focusing on academics and trying to best the school’s golden girl, Shara Wheeler, who also happens to be the principal’s daughter. Shara is beloved by everyone…truly everyone, except Chloe. And then right before graduation, she disappears…what’s Chloe to do? Find her of course.

A cast of fleshed out and diverse characters accompany Chloe on her quest to find out what happened to Shara and to discover things about herself and her town as well. The author included trigger warnings are homophobia and religious intolerance.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The middle lagged a bit and the quest got a bit overly complicated but overall, it was a definite hit. The characters were wonderful. The main characters were fully realized and even the secondary characters felt real. There were so many versions of queer representation in this book and I appreciate that so much.

Casey McQuiston does it again with this new book, making it appealing to both adults and teens. We open on prom night, and just as Shara Wheeler is announced as prom queen, everyone discovers she is missing. The last three people to kiss her last (her jock boyfriend, her rebel neighbor, and Chloe, her academic nemesis) discover a trail of clues she has left behind. As they team up so search together, they discover the stereotypes and assumptions they all had for each other are wrong, and they set out to not only find Shara Wheeler, but to forge a new path where more than one type of teenager is accepted and even celebrated. McQuiston creates a cast of characters that have depth and who the reader will love to root for.

A little over a month before graduation, Chloe Green's archnemesis (the beloved Shara Wheeler) kisses her in an elevator, hands her a bright pink envelope and disappears. Chole, a queer theatre nerd at heart, finds herself teaming up with Shara's boyfriend (Smith Parker, star football player) and Shara's neighbor (Rory, part of the bad boy skater crowd) to solve the mystery of Shara's disappearance.

On the surface level, McQuiston's latest novel reads like a John Green style quest (very, very reminiscent of Paper Towns; there's even a brief reference to the whole thing being kind of John-Green-like in book). However, in John Green's novels, the 'quest' reveals that the main character has been chasing an idealized version of a person; in I Kissed Shara Wheeler the opposite is true. Each clue seems to confirm what Chloe thought from the beginning-- that Shara is unkind, abrasive, not the perfect angel that all of False Beach seems to think that she is. I'm sure there are other parallels and reversals between the two books that I missed since it's been years since I've read Paper Towns, but I eagerly await think pieces on how McQuiston deftly queered the concept.

The setting is also beautifully done. McQuiston is able to capture so intimately what it feels like to grow up in a small town where you don't necessarily fit, and loving it anyway. (Like it's so well done that I immediately was like McQuiston has to be from a small-ish town in the South and the answer was yes, she is). False Beach feels so perfectly rendered down to the smallest of details (removed confederate statues, wandering around Walmart as entertainment, dates at Sonic, having the fanciest restaurant in town be some sort of chain, etc.). She really captures what it feels like to be queer or 'other' in that environment, the weight that that carries, and the ways in which you can feel simultaneously connected to and isolated from your environment, and how you can find joy and build community.

There were other aspects of the book that made it difficult to read at times. I'm a likeable characters kind of girl and neither Chloe nor Shara are particularly likeable all the time (of the style that I was physically wincing at different moments). This is made more bearable by a dazzling supporting cast of friends and community members that are hard not to adore, but still if you're hypersensitive to that beware, this book is about dynamic, bold teenage girls who are still learning and are not always gentle or kind or warm.

I would strongly recommend this book, especially to folks who want to immerse themselves into what it feels like to be young and queer in the South. One of my favorite reads so far this year :)

The main character in this book was infuriating but I think she was supposed to be. Overall, another great book from Casey McQuiston though I didn't enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed their past two novels. YA Contemporary just isn't for me anymore and I'd usually never pick it up, which is probably why. However, this one was well written and definitely tackled some tough subject matter that I would've loved to read about as a teen. Even though this wasn't my favorite personally I'm so glad there are books out like this now for queer YA readers.

Chloe is a cool, queer Cali girl who is trying to survive a hyper Christian high school in Alabama. She has somehow found a few other LGBTIA+ friends to help make it easier until graduation and NYU. However, all is not what it seems.
While following a series of clues planted by the school’s beautiful, perfect, idolized by all, possible Valedictorian, newly disappeared, Shara- pretty much everyone turns gay. Okay, not really but there are quite a few HEAs which may not be realistic, but it makes for great reading.
This book is funny and has a million really specific pop culture references. One thing that I didn’t understand was why so many characters were wearing “undershirts”??? If this is a Southern thing, it makes no sense because people are already sweaty.
I do love how the author showed that there can be more to the Bible Belt than just a bunch of cliches.

******Spoilers*****



Obviously, Chloe and Shara together is the ultimate HEA. What elevates it over most Teen romance is that they are stated as endgame, not the usual, “ we’ll go off to college and see what happens “. I found that swoon worthy.

#NetGalley

I loved this book. I thought it was a nice change from Casey's usual romance books. but they're gay and they're into musical theatre, what could go wrong?

I Kissed Shara Wheeler finds three characters thrown together in a scavenger hunt-esque situation when their classmate, Shara Wheeler, disappears. The last anyone saw Shara was at Prom right before she was crowned Prom Queen, but she never arrived to take her crown. In the days following, Chloe, Shara's academic rival, Rory, Shara's next door neighbor, and Smith, Shara's boyfriend, all find letters leading them on a hunt to find the next envelope with their next clue to where Shara went.
The book is very intriguing and keeps the reader interested. I loved the ongoing discussion of being queer in a very small, conservative town and in a small, Christian private school.

McQuiston's writing was propulsive and really engaging here, but I really didn't like her central characters. Both Chloe and Shara didn't work for me fully, though many of the supporting characters were utterly delightful. This made the book way more of a slog than it would've been otherwise.