i really enjoyed this but i didnt enjoy the end with the father and how at ease it worked out, yet how he also had no repercussions. i loved shara wheeler, but i sadly did not love the mc. and not in the way that youre not supposed to, but in the way that it just feels bad to be inside her head. but i loved the setting and premise and side characters so much it made up for it!

This was super cringy. I felt like I was reading the diary of a 15 year old girl. At first it had the feel of Paper Towns, but I just couldn't get on board why everyone was so obsessed with this one popular girl.

3.5 stars, really. I don't know how to rate this book. It was very fun and readable, as is expected of a McQuiston novel, but it felt like 3 books crammed into one. Plot threads resolved themselves very quickly in favour of another storyline, when I think one of them could have been spun out into a full novel.

A great entry into YA for McQuiston, perfect for her fans or those new to her work. The story is complex and interesting. Nothing ever feels simplified or dumbed down for the audience. The characters are complex and well-rounded, no one's motives are simple or completely virtuous. Really a great work.

I found this book to be really enjoyable. I think that the characters are really entertaining and fun to follow as the book progressed. Excited to read more books by this author.

While I didn't love this quite as much as McQuiston's adult novels, I still had a really fun time with it and thought it did an excellent job at portraying what it's like to be queer in That Kind of Christian community. As usual, the friendships and secondary cast were utterly amazing, and I spent a good amount of the book laughing. Strongly recommended!

Impressed by McQuiston's debut YA novel. True to her other novels, this one also includes a diverse cast of characters and addresses social isssues.

This book was an enjoyable and sweet with a fun mystery element. It was a quick and light read. It wasn't my favorite from this author, but I still liked it.

As noted in many reviews, the idea of the novel is giving Paper Towns vibes. However, McQuiston makes the story her own, and manages to make each of the characters searching for Shara - as well as Shara herself - dynamic, sympathetic, and compelling. The story gives readers plenty to think about, and, I think, portrays fairly some of the inherent hypocrisy of conservative leadership.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for sharing this title. All opinions are my own.
If you've read Casey McQuiston's other titles, then give this a shot! While not an instant "love" like I felt for Red, White and Royal Blue, and even a little more of a slow burn that I had for One Last Stop, I Kissed SHara Wheeler drew me in after a bit and made me fall hard.
The cast of characters are entertaining and have great chemistry. The plot draws you in but doesn't reveal too much, too fast. You experience what life is like for a queer protagonist living in a conservative, religious southern community. Coming of age, but also specific to this person at this time.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced review copy.

Since reading and adoring Casey McQuiston’s first novel, Red, White and Royal Blue , I have been anxious to read more from them. This is their first foray into young adult literature, and I think they were very successful. This was a great enemies to lovers story in which two girls are school rivals, and one disappears, leaving notes to the other with clues about her disappearance. I really enjoyed all of the characters in this book. McQuiston really knows how to craft not just a main character, but also side characters, so that they all feel so real and human. I especially liked the exploration of how these people are actually so much more than what they seem or what stereotypes may imply. Even the setting of a small conservative town in the south was handled with depth and nuance, discussing what it means to be a newcomer to this kind of setting but also what it means to have grown up there. This book remained fun and lighthearted while still including some of these tougher topics, and I think the result was a great read. Highly recommend to those who enjoy McQuiston’s other works.

For McQuiston's first YA book it was well written and entertaining. It definitely had an air of maturity to it that I feel often come from an Adult author writing YA. However it was charming and the characters were lovable, even the titular Shara Wheeler who you want to hate.

I really enjoyed this book, the characters were well fleshed out and the mystery aspect really kept you turning the pages. I'm not sure I felt the character of Shara and the way the book ended felt like the payoff I was looking for, but otherwise a very satisfying read.

As McQuiston's Young Adult debut, I Kissed Shara Wheeler is the epitome of its subgenre (YA romcom): the plot follows the tropes and conventions you'd expect, but the memorable characters and strong setting make it a unique and engaging read. It fully lived up to my expectations based on the synopsis and McQuiston's previous (New Adult) works.

Let's address the elephant in the room first. I can't be the only one who thought the premise sounded reminiscent of, among other books, Paper Towns: a Teenage Manic Pixie Dream Girl Who Is Actually A Real Human Person With A Complex Inner Life goes missing and the protagonist, with the help of some other scrappy teens, goes looking for her. (At one point there's an explicit reference to John Green, and also one to Gone Girl, so at the very least there's some self-awareness of the trope.) Paper Towns is actually my favorite John Green book, so I was pleased to find that I Kissed Shara Wheeler has somewhat similar vibes/ themes — except that the latter is very Southern and very queer. 

I appreciated that not all the different subplots and places are given equal weight, since it could easily have gotten overwhelming; the balance creates a vivid backdrop but keeps the spotlight on the main storyline. At the same time, I want to visit Georgia's family's bookshop and see the senior year theater production of Phantom and watch Ash's TikToks! (Well, okay, maybe not that last one.)

My one complaint in this category is that, as an Asian-American barista who grew up in the SF Bay Area, I am more than a little upset by Chloe's Starbucks order, because "iced matcha latte with two pumps of brown sugar and one pump of vanilla" does not taste like boba, and I feel like someone from LA should have been able to come up with something better. (Not to digress too far, but if you're looking for Starbucks "boba," I'd instead suggest an iced black tea with no added water, sub the milk of your choice, add the standard number of pumps of brown sugar syrup for the size you want.) 

Her taste in drinks aside, Chloe also suffers from the condition known as YA Teenagerhood, which sometimes makes her difficult to like, even as it makes her a believably flawed protagonist. She's pretty self-centered, with a character arc that starts at "Everything is Shara's fault and I have done nothing wrong ever" and passes through "Oh no, I'm such a bad person that my friends don't even realize how much I actually care about them." And while I adore unlikely friendships as much as the next reader, and I did like the dynamic between Chloe, Smith, and Rory — what I didn't like was how Chloe basically dumps her old friends for her new friends without any real reason. (Smith and Rory are great, but Chloe's other friends are pretty awesome too.) It's annoying, though admittedly not super uncommon in YA books.

On the flip side, we get a love quadrilateral that's actually a quadrilateral: while it starts off as an "I Kissed Shara Wheeler" club where it seems like one character is the connecting point for the other three, it quickly becomes clear that it's much more complicated when all parties involved are queer.

The book is definitely a romcom (and a wonderfully fun one), with all the absurdity and drama the genre entails, even while it explores the personal identity and growing pains of the YA demographic. It has a casually diverse main and supporting cast, and actually takes into consideration how that diversity affects individual characterization and interpersonal dynamics. It manages to balance multiple arcs in addition to the primary plot, all of which come together cohesively, both narratively and thematically. 

What I'm getting at is that I really liked this book. And if you like YA romcoms, especially queer ones, you absolutely should pick it up. (Reviewing is hard, but I can't imagine that it even compares to how hard it must be to write such a fantastic book.)

I Kissed Shara Wheeler was my favorite kind of mystery- fairly low stakes, laugh out loud funny and snarky, with the best cast of diverse characters.

When Shara Wheeler, the golden child of Willowgrove Christian Academy, disappears the morning after prom, the school is in an uproar, frantically trying to figure out what happened to her. Only Chloe Green, Shara's academic rival and outsider, thinks there might be something strange about Shara's disappearance just a month before graduation. The day before prom, Shara pulled Chloe into an elevator at school, kissed her, and walked away. And if Chloe can't find her, then winning valedictorian (and four years of hard work in small town Alabama, no easy feat for a queer girl with two moms) will mean nothing.

But Chloe wasn't the only person Shara kissed before she disappeared. Teaming up with Shara's ex, the star football player, and her fellow outsider, Shara's neighbor and longtime friend, Chloe has to track down the clues left behind after prom. Even if it means she is more obsessed with Shara than ever.

This was a five star read for me- even when she frustrated me, Chloe made me laugh out loud, and all I wanted was to wrap Smith and Rory in a hug. One of my favorite books of the year!

Casey mcQuiston does it again! This was a delightful read and was the YA version of one last stop. It has the same energy and easy going read as her other books. This will capture teen (and adult) audiences

'Paper towns' X Queer 'To all the boys I've loved' mixed and gave us 'I kissed Shara Wheeler'!

3.25 -3.5 stars

Ah, I do love seeing a part of myself in characters, especially when they are stubborn and don't realize they are in love with a girl. I always knew I liked girls, and guys like Chole knew, but boy did I feel connected to Chloe when I read how she was so in denial that she didn't like Shara.
Also, I love how Smith, Chloe & Rory clicked and gained a friendship through this story. It felt so genuine that they worked in a truce as they fell into a company while solving the mystery of Shara Wheeler.

Unfortunately, while this had a lot of outstanding elements that I love and connect to, I did not love this book. I enjoyed it, but something felt missing, or maybe the narrative (I connected to Chloe, but I also found her a little annoying) felt a little loose. I don't know what it was, but I couldn't fully get into it.

Yes, Chloe kissed Shara Wheeler (or possibly the other way around?), but after Shara goes missing, Chloe follows clues that lead her to wonder, just who hasn’t kissed Shara Wheeler? Long standing academic rivals at their conservative private school in Alabama, when Shara disappears before this year’s valedictorian has been declared, Chloe feels cheated and is determined to drag Shara back to prove her superiority. McQuinston has created some realistically angsty teenage characters who pull off some professional-level capers while trying to find, and trust, their own voices.

DNF at 32%

I just can't....I seriously think this is the book that put me into this (so far) year long slump. I wanted to love it, I really did, I loved McQuiston's first two books but I just can't with this one. Idk if it's the characters or the fact that it's too similar to Looking for Alaska (and that the main character clearly states that this feels like a John Green novel -.-) but something about it just crushed my reading bug and I haven't read the same since.

A coworker of mine read it recently so I had her tell me what happened and I'm glad I had that because I was dreading coming back to this.

Casey McQuiston does it again! She has, once again, written a stellar novel. This has all the great elements of a young adult novel combined with writing that appeals to all audiences. Highly recommend.