Marissa Meyer

In Marissa Meyer's young adult contemporary romance, a girl is suddenly gifted with the ability to cast instant karma on those around her – both good and bad. 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.

Instant Karma

isabella

*3.5/5
cute but not that good
main character was awful, mean and clueless to everything but herself.

Vivi

Fluff fluff fluff. Estuve sonriendo la mitad del libro, me gustó mucho.

Ana Salas

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book by Marissa Meyer, I always enjoy her writing style and I was really excited about this book.

After reading it in (almost) one sit the only thing bothering me was that some scenes felt that forced, especially those related to the karma -whole universe thing. The characters felt a little stiff and not so well developed (maybe it’s only me but well).

But I really enjoyed the plot, it was different and sometimes gorgeous, I would love to know more about the future of the characters (especially Quint who was my favorite ) . The conflict at the final chapters felt a little bit rushed for me but not over the top, in fact I enjoyed it but Quint’s was indeed very harsh and got me thinking that the end needed more time to fully developed.

Petaco

Perhaps I would enjoy it more if I knew more about the Beatles? Pru was insufferable, but I did like her more as the story progressed.

angie

3.5*

the physical proof that i manage to enjoy anything marissa meyer writes.

In New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer's young adult contemporary romance, a girl is suddenly gifted with the ability to cast instant karma on those around her – both good and bad. 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.

Eh. Won’t be buying a copy of this for my library.

Tracie McMurray

Ayden

For the most part I enjoyed the book 
The ending aside from being a little anticlimactic disappointed me since it negated a lot of the real human qualities that impressed me in the beginning.
For instance when prudence and quine started not hating each other it was a slow and natural process. Their fights and misunderstandings didn't resolve immediately after one discussion and yet they managed to not be repetitive.
The ending when there should've been a long apology from Quine just became another opportunity for Prudence to acknowledge all that's wrong with her.
Honestly, Quine should've apologized more throughout the book.

Julie Janis

This book was SO CUTE, I DIED! That's all I've got to say about it.😍😍😍

Avery Baumel

This was actually really cute!! Loved the romance and the idea, and even though the idea of karma is pretty cliche this approach felt new. Meyer writes really, really well which helped a lot!!

isabella t mejias

Laura Kehoe

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 it 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!

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

Tatiana Alvarez 

I am so glad I started my year off with my favorite author. Even though I was VERY skeptical about this book, I should have known that Marissa Meyer never disappoints me. I am very used to her fantasy books and devour them happily, but this contemporary novel (with a slight dash of fantasy. Not sure I would consider it magical realism though) was so fun!

Prudence gets stuck with Quint as a lab partner, a boy she thinks is lazy and arrogant. After receiving and unsatisfactory grade on her assignment, Prudence is determined to make it up for a better grade, even if that means spending the summer with Quint. However, the more time she spends with Quint, the more she realizes her assumptions about him were wrong. Not only does she come to terms with that, but she also has to do some soul searching and realize that she may be part of the problem as well.

This book was an easy and fun read. There were parts where I thought Prudence was annoying, but at the same time, I had to stop and remind myself that she is a teenager AND if these traits were in a guy, I would think they are "cool and boss level." So I definitely had to check myself a few times. I actually ended up loving Prudence at the end, along with Quint.

I just love how Meyer writes her male characters. They aren't obnoxious, problematic characters that many YA males seem to be. They are well written, flawed humans, but relatable ones. Same with her female characters.

The plot was easy to follow. I did not feel like there was one overall big problem, but small ones that all connected. It actually really worked for this book. It did not explain much how Prudence got the power to dish out universe consequences or how she lost it really, but I suppose it wasn't really important overall.

If you are looking for a fast, easy read. Instant Karma is definitely that!

Laura Yaneth Martinez

Incredible. 

I’m so surprised. I absolutely loved this. Could not atop reading. I’m pretty sure this is my first book by this author and I’m excited to read more. The book was just so interesting. I really disliked the protagonist so passionately that I just had to find out what happened. Honestly this might be one of my favorite reads of the year. The journey was so fun. Reading this book took me on an adventure. It was an unexpected and more than pleasant read. Perfect for the summer!!

Sofia 

I kind of feel unsatisfied after finishing this book. Don't get me wrong, it was cute and I definitely screamed at the end, but it feels kind of uneventful. 

I definitely enjoyed the last third of the book way more than the other two-thirds of it. I liked the idea of Prudence having to transition as a character, but she really annoyed me at times. She kind of used the powers of having instant karma only for her own good and didn't even use it properly, it was used super small things but then things that may have deserved some karma. Adding onto the instant karma part, I feel like Marissa Meyer kind of forgot about it and then remembered and used it a bunch until the next time. It was used at such random times and then immediately was used and then just didn't make an appearance. The addition of good karma was appreciated since I think sometimes we worry too much about bad karma and forget that good exists too. I did love the character of Quint, although he did feel a little too perfect at times and some things about him did annoy me, but I loved his interactions with Prudence.

I wish we would have seen just a little bit more about the side characters since I literally forgot they existed unless they were in for plot relevance again. Overall though, I really loved the book!! It was a cute read and I did love the whole enemies to lovers. I just wish the execution of the instant karma had been better and the character development of Prudence had been a little faster. I also kind of did feel like the ending was a bit rushed but I loved the last few parts of the book so you know, I'm kind of fine with it.

Tânia Borges

It's been a long while since I pulled a one nighter to read, but I can't even be too mad about my lack of sleep because of how good this book is 💁

Megan Lapides

Just like all of Marissa Meyer's books, this was really good! I really liked Quint and I thought that he was a very well rounded character. But I didn't really like Prudence. I thought she was stuck up, ignorant, and judgmental. She got better throughout the book (I think that was the whole point), but for a while she was really insufferable. But overall, I enjoyed the plot and all of the other characters.

Luz 

Venia bien hasta el final. Termina de manera muy rápida, como si la autora se hubiera hartado de Prudence y necesitara terminar el libro.

Zoe Cameron

It was a good contemporary romance by Marissa Meyers but I do think her other books are better. Some of the plot was a little predictable but overall a good read if you love animal activism and romance 

Like with all of Marissa’s books, I absolutely cannot begin to describe how much I love this book. From the style to the character developments, everything was just perfection! I have absolutely no complaints!! The pacing was great, the characters were so real. I mean I hated Prudence at times as well as Quint but that’s what made me love them infinitely more. And the development of the side characters, especially her siblings, Morgan, Jude, Ari, all of them just flew off the page and made this story just touch my heart. I also applaud Marissa’s ability to bring ethical dilemmas into all of her writing but especially this story. We were dealing with so many different themes revolving around good and evil and what people really deserve. This book truly is one of the best and just further solidifies my belief that Marissa Meyer is truly the best author ever!!

laura

*I got this book for review from the publisher*

I simply adored this read. I really loved how the elements came together to create a prefect summer ron con with a magical element that one might not predict. This book was much longer the i expected but felt like it was paced so well. This book had so many various elements like love to hate romance, a fun job, a cool saving element and al these elements worked so well together. Also the focus on a small sea town and focus on the plight of sea creatures with element of the sea rescue was both adorable but so educational. I also loved all the characters in this book, and felt it was a great read. It had some many elements i adored and really loved this read! If you want adorable summer read with a classic love to hate romance and a fun job:) pick it up!

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this audiobook from netgalley and the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Instant Karma

Author: Marissa Meyer

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 1/5

Diversity: Karma is in Indian derived concept, but wielded by white characters

Recommended For...: contemporary lovers, people who like bad books

Publication Date: November 3, 2020

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 16+ (sexual content, triggering amounts of HP)

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Pages: 400

Synopsis: Chronic overachiever Prudence Barnett 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 karaoke hecklers, but there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner and all-around mortal enemy. Soon, Pru begins to uncover truths about Quint, her peers, and even herself that reveal how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed . . . love and hate.

Review: For all the good that the narrator did, this book absolutely sucked. First of all, I saw the comments calling out the book for cultural appropriation and I want to note that their opinions are valid and yes, this book takes a very white character and gives her an Indian power and then takes the concept and twists it into what it’s not. It’s not pretty and that’s not cool of the author to do. Why is it 2020 and we’re giving white characters god like powers that people of another culture invented? Just because it’s Marissa Meyer doesn’t mean that she gets a pass. Anyways, overall I hated the book. The book reads like it should be a villain origin story except we’re supposed to believe that Prudence is a good character. The main character (Prudence) even sucks if you look at this from a villain’s perspective. She’s annoying, overbearing, and very much a young Karen in training. If you work in retail, you’ll despise Prudence and even in the end she doesn’t have that many redeeming moments. She’s still so hard to relate to and I just want to punch her one good time in the left eye. The book took a holier than thou approach when discussing veganism and that wasn’t really checked. The book had too many subplots for a contemporary read. The book is also incredibly boring. I went to court at one point and left the audiobook running for an hour. When I returned, the book was almost exactly where I left off. There was less than 5% progress from the characters while I progressed 7% in the audiobook. I’m also faulting the author on the many Harry Potter references. JK Rowling has been problematic for decades with her homophobia, transphobia, racism, and sexism and authors are still putting triggering amounts of HP in their works, even going so far as to name a prominent animal character after an HP character? Yea, that’s a no for me. The narrator tried and I fell in love with her voice, but other than that, I hated listening to this book.

Verdict: It sucks and is full of problematic content. It’s a swerve for me.

izzy

decimal rating: 4.25 stars

instant karma is a ya contemporary romance that follows the summer of chronic overachiever prudence barnett. after a night of karaoke, she wakes up able to cast instant karma on the people around her. pru quickly embraces her new cosmic power, but it backfires constantly on her lazy lab partner and enemy, quint erikson. however, as she's forced to work with him at the sea animal rescue center over the summer to redo her final project, prudence finds out that she might have been too quick to misjudge quint, all while struggling to discern right and wrong. 

this book was one of my most anticipated books of 2020 and i aboslutely loved it!! at this point, i'm sure i would love reading anything by marissa meyer. i preordered the book in october, and somehow spent the entire november and december reading the book slowly, which was totally different from reading supernova in two days. however, i think that the slow reading pace actually made the book better in a way since it felt more sweet and slow burn-ish. it was a really fun, light read and such an adorable contemporary. i really enjoyed the enemies to lovers romance, the side characters, and the beachy setting. i also actually learned a decent amount about marine mammals too, which was fun too!! 

actually, i think one of my favourite things about the book is how much i related to prudence. before i started reading the book, i actually heard from quite a few people that they felt like prudence was overly judgemental and kind of unrelatable. for me, it was kind of the opposite. she is overachieving, perfectionist, dedicated, and cares a lot about academics. and, yes, she's kind of judgy and pretty flawed too, but i think that actually made her more realistic and relatable to me. also her character arc doesn't revolve around her getting a 'makeover' and completely ditching her academic interests, which i definitely appreciated.

Becca Futrell

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ALC of Instant Karma in exchange for an honest review.

I knew I needed this audiobook the moment I saw Rebecca Soler was narrating. Listening to Instant Karma was like being reunited with an old friend, and I absolutely loved the experience. Rebecca Soler is always an A+ in my book.

Moving onto the story though & I have some mixed feelings. It's cute, it's fun & I love the Animal Rescue setting. However, I had some major issues with Instant Karma & a lot of it has to do with there being too much in this book.

First of all, there is barely any point in giving Prudence siblings (outside of Jude) because they barely play a role in this story, besides showing that their parents named them all after songs from The Beatles. That's it, that's the only reason they're there & 99% of the time, I forgot they existed. 

& then we have so many side stories that serve zero purposes to the story. Pick! One! Thing! & throw in one or two subplots, but gosh, this had so much going on and the story felt like it was dragging so much because of it. I really thought it was never going to end. 

Moving on, we have the karma aspect of Instant Karma -- which I kept forgetting about, until Prudence is randomly like, "you know what! Let's throw some karma at people!" So, that will happen for a little bit & then we fall back into forgetting about her power, because of the other things that are happening in this book. 

& to finish off my Instant Karma rant, which I really didn't have planned until I started writing this out, it's so hard to vibe with Prudence. I understand ~character flaws~ & I understand that she's a teenager & whatever, so I'm not going to shoot her down too badly but I just want to give readers a heads up that she's a struggle to deal with & she'll most likely annoy the heck out of you.

Instant Karma

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