Review: Instant Karma

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, I guess it was pretty cute.

Prudence is, like, super annoying though.

Reasons You Will Love This Book
- Enemies to Lovers cute romance
- Fun beach location
- Sea life vibes
- Karmic justice
- Fun characters
- Music rep
- Realistic character appearances (as opposed to everyone being 'the most attractive person ever')
- Quirky moments
- That one scene in the ... where they're both ... *happy sigh*

Reasons This Book May Lose Stars
- Prudence is super judgy
- Prudence is self-absorbed
- Prudence is kind of oblivious
- Prudence keeps everything a secret instead of just friggin' telling people the truth
- Look, mostly Prudence. She takes a LOT of warming up to

It really did take a bit for me to get into this, but once Prudence started softening up I enjoyed it much more. Quint is fun from the start, and I really love the relationship between Prudence and Jude, even though he treats her way better than she deserves sometimes. Ari is cool, too - I love how generous and warm she is, and I wish she'd been in more of the story.

I'm not usually into romance but this was definitely cute. I enjoyed the way their relationship developed, but how it did so while they both mostly stayed true to who they were. It's not about changing to please someone - it's about being accepted just as you are.

The karma angle was probably a little weak for my tastes, but it means that you can hold on to realism by wondering if maybe it IS all just coincidental. I did enjoy the ethical dilemmas it led to, but it still felt poorly utilised. The story definitely feels more about the romance than karma.

A lot of people are going to love this. I found the writing really addictive, and got to a point where I was surprised to realise I was so close to finishing it. It's pretty adorable, with characters that are easy to fall in love with and sea creatures that will steal your heart. The drama may be slightly predictable, but the relationship dynamics make it totally worth while.

I confess: I would be totally down for a sequel.

With thanks to Macmillan for my ARC

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