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 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 … 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.
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I personally was not blown away by The Lunar Chronicles like everyone else seemed to be. I tried it. I got the first one was different and unique, but I struggled to get through the second one, and still haven’t tried to pick up the third one, even though I’ve been told it is really better than the first two. So you might think that I would not bother with this author based on that. However, the synopsis of this one just really sounded cute and fun, and I decided to give it a chance.
Boy am I glad that I did! Because I adored this book! Even as much as I was rooting for our main character, Prudence, there was even a little something about her that wasn’t perfect, that made her real, and made me not just feel like she should be getting so much more to go right for her. But then, that’s kind of the point of the whole book, and the whole instant karma thing. Karma isn’t always what you think it is. People aren’t always really being a bad guy even if to another person it seems like that. It just depends on your viewpoint and your part of the situation.
So much about Prudence I could see in how I was a teenager. But I liked how the author didn’t necessarily concentrate on her insecurities as being all physical, while they definitely kept that it would be at least a little bit. Of course there was Quint. Now we had to think he was irresponsible and a goof off because of where we started the story, we only had Pru’s remembering of the situation. It wasn’t until we got further along, and we saw the reasons for his supposed tardiness and irresponsibility that we realize just maybe he wasn’t exactly the way Pru remembered. And when she herself started thinking back and realizing just how she’d handled situations, it was the perfect way to have a teenager figure things out.
I adored the story, loved all the different aspects of it, and even the little bit of a shout-out to a bit of plot from Dirty Dancing, well at least that’s what it reminded me of as I read it. Great story, and I look forward to reading more contemporary stories by Marissa Meyer in the future!
This book is very much a YA romance and I quite enjoyed it. Over achiever, Prudence Barnett is a bit much, especially at the beginning of the book, but I loved watching her grow over the course of the story. As she and Quint Erickson learn to work together, the tension between them morphs from enemies to something more which was delightful. Also, this book is full of seals, sea lions, and more, adding a fun dimension to the story thanks to conservation playing a big role in the book. Overall, I enjoyed the story and had fun reading it.
This story has spoiled me – this will always be on the top of my comfort reading list.
This book is adorable. I loved the setting, the summery atmosphere, and the relationship arc. Marissa did a fantastic job with balancing the teenage angst and bringing attention to marine life and the troubles a nonprofit can face.
I don’t love the narrator but she seems to be the one used for Marissa books. I think her voice doesn’t lend to what I imagine for a YA voice and story.
I was super excited for this book and it honestly let me down six ways from Sunday. I think both Ari and Quint would have been a better focus of the book. Pru, however, was self absorbed and obnoxious. The fact that this 10th grader thought she could swoop in and save a business in trouble? Child, have a seat. I did like the concept of instant karma, although Pru seemed to think of herself as judge, jury, and enforcer. All in all, not impressed.
An interesting story where Prudence suddenly gets the ability to enact instant karma on others; both for good and bad. Throughout the story, she is faced with situations to test her moral compass and situations to not judge a book by its cover. She spends the summer with her archnemesis Quint as they work to rewrite their Science project and hijinxs ensue. Marissa Mayer showcases high school relationships well and writes some great characters!
Audible Review:
This story was really cute! I loved Prudence and Quint! All the characters in this story were so well written. The growth in the two main characters was so realistic, especially in Pru. I loved the whole Karma theme and how it played throughout.
Rebecca Soler is such a great narrator and did a great job bringing the characters to life!
Such a unique concept!
Although it could have been executed better, it was a great first adventure into the contemporary world for Marissa Meyer. Quint was great and the idea that the character could grant instant karma on people was fascinating!
The main character could have been improved, as Pru was very annoying at the beginning. A lot of the beginning and Pru’s attitude could have been cut out and the book still would have been great – maybe even better. Pru is the reason why there were two stars lost.
That said, I loved the change Pru went through by the end and the end was worth reading the entire book for. So cute! I recommend this one to those who like contemporary and are hesitant to try fantasy.
Okay, I can get behind this book. The first 40% were painful. I hated Prudence, and everything to do with the karma bothered me (probably being a libra and being frustrated by not knowing the exact moral answer to everything). But once I got to 40% I was really into it and couldn’t stop reading it. I did have a couple of cringe moments that were difficult to get through, but everything resolved itself well and I didn’t have to grit my teeth too much.
One weird thing: the whole lipstick obsession of Quint’s? I know it’s an odd thing to mention, but it felt like a very adult romance trope to have in a YA romance the way it was written. Instead of finding it cute or sexy, I just kind of felt awkward about it.
Marissa Meyers fans rejoice! A new book has been released. But if you’re expecting something similar to The Lunar Chronicles or Renegades, this is NOT that book. Instant Karma is a contemporary YA about Prudence Barnett, a rather tightly wound high achiever. As the book opens, Prudence has been paired with Quint Erickson for a science project. Quint is cute, likeable, and highly unreliable and, as Prudence expects, he fails to even meet her low expectations of him. The two can not see eye to eye on their project and as a result, Prudence is at risk of making her lowest grade ever. She’s given one chance to work with Quint to improve their grade, but he’s definitely not into it and Prudence can’t imagine spending any more time with him. But soon she finds herself finding out more about Quint and discovers how prevalent a role karma is playing all around her. From punishing hecklers at a karaoke event to rewarding people who do good, karma seems to be all around—maybe even influenced by Prudence?
Instant Karma is an enjoyable, modern, story and Prudence, though she can be way too high strung sometimes, even becomes kind of likeable. Quint is always likeable too, but some of the other “characters” really steal the show. While Instant Karma isn’t as complex of a story as some of Meyer’s other novels, it’s still engaging and enjoyable. I received an ARC of the audiobook for this novel and found the performance to be great. The performer did a great job with the voice of the characters and seemed remained true to the energy and mood of the story throughout.
*I received an ARC audiobook of Instant Karma from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
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 was fantastic. 4.5 stars. I think it maybe could’ve been a tad shorter and still got the message across, but otherwise, I loved this. Rebecca Soler is one of my favorite narrators, so I was stoked to see that she was narrating this one, and she didn’t let me down. I love this kind of contemporary with a twist of magic or sci-fi, in this case Pru’s titular instant karma power. It’s not delved into too deeply, it just *is* and then the rest of the story feels very classic YA contemporary. The enemies-to-lovers vibes were fantastic, and Pru is complex and learns her own lessons as she doles out cosmic justice. It was exactly what I wanted out of this one.
Prudence is an overachiever. She is always making list, doing projects. She is a perfectionist. Quint is her lab partner and has been absent almost all year. When they get a C in their assignment, Prudence is set to re-do the project over the summer. But the more she gets to know Quint the more she realise that not everything is as we see it. Prudence and Quint will learn to work together and will really know each other. A great audiobook and a great story
This has to be one of the sweetest, most feel good, had me smiling the entire time books I’ve ever read.
I don’t read many books that make me smile for all 14 hours, but Instant Karma did just that.
Quint and Prudence are a riot. And all the supporting characters are fun and bring such life to the story.
I wanted to crawl into this story and live there.
I wanted to help at the rescue center.
I wanted to work on a school project–and I loathe school projects.
Seriously, if you want a feel-good, smile like a loon, have a good time kind of book, Instant Karma is for you.
This is my first by this author. I read the blurb and thought it sounded riotous, downloaded the audiobook and only then did I scroll down and see it is a YA book. I haven’t been a YA person in…forever! So I listened anyway thinking what do I have to lose while walking the dog and maybe this could be added to the gift list for my nieces and friends age appropriate daughters. So glad I listened. This was a terrific book as was the narration. Who amongst us hasn’t once wish we could harness the power of karma or at the very least been there to watch as karma “took someone down”? This was well written, witty, filled with some teenage angst and lots of drama, bullying, friendships, learning how to be brave and step out of your comfort zone, the feelings of not fitting in, being judgmental and judged, being blamed for things you’ve not done, not getting credit for things you have and learning to navigate the world with all kinds of feelings that are new to your experience. Family dynamics explored, friendships tested and the beauty of learning to say I’m sorry and being able to forgive are what make up this terrific tale. A major lesson, if there is one to be gleaned is that with great power comes great responsibility and learning to handle that is never an easy road regardless of your age. And lots and lots of cute animals being rescued. Doesn’t get any better.
I received an advanced copy of the audiobook from Netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review.
After falling and hitting her head after a karaoke performance at a local bar & grill, Prudence Daniels discovers she has the power to dole out karmic retribution to people she finds doing wrong. And if anyone deserves a bit of karmic payback, Prudence feels like it’s none other that her lab partner Quint Erikson. Quint’s penchant for unreliability when it came to working on their final project cost Prudence the A she felt she deserved after being forced to do most of the work by herself. Unfortunately, Quint is the one person Prue’s gift doesn’t seem to work on. But she’s determined to complete an extra credit assignment over the summer to bring up her grade. The catch is, she needs to work on it with Quint.
Quint agrees, but only on the condition that Prue volunteer at his mother’s non-profit ocean-life rescue shelter for two weeks. Prue figures it’s worth it if she can earn that A she so rightly believes she deserves. But once she starts working and sees all the good the shelter is doing, then sees that they’re struggling financially, Prue makes it her goal to make the shelter a success. She’ll discover what it means to look past the surface to see what’s underneath.
Instant Karma is Marissa Meyer’s first foray into contemporary. While it does skew a little towards the Y side of YA in terms of the fact that the main characters are in the 15-16 age range just completing sophomore year in high school, I found it to be one of those reads that can be appealing for more than just the target age group. Of course I shouldn’t have had any doubts being it’s written by Marissa Meyer.
I listened to an audiobook, and it’s the first one I’ve listened to as narrated by Rebecca Soler. I thought that Rebecca Soler did a great job brining Prudence to life. Her voice and inflection was perfect for a character that gets right to the point of a matter, takes on more than she needs to, and is maybe a little more mature seeing as how she’s one of the oldest children in a house with five kids (she’s part of a twin set). And I thought that Rebecca Soler did great giving the rest of the characters their own voice and personality. When someone new would speak I would know who it was. As I’ve listened to more audiobooks, I’ve learned that’s not always easily achieved.
I was surprised, however, that as I started reading I wasn’t immediately drawn into the story as I have with Meyer’s previous books. Then it suddenly clicked: Prudence is not a very likable character. At least, at the start. She’s extremely quick to assume or judge. She needs to be in control of pretty much everything, and people who don’t also follow her strict work ethic are obviously lazy slackers and not worth Prudence’s time. Nowhere is this felt more than when Prue is using her new “gift”. The biased way in which Prue is the one to determine right and wrong was frustrating. As clearly no one can possibly live up to her expectations. And if you can’t live up to Prue’s expectations than you’re obviously deserving of a little karmatic payback.
This fact made it a little difficult to get invested in the story at first, but the thing to remember is the story is all about Prudence’s journey. As Prue begins to open her eyes a little bit more so did the story begin to pull me in. This is especially highlighted in the interactions between Prue and Quint. The quintessential enemies-to-friends (lovers doesn’t feel completely right here so I substitute). They start out the book so at odds with one another, I loved seeing them inch past their preconceived ideas about the other. It’s easy to say that Prue is quick to judge and make assumptions, but it’s clear too that Quint has made and makes assumptions about Prue as well. Since we only get Prue’s point of view, it’s easy to point to her as being the difficult one – I mean Quint is painted as a very nice guy who like to help animals and doesn’t really seem caught up in , but had we gotten Quint’s point of view, I think it would have lessened the overall impact of the growth that Prue goes through over the course of the book.
I guess what I’m trying to say overall is that once I understood the journey we were taking with Prudence, I loved being on it with her. I loved seeing her growth and coming to terms with the insecurities that were the cause of a lot of how she acted towards others. I thought the commentary about right and wrong and who gets to decide and mete out “justice” is an interesting underlying theme that Marissa Meyer handles with care. I enjoyed how everything is weaved together forming cause and effect and how even sometimes our best intentions don’t go how we plan, or maybe look different from someone else’s perspective.
I hope we’ll get to see more contemporaries from Marissa Meyer, although I’m not quick to leave her fantasy worlds yet, I like when an author is able to branch out and give us something different and unexpected.
*Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Sophomore year would have been a walk in the park if it hadn’t been for marine biology and Quint Erickson.
Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer was super cute. Take a driven, yet sort of self involved heroine, and pair her up as a lab partner with someone who is seemingly lazy and irresponsible. Cue the disaster that is this pairs final science project. That’s where we start this story off. With polar opposites Pru and Quint failing epically at working together.
We then follow Pru over her summer as she sort of comes together with Quint in ways that she never expected. Pru is trying to convince Quint to redo their science project with her, but he’s not feeling it. At least not until she offers to help out at the Fortuna Beach Sea Animal Rescue Center his mom runs. He thinks she won’t do it, but he doesn’t realize, Pru will do anything for the grade, even spend her summer smelling like fish! It doesn’t hurt that she seems to have acquired some sort of karmic magic that she can wield at the squeeze of a hand.
I think it’s smart that Meyer introduces us to these two from Pru’s biased perspective. It really lends to the way we eventually get to know Quint. Reluctantly (haha) through Pru’s eyes. I thought that this was a great YA love story. Their friendship is non-existent at first, more enemies than anything, then grows to more over time. Pru has flaws. She isn’t a perfect bubbly character. I appreciated that because don’t we all have moments of selfishness or poor decision making? I think sometimes in fiction we expect characters to be without fault, and I liked that our lead had faults and had to recognize and grow out of them. Quint also has his flaws, even though they aren’t really as extensive as Pru once assumed. I like that these two got to know each other on a deeper level, and sort of learned that they were more than the people they were in science.
Add in a crew of awesome friends and side characters, karaoke Tuesdays, karmic magic, saving cute sea life, Beatle’s references, and a bit of a real life villain sub-plot and I thought this story was entertaining. I think that anyone can enjoy this read, but I definitely think it will work for older middle grade and younger YA readers.
This one was just ok for me. The narrator was good (I listened to the audio book). The book just wasn’t what I hoped for. It was maybe written for a younger audience (teenagers?) although it did have some mild swearing. I think the book probably could have been shorter than it was and I would have liked it a bit more (it seemed to go on forever).
The book had good bones and plenty of humor, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.