Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer Pages: 400
Published by Feiwel & Friends on November 3, 2020
Genres: Young Adult, contemporary, Romance, Magical Realism
Source: eARC from Publisher
In this contemporary romance with a bit of magic, 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, during a night out with her friends, she slips on a spilled drink and hits her head, only to wake 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. Over the course of a summer, 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.
Instant Karma is a young adult contemporary romance/light magical realism by Marissa Meyer. I adored this book. It is one that I recommend everyone pick up and read if you want to put a smile on your face. It has everything you could hope for in a young adult romance- characters that exhibit great growth, a sweet romance, animal rescuing, and plenty of laugh out loud and swoon worthy moments. If you can’t tell- I really, really loved Instant Karma.
In Instant Karma we meet our two main characters- perfectionist and control freak, Prudence and her would be love interest- mysterious, slacker Quint. This is a hate to love romance that took me by surprise. At first, I wasn’t so sure that I was going to like Prudence. Quint is such a nice guy, and we learn early on that he really isn’t a slacker, he is just spending all of his time helping out his mother’s struggling animal rescue center. But Prudence does not cut him any slack, and she is just plain rude to him. They are partners on a science project and Prudence wrote Quint off so quickly that she wouldn’t let him help and she basically set him up to disappoint her. But when they get a redo and Prudence starts helping out at the animal rescue the real magic between the two of them starts. I will say, once the story got going, the plot was a little predictable, but in the best way. Instant karma gave me all the warm fuzzies.
I loved everything about this book! I loved the hate to love romance between Prudence and Quint. I loved all the adorable animals we got to meet at the rescue. I loved the character growth that Prudence exhibited. And I loved how her magic instant karma helped her see the light on some of her flaws, which is no easy feat for a teenager. Yes, Prudence is flawed, but seeing her recognize and strive to do better was just as heartwarming as the romance was. And I even flipped flopped between favorite characters. I started out loving Quint hardcore, but Prudence won me over in the end. I was really hard on Quint with something that happened at the end of the book. I felt like he knew the real Prudence so well by that point that he should have known better! (let me know what you think in the comments below if you have read Instant Karma! You will know what I am talking about!)
Bottom Line- I think this book is great for fans of magical realism and straight up contemporary romances alike. The added light tough of karma magic woven in to this great story was a lot of fun. I loved Instant Karma and I think you will to. This was one of my favorite YA contemporary reads of the year!
About Marissa Meyer
One of my first spoken words was “story” (right along with “bath” and “cookie”), my favorite toy as an infant was a soft, squishable book, and I’ve wanted to be a writer since I first realized such a job existed.
When I was fourteen my best friend introduced me to anime and fanfiction—over the years I would complete over forty Sailor Moon fanfics under the penname Alicia Blade. Those so inclined can still find my first stories at fanfiction.net. Writing fanfic turned out to be awesome fun and brought me in contact with an amazing group of fanfiction readers and writers. As Alicia Blade, I also had a novelette, “The Phantom of Linkshire Manor,” published in the gothic romance anthology Bound in Skin (CatsCurious Press, 2007).
When I was sixteen I worked at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma, Washington, affectionately termed “The Spag.” (Random factoid: This is also the restaurant where my parents met some 25 years before.) I attended Pacific Lutheran University where I sorted mail that came to the dorm, carted tables and chairs around campus, and took writing classes, eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature. Knowing I wanted a career in books, I would also go on to receive a Master’s degree in Publishing from Pace University (which you can learn more about here). After graduation, I worked as an editor in Seattle for a while before becoming a freelance typesetter and proofreader.
Then, day of days, someone thought it would be a good idea to give me a book deal, so I became a full-time writer. CINDER is my first novel, though I have an adorable collection of unfinished ones lying around too.
I now live with my husband and our three cats (Calexandria Josephine, Stormus Enormous, and Blackland Rockwell III), who go in and out, in and out, about eight hundred times a day. My favorite non-bookish things include Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, re-watching episodes of Firefly, and playing all manners of dress-up.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2020 New Release Challenge
- ARCtober 2020
- Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge 2020
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