Synopsis (From Goodreads)
In this 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 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.
My Review
4 out of 5 stars
I may not be very big into YA contemporary these days, but I’ve read every book by Mrs. Meyer thus far and I just had to give her first contemporary a try. I came in with a weird mix of expectations since I enjoy the author but not so much the genre. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. And I don’t think it is simply because this contemporary has a slight paranormal twist where the main character, Prudence, is able to cast instant karma on those who deserve it. While the karma aspect of the plot is important, it really isn’t the main part of the plot, and if it was revised in a handful of ways, it could have been taken out. Sometimes you even wonder if the ability to cast instant karma is purely in Prudence’s head. But I think it ends up being too much of a coincidence if it wasn’t an ability she had. It’s not like karma truly is instant in real life, even though sometimes it does happen.
The novel is more focused on the developing romance between Prudence and Quint. It’s hate-to-love, as Prudence was originally forced to endure Quint as a lab partner where she found him to be somewhat useless in working on projects. This leads to them not doing well on the final project, so she must work with Quint to improve her grade. Quint isn’t interested as he is okay with the final grade, so Prudence decides there still must be a way around that. Prudence is a character who enjoys doing all the work herself; she is a perfectionist and a planner. This may lead you to not liking her very much, but I honestly can be the same way, and I certainly was that way while I was in high school. And when hate to love happens in a romance novel, it is well done when it is about a character accepting their flaws and becoming better at addressing them.
The developing romance between the characters is really well paced as it focuses a lot on the task that Prudence has set out to do. Her failed lab project with Quint was about boosting ecotourism to save the animals in their coastal town. Prudence learns that Quint has ties to a local sea animal shelter and rehabilitation center, so Prudence decides to volunteer her time there. She learns a lot more about the animals she would be saving with her ecotourism plan, and learns much more about Quint in the process. I learned a bit about sea animals myself, and I think this aspect of the novel was really well researched. You’ll find yourself caring whether or not the animals are able to recover.
If there is any faults, it may be that the final mystery to the novel was a little predictable. It was not hard to piece together. I don’t think many people are picking this one up for that, however. It’s again more for the contemporary romance, and maybe the instant karma aspect also speaks to you.
While this is a standalone, I think there is potential for Mrs. Meyer to write contemporary romances about some of Prudence’s and Quint’s friends that make many appearances in the novel. I would not be surprised if an announcement was made about companion sequels if this book sells well.
Thank you to the publisher for providing a free eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
See this review on Goodreads.
Mad Scibrarian 