Again, but Better: A Novel Hardcover – May 7, 2019

Book: Again But BetterAuthor: Christine RiccoRating: 5 Out of 5 StarsThere’s been a lot of mixed reviews about this one. However, I love Christine and I had a feeling that I was coming to enjoy her book. I read Again But Better at a time where I needed a good light and fun read.What I really enjoyed the most about this book was the fact that the characters are older. The only other coming of age university story that I can think of off the top of my head is Fangirl. Some many coming of age stories are set in high school. We never really get much from the uni age group. I know a lot of you are probably thinking it’s the same thing. It’s not. Both are trying to find themselves, but both are doing so in a different way. University is the step before real life; it’s when you make all of the decisions that are going to affect your life. it’s also a chance to do something that you never dreamed of doing.Shane is our lead. I found her to be pretty entertaining. I really did keep picturing Shane as Christine and when she was speaking, I heard Christine’s voice in my head. Now, Shane decides to study aboard for a semester. She’s premed, but isn’t sure if it’s actually the path she wants to take. She loves writing, but her parents don’t support it. She doesn’t know how and if to tell her parents she doesn’t want to be premed anymore. Let’s stop and think: has anyone ever felt this way? Okay, it may not apply to you, but think about it. How many people have settled on a career path based on what is expected by family. I’m going to tell you that it happens more than what you think. Anyway, she goes through this journey of finding herself.Piolet is our male lead. It did take a little while for him to grow on me. I don’t know what it was about him, but there was just something that made it really hard for me to see what the big deal about him was. After a while, he did grow on me a good bit.The writing was good for a first book. It was worded kind of strange in a few places, but that’s okay. It was light and fluffy, with a bit of seriousness to it. Really, it was just like sitting down and reading the words from Christine’s Youtube channel. A lot of people take issue with this, but if you enjoy Christine’s channel, then you will not have any problems with this.Overall, I really did enjoy this fun and light read. It does have some serious tones to it, but overall it was just a fun read.

If you're willing to give this book a good 300 pages, it gets good. The first 200 pages were a rough ride for me. I went in expecting a story about studying abroad in England because that sounded excellent and that really isn't what the book was.Basically this was a nice New Adult novel. It was a do-over of a very stressful college experience where the main character learns how to pick herself up and fight for what she wants.The first 200 pages were kind of anxiety written down which was stressful to read. After 200 pages the book changes completely. As in the genre changes. Time travel happens and at first I was really not on board for that and it comes out of nowhere after an abrupt time skip so it was really jarring. But the writing improves and so does the character's experience in the second half. The last 70 pages finally felt like what I'd signed up for.Honestly by the end I liked it. It was a quick, fun read.I noticed a lot of reviews saying Shane is a homewrecker and honestly that didn't seem like the case with how it was written. I wouldn't consider a relationship someone tried to put and end to and was told no a healthy relationship to begin with. I didn't have any problem with the way Pilot's situation was treated.It is a telling instead of showing book and did manage to firmly teach me the difference. You get all the lead up to the fall out, but none of the actual fall out and none of the background so if you're ok with that and you're willing to not give up before the end you'll probably like it too. If you don't want to wait that long for the payoff then maybe give this a pass?

100% Recommend for compelling storyline and relatable characters. Couldn't put it down.(No spoilers)This book was absolutely amazing. I was obsessed pretty quickly. This story isn't something I would normally read, but fortunately I've been reading out of my comfort zone and being pleasantly surprised! The story is captivating, the characters evolve and grow, and I couldn't put the book down!I didn't know much going into the book. I saw her book talks on her YouTube channel, was immediately obsessed, and realized she had several published books. I wanted to support her, so I bought the book and thought it was very worth it!