Again, But Better- Book Review

NOT MY IMAGE!

Hello, welcome back to my blog!

I recently ended my 3 year long book slump, when I decided to grab a book off of my friend Jess's bookshelf before we went to bed a couple of weeks ago.

Since then, I have completed 2 full books, and I have a review on one of them for you today! It's called Again, But Better and it has hands down become one of my favorite books!

Let's just get right into this review, shall we!

For starters, it was written by one of my favorite booktubers (a youtuber who discusses books) from back in middle school. Her name is Christine, and she always made me feel like I was a little bit more normal when I was in middle school. I discovered that there were tons of people like me who love to read, and I found out that even though I am a HUGE dork, it's not abnormal to like to read. (Hence the beginning of this blog, and my passion for writing).

In May, Christine finally released her debut novel, Again, But Better, so obviously I had to pick it up and see what it was all about. I went into it pretty blindsided because I wanted to discover the plot as I went along; which by the way made this book 10x better!

It revolves around college junior, Shane Primaveri, who is studying abroad in London to make a few friends and focus on her passion, writing. Shane is a pre-med major in college, per her parents request, and she has had a hard time making friends at her college back in the states, so she ditches it all and goes to London.

*Que upbeat music, new friends, and a love interest*

Immediately upon landing in London, Shane starts ticking items off of her bucket list of personal accomplishments such as: kissing a boy, making friends, etc. She is loving her life in London, but the guilt about lying to her parents about her new major abroad is eating her alive. She goes on all kinds of amazing trips with her friends, Babe, Pilot, Atticus, and Sahra (I think I am most definitely spelling that wrong) and learns more about herself that she ever had the chance to do before leaving the states.

That's about as much as I can say without giving away spoilers, so if you have read it, feel free to continue on... if not, go pick it up and give it a quick read and come back... if not, I warned you!

Okay, let's talk.

I loved Shane's character! She was so quirky and outgoing, and everything about her just screamed Christine which I loved!

Also, Pilot. I mean come on! First of all, the name Pilot Penn just makes me swoon and leaves my knees weak... anyone else? He was everything that I have ever wanted in a fictional boy character, I mean sure we've got our Jace and Will Herondale's, (The Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices anyone??) But none of them have had the character traits that Pilot had. He almost reminded me of all the fanfiction characters I have read about, but this time instead of it being Harry Styles, he was his own person, which in a way was even better!

Okay, listen! The whole Beatles plot line had me WEAK! COME ON! I know it's so cliche for some loner girl to have an obsession with the Beatles and find out that the hipster boy who is an aspiring musician likes them too, but this one was just perfect! For starters, the Beatles are AMAZING, so you can't even get mad at that, but listening to their albums on repeat while reading, really fit the mood and made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It also brought me right back to my sophomore year of high school when all I did was listen to edgy music which included the Beatles (not edgy at all), the Rolling Stones, The Kinks... you get the point. Anyway, that plot was amazing and the best part was when he proposed to her with the Beatles Russian nesting dolls. SO CUTE!

There was also this MAJOR plot twist that had me shaking! I was just sitting in my room reading thinking, "wow I'm loving this cute classic contemporary book" when BAM, time travel just came out of nowhere! Like what! It was awesome! All of a sudden, everything came flying back into my brain: the red headed lady (who always seemed to be everywhere, so I knew something was up with her), the name of the cafe that they got trapped in (The Rewrite), the fact that Shane and Pilot always talking about where they would go if they could travel back in time, THE TITLE OF THE BOOK FINALLY MADE SENSE!!! AGAIN, BUT BETTER! AS IN A REDO!!

The fact that Shane and Pilot were the only 2 that were aware of the time travel was so interesting to me. I feel like normally both of their memories would be wiped out as well and they wouldn't remember a thing. Almost as if everything just started over, but the 17 Again vibes really pulled it together for me.

As you can see, I was a little bit excited about this part, which honestly I don't find shocking at all, because it just brought everything all together.

Christine said the this was the book that she needed to read in college, so that's why she wrote it and I completely agree. Being a current college student who had a rough start to her freshman year, it was really relieving to learn that everyone feels the same way. Friends don't just come knocking on your door, you have to go and find them.

Obviously, I could go on and on about my love for this book, but I think I'm going to end it here.

I hope you enjoyed my first ever book review (on this blog... trust me I've done lots of book reviews that have been since deleted). Make sure to leave your opinions on this book, and give me your recommendations of books I should read next!

(If you want to purchase this book, I attached a link to the image above! You can also head out to your local Target, or find it on Amazon!)

Until next time,

Lindsey