Prudence Daniels is a type A personality, especially when it comes to her grades. That is all about the grades. So when she’s paired up with Quint Erickson for their biology project, she knows she’ll be doing the bulk of the work. Quint is difficult to work with, when he shows up to class at all. They have to give a presentation and write a report on how ecotourism can help their town of Fortuna Beach, and Prudence has put a lot of work into coming up with ideas to draw tourists to town and get them interested in helping the local marine life.
The day of the presentation, Quint shows up late with their paper, interrupts Prudence’s presentation, and ends up getting a higher grade from their teacher than Prudence did. She got a C. She never gets Cs. Prudence asks for a chance to raise her grade, and her teacher agrees that she can redo the project over summer break. But—isn’t there always a “but”?—Quint has to agree to be a part of it too.
It’s not until after school that Prudence asks Quint to redo the project. She’s hanging out at her favorite restaurant with her best friend Ari and twin brother Jude, and Quint is there also. When she asks Quint to redo the project with her, he refuses. But when a karaoke song ends with a near-concussion, it’s Quint who comes to Prudence’s rescue, making sure she’s okay.
The next day, when Prudence finally reads the report that Quint had put together, she realizes that he had come to the project from a completely different perspective. She was looking at how the local business could benefit from the ecotourism. Quint came at the project to show how it could benefit the local animal rescue. Prudence is surprised to find out that her town has an animal rescue, and she decides to spend some time over her summer vacation finding out more about it.
A stint as a volunteer there, along side the once-hated Quint Erickson, opens Prudence’s eyes to a life outside of everything she had known before. The more she learns about the rescue and the work that Quint had been doing there, the more she realizes she may have been wrong about him. She may have been wrong about a lot of things.
Instant Karma is a young adult rom com with lots of heart. This is a long book with a lot going on, but the characters are interesting and the action keeps things moving along. There is a little magical realism, a lot of snark, some karaoke, many adorable rescued sea creatures, and a very determined Prudence making things happen. Author Marissa Meyer has gifted us a charming story about learning to see beyond our own noses, and I recommend it to rom com fans of any ago.
I got to listen to the audio book for this one, narrated by Rebecca Soler. As a long book, the audio version comes in at over 14 hours, so it’s not for those looking for a quick listen. At the beginning of the book, Soler’s narration is laced with derision and contempt. In other words, she captures Prudence perfectly. As the book goes on, and Prudence opens up to the world around her, that contempt softens. I thought Soler’s narration was spot on for the character, if maybe a bit slow. I thought about speeding it up, but for me, the point of listening to the audio is to hear how the narrator chooses to imbue the words with emotion, and speeding it up ruins that effect.
I really enjoyed getting to listen to this book. It was an investment, just because of the length of the book, but it was a journey well worth taking. Instant Karma is a fetching romance with lots of smarts, lots of hearts, and lots of seals. And sea lions. And maybe even a yellow submarine.
A copy of the audio book for Instant Karma was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks.
