Review: Instant Karma (Fortuna Beach #1) by Marissa Meyer

Title: Instant Karma

Series: Fortuna Beach #1

Author: Marissa Meyer

Genre: YA, contemporary romance

Publication date: November 2020

Published by: Feiwel & Friends

Source: Purchased hardcover

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Synopsis: Chronic overachiever Prudence Barnett 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 mean gossips, but there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner. Quint is annoyingly cute and impressively noble, especially when it comes to his work with the rescue center for local sea animals.

When Pru resigns herself to working at the rescue center for extra credit, she begins to uncover truths about baby otters, environmental upheaval, and romantic crossed signals—not necessarily in that order. Her newfound karmic insights reveal how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed, love and hate... and fate.

My rating: ★★★★★

I’m the first one to admit that I’m not really a contemporary person—I’ve always just found them to be too everyday life. But over the years I’ve expanded my horizons and started reading some contemporaries, and I’ve actually enjoyed them! Who would’ve thought? Lol. And this book? It was the cutest freaking thing EVER! I loved it!

One of the first things I noticed about this book that I absolutely loved was the sibling relationship between Pru and her twin brother Jude.

We sit in companionable silence. It's one of the things I love most about being a twin. Jude and I can sit together for hours, not speaking a single word, and I can come away from it feeling like we just had the most profound conversation. We don't do small talk. We don't need to amuse each other. We can just be.

It was so sweet and a nice change to the animosity you see between siblings in a lot of other books. Why can’t my twin brothers be like this? Lol. But anyway, back to the book 😅

Pru herself was a very interesting character because she was not without her flaws, which I appreciated because Mary Sues are boring. Lol. She was very, I don’t know, uptight, I guess? And she was always really hard on Quint. And then when they’re working on this project together, with sea animals in desperate need of help, all Pru cares about is her grade. It was unbelievable, BUT it was so rewarding to see the character development she went through, especially when little Lennon came around! That was the cutest!

Oh, and then her thoughts on Quint... 😬 Like I said, she was very tough on him and judging him for being a slacker and being late. She never stopped to think about WHY, that there might be a reason behind his actions. But all this being said, I never disliked her! It was just a case of miscommunication and after spending some more time together, they got to know each other better in this short time during summer than they did the entire school year.

I slowly look up, meeting his eyes. The eyes of this boy who, it turns out, I hardly know at all. We sat next to each other for two whole semesters and yet it feels like there's a complete stranger standing before me.

I really enjoyed this aspect of the book where they go from enemies to maybe something more than just friends? It was SO good! They had so many disagreements, but they eventually took the time to talk it out and they realized that things weren’t as they seemed. These intimate moments where they just talk about their anxieties and just explain their thought process behind things... I loved every second of it! It was so sweet. Just them communicating and actually getting to know each other...

And speaking of Quint, I just need to take a moment to acknowledge how much I love him 😍 He is so sweet and his love for the animals melted my black heart 🖤 I just loved him to pieces! I loved this book in general! I swear I was grinning throughout the whole thing like a crazy person, just because of how cute it was. And the subject matter of the book with rescuing animals and all that, I really enjoyed! I have never read a book with this focus, but I really appreciated learning about all this. I also really loved the setting of this small little tourist beach town. Oh, and then Pru’s little ability of giving people instant karma? That was very cool! The way it worked was really interesting, and the things that happened to these people were very satisfying.

But yeah, overall, this book was great! Look at me reading contemporaries and enjoying them 😅 Lol. I almost wish there were MORE books just because I enjoyed this so much! Maybe something with Jude or Pru’s best friend, Ari... that would be so great! But this is a standalone and it works really well that way! I just really loved this book and it's characters. I'm really looking forward to reading more books by Marissa Meyer!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊