So, I really wanted to love this, a book about getting sucked into stories, and getting to live it out seems so fun and exciting but somewhere along the way it feel completely flat. First of all, Josie just gave me anxiety and I could not for the life of me like her. Yes, she does go through some personal growth, but its towards the end of the book. So, it felt like too little too late. Secondly, the parts where she is in the book just seemed to repeat, just written a little differently depending on the genre.

Lastly, the romance was just weird, she spends the entire book obsessing over the emotional and physical distance between her boyfriend, Justin only for it to wrap up neatly in one chapter. I feel like if this was a shorter story it would have been pretty great, but it just kinda dragged on and the whole muses thing kinda felt weird and out of place. There were some fun parts, like her singing Spice Girls at Zomboids. Overall, this just felt a little short of what I was hoping for.

*A Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this for an honest and unbiased review* ( )

Josie was kind of a big deal in high school, but now she’s a dropout who, having failed to make it on Broadway, is nannying in Montana. She buys an escapist historical romance novel and when she begins reading, she finds herself literally in the world of story. With each new book she reads, each different genre Josie tries, the same thing happens again.

Because in each story Josie encounters characters who look like people from real life, including her boyfriend, her best friend and the other nannies she’s met, falling into the world of books allows Josie to reevaluate and better understand her own life -- her relationships, her past experiences, her dreams and her failures and expectations. Even though some of the books Josie “reads” are full of action, Kind of a Big Deal becomes quite an introspective story.

But it is also a fantasy novel and the reason Josie falls into the books she reads is also a plot point.

This was interesting! It had the potential to be a story I’d like a lot more, but it held my attention and was successful on its own terms.

“We tend to think of life as linear,” Nina went on. “As if each moment, each year, has to be better than the last, and if it's not, we failed. But we’re all of it at the same time. And then some. So be patient with yourself, Josie. Don't judge yourself by any one moment. Allow yourself room to change.” ( )

Wow. What do I say about this book? I love Shannon Hale and appreciate it so much she tried YA for the first time. I think she did a good job capturing the essence of being a teenager, lost, trying to find her way; however, I feel Hale did not do a great job writing a teenager in modern times. For example, some of the texts, especially between Josie and Justin, her boyfriend, felt unnatural; also, the song choices seemed a bit, retro. I'll say the thing that bothered me most in the book was the forced inclusion, the first few chapters are chalk full with character descriptions I didn't really need; I started to understand later some of these people would just continue to be referred to that way like "Frisbee guy" and " Blond Dreadlocks". Looking past some parts that annoyed me, which has never happened to me in a Shannon Hale book before, I really enjoyed the book and the way Hale transitions into different settings or genre's through the story. It was a really great way for Josie to learn, grow and face reality, yes, the real world is scary but there is so much to appreciate about it. One thing I think was genius about this book was the plot twist! If you want to call it a plot twist, I'm not sure, but I was just not expecting it, but looking back the build up is there and I think Hale wrote that quite well, but maybe that is just because I was expecting something else. Really, I thought the book was a love triangle! A few scenes annoyed me but, overall, I love Hale's storytelling, as always! ( )

So, I really wanted to love this, a book about getting sucked into stories, and getting to live it out seems so fun and exciting but somewhere along the way it feel completely flat. First of all, Josie just gave me anxiety and I could not for the life of me like her. Yes, she does go through some personal growth, but its towards the end of the book. So, it felt like too little too late. Secondly, the parts where she is in the book just seemed to repeat, just written a little differently depending on the genre.

Lastly, the romance was just weird, she spends the entire book obsessing over the emotional and physical distance between her boyfriend, Justin only for it to wrap up neatly in one chapter. I feel like if this was a shorter story it would have been pretty great, but it just kinda dragged on and the whole muses thing kinda felt weird and out of place. There were some fun parts, like her singing Spice Girls at Zomboids. Overall, this just felt a little short of what I was hoping for.

*A Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this for an honest and unbiased review* ( )

Thanks but no thanks, Shannon Hale.

You're a super great author. But this one was a hard miss for me.

The storyline was interesting enough, but the main character Josie was pretty obnoxious for the whole of the book. Her background story was pretty unrealistic and I just really didn't like her.

The plot seemed to skip around a lot, and I mostly skimmed through the last half of the book. There seemed to be an immediate "happily ever after" between Josie and her boyfriend from back home, even though they hadn't seen each other in like, a year. *ugh*

I was pretty disappointed that I didn't like this book (and I'm not alone), since Shannon Hale is definitely talented with words. But, save yourself the energy and skip this one. ( )