Goodreads Rating: 3.81 stars

Goodreads Summary:

Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents…sounds ideal—but Shane's made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance…what’s that?

Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time's a ticking, and she needs a change—there's nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She's going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure!

Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart.

Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic—the possibilities are endless.

My Thoughts:

I’m glad I went into this book with mediocre expectations because those weren’t even met. I watch the author of this book on Booktube occasionally, but I don’t follow her closely, so I don’t think any personal biases have anything to do with how I felt about her book.

It felt like a bad knock off of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. We have a girl going abroad. She starts to like a guy who has a girlfriend. She ends up having feelings for him and he has them for her even though there is a girlfriend involved. It’s basically the same except in this book the characters aren’t flushed out whatsoever, there are too many popular culture references stuffed into the book, and there’s a time travel element.

Again, But Better had good ideas. I liked the idea of a girl being obsessed with a boy, that ruining her potential, and then her realizing that she needs to focus on herself. That’s a good idea if it’s done well. It was not done well. The MC is freakishly annoying. There are so many references in here to Cassandra Clare, Harry Potter, and Lost. We get it. You’re a fangirl. Also, her online name was FrenchWatermelon19 which is basically the same thing as the author’s PolandBananas20 name. She also goes on a soap box about how YouTube can change people’s lives. We get it. You are a part of the YouTube community and it has given you amazing opportunities.

This seems like a self published book. The fact that it isn’t makes me question the book publishing industry. There were so many references to people laughing/smirking/use a synonym for laughing here. People do not say things laughingly that often… come on. Hopefully they fixed the grammar errors at least, but I’m not holding my breath on that either.