I Kissed Shara Wheeler

My second @casey.mcquiston book after #rwrb and she did not disappoint! A huge shoutout to @panmacmillanindia for sending across this beautiful copy of #ikissedsharawheeler! 💖Shara Wheeler is gone. One minute she was there and the next she was not. And right before she vanished, she kissed Chloe Green. Chloe Green is the only who "recognises" Shara for the manipulative person she is and not the perfect daughter of their very puritanical principal, and now that she has almost beaten Shara for the position of valedictorian, she will accept Shara vanishing just like that, specially after that kiss. But Chloe isn't the only person Shara kissed, there is Rory, Shara's neighbour, and her longtime boyfriend Smith. So forms an unlikely alliance between the only three people whom Shara has kissed to find out where did Shara Wheeler go?I honestly did not think that I would like it as much as I did. This book was absolutely perfect!! It was the perfect combination of humour and romance with just the right amount of intrigue. I Kissed Shara Wheeler was just the perfect coming-of-age book that I didn't even know I need but one that Casey delivered with her easy charm! I was laughing and then I crying and then I was swooning while thinking hard about all the issues this book raised. Set against the background of this very puritanical city, this book raised all the right questions of identity, sexuality and freedom!This book easily had one of my favourite cast of characters. All of the characters were just so right and authentic. Chloe, Rory, Smith, Shara and all their friends and enemies had this great chemistry that is so rare to find in such a diverse set of characters! And the romance?! Gosh! This book had the sweetest of the ships, I mean we got academic-rivals-to-lovers and childhood-bestfriends-to-lovers in one book. We were blessed right here😌🤌🏻Also finally coming to the "where is Shara Wheeler" mystery element, it was so well done! The pink notes, the flashback anecdotes, the additional "burn book" notes and everything else in between was like this perfect puzzle that came together piece by piece in just the most satisfying way! I just could not stop reading.It is actually quite amusing that the more I talk about this book the more I seem to love it. And maybe by next week, I'll love it even more than #redwhiteandroyalblue which is saying something. But I have to say that this has definitely made me want to pick up #onelaststop ASAP! This might truly just be my favourite #caseymcquiston book, and also my favourite sapphic romance as well! Highly, HIGHLY recommend! 💕🥰

Thank you Pan macmillan India for sending across the review copy!!Now now when it comes to your auto-buy authors, who’s your number 1?Well for me, Ruskin Bond and Satyajit Ray top the list as always, followed closely by Becky Albertalli and Divakaruni, Murakami, Casey Mc Quiston, and Jhumpa Lahiri.I read Casey’s One Last Stop last January and I loved it so much !!!!I mean, that was so worth the hype and I went around talking about it for days and have been eyeing her other books since then. You should’ve seen me when I got the copy of I kissed Shara Wheeler, I was euphoric, thrilled even.Now coming to what I think of the book. Definitely not Casey’s best. Several parts seemed so unnecessary and even the parts which were interesting, things just got boring after a while. I loved the character representations and I think this is exactly why Casey’s books are always Bookstagram favorites. Chloe Green is an absolute favorite who lives for academic validation to put it straight and everything goes wrong when her only competition for Valedictorian, her nemesis, and the Principal’s daughter, Shara Wheeler goes missing. What’s even more interesting is that Shara kissed Chloe and now Chloe finds that she isn’t the only one she kissed and the 3 people set out in search of Shara.The side characters such as Smith Parker, Rory, Ash, Ace, Georgia, and almost everyone else have been portrayed so well, no complaints there, really! Plus, the whole coming out thing and getting to explore one’s identity and how it is ok to be confused at first about who you’re and how it’s okay to take your time – all these points have been described so well, portrayed in such a lively manner through the characters, it makes me sob, really! This is not the first time Casey Mc Quiston has done this to me :)))))Another thing that cannot be overlooked is the vivid portrayal of the hypocrisy and the homophobic attitude of schools. I mean I don’t know much about the Southern Baptist schools or anything of that sort for that matter but since I’m from India, I’m not even surprised, really. The way the author has tackled serious issues like homophobia and addressed religious traumas is mesmerizing, and kudos to the author, for they did an amazing job with the right amount of humor, when and where needed.However, coming to all the parts I didn’t like, the loopholes in the plot top the list. There were so many parts where the story went on and on and on and it seemed like never-ending pain. There was so much space between one clue and the next and it got hard to follow and kinda baseless in places (?). However, the story did pick up pace towards the end, the first 280 pages are definitely not something I’d die to reread again.All in all, an important read, a funny one even, a pretty good romance if that’s the thing that you all wanted to hear, but definitely not something I’d recommend if you want to start with Casey Mc Quiston. Omw to get myself a copy of Red White and Royal Blue ASAP!

The media could not be loaded. I was looking forward to this book so much only for the physical copy I recieved from here to be the lowest quality of any book I've ever received. Forget about disappointing, this is downright insulting to every book collector: the quality of the pages is questionable and the pages look like it was xerox copied from the original novel and pasted together inside a used, dirty cover. It has completely turned me off from reading what I thought to be The read of this pride month. Overall just plain deplorable and certainly not worth the money spent by a thousand miles. For my part I'm never purchasing books from here again.

Sério, é um dos livros mais bonitos que eu tenho, é um livro que te prende do começo ao fim, você fica querendo saber o que vai acontecer com a Shara a todo custo, você começa até pensar que a bichinha morreu (é meio enrolado mas vale a pena), os personagens são todos bem feitos e com muita personalidade sabe, eu gostei mt desse livro, é muito fofo <3

Tardé mucho en leerlo y encariñarne con los personajes, pero al final me gustó mucho. Smith fue mi personaje favorito, creo que al final si sientes que vale la pena

While Red, White, and Royal Blue is one of my favorite books of all time, if not the favorite, I liked One Last Stop without much of an emotional connection to it. Split the difference and my expectations for Shara were adjusted. Especially since it was also YA and not necessarily a romance? But every single expectation I have or didn’t have was blown out of the water by Ms McQuiston with this book. Right away, we are hit with trademark CMQ humor, clever and quick, sometimes sly and often times openly roasting Alabama and all similar conservative pockets of America where being different can be a curse, teenager or otherwise.But this isn’t just an Alabama roast, nuh uh. This is a coming of age novel about teenagers trying to find a place in their world and figuring out their identities, even as they try to navigate it with BIG feelings and haywire hormones. A story which excavates beneath social hierarchies and the bravado of youth to find that under it all, we are all just trying to survive, and survival for different people means different things. Primarily told through the eyes of an over-achieving, sassy, confident (seemingly) senior, who learns a lot about herself through the course of the story. I’m as far removed from the experience of a queer high school student in the Bible Belt as it is possible to be, but I do know something about conservative societies, and the way the author tells the story makes it relatable to everyone. The cast of characters is diverse and delightfully queer and well, colorful, each so vivid and well drawn that their personalities sparkle off the page. And the moms! Just.Chloe is smart and uptight and cool and self admittedly b-tchy and a little self absorbed and totally obsessed with finding answers and getting to the bottom of this treasure hunt she’s been reluctantly (?) recruited to. To the detriment of everything else she holds dear. It’d be easy to hate her, but then you’re reminded that she’s just being a regular, if high strung teenager. Rory is the emo anti establishment rebel with a poet’s soul. Smith is the serene, soft spoken hot jock with a heart of solid gold. Shara is an enigma, either the perfect Angel as everyone knows her or an evil genius as Chloe sees her. Or neither or maybe a bit of both? Freaking cinematic Shara Wheeler. None of them are just the one thing, and peeling off each of their layers is immensely satisfying.The tension between the principle couple, let’s call them Character A and B, is so immaculate you can’t guess for a long time if the rivals will turn into lovers or if they’re actually planning to destroy one another. Both slightly Machiavellian, hyper competitive perfectionists racing to outwit one another, so different on the surface yet so similar at their core. And one of them isn’t even on page for most of the book, let alone having any kind of interaction with each other! It’s all in the ghostly presence, and the author’s storytelling prowess. That tension remains until the end, even if transformed into something new, each feeding off of the other’s competitiveness, so you never know whether they want to rip each other’s throats out or kiss each other’s face off. Okay maybe a little dramatic, but I’ve been in teen world too long now. There are several little secondary romance plots, and one of them especially is so utterly romantic and pure there were little cartoon hearts in my eyes.CMQ’s writing style is just so engaging, brilliant without being tedious. Their metaphors are genius and I could write an essay on those alone; or not, because I’m not that gifted. It all plays out like the updated ‘22 version of 90s high school movies, with all the fluttery feelings and dramatic moments, but make it queer and way cooler. This book is like a monster turducken! IYKYK. I’ve been unimpressed by the final acts of a bunch of books lately, but tbh this one gets even better in about the last 40%. The last third or so of the book is delightfully heartwarming and uplifting and I needed that in my life. I haven’t been so refreshed and moved by contemporary YA in a while. Brb crying in wholesome.

🇩🇪 Die Geschichte hat für mich ein kleines bisschen den Vibe von Pretty Little Liars / Gossip Girl (bezogen auf die TV Serien). Viele witzige Stellen, aber auch nachdenkliche Momente. Eben von allem etwas. Ich hab das Buch verschlungen. Die verschiedenen Charaktere waren divers und ich hab (fast) jeden einzelnen ins Herz geschlossen. Es ist ein super Unterhaltungsroman der mich gefesselt hat. Noch dazu kann man das Buch richtig gut lesen und verstehen, auch wenn man nicht die besten Englischkenntnisse hat.🇺🇲 I absolutly loved this book. The story was easy to follow for a non-native speaker. Funny but also pensive. It kind of gave me some pretty little liars / gossip girl vibes. I'm looking forward to read some more books from Casey McQuiston and can absolutly recommend this book with it's cute story and likable characters.

Truly amazing. I am currently in the last few pages and I am finding this to be close to the level of the Size 12 series by Meg Cabot.A puzzle on several levels. A serious romance. A story about a stricker than average church school.