“I Kissed Shara Wheeler” – Casey McQuiston
YA romance, mystery, LGBTQ+
This was our “Readers Dozen” bookclub pick of June.
“Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and the puritanical administration of Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny.
But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes.
On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she’s not the only one Shara kissed. There’s also Smith, Shara’s longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara’s bad boy neighbor with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara’s trail of clues and find her. It’ll be worth it, if Chloe can drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair and square.
Thrown into an unlikely alliance, chasing a ghost through parties, break-ins, puzzles, and secrets revealed on monogrammed stationery, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to this small town than she thought. And maybe–probably not, but maybe–more to Shara, too.”
This was such a surprisingly great and addictive book! After not enjoying Red White Royal Blue but enjoying One Last Stop- I had no expectation for this one. I had seen it a lot on socials- and hyped books hardly ever work with me but I still like to give them a chance. And I’m really happy I did. I loved the story and the characters. Absolutely adored Smith and Rory. Obviously Chloe, Shara, Summer and the others were lovely as well. But Smith and Rory were the ones I really liked. I was definitely not expecting any of the revelations about why Shara disappeared- so that’s a good point, because I like not being able to guess the plot straight away otherwise the book can become a bit boring, right?
Even if this book was super addictive I only gave it four stars because the chapters are sooooo long. Who likes long chapters? Not me… and I felt like it was dragging a bit, and there was “extra” not needed in some chapters that could have been replaced by more twists and maybe more plots. Because I felt like maybe it was too … shallow? Yeah maybe the main plot with the disappearance and the revelations could have been way bigger.
Overall it was a great book, and I highly recommend it!
4/5 ⭐️
Morgane. x
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