It has been more than a year since I graduated college and I still often find myself reflecting on my experience. I think a lot about my regrets including spending too much time obsessing over grades and not allowing myself to open up to people and make friends. I didn’t make any new friends in college—just a string of acquaintances. So I was very excited when I picked up Again, but Better by Christine Riccio, which had a character going through a similar experience.

Shane is a pre-med college student who excels academically, but feels like her social life is extremely lacking. So she decides the best way to shake things up is to study abroad for a semester.  The novel starts with Shane on her way to London, and she makes a list of goals she wants to accomplish during her semester like make friends, do well in her internship, and have a romantic life.

Shane does achieve her goals to an extent. She meets a great group of people at her residence hall—including Pilot, a guy she has an instant connection with and develops a major crush on. She gets an internship at a travel magazine and travels to some really cool places like Italy and Paris.

However things do go south and her semester ends on a bad note. But that’s what magic is for. I didn’t mind this at all, because there were little foreshadowing tidbits throughout the book that pointed to some sort of magical event happening later on.

 In this magical twist, Shane gets to relive her study abroad semester. I liked this part, because it gave me so much to think about. There are times where I wonder if did my college experience all over again, what would have been different? I would have definitely made different choices: in regards to a major, and the extracurricular activities I chose, and how I interacted with people. 

I also love this part of the book, because I think that’s where I see the most character growth for Shane. Sure she met some of the goals I mentioned earlier, but in this part you see her learn new things about people she thought she knew really well. She also discovers what is actually important to her and what her true goals are.

I would recommend this book if you want a bit of a realistic, somewhat relatable escape and like stories that focus on self-discovery.