4.3
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3,228 ratings
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
INSTANT #1 INDIE BESTSELLER
INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER
Casey McQuiston's beloved #1 New York Times bestselling romantic comedy, now in paperback with an all new Shara-POV chapter!
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.
Fierce, funny, and frank, Casey McQuiston's I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about breaking the rules, getting messy, and finding love in unexpected places.
"An unfettered joy to read." - The New York Times
"McQuiston has done it again." - USA Today
"You won't want to miss." - Good Housekeeping
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ISBN-10
1250847362
ISBN-13
978-1250847362
Print length
384 pages
Language
English
Publisher
Wednesday Books
Publication date
June 03, 2024
Dimensions
5.4 x 1 x 8.2 inches
Item weight
10.9 ounces
Call me old-fashioned, but a man’s place is in the basement, preparing vocal exercises for his more talented wife.
Highlighted by 972 Kindle readers
Chloe, we’re gay. We can’t do math. Okay, well, next time I’ll come and make a spreadsheet. This is why we need you, Georgia says. Once in a generation, there is born a bisexual who can do math. You’re the chosen one.
Highlighted by 755 Kindle readers
Oh my God, Chloe says out loud. Her brain is overheating, probably. I’m in love with a monster turducken.
Highlighted by 715 Kindle readers
ASIN :
B09CHCFFFL
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2252 KB
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Enabled
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Supported
Enhanced typesetting :
Enabled
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Not Enabled
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Praise for I Kissed Shara Wheeler:
“I Kissed Shara Wheeler is an unfettered joy to read. It’s a love story starring two brilliant, ruthless queer girls who fight for what they want, and woe to any unjust authorities that stand in their way." - The New York Times
"McQuiston has done it again… A YA novel with a swoon-worthy romance readers have come to expect from their first two triumphant works.” -USA Today (4/4 stars)
"This one has it all: rivals who share a shocking kiss, a mysterious disappearance, an unexpected alliance and the kind of page-turning drama that makes McQuiston one of the best in the game. You won't want to miss this one." - Good Housekeeping
"Casey McQuiston has become the go-to author for all-the-feels queer summer romance." - Entertainment Weekly, "12 sizzling summer reads to heat up your beach days"
"[A] charming queer romance...Like Dua Lipa once sang, one kiss is all it takes." - E! News
"Funny and compassionate." - Time
"An absolute must-read." - Book Riot, "10 Queer Romcoms That Will Make You Swoon"
"Get me to a beach because I'm ready to pick this book up and not put it down." - Genevieve Padalecki
"I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a love letter to all of us queer kids who were high schoolers in the ’90s. Especially those of us who lived in small towns and whose social scenes revolved around Friday night football games and church on Sunday. [An] unexpected mystery and love story all in one." - Bust
"McQuiston says that love is indomitable, and when I’m lost in their worlds, I really believe it." - Autostraddle
"Chosen family and LGBTQIA+ elders are given weight to the central romantic story lines in this thoughtful meditation on LGBTQIA+ identity, pride, popularity, academic success, jealousy, and idolization." - Booklist (starred review)
"I Kissed Shara Wheeler assures readers that although hurt is real, love is complicated and friends can let you down, the world is wide and nothing is impossible." - BookPage (starred review)
"Brimming with classic YA plotlines, crisp writing, humorous asides, and fully fleshed characters and relationships―many queer―keep things fresh, leading to a genuinely hopeful ending that centers themes of authenticity and autonomy. " - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The most impressive accomplishment in McQuiston’s first YA book is complicated Shara Wheeler herself." - BookPage, "Best YA Books of 2022"
“This is a teenage Harriet the Spy – complete with romance, angst, rebellion and Taco Bell. In a year when LGBTQ youth and their families have faced intense political attacks, this book feels like a warm embrace." - NPR, “Best Books 2022”
"...a delightful, heartwarming, accessible-for-all read...It made me smile and think back on how a book like this could have changed my whole life when I was 17." - Newsweek, "Newsweek Staffers' Favorite Books of 2022 for Everyone on Your Gift List"
"...classic and familiar, and yet, something genuinely new and exciting all on its own...the perfect recipe whipped up into a movie-ready story." - Joey from Joey's Nook, Buzzfeed
"In every possible way, I Kissed Shara Wheeler is the perfect YA novel...If future YA novels read anything like I Kissed Shara Wheeler, I can assure you I will be reading them." - The Michigan Daily
"Chloe is a wonderful protagonist, whip-smart, determined, flawed, but bold enough to be fully herself even in unwelcoming circumstances... Since reading I Kissed Shara Wheeler, I’ve found a new place in my heart for YA novels."- Susie Dumond, Book Riot
“Crisp, smart writing, fun twists, and a genuinely charming mystery surrounding the search for a missing prom queen.”- Paste Magazine
"Electrifying... a perfect summer read." - The Buffalo News
"I really can’t wait for this one...I can already see [a] movie being made." - Betches
"Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by this funny, weird, razor-sharp, intensely compassionate, subversive, sweet, electrifyingly romantic knockout of a book. Casey freaking McQuiston, you’ve done it again.” - Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Kate in Waiting and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
"The master of meet-cute yet empowered romance novels that delve deep into the LGBTQ+ experience, McQuiston creates swoon-worthy, funny stories that should appeal to every reader. I am a sucker for coming-of-age novels, and this book ― McQuiston's first young adult novel ― feels like The Breakfast Club meets Election." - Emily Giffin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed and Where We Belong
"In their first YA novel, Casey McQuiston brings their A-game once again." - Cosmopolitan
"The author of Red, White & Royal Blue and One Last Stop brings their whip-smart rom-com sensibility to the young adult genre." - Bitter Southerner
"...will keep ya hooked until the last page." - the Skimm
"Quirky, fun, revealing. Lesson: everyone can learn; everyone can grow." - Lavender Magazine
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1
HOURS SINCE SHARA WHEELER LEFT: 12
DAYS UNTIL GRADUATION: 42
Chloe Green is going to put her fist through a window.
Usually when she has a thought like that, it means she’s spiritually on the brink. But right now, squared up to the back door of the Wheeler house, she’s actually physically ready to do it.
Her phone flashes the time: 11:27 a.m. Thirty-three minutes until the end of the late service at Willowgrove Christian Church, where the Wheelers are spending their morning pretending to be nice, normal folks whose nice, normal daughter didn’t stage a disappearing act at prom twelve hours ago.
It has to be an act, is the thing. Obviously, Shara Wheeler is fine. Shara Wheeler is not missing. Shara Wheeler is doing what she does: a doe-eyed performance of blank innocence that makes everyone think she must be so deep and complex and enchanting when really, she’s the most boring bore in this entire unbearably boring town.
Chloe is going to prove it. Because she’s the only one smart enough to see it.
She wanted to enjoy her prom night after an entire year chasing early admission deadlines and her spot at the top of the class of ’22. It took weeks to thrift the perfect dress (black chiffon and lace, like a sexy vampire assassin), and it was supposed to be a perfect prom. Not the perfect prom—no dates, no corsages—but her perfect prom. Just her friends in fancy outfits piling into Benjy’s car, screaming Lil Yachty in a room with a chandelier, and collapsing into a Waffle House booth at one in the morning.
But thirty minutes before the prom court was announced, she saw her: Shara, rosy lips and a waterfall of almond-pink tulle, brushing past refreshments on her way to the door. Chloe had been watching her all night, waiting for a chance to get her alone.
Except when she got to the door, Shara was gone, and when student council president Brooklyn Bennett got up on stage to crown Shara as prom queen, she was still gone. Nobody saw her leave, and nobody’s seen her since, but her white Jeep is missing from the Wheelers’ driveway.
So here Chloe is, the morning after, makeup smudged around her eyes and hair crunchy with hairspray, ready to break into Shara’s house.
She finds the spare key inside a conspicuously smooth rock with Joshua 24:15 engraved on it. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
The whole drive to the country club, she imagined the look on Shara’s face when she saw Chloe at her door. The big, shocked green eyes, the theatrical gasp, the dawning realization that her little stunt for attention isn’t going to work out the way she planned because Chloe is a hot genius who can’t be fooled. The sheer satisfaction was going to power Chloe through finals and probably like, the first two years of college.
But when she sticks her head through the open door and scans the Wheelers’ enormous kitchen, Shara’s nowhere.
So, she does what anyone else in her position would do. She shuts the door behind her and does a sweep of the first floor.
Shara’s not here.
Okay. That’s fine. But she’s definitely somewhere. Probably upstairs, in her room.
In the upstairs hallway, a half-open door reveals a bathroom that must be Shara’s. Beige-and-pink wallpaper, porcelain countertop lined with rosewater skincare products and a bottle of her signature nail polish (Essie, Ballet Slippers). Chloe hovers at the doorway; this isn’t her objective, but there’s a flower-patterned silk scrunchie next to the sink that she’s never seen before, no matter how many AP classes she’s spent glaring at the back of Shara’s head. Shara exclusively wears her shiny blond hair down. That’s like, her thing. She must put it up to wash her face at night.
Irrelevant.
Chloe pauses at the next door. It’s slightly ajar and marked with a hand-painted pink S.
It’d be a lie—a huge, Willowgrove-Christian-Academy-football-budget-sized lie—to say she’s never envisioned what sort of perfection incubator Shara Wheeler climbs inside when she goes home every day. A tank of goo to preserve her dewy complexion? A professional hairstylist on retainer? Where does Shara go when she’s not having picturesque Starbucks dates with her quarterback boyfriend or spinning out suspiciously good comparative lit essays? Who is she when, for once, nobody is looking?
Only one way to find out.
She kicks the door open, and—
The room is empty.
Shara’s room is, of course, a nice, normal room. Suspiciously plain, even. Bed, dresser, nightstand, vanity, bookshelf-slash-desk combo, eggshell lamp with a silver chain. There’s a dried homecoming corsage on the windowsill and a tube of Burt’s Bees lip balm in a seashell dish on the dresser, alongside a bottle of lilac body spray and a pile of bookmarked paperbacks for school. The walls are a simple biege, with framed photos of her family and her boyfriend and her flock of identical pointy-elbowed, flowy-haired friends with perfect Glossier faces.
Where’s the Glossier Gang now? Nursing their prom hangovers, Chloe guesses. Clearly, none of them are here looking for clues. That’s the thing about popular kids: They don’t have the type of bond forged in the fire of being weird and queer in small-to-medium-town Alabama. If Chloe tried to ghost like this, there’d be a militia of Shakespeare gays kicking down every door in False Beach.
Why isn’t Shara here?
Chloe clenches her fists, steps inside, and starts with the desk.
If there’s no Shara to interrogate, maybe her room has some answers. She peers through the contents of the desk and shelves, looking for Shara’s Gone Girl calendar with days of the week marked by “gather supplies” and “frame Chloe for my murder.” All she finds are college brochures and a box of pink stationery monogrammed with Shara’s initials—thank-you cards for the imminent flood of graduation checks from rich family. No incriminating diary pages crammed in the wastepaper basket, just the cardboard packaging for some lip gloss.
Jewelry box: nothing notable. Closet: clothes, a carefully organized shoe rack, prom and homecoming dresses zipped inside tidy garment bags. (Who uses garment bags?) Underwear drawer: half-empty, enough modest petal-soft things gone for a week or two. Bed: over the tucked-in ivory quilt, a neatly folded Harvard T-shirt. God forbid anyone forget that Shara got into her first-choice school, with offers from basically every other Ivy in the country.
Chloe releases a hiss through her teeth. This is just a bunch of perfectly normal stuff, suggesting the perfectly normal life of a perfectly normal girl.
She doubles back to the vanity, opening the drawer. Tubes of lip gloss line up neatly in almost identical shades of neutral pink, most half-used, labels rubbing off. At the end of the row, one is brand-new, so full and shiny it could have only been used once, if ever. She recognizes its packaging from the wastepaper basket.
When she twists the cap off, the scent hits her just as hard as it did the first time she smelled it: vanilla and mint.
The window opens.
Chloe swears, drops to the carpet, and crawls under the desk.
A pair of black Vans appears on the windowsill, bringing with them the skinny frame of a boy in distressed jeans and a flannel. He pauses—she can’t see his face, but his body twists like he’s checking that the coast is clear—and then drops down into the room.
Dark curly hair with caramel highlights, light brown skin, long and straight nose, a jawline both square and delicate like fishbone.
Rory Heron. Willowgrove’s answer to every brooding bad boy from every late ’90s teen drama. The most eligible bachelor amongst the stoners-skaters-and-slackers rung of the social ladder. She’s never had a class with him, but she’s heard he doesn’t attend them much, anyway.
She watches as his eyes track the same path she did—the dresser, the bed, the pictures on the wall. After noticing he’s kicked the corsage off the sill and onto the floor, he picks it up with gentle fingers and examines the dried buds before returning it to its place. Chloe’s eyes narrow. What is Rory Heron doing here, in Shara’s bedroom, fondling her corsages?
Then he turns to the desk, sees her, and screams.
Chloe lunges to her feet and slaps her hand over his mouth.
“Shut up,” Chloe hisses. Up close, his eyes are hazel-y brown and wide open in alarm. “The neighbors could hear you.”
“I am the neighbors,” he says when she releases him.
Chloe stares at him, trying to reconcile Rory’s whole persona with the extreme uptightness of the False Beach Country Club. “You live here?”
Rory glares. “What, I don’t look like I could afford to live here?”
“You seem like you’d rather die than live here,” Chloe says.
“Believe me, it’s not by choice,” Rory says, still scowling, but in a different flavor now. “You’re—Chloe, right? Chloe Green? What are you doing under Shara’s desk?”
“What are you doing climbing through Shara’s window?”
“You first.”
“I—I, uh,” Chloe stammers. Rory’s entrance startled some of the fire out of her, and now she’s not sure how to explain herself. Her face starts to heat; she wills it to stop. “I heard she ran away last night.”
“I heard the same thing,” Rory says. He talks with the same kind of studied disaffection that he carries himself with, shoulders slumped and impartial. “Did you—do you know where she is?”
“No, I just—I wanted to see if she was really gone.”
“So you broke into her house,” Rory says flatly.
“I used a key!”
“Yeah, that’s still breaking and entering.”
“Only if I commit a crime.”
“Okay, trespassing.”
“What do you call climbing through her window, then?”
Rory pauses, glancing down at the toes of his Vans. “That’s different. She told me she was leaving her window unlocked.”
“Not an invitation, dude.”
“Jesus Christ, I told you, I’m her neighbor. People like, ask their neighbors to check on their stuff while they’re gone all the time. It’s a thing.”
“And that’s what you’re doing?”
“I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
Chloe pulls a skeptical face. “I’ve literally never seen you speak to her in my life.”
“You don’t even know her, do you?” Rory counters. “What are you doing here? Why do you care if she’s gone?”
Why does she care? Because she and Shara have both spent every day of their high school careers dedicated to the singular goal of graduating valedictorian, and the only thing Chloe has ever wanted as much as that title is the satisfaction of knowing Shara Wheeler can’t have it. Because Shara Wheeler has everything else.
Because if Shara’s really gone, that’s a forfeit, and Chloe Green does not win by default.
Because two days ago, Shara found her alone in the B Building elevator before fifth hour, pulled her in by the elbow, and kissed her until she forgot an entire semester of French. And Chloe still doesn’t know why.
“Why do you care?” she snaps back at Rory.
“Because I—I get her, okay? Her stupid-ass friends don’t, but I do.”
“Oh, you get her.” Chloe rolls her eyes. “So that makes you qualified to lead the search party.”
“No—”
“Then what does?”
There’s another pause. Rory shifts his weight from one foot to the other. And then he looks down at the desk, raises his dark brows, and says, “That.”
When Chloe follows his gaze, she finds an envelope sitting innocuously in a pink letter organizer. Shara’s cursive spells out Rory’s name on the front.
Rory’s name?
Rory’s arms are longer, but Chloe reacts faster. She snatches the envelope up and opens it with one finger, taking out a piece of that pink monogrammed stationery, and reads Shara’s flawless cursive out loud.
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Casey McQuiston
Casey McQuiston is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of romantic comedies, whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bon Appetit. Originally from southern Louisiana, Casey now lives in New York City.
Customer reviews
4.3 out of 5
3,228 global ratings
Justine
5
Clever and Compelling
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2024
Verified Purchase
I can honestly say when I started this book, I was not at all sure where it was headed. That does not often happen to me! The characters are real and raw, and I think each and every one of us would be able to see ourselves in one or more of them. I appreciated Chloe’s honesty and tenacity. I adored her family. Her friends, both old and new, each brought an interesting perspective, lighthearted moment, or proud offering. This is a wonderful story I will likely read again. :)
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Amazon Customer
5
the book i wish i had as a kid
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2022
Verified Purchase
I grew up in the South. I went to a Christian all girls high school, which was thankfully staffed with Richmond VA liberals who believed in giving a solid, well rounded education to their students. Still, it was the 90s, and I got the message everywhere--people like me shouldn't exist.
CMQ has written a different book here, tackling something they've skirted up against before with Henry's character in RWRB--the fact that many queer people grow up feeling like they shouldn't exist, that something is wrong with them, that they'll never quite belong. This time, they wrote that story with high school kids who weren't enormously privileged. They have decent homes and enough money to get to private school, but they're trapped in the world of their parents, a world that doesn't really have a place for them. This book is about them making space for themselves.
I wish I'd had this book when I was sixteen and not out, miserable, my body on high alert every day thinking someone would find me out, peel away my mask, and find out who I really was. I know there are going to be a lot of reviews railing against Shara, but boy is she relatable. When you're a queer kid with no support system, that stuff builds up inside you that you feel like you're going to fling yourself into the sun.
I didn't grow up with a queer community. There wasn't such a thing. This gave me a vision of what that might be like, what the future might be like for my kids. It made the 16 year old kid inside me feel not so terribly, terribly alone.
Beautifully done. Thank you. Thank you so much, from the very bottom of my gay little heart.
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41 people found this helpful
Michael James Wells
5
hate and love
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2024
Verified Purchase
This is a great coming of story. Chloe green has moved from California to Alabama. She is trying to find herself as she is changing from someone from California to someone from Alabama. I found the plot very good and the character was very engaging. This is a story about growing up and finding out what you really want in life.he is not living up to people expectations, but to find the real you. I recommend this story for all who like romance.
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ilana
5
Baby Gay Evil Lesbians
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2022
Verified Purchase
If Paper Towns (John Green) and Tryst Six Venom (Penelope Douglas) had a baby, it would be this. I'm sure YA authors are sick to death of the John Green comparison, but here it applies.
Like Paper Towns, it is a book about quests and capers and clues--attempts to find a beloved, enigmatic girl who turns out to just be a regular girl and not the magic pixie dream the main character believes her to be.
The dialogue is cute, quippy, and upbeat (and maybe just a liiiiitle twee at times.) The ensemble cast is important, not just window dressing. Their myriad storylines are complex and fully realized.
And in the end, everything turns out more or less okay. And there is, of course, a graduation.
Like Tryst Six, there are two intense, "The Girl" lesbians who are absolutely obsessed with each other. They hate each other, love each other, love to hate each other, and are so wrapped up in the games and lies they're blind to it.
One of the main characters is a supposedly perfect girl, pretty and blonde and gentile, who's full of anger and fear. She's a little bit evil (maybe more than a little.) The pressure from her parents and her peers keeps her from coming out of the closet. She can't even admit the truth to herself.
The other is an outsider. An outcast. And she wears that reputation like an armor, along with mankiller boots and black eyeliner.
In Sum:
This book is a YA version of Tryst Six--less dark, less sexual, less violent.
This book is Paper Towns with competitive, villainous lesbians--There's more stomping, growling, pushing people off boats, etc. Also, the relationship between the mains is a little more equal and has more time to blossom before it blooms.
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9 people found this helpful
Heather
5
Queer Paris Geller At Last!
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2024
Verified Purchase
Casey McQuiston makes me want to throw myself from a moving train, every single time. Which I mean in the best possible way, obviously. They are the most magical word wizard and they make my heart beat in the most dramatic ways. I wish someone had just told me this was Paris Geller 4 Paris Geller years ago!
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