Full review to follow!

Quick thoughts:
- If there was ever a doubt in my mind that Rainbow Rowell books and I won't ever get along, Carry On has confirmed it.
- I don't understand the appeal of this book.
- Even as supposed 'fan fiction', this was not any good.
- Sluggish pacing, boring plot, and a lot of it just felt very formulaic.
- Where was the chemistry between Baz and Simon Snow? Their relationship seemed pretty insubstantial. And lacked emotional depth.
- I wasn't really rooting for anyone. I couldn't invest in any of the characters.
- I HATED THE MAGIC SYSTEM. I really couldn't, for the life of me, read the incantations without cringing.
- This read more like a subpar parody of Harry Potter than a well-written fanfiction that can stand on its own as an independent story.
- It just was not my cup of tea.

Actual rating: 2 stars

“I’m not the Chosen One,” he says.
I meet his gaze and sneer. My arm is a steel band around his waist.
“I choose you,” I say. “Simon Snow, I choose you.”

Excuse me while I faint.

This book is so beautiful that I was left speechless. And you can think 'oh 522 pages, that's looong', but truly, is a quick and easy read. So why I give it only 3 stars? Well...
- The first 30% of the book is B O R I N G. There's a lot of worldbuilding with a lot of descriptions, where. nothing. happens.
- Because in that same first 30% of the book there is no Baz. And he's the best of the book, so...
- AND BECAUSE OF THAT ENDING. It's so abrupt, and open, and just... bad.

Still it was a great reading experience. I fell so in love with the characters that I can see myself re-reading this book soon. I want to live with them forever!

Also I would like to add that this is NOT A DRARRY FANFIC. It's a Ronan-Adam FANFIC. There's plenty evidence out there. Just read it and see it for yourself.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me, but I'm sure others will love it.

Another touching read by Rainbow Rowell. Not as masterful as her previous title but a very good one, nonetheless.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Simon Snow just wants to relax and savour his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, but no one will let him. His girlfriend broke up with him, his best friend is a pest and his mentor keeps trying to hide him away in the mountains where maybe he'll be safe. Simon can't even enjoy the fact that his room-mate and longtime nemesis is missing, because he can't stop worrying about the evil git. Plus there are ghosts. And vampires. And actual evil things trying to shut Simon down. When you're the most powerful magician the world has ever known, you never get to relax and savour anything. Based on the characters Simon and Baz who featured in Rainbow Rowell's bestselling Fangirl, Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you'd expect from a Rainbow Rowell story - but far, far more monsters.

Gotta start off by saying that this is one of my favourite YA novels I have read for a long time. What an absolute treat of a novel - the simple fact of the matter is that I don't even know how to write a review that won't spoil everything...so I will just talk about the positive things.

* The writing was a pleasure to read. At times, wonderous and stunning, there was absolutely no issue with the way this book was written. If more YA authors would take a leaf out of this example, they would go a long way towards being far more successful.

* The characters were magic. Simon was so easy to get to like - and get to know - that I found myself very quickly wanting to know more and more, cheering him on as he battled everything thrown at him - human or otherwise. Baz was similar, but I really did love Simon.

* The world that Rowell created was indeed magical. I have seen some negativity about the spells and the like, but that really didn't bother me at all. I don't want to have to learn a whole new language to know what is going on - especially in a standalone novel. I will take simplicity if it means that the plot moves forward simply and quickly.

The one thing that did stop this from being a 5-star book was the first part of the book. Slow, and filled with info-dumps about Simon's first few years at magic school and the issues between Simon and Baz. Could have used a better way to bring those things across to the reader but, really, that was about the only thing that I found wrong with this book.

Absolutely recommended YA fiction. Get it!


Paul
ARH

I ordinarily love Rainbow Rowell’s writing, but this story left me flat.

I haven't yet read Fangirl ( I have tried but just couldn't get into it) so I didn't really know what to expect going into this. Besides that, it was a type of fanfiction.

Very early on it was easy to tell that it was fanfiction, but it also felt like things got started really slow, and I could have done without the first 100 or so pages. A lot of info gets put in because we didn't have any back story to explain what was happening, so it was understandable but a bit much at once as well.

We do get to see multiple points of views from Simon, Baz, Agatha and Penelope and few other characters here and there.
Simon's obsession with Baz not only seemed unhealthy but a bit much after awhile. I did like his friendship with Penelope and Agatha were nice to see, and both were very strong in what they believed in and were level headed for the most part.

The world itself is different from harry potter, and it did feel like an older version of it mixed in with vampires. Magic while present wasn't used all the time either in fact Simon hardly used any at all with an actual wand which was interesting.

Overall I really did enjoy it and It surprisingly was a quick read. The romance was okay, it did seem to go from hate to love rather fast, but it had been building for awhile from what the other characters were saying. I am now interested in reading other books by Rainbow Rowell. I'm thinking about going with Landline first.

I am annoyed at myself for how long it took me to pick this book up. I guess the main reason being that I largely skimmed over the fanfiction parts of Fangirl featuring Baz and Simon so I figured a whole book about them (and a rather thick one at that) wouldn't hold my interest.
However when the new edition with the fantastic cover art was released I knew it was time to buy it and I started reading it straight away. I always knew about the Harry Potter connection but I was startled how alike it was at the start of the book but then it goes on its own journey.
I absolutely loved it and if anything it has made me want to dive into all the Harry Potter books again. And reread Fangirl.

arry On nos narra la historia de Simon Snow, un chico bastante normal, todo la normal que puedes ser siendo el mago más poderoso del mundo. Una profecía dicta que Simon tendrá que salvar al mundo del Humdrum, un ser que amenaza con robar toda la magia. Y mientras todo esto ocurre, y una guerra en el mundo mágico amenaza con estallar, Simon tiene que lidiar con Baz, su compañero de cuarto y enemigo declarado, al que tendrá que ayudar a descubrir quién es el asesino de su madre.

La verdad es que tiene una trama un tanto confusa. La historia de Carry On en un principio estaba un poco basada en Harry Potter, pero Rainbow Rowell le da la vuelta y crea algo, que si bien tiene muchas cosas en común con la historia de Rowling, realmente no tiene nada que ver. La trama me ha parecido liosa ya que cuando el libro empieza toda la historia está enredada. En fangirl Cath nos cuenta que Carry On son más o menos unos siete libros (no sé, no tengo ni idea, pero más o menos), y este sería el último, así que anteriormente ya han ocurrido un montón de cosas que Rainbow Rowell nos explica por encima.
La relación de Simon y Baz como ya os digo ha sido lo mejor. Me pasaba todo el tiempo queriendo que estuviesen a solas, y cada vez que leía una parte de ellos me moría de fangirleo, me sonrojaba y suspiraba cual colegiala enamorada. Sin duda se han convertido en una de mis parejas literarias favoritas (nunca superarán a Jake y Henry, pero les amo mazo igual).

Such a fun book set in the same universe as FanGirl! Absolutely loved reading this one, and the characters were so exciting!

I receieved a free e-edition of this novel courtesy of Pan Macmillan via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I did NOT expect to love this as much as I did.

It was a perfect mixture of magic (and boy, was there a lot of magic, there were spells for anything and everything, some of which seemingly a lot more useful than others - there were definitely a few I wouldn't mind having at my own disposal), humour, snark and Harry Potter vibes (which were admittedly fanfic level at the start of the novel, but it worked in favour of this particular novel)- oh, and THE OTP. I shipped the ship even before it sailed. So, so, so much. It is definitely now one of my favourites to ever set sail.

However, the beginning was a bit slow, and it was largely an info dump which made me enjoy the story a bit less than I would have. Oh... and Agatha... yeah - she posed a few problems as well, I outright despised her and groaned internally whenever she appeared throughout the story...

The book was narrated by so many characters, but somehow I managed to deal with that for the entirety of its length - and it was a lengthy length but after the beginning third or quarter or so whilst we were exposed to Simon's relationships with everyone in the book, and the entire backstory, the pace picked up to a bearable speed and before long I was so absorbed in the story I didn't really register the length of what I was reading at all!

The characters in this book... were goshdarn brilliant! Apart from the aforementioned Agatha. I honestly loved everyone else - and their interactions. I definitely thought friendship was a key theme of this book and played a huge part throughout. I really liked Penelope's characters, she was like the Hermione of the group - but personally, better? I don't know how that is possible, but I do know that I preferred her that way.

I loved the fact that the romance didn't overpower the entire plot, it was also a very tasteful mix of teenage angst and tangible love. The balance was struck between the love and hate of Baz and Simon. Baz was also such an interesting character by himself, definitely complimenting Simon's slightly more mopey and dependent side which really did balance out the story a lot more.

Rowell has a writing style that is incredibly hard to dislike, it is so easy to read and engages with you. More often than not I laughed throughout -there were so many deviations from the norm of fantasy novels, and from Harry Potter on which the book was based. It was truly an original take on fanfics.

I was sceptical of this book at first, but I am so glad that I have - and I can definitely say that I will be returning to it in the future.

My Rating: Solidest of 4/5 Stars

I was skeptical about this one from the mixed reviews other people had, but I really loved it. I also loved Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, but did not actually like the fanfic in that book and usually skipped those parts. In this one, I loved seeing the relationship and tension develop between Simon and Baz. I really loved both of their characters and their interactions. It was nice to come back to this familiar world and see how things would have worked out under different circumstances. Looking forward to picking this up again soon!

I am a huge Rainbow Rowell fan and was so excited to read Carry On. I hate to admit it, but I really wasn't as in love with it as it seems like everyone else was. It was light, fluffy, and fun like most of Rainbow's other books, but it felt a little drawn out at the beginning and rushed at the end.

I enjoyed the plot for the most part, but Simon's character really bothered me for some reason. He was "The Chosen One", yet he never really seemed to be all that special, and he knew it too. He was constantly whining and complaining and I never felt a connection with him. I also felt like there were way to many things that copied Harry Potter. The story had so many similarities that I was constantly forced to compare the two stories.

All in all, I enjoyed the story, but it didn't live up to the expectations. I love every other story Rowell has written, but this one didn't suck me in like the rest. I would still recommend it to friends if you enjoyed Fangirl, but it wouldn't be on my top list of books this year.

This book was absolutely beautiful. I re read this book like 3 times. I loved it so much especially the characters. I purchased 7 copies for my class. My students loved this amazing book as well.