If you've been around here much at all in the six years of the existence of this blog, you may know that Kasie West is one of my all time favourite authors. She writes primarily YA contemporary romance and, as of right now, has a total of 13 published works. I have read all of her YA contemporary novels, so now seemed like a good time to try a give a little guide to Kasie West's books for those who maybe haven't read anything from her yet.
As well as her 11 YA contemporary romance novels, she also has a YA paranormal duology. While I have read the first book in that duology, Pivot Point, which you can find out my thoughts about here, I am going to focus on the contemporary novels today.
I'm going to be giving a little bit of information about each book, just enough that you get an idea of what it's about but not too much, and a bit about what I liked and didn't like so much. Then, at the end, I will be trying to rank all eleven books from my favourite to least favourite.
What It's About: Rich boy and not-so-rich girl with a mother who hates rich boys meet in a doll store. They start hanging out but hiding it from her mother. She also has a bit of a thing with the local rocker.
What's Good: Great quirky doll store setting, super sassy main character, adorable romance.
What's Not So Good: Really abrupt ending.
I would recommend if you like...slightly forbidden romance, love triangle, quirky setting, snarky main character, adorable romance.
What It's About: Tomboy girl raised by a single dad with three older brothers starts working at a boutique and discovers all things girly, while also falling for her next door neighbour through late night fence chats.
What's Good: Pretty much everything? Very family focused, nice family dynamic, great main character learning to be herself, some touches on grief and dealing with the death of a parent, the sweetest romance.
What's Not So Good: I don't remember anything I disliked about this.
I would recommend if you like...friends to lovers, brother's best friend romance, large families, single dads, grief, double life, a bit of sneaking around.
What It's About: After being dumped by her boyfriend in the parking lot of her high school prom, the boy waiting to pick up his sister becomes her fake boyfriend for a few hours.
What's Good: Fake dating trope done really well, very cute romance, good message about unhealthy female friendships and the perfect ending.
What's Not So Good: Slightly underwhelming characters.
I would recommend if you like...fake dating, great friendship between love interests, good message about friendship.
What It's About: Notes scribbled on a desk in Chemistry class turn into letters passed between anonymous pen pals. When Lily starts to fall for her pen pal, she has to figure out who he is.
What's Good: Back to the usual unique and quirky Kasie West characters, the best friendship without all the girl hate and drama, really interesting relationship development.
What's Not So Good: Harder to get in to, slow start, quite predictable, easy to guess who the letter writer is.
I would recommend if you like...relationship developing through letters, anonymous love interest, a bit of a mystery, great friendship, super cute relationship, awesome characters.
What It's About: A good girl and bad boy get stuck in a library together over a long weekend, waiting for someone to rescue them but nobody comes.
What's Good: What's not to love about characters stuck in a library? Fun library antics, a great bad boy love interest, really good anxiety rep, a more serious second half to the story.
What's Not So Good: Kind of dull main character who isn't much more than a girl with anxiety.
I would recomment if you like...enemies to lovers, bad boys, forced proximity, fun story with more serious elements, good anxiety rep, really cute relationship.
What It's About: A girl buys a lottery ticket on a whim and ends up winning. Everything in her life changes and everyone starts treating her differently, except her coworker who seems not to know about her win.
What's Good: Fun story, decent characters, cute romance, fun zoo setting.
What's Not So Good: A bit boring, nothing unique to the lottery winning storyline, predictable plot, so much drama.
I would recommend if you like...lottery wins, friends to lovers, zoo setting, a lot of drama.
What It's About: After getting rejected from an art show, a girl creates a list to improve her art and enlists the help of her best friend, who she happens to have the biggest crush on, to help complete it.
What's Good: Absolutely everything! The list aspect, the small beachy town setting, the best friendships, the most adorable friends to lovers storyline, amazing characters, a strong family aspect, anxiety rep, the evolution of the artwork as Abby grew as a person from her list.
What Not So Good: Tiny bit too much drama.
I would recommend if you like...friends to lovers, summer vibes, completing a list, great friendship group, finding new friendships, great banter between characters, amazing character development, strong family element, anxiety and how it can impact a whole family.
What It's About: A girl is unexpectedly chosen to host her school's advice podcast. The podcast gets an anonymous call from a guy asking for advice about his crush, and she's pretty sure she knows who it is.
What's Good: Fun story, cute romance, some good friendships, summer vibes, fun podcast element.
What's Not So Good: Generally forgettable, not the most exciting plot, friends wanting the same guy, family drama.
I would recommend if you like...podcasts, a bit of an anonymous love interest, drama, best friends interested in the same guy, lots of time spend on the lake.
What It's About: An aspiring actress is making her movie debut alongside a teen star but is struggling to bond with her costars, trying to deal with the annoying tutor her dad hired, and then discovers someone is trying to sabotage her.
What's Good: The best relationships between characters, really fun friendships, how the strained relationship with her father is handled.
What's Not So Good: Underwhelming romance, slightly juvenile sabotage plot, a bit boring.
I would recommend if you like...books about famous people, behind the scenes of a film set, great friendships, strained family relationships, mystery sabotage plot.
What It's About: Taking place during nine events over a year, a girl working in a small town florist helping plan the town's events finds herself clashing with the son of the fancy chef helping cater the events.
What's Good: Fun small town events with a bit of a Gilmore Girls feel, good banter between main characters, good friendships.
What's Not So Good: Only seeing the characters at events meant little character development, no flow to the story, not a lot of plot.
I would recommend if you like...Gilmore Girls, enemies to lovers, small town setting, set over a year.
What It's About: When a person dressed as action hero Heath Hall crashes the star swimmer's swim meet, she sets out to find out who was underneath the mask.
What's Good: The romance! The sweetest love interest, the perfect development of the relationship, great character development, interested family aspect that added a whole other layer to the story, how the mystery played out, the cameos from the Love, Life and the List characters.
What's Not So Good: The first half of the book. Boring to start with, initially very bland characters, the mystery plot wasn't interesting to start with.
I would recommend if you like...enemies to friends to lovers, super sweet love interest, great character development, dealing with grief, strained family relationships, swimming.
It might be quite easy to tell how I feel about a lot of these books by now, but I want to try and rank them from favourite to least favourite.
1. Love, Life And The List - My favourite relationship in a Kasie West book.
2. On The Fence - I just love this family dynamic.
3. By Your Side - I'm a sucker for a bad boy. And they're stuck in a library!
4. The Distance Between Us - As my first Kasie West, this will always have a special place in my heart.
5. The Fill-In Boyfriend - A fun story and fake dating is a trope I love.
6. P.S. I Like You - I love this relationship but it was a bit slow and predictable.
7. Listen To Your Heart - I really enjoyed this at the time but it's forgettable.
8. Moment Of Truth - If the whole book was like the second half, this would be way further up.
9. Fame, Fate And The First Kiss - I expected more from this and ended up disappointed and a little bored.
10. Lucky In Love - I'm not a fan of lottery win stories so this was never going to be a favourite.
11. Maybe This Time - I just don't think the story being told over nine events worked for me.
If you are looking for where to start with Kasie West, I would definitely recommend starting with one of her older books. Although I read most of them a while ago and could probably do with rereading them, I still think her older ones are better. I would say On The Fence, By Your Side or PS I Like You would probably be great ones to start with and seem to be the ones I hear most people enjoying.
The great thing about Kasie West is the fact there is a book of hers for pretty much any of the popular tropes, so she should have something to suit anyone. My one negative is the lack of diversity in her books. While she has started to include more racially diverse side characters and love interests in her books, I am hoping she will feature more diversity in her books in future.
I was a bit unsure about how to do this kind of post and I'm still not sure I really love how I have ended up doing it, so if you have any suggestions for how to improve this for any future author guides, please let me know. Also, if you're curious about something I haven't covered in this post, or have any questions about Kasie West's books, feel free to ask away.
Have you read any books by Kasie West? What was your favourite?
Sophie :)
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