A Beginner's Guide To Kasie West

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.

The Distance Between Us

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.

Full Review

On The Fence

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.

Full Review

The Fill-In Boyfriend

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.

Full Review

P.S. I Like You

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.

Full Review

By Your Side

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.

Lucky In Love

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.

Love, Life And The List

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.

Listen To Your Heart

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.

Fame, Fate and the First Kiss

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.

Maybe This Time

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.

Moment Of Truth

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 :)

Author Spotlight | Morgan Matson

I thought it might be interesting to do something new today and talk about an author I love in an Author Spotlight post. This has been something I wanted to do for a while but I am so busy trying out new authors that there are very few whose work I have read completely. I'm not entirely sure the best way to do this but I thought I would give a brief synopsis of her published works, give you my thoughts on them, including my favourite to least favourite, and maybe recommend the best order to read them.

Morgan Matson currently has four published works - Amy & Rodger's Epic Detour, Second Chance Summer, Since You've Been Gone and The Unexpected Everything - with another six novels under the pen name Katie Finn, which I won't be discussing this time but maybe in future when I've actually read them. She also has one upcoming book, due for publication in June 2018, called Save The Date. She writes YA contemporary romance novels, all set during Summer and dealing with some more serious topics amongst the summer fun.

Amy & Rodger's Epic Detour is Morgan Matson's first book under that name and follows two teenagers as they roadtrip across America. Amy has recently lost her father in a car accident and her family is now moving across the country. Due to the circumstances surrounding her father's death, Amy is not comfortable driving and so her mother enlists the help of family friend Rodger to drive Amy to her new home.
This is a very fun summer roadtrip story but also deals with grief and moving on after losing someone so close to you. As has become quite common in Morgan Matson's books, there are playlists, scrapbook entries and various other cool little additions to the story, which I loved. This is the one of her books that I remember the least about, perhaps as it was the first I read or it may just be the least memorable to me. I really enjoyed this book but I didn't love it. For me, the story fell a bit flat and I didn't connect well with the characters. I would recommend if you like...roadtrips, music, cute bookish boys, books dealing with grief.

Second Chance Summer is Morgan Matson's second book. This book is definitely her most emotional so far. It follows a girl whose family is returning to their lake house for one final summer together as her father is dying. As well as her family situation, returning to the lake house is further complicated by her former best friend and first boyfriend.
This book completely destroyed me so come prepared to sob your heart out when reading this. It was a beautifully written, heart-warming story about facing the loss of a loved one and making up for wasted time. However, there is also a lot of summer adventures and beach fun so it's not all terribly sad. This book contains some really great characters and one of the most adorable romances. Taylor, the main character, was so easy to relate to and I connected with her straight away. I would recommend if you like...books that will rip your heart out and stomp on it repeatedly, small towns, beach fun, a strong family focus.

Since You've Been Gone is the book that seems to have brought Morgan Matson the popularity she has today. This follows a girl whose best friend leaves unexpectedly at the beginning of summer and leaves her a list of tasks to complete. With the aim of pushing her out of her comfort zone and becoming her own person, the tasks range from 'apple picking at night' to 'kiss a stranger' and take Emily on a true summer adventure.
This is by far her most fun book. We have no death in this one, at least that I can remember, just a whole lot of fun. I love lists so the to-do list was a great addition to the story and some of the tasks were great. This is the kind of book that makes you want to get out and enjoy your summer, make the most of the time you have and live your life to the fullest. It also features my favourite of Morgan Matson's characters. Emily. the main character, is such a relatable character and I absolutely loved seeing her grow as she ticked off the tasks on her list. There was also, of course, an adorable romance and more of the signature playlists included. I would recommend if you like...bucket lists, summer fun, a focus on friendship, adorable romance.

The Unexpected Everything is Morgan Matson's most recent release. This follows a girl whose summer plans have been ruined following a scandal involving her politician father. No longer accepted to her internship, Andie finds herself walking dogs and sharing a house with her father who hasn't been around in years.
This is another very fun book but again has some more serious aspects, as Andie is still dealing with the loss of her mother. It also deals with the difficult relationship she has with her father, which was one of my favourite things in the book. I really loved the dog-walking as well, it was great fun and obviously introduced Andie to the adorable love interest. As Clark is a writer, excerpts of his books are included throughout the book, which I wasn't really a fan of to be honest. The rest of the book definitely made up for those small parts, though, so I would just skim over them. There was also a great emphasis on friendship, as is often the case in her books, which I really enjoyed. I would recommend if you like...dogs, father-daughter relationships, books dealing with grief, epic scavenger hunts, tight friendship groups.

There we have all four of Morgan Matson's published works. You can probably guess from my thoughts on each book how I would rank them but I'll do it anyway. From favourite to least favourite, and with the ratings I gave, we have:

1. Since You've Been Gone - ★★★★
2. Second Chance Summer - ★★★★
3. The Unexpected Everything - ★★★★
4. Amy & Rodger's Epic Detour - ★★★½

In terms of what order to read these books in, there is only one answer. If you want to get the most out of her books, read them in publication order. As all of them are predominantly set in the same town, there are a lot of cameo appearances and crossovers between the books. It's really fun to pick up on those little moments as your read through the books and an added bonus when your favourite character pops up.

I hope this has been helpful for those looking to pick up one of Morgan Matson's books but not sure where to start or what would be for them. Her books are definitely great to read in the summer and often stay with you long after you've reached the final page.

Sophie :)