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madlovenovelist 's review for:
P.S. I Like You
by Kasie West
Actual rating 3.5 stars.
Another enjoyable read from Kasie West. She’s still totally killing it, and one of my automatic buy authors. Her stories are cute, cliché romances that leave you with a warm hug.
‘P.S. I Like You’ was no different. Our protagonist, Lily, is a quirky hipster musician and quickly found her way into my heart. Her insecurities and social ineptitude pulled her into the ranks of ‘sister’ from the get-go. I will say the madness of her large family household was written perfectly. It was like I was there with her, the noise, clutter, interruptions all in technicolour goodness. I don’t think I have read a book that knocked family life on the head like this so succinctly. I was impressed.
This story did give me a sharp current of agitation though. The way Lily’s situation unfolded with Cade was narcissistic in a way, and left a bad taste in the back of my throat for over half the novel. This was balanced out by other less aggravating male characters – which was both a positive and a negative for me. Love triangles, or any other shape, vying for the plain girl is so overdone. And I know ‘P.S. I Like You’ does not quite fall into this category, but comes close enough for me to grind my teeth.
I was also left wondering where mutual respect had gone for most of the cast… if you think someone had a boy/girlfriend, then there should be no reason to flirt. That is just distasteful. And to continue for weeks – well that’s all kinds of underhanded, no matter which way you spin it. These characters needed to grow some big hairy morals and take a good look at their actions.
Another thing present in Kasie’s writing is that there are always the typical YA tropes. I’d love to see her write something a little more gritty or dirty and add a new dynamic to her writing.
With the rant over, I liked the way some misunderstandings were revealed later in the story – you can’t have a good romance without some of them. Jumping to conclusions is a quaint storytelling device.
As with all of Kaise West’s story, they are very predictable – I mean hello – a light contemporary romance, it’s why we read them. So there was zero surprises, just me squeeing like some fangirl, eager to get to the good bits. I did like the way the story ended too, it has more of that contemporary touch than her previous novels have had.
I will say that this felt like the best written novel she’s published so far. The pacing is bang on all the way through. In fact, I read it entirely in one sitting in an afternoon. I could not put it down. The way she introduces complex characters is a joy to read. I know this falls into my guilty pleasure category, because you’ll never expect some contrived literary masterpiece, but West shines in her genre, and I always look forward to reading a book from her catalogue. Just like a good rom-com, West’s stories are fun and uplifting.
Another enjoyable read from Kasie West. She’s still totally killing it, and one of my automatic buy authors. Her stories are cute, cliché romances that leave you with a warm hug.
‘P.S. I Like You’ was no different. Our protagonist, Lily, is a quirky hipster musician and quickly found her way into my heart. Her insecurities and social ineptitude pulled her into the ranks of ‘sister’ from the get-go. I will say the madness of her large family household was written perfectly. It was like I was there with her, the noise, clutter, interruptions all in technicolour goodness. I don’t think I have read a book that knocked family life on the head like this so succinctly. I was impressed.
This story did give me a sharp current of agitation though. The way Lily’s situation unfolded with Cade was narcissistic in a way, and left a bad taste in the back of my throat for over half the novel. This was balanced out by other less aggravating male characters – which was both a positive and a negative for me. Love triangles, or any other shape, vying for the plain girl is so overdone. And I know ‘P.S. I Like You’ does not quite fall into this category, but comes close enough for me to grind my teeth.
I was also left wondering where mutual respect had gone for most of the cast… if you think someone had a boy/girlfriend, then there should be no reason to flirt. That is just distasteful. And to continue for weeks – well that’s all kinds of underhanded, no matter which way you spin it. These characters needed to grow some big hairy morals and take a good look at their actions.
Another thing present in Kasie’s writing is that there are always the typical YA tropes. I’d love to see her write something a little more gritty or dirty and add a new dynamic to her writing.
With the rant over, I liked the way some misunderstandings were revealed later in the story – you can’t have a good romance without some of them. Jumping to conclusions is a quaint storytelling device.
As with all of Kaise West’s story, they are very predictable – I mean hello – a light contemporary romance, it’s why we read them. So there was zero surprises, just me squeeing like some fangirl, eager to get to the good bits. I did like the way the story ended too, it has more of that contemporary touch than her previous novels have had.
I will say that this felt like the best written novel she’s published so far. The pacing is bang on all the way through. In fact, I read it entirely in one sitting in an afternoon. I could not put it down. The way she introduces complex characters is a joy to read. I know this falls into my guilty pleasure category, because you’ll never expect some contrived literary masterpiece, but West shines in her genre, and I always look forward to reading a book from her catalogue. Just like a good rom-com, West’s stories are fun and uplifting.