Book Synopsis:
While spacing out in chemistry class, Lily scribbles some of her favorite song lyrics onto her desk. The next day, she finds that someone has continued the lyrics on the desk and added a message to her. Intrigue!
Soon, Lily and her anonymous pen pal are exchanging full-on letters—sharing secrets, recommending bands, and opening up to each other. Lily realizes she’s kind of falling for this letter writer. Only, who is he? As Lily attempts to unravel the mystery and juggle school, friends, crushes, and her crazy family, she discovers that matters of the heart can’t always be spelled out…
My Review: 5/5 stars.
This was the second Kasie West book I’ve read, the first one being On The Fence, which I also loved. This book was great. It was really funny and sweet and relatable. The characters were awesome and I found myself becoming attached to them very quickly. I have a lot more Kasie West books on my Goodreads list just waiting to be read, and I can’t wait to read them after how much I enjoyed the first two I’ve read.
First of all, the plot. I thought it was great. I loved the whole anonymous pen-pal premise and getting to know the letter-writer along with Lily. I also thought the subplots - like Isabel, Lily's best friend, trying to play matchmaker or Lily's family drama - felt natural and not just thrown in to add more depth to the story. The book had really short chapters but I like when books do that; it makes it easier to continue the story and have the events play out over time without having unnecessary filler to show that time has passed. It allowed the book to flow easier.
The main romance trope this book used was enemies (kinda) to lovers. I've always said this is my least favorite trope, but maybe that's because I've always imagined it being two people who want to murder each other falling in love, which doesn't make sense. This book, however, made me rethink my opinion of this trope. While Lily and Cade aren't technically enemies, for the longest time Lily has hated Cade for always being a jerk to her. This was a little one-sided, however, as we learn later Cade didn't hate Lily. Still, they go from not liking each other to falling in love and it's done really well. Plus, they have such good chemistry.
Next, I wanna talk about the characters. I thought that Lily was a wonderful protagonist. She was unique but still relatable. She wasn't overly different from her classmates that it was weird and unbelievable, but she had her own quirks and stuff that made her who she was. As someone who also has a love for music, I really enjoyed reading about her playing guitar and her struggles to write song lyrics. I could see myself being really good friends with Lily if she was a real person.
The family dynamic in this story was really well-done. I've mentioned in a previous review that I love books with families who get along and love each other, and Lily's family was definitely like that. Her older sister teased her all the time but was always supportive of her and gave her big sisterly advice. Her two little brothers always got on her nerves but you could tell she cared about them so much. Her parents embarrassed her and had crazy traditions they would involve the whole family in, but everyone loved each other. It was so much fun to read about everything her family was doing and it felt like a real family.
Cade, the love interest, starts out as this stereotypical popular kid that picks on everybody, but we learn that there's more to his life than what's surface level. In complete contrast to Lily, Cade's family is broken and he's hurting inside because of this, as Lily discovers through his letters. At first, I thought I wasn't going to like Cade as a love interest because I thought he would be too different at school vs in his letters that it would be unrealistic. However, when he is explaining towards the end of the book that he was always just trying to help people but didn't do a very good job of it, I loved him as a character. Plus, we only see Cade through Lily's eyes and, early on, she doesn't like him so she only sees him as an arrogant jerk.
As far as an age rating for P.S I Like You, I'd say tweens and older. Kasie West's books are always wholesome and clean, which I one of the reasons I love them so much. There are a few kisses, but it's mostly just flirting and playful banter.
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