P.S. I Like You

Its safe to say I adored this book considering I devoured it in one sitting in a matter of hours. I was looking for a cute, light read and this book was all of that and more. Guys, this book is so cute. I was absolutely giddy while reading it- literally smiling and giggling while reading the entire book. This book is adorable, witty and original enough to keep me hooked. Its the perfect summer book! This was my first book by Kasie West and it will definitely not be my last. I am officially a Kasie West fan! Lily, our main character, is a quirky, music-loving high school student. I thought Lily was great. She loves music, wears high tops and sews a variety of patches on to her clothing. She knows she’s a little different, but she embraces it and that’s what I loved about her. She was hilarious and I loved her witty dialogue. She also has insecurities like everyone else. She wants to be liked, she wants to fall in love and she is often embarrassed by her loud, but endearing, family. She is passionate about writing song lyrics, but she refuses to share it with anyone until its perfect. Early on, Lily decides she wants to enter a song-writing contest. While there is an adorable romance in this story, it is also just as much about Lily finally finding the confidence in herself to share her work. While Lily is in chemistry class, a subject that bores her, she scribbles song lyrics on her desk. When she returns to chemistry the next day, she sees that someone wrote the next line of the lyrics. As she starts exchanging notes with this mysterious pen-pal, they discover they have a lot in common. They both start to open up about deeper subjects and Lily discovers that her pen-pal doesn’t have the greatest home life. Lily starts to fall for her letter writer, and its clear he is falling for her too. Still, she is apprehensive about meeting him.What if he doesn’t like her? What if he thinks she’s weird and awkward? As the reader, we are also not sure who the pen-pal is. We are presented with three options from boys she interacts with and all have chemistry before her. Cade, the boy with whom she is constantly arguing with, David, the shy boy from marching band and Lucas, the senior who Lily has been crushing on for a few years. I wasn’t completely sure who the letter writer was at first, but that’s part of the fun. Everything about it was just so cute! I found myself looking forward to Lily’s chemistry class just as much as she was so I could read the latest message from her letter writer. I also adored Lily’s family. I love books that have more depth to them than the romance between two characters. Lily’s family played a huge role in the story and it made it that much better. Lily’s family is loud and hectic and at times embarrassing for her. She never gets any peace and quiet in her house with her older sister Ashley sharing her room and her little brothers Jonah and Wyatt running around. Lily always said she was annoyed with her family, but her actions proved otherwise. She was nothing but loving to her two little brothers, even while they were interrupting her song-writing time and chasing their pet rabbit around the house. Lily’s scenes with her quirky family were some of my favorite scenes in the book. Sure, they annoy each other and they never have any privacy, but they all love and support each other. This book was everything I hoped it would be. It was insanely cute. I know I glossed over the romance but I didn’t want to give too much away because that is the best part of this book. I seriously could not put it down. I bought it after work and finished it before I went to bed. If you want a book that makes you happy, please pick this up. As I’m writing this review I want to go back and read it again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

I am a MASSIVE Kasie West fan. I own all of her books, and have reread each of them at least twice. She’s mastered the art of writing fluffy and all around adorable YA contemporary romance all with interesting and unique characters and plot, something that isn’t the easiest thing to nail down. So when I found out we were getting another book from her, I was both nervous and excited. Nervous because after reading the synopsis, I originally thought that it sounded very similar to a book I had just finished, and excited because, well, it’s a Kasie West novel after all. Going into this, I tried to keep my expectations low, and read it more for the cute love story than the overall story itself. A few chapters in, however, I was absolutely in love with it. My previous fears that it would be too similar to what I had recently read completely diminished, because while this does include the fairly used trope of anonymous exchange between the main character and a mystery love interest, the characters put an entirely new and unique spin on the storyline. P.S I Like You is about our main character and narrator Lily who has a passion for songwriting. One day during her Chemistry class she scribbles down some song lyrics from a pretty much unknown Indie band onto her desk, and returns the next day to find that whoever sits at her desk in another period had written the next line of lyrics. Thus, a consistent exchange between them begins. Before long, scribbles on the desk turn into full on letters, but one question remains: Exactly who is he? As per usual from a Kasie West novel, while love is the main relationship house of the novel, you get all sorts of other relationships too. Friends and family play a very big role in this, and they’re all just as hilarious as ever. Popularly in the YA genre, the main characters are only children with parents who are absent and allow their kid to do whatever they want. Never in West’s novels, though. In fact, Kasie West makes sure to do the exact opposite of that and make them a significant and necessary part of the story. Overall, this book was just as incredible as all of her others. I highly reccomend that you go and get a copy so you can read and enjoy!

Review: I like Kasie West's books! I'm not even going to deny it. They're perfect for a light, cute and fluffy read with likable and distinct characters, some decent humor and a specific type of charm. Yes, of course, they possess their fair share of cliches and annoying factors, but I don't mind as much, because the stories don't pretend to be über smart, innovative, brilliantly crafted or anything but an easily digestible high school romance. The tropes, most times, are things you have already read about a million times somewhere else or altogether just sound like your typical fanfiction. As is the case with the current story, where two people fall in love via notes shared in class. The couple, at first, seeming very unlikely as well. Still, the whole combination works, and works really nicely, because it doesn't try to be something it's not. There is something nostalgically romantic about exchanging notes or writing to someone instead of texting, e-mail sending, tweeting or all the other last decade (or two) pop-ups. My generation used to do it manually all the time. We shared written messages in class and didn't use our technical devices (I was the first to have a mobile phone in my class in middle school!). So, as dated as it seems, I really appreciated how two people "met" and shared thoughts via paper and pen. It kind of gave depth to the romance. Regarding who the mystery partner was, well, there is actually no surprise there and if you hadn't figured it out right from the start, then I'd say you were accidentally reading another book entirely, with the same title. It's not exciting, but was it supposed to be? I don't think so. A secret to the main character isn't always meant to be one for the reader. Instead, I enjoyed following Lily with her figuring out who the elusive pen-pal was. It was just as satisfying, if somewhat predictable, as trying to find it out myself. I was annoyed, however, by the other distracting guys, who were in my eyes more nuisances than characters to make the waters murky. I also liked the main couple and, even before they figured it out, they had some great scenes together. There was definitely a spark there with quite a bit of chemistry. I also adore love-hate relationships in romance, because they actually enable development and exclude the, oh so typical, you're-hot-I-want-you cliche! The two also reminded me of Elizabeth and Darcy with the slight parallels to them being victims of pride and prejudice (or don't judge a book by it's cover). I, however, wasn't really a fan of them connecting via their music taste or music in general. The lyric stuff left me completely cold, maybe because I'm more about the melody in songs than the words. I wasn't wild about the letters focusing heavily on lyrics, but, hey, it's something that gets them on the same wavelength, so why not. The heroine, Lily had a very odd-ball, loud and overcrowded family life. I'm usually slightly irritated by annoying siblings and wacky parents in too big portions in my YA romance, but for some reason, the whole band of quirky characters was quite endearing and added color to the story and Lily's life and personality. Though, them being convenient in some aspects in her getting together with her pen-pal, were hard to miss, I really didn't mind. I also always find it odd when main characters in YA only have one friend, as is with the case with Lily, but I guess it's just another trope and stops the plot from getting too packed with people. All in all, I really liked the characters Lily was being surrounded by and the guy she ended up smooching so swoonily in a dark classroom (so hot!). Also, even though at times she was too forcibly artistic, it was extremely effortless to cheer for Lily.

5 out of 5 stars!! Oh my goodness, you guys!! This novel!!! I don’t know where to begin with this review. *happy sigh* So here we go ... Lily is a shy girl who covers that with false confidence. Yet because of how she portrays herself to everyone else, it means she only has one friend. Her best friend Isabel. But even though she has a “hipster” eclectic sole and style, her goal in life is to be a song writer. And she is still on the brink of being great, IF she can get a “muse” to work for her. So, one day she was “working” on her lyrics during Chemistry class and using the desk as her paper. The following day she finds a response on her desk that someone else wrote. And so begins her exchanges with her secret pen pal. Who could it be? As time goes by she decides to find out who her pen pal actually is but will she be happy once she finally knows ... I had originally heard about this book from Julie @ Pages and Pens and I am so glad I did! I agree when Julie said that the “passing of notes felt nostalgic” I think it was that charm that sealed my love for it! 😂 But as I stated above I am just giddy for joy about this novel! Lily was a great, well-rounded character. I adored how Lily handled the situations presented to her (even her defense mechanisms 😊) as at her age, though I didn’t have her style, I completely had her personality … just trying to get by and make it through the best way she knew how. And that part where she decided on “taking sides” between who she thought was her secret admirer and Isabel just proved how loyal she was. Can I have her as a friend? 😉 But not just talking about Lily as a character, I enjoyed how this novel shapes its “main characters” and how you get to see all sides of them (the sweet, the good, the annoying, and the somewhat cruel). I’m not sure if this was accurate to high school in the now (as I was born in the 1980’s) BUT it was nice seeing my high school experiences(-ish) being displayed in the present-ish setting. In addition, I enjoyed how Ms. West made her characters feel believable because of the life situations they were thrown in and how we got to “see behind the mask” that some of the characters were showing throughout most of this novel. ⏬ BEWARE BOOK SPOILER(S) WITHIN THIS PARAGRAPH ⏬ Now I cannot complete this glowing recommendation without discussing Cade and eternal love for him too. I mean, reading about him through Lily’s eyes was simply perfect. I loved finding out all of his nuances right beside Lily. Then how they dealt with his family issues and how she overcame the stigma of her own family life … I was completely riveted! It doesn’t hurt that I am a total “seemingly opposites attract” troupe lover so yeah. For me they were a perfect pair. ⏬ BOOK SPOILER(S) OVER ⏬ I HIGHLY recommend this novel to those looking for an entertaining contemporary young adult romance! Review By: From Me to You ... Video, Photography, & Book Reviews -- read more of this review and a TEASER on my blog --

Truly, I saved the best for last. I was waiting to review this one until I got the book with the brand-new cover so I could reread it and write my review with the story fresh in my mind. Spoiler alert: it was every bit as adorable, wholesome, and sweet as I remembered. This is not only my favorite Kasie West book of all time, but it's one of my all-time favorite books in general, holding its own against the likes of Diana Wynne Jones and C.S. Lewis. Kasie West's newer books have disappointed me quite a bit, but when I reread P.S. I LIKE YOU, I remembered exactly why I fell in love with her writing almost a decade ago. Kasie West took what could have been a generic plot and turned it into a masterpiece. Lily is an absolutely adorable heroine who comes from a big, quirky, messy family that reminds me a little of the Hecks from THE MIDDLE. (High praise because I absolutely adore that show and the Heck family.) I'm such a sucker for the falling-in-love-through-letters trope, and man, does Kasie West nail it. Even though I guessed who Lily's pen pal was very early on, she writes that plotline in such a way that I actually doubted whether or not I was right before the big reveal. The romance... *dramatically clutches chest* I seriously have yet to find a YA romance that gives me as many butterflies as this one. Sometimes, I think books that are labeled "swoon-worthy" don't deserve that title, but P.S. I LIKE YOU absolutely does. The romance is sweet, wholesome, and perfect in every way. P.S. I LIKE YOU is actually the book that made me want to write this genre, so it will always hold a special place in my heart. I absolutely recommend this one to romance readers of ALL ages. I promise you'll love it!

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.

My Thoughts: P.S. I Like You was such a fun and light-hearted read. It was a great young adult novel, that I truly loved! The main character, Lily, was well-developed and was given an authentic teen voice. She was quirky, interesting, adorably awkward, had a great sense of humor, and a unique taste in clothes and music. I especially enjoyed what a great sister she was to her little brothers, and how she was true to herself. Lily loves music, and her favorite musicians are mostly obscure indie bands. She has a passion for playing her guitar and writing song lyrics in her notebook, that she has on her at all times. However, she lacks the confidence in her musical ability to share it with even her family or best friend. Lily comes from a large, rambunctious, and colorful immediate family. She is hard-pressed to get time to herself, and they drive her a bit crazy; but she is loved, and loves them in return. When Lily is caught by her Chemistry teacher doodling in her notebook, he restricts her to only one loose leaf piece of paper per class period. Lily ends up writing the beginning lyrics to a song that she can't get out of her head, on her desk. She is surprised the next day, to find that someone has continued the lyrics on the desk. Shortly after, Lily ends up with an anonymous pen pal, as they begin to exchange letters taped under the Chemistry desk. Writing to someone without knowing who they are is extremely freeing. Pretty soon the pen pals are not only writing about their favorite music, which is a shared passion; but they are also exchanging more intimate information with one another as well. Lily isn't sure if she wants to know who her pen pal is, because she fears that they will be disappointed if they learn who she is. Early on, I guessed who Lily's pen pal was, and couldn't wait to see how they would discover each other's identities in real life. P.S. I Like You was a really fast-paced read, and perfect for teens that enjoy romance. It didn't have any risqué content, and in fact, only contained some minor kissing. As a parent, I think this would be a good choice for my tween or teen daughter. As an adult, it took my back to my teenage years, and made me fill nostalgic. I loved every moment of it!!! My Rating: I give, P.S. I Like You, by Kasie West, 4.5 Light-Hearted, Laugh Aloud, Feel Good Stars! I highly recommend this super fun and entertaining read!!!

My experience with Kasie West is that I've enjoyed every single one of her books that I've read. And I've pretty much read them all and plan to read whatever she publishes in the future as well. I love that her books tend to be clean in language as well as physical content. And even though the plot isn't always full of twists and turns (although her Pivot Point series shows that she's capable of that), I still get sucked in and hooked. Her books are usually on the uplifting side. They're fun, fast reads that are full of first love. They leave me with the warm and fuzzies. And that's what you can expect from PS I Like You. Initially, I remember thinking that the title for this book was too similar to PS I Still Love You by Jenny Han which released just over a year before PS I Like You, and I was a little disheartened that a more unique name couldn't have been chosen. And I also found the song lyrics written on a desk by two anonymous people to be very similar to Faking Normal by Courtney C Stevens. But after reading PS I Like You, the title completely fits and makes perfect sense given the story. And the song lyrics take on a bigger role in PS I Like You than I remember them doing in Faking Normal (if I remember correctly, the plot steers away from this area in Faking Normal where the song lyrics really continue to be a main theme throughout the entire book for PS I Like You). PS I Like You did start out a little slow for me in that I wasn't completely connected to Lily and all of her oddities, but I was probably hooked by 15% which in truth isn't that bad at all. And I proceeded to devour this book. Actually, PS I Like You is the first book that I've stayed up late (12:30 am) to finish since my daughter was born almost two years ago. I probably could have put it down around the 85% mark to save the rest for the next day, but I just didn't want to. And of course, I paid for it the next day with having a super whiny, clingy child as well as everything wanted to break on me that day. But the point is, I was invested enough to feel justified (at the time) to read on until I finished it. And beyond that, the next day, I couldn't stop thinking about PS I Like You to the point where I actually contemplated picking it up immediately for a re-read. I haven't committed to doing that, but I also haven't started any other book yet either. To discuss the characters like I want to and would normally do would probably give too much away about who Lily's pen-pal is and not knowing is part of the drive to keep reading for at least the first half of the book. However, this book deals with perceptions and assumptions and how what we perceive isn't always reality. It deals with how we can't really know what someone else is thinking even when their actions and motivations seem clear. It addresses how you never really know what someone else may be going through until they discuss it with you. It touches on crushes that we've had from a distance and how when we finally start to get to know someone we might find out that they're very different from what we imagined. There's friendship and family. Of course, there's music. I don't know if any of the music or bands mentioned are real--I didn't feel the desire to look any of them up. And more. PS I Like You is my kind of book. It's clean, good, fun, heartwarming romance. It has characters that you can root for and care about. I didn't want to put it down and actually thought about re-reading it immediately upon finishing. I love Kasie West for her consistency in writing characters and stories that never seem to let me down. I think under normal circumstances a book like this would get 4 Stars from me, but the simple fact that I stayed up past midnight just to finish this one means I think it deserves 4.5 Stars. Have you read PS I Like You? What did you think? Let me know!

This book is totally supercalfragilisticexpialidocious. Adorable, cute, lovely, enchanting, gripping, predictable and fluffy, all at once. And that 'predictable' adds a positive, as sometimes mystery is not the best. Did I mention cute? Or adorable? Or the fact that the characters were deeper than the Mariana Trench? Or that, for once, not all loose ends were tied up by the end? As for the condition, it was perfect, other than the left inside flap being folded. But I fixed it, and no one can know. But please take care next time.

I loved it, the story is light and pleasant to read and sometimes funny. Every time I had to a minute to read I would just grab the book and read. I recommend it

Lilyの夢はソングライター。 好きな服を着て、服作りも趣味。 人目はあまり気にしない。 姉と弟2人と両親、自分の時間はほとんどないけど 幸せな家族と 理解してくれる親友もいる。 その親友の元カレとは犬猿の仲で、 2年前に2人が別れた原因は自分だと感じているが・・・。 ある日の授業中、机の上に何気なく書いた歌詞から、 別の時間、その机を使う誰かと文通が始まる。 その相手とは・・・？ なんとなく先が読めてしまったけど、それでもさすが、良かったです。

El libro es muy sencillo de entender y te atrapa para leerlo.

This is the first book I have ever read by Kasie and it did not disappoint. Finding an author this good on a whim is unheard of. I am very happy to say that this book has hooked it's iron claws into me and I am very much looking forward to reading more by this amazing author.