REVIEW ·—» P.S. I Like You by Kasie West

P.S. I Like You
by: Kasie West
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
330 pages
Published on July 26th, 2016
Published by Point
Print Copy (Hardcover)
★★★★½ 
Synopsis:
Signed, sealed, delivered…

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 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. (source)

I’ll be the first to admit that i am a big fan of Kasie West. she has such a great way of making stories fun, light and just overall entertaining plus characters that are relatable in one way or another.

i think depending on what you like to read this book is a little bit of a hit or miss because it is a little cheesy and cliché (which is great) but, you will still be able to enjoy the story because it’s that cute. one thing i really loved about this book was the main character wasn’t a typical contemporary mc she was sarcastic, funny, (not cutesy) awkward and had sass. she didn’t let other characters walk all over her and knew how to stand up for herself which i loved. i thought it was a very enjoyable/can’t put down read and actually re-read it for this review because i loved it very much (reading it both times in one day). I definitely would recommend this book to you even if you’re the slightest bit interested because i honestly think its fantastic. 

*disclaimer: spoilers coming up*  

there’s nothing better than getting a handwritten letter, there’s something so sincere and raw about sharing stuff about yourself on paper especially when you can’t see the other person it lets you be real. i really loved this idea of a storyline and i thought it all came together very well. the characters in this book are all so cute even down to Lily’s parents who had those fun and different little competitions it made their family super fun and left me wanting cute traditions like theirs. we don’t see Lily’s older sister Ashley, as often (considering they share a room) and she surprised me, i thought she’d be the older, cooler sister whose never around cause her family is lame or whatever but, she’s just quite busy working and attending college. i love how when we do see her we can clearly see how much she loves her family as well as how much she’s a great older sister, always looking out for Lily. also, can we just have a moment of silence because Harry Potter was mentioned MORE THAN ONCE in this book…….!!!!!!

“Maybe we would balance each other out …’ Kasie West as Cade Jennings (P.S. I Like You, page 132)

*swoon!* i thought Lily was SO relatable and such a quirky, awkward, fun character. her relationship was one of my absolute favorite best friend relationships i’ve ever seen, they have such a pure, innocent and loving friendship. i ABSOLUTELY loved that they never had the falling out that happens between friends in soo many other books, they had one argument and were fine and apologizing to each other like the next day. It just showed how much they cared for each other as well as how important their friendship was, they even had that super cute morning tradition!! also, while character development is amazing (don’t get me wrong i think she matured and grew by the end) i really enjoyed the fact that Lily was pretty independent and stood true to herself throughout the entire story not ever changing for someone else.

“I was fine alone. Some times i preferred it that way.” Kasie West as Lily Abbott (P.S. I Like You, page 10)

my one thing about Lily is she’s very dramatic and i feel like she’s a little too busy feeling sorry for herself to notice things and  always being so rude to Cade to get herself out of awkward situations.

“I cringed. Why did I say that? Why did i always lash out at him?
I knew why. Because I cared about him. And it was becoming obvious to me that he cared about everybody. He liked to help people, which was the real reason he was siting in front of me right now.”  – Kasie West as Lily Abbott (P.S. I Like You, page 259)

Cade, oh Cade book boyfriend #763482104459! oh how i love him… i actually knew from the VERY first interaction between Lily and Cade where she tells him off in the hallway that he would be the letter writer. it actually made me that much more excited because the more you get to know him the more you realize that he isn’t a bad kid at all he’s just a bit misunderstood and his good intentions don’t come across the way he envisions them to be. i don’t know why i never put together Cade trying to shift the embarrassment to a joke as something he had done for Lily when he explained why he called Wyatt Pink Lightning but i was surprised to find out that day in his kitchen what his motives were you realize that he’s not the bad guy that lily makes him out to be and he’s just had a tough go at things.

“‘I thought i was helping. You were getting pummeled by basketballs. I thought if i made a joke about it, it would help people laugh with you instead of at you.’” – Kasie West as Cade Jennings (P.S. I Like You, page 232)

THE SCENE IN HIS KITCHEN ohmygosh i thanked all my lucky stars that her mom is the type of mom that forces her to go apologies for being rude, AS IF he doesn’t know how to ‘use’ bracelet smooth Cade smooth. i honestly thought from pretty early on that they had to have crushes on each other back when they were younger, whether it was unbeknownst to them they had to because there was NO way he would’ve gotten under her skin that badly barely doing anything and vice versa.

“‘This bracelet. I wore it to make you angry and all it did was remind me of the conversation we had in my kitchen. The one where you spelled out my shortcomings so well. I realized that I deserve your disdain that I always thought was unjustified.'” – Kasie West as Cade Jennings (P.S. I Like You, page 258)

setting aside the fact that the book was cliché and slightly predictable there were still things that were surprising like the fact that Isabel knew it was Cade all along. i’d known that she wanted to find out who it was but, she had never gave an inclination that she knew in the slightest so i figured the letter writer would be in the 4th period class or maybe even that Isabel hadn’t noticed who it was in her class because he was discreet about it (which he obviously was not). Cade coming over for thanksgiving stressed me out so much, i was on the verge of pulling my hair out because i knew she had told him about her pie tradition and i feared him finding out it was her (i get so invested). we get to hear this small soft voice Cade uses when he’s vulnerable and it makes me fall in love with him even more.

“Then he said, almost too quiet for me to hear, ‘You’re not every girl’”. Kasie West as Cade Jennings (P.S. I Like You, page 203)

When they finally kiss it gives me all the feels *sigh* they were so cute and i really loves that they had BOTH known it was each other (that came as a surprise to me) i didn’t expect him to have known it was her basically THIS WHOLE TIME! he surprised me in the best way. I think he was way more of a complex character than Lily was and had more of a story to tell especially because of his dad. ohmygosh the rallyyyy and the second-hand embarrassment i felt when Sasha had GONE ONSTAGE to call him out like that. oh….gosh that made me cringe, then i felt sooo sorry that Sasha had done that to him when he really just didn’t deserve it. something good did come out from that though because Cade was finally able to voice his insecurities when Lily ~finally~ finds him after the rally and they get the chance to clear the air and move on together…. they’re just so cute.

“‘You still think of me as the guy who treated Isabel badly. As the guy who’s going to hurt you one day, too. You aren’t willing to be completely open with me.'” –  Kasie West as Cade Jennings (P.S. I Like You, page 316)

love from serious fangirl,
Emily ♥