Books by Kasie West

 Maybe This Time.  By Your Side. Teen romance. 

On a long road trip to Utah my daughter, Lucy, and I spent an enjoyable time listening to two of Kasie West's books. Her teen romances have likable characters, not too much cheese, and just enough teenage angst to make things interesting. 

We started with Maybe This Time at the beginning of our trip. Sophie works at a flower shop in small town Alabama and dreams of being a design student after high school in New York City. Her best friend's father runs the only catering business in town. He is being mentored by a famous chef to help him grow his business and the chef comes with a son named Andrew. Sophie and Andrew don't get off to a good start with each other, but over the course of a year with many events, i.e. weddings, funerals, barbecues, parties, they start to see eye to eye. 

On our way home from Utah Lucy wanted to listened to another one of West's books. I let her choose and she chose By Your Side. I had already listened to this one and didn't mind listening a second time. Mostly because it centers around a girl and a boy locked in a library over Martin Luther King weekend. I mean, for a librarian, what better way to start a story!!  I especially liked the direction the plot led us. Autumn is a senior in high school and has a great group of friends. She doesn't always feel comfortable hanging out with them all the time because she suffers from anxiety. She hasn't told her friends about her condition because she wants them to treat her normally. The boy she spends a weekend in the library with, Dax, is the local "bad boy". At least that's the reputation he has. Autumn learns differently. Both Dax and Autumn learn to look at people in a more accepting way and to communicate their feelings with their friends and each other which leads them to see how much happier they can be. Great lesson!