The Distance Between Us by Kasie West Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
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Synopsis:
Money can't buy a good first impression.
Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers learned early that the rich are not to be trusted. And after years of studying them from behind the cash register of her mom's porcelain-doll shop, she has seen nothing to prove otherwise. Enter Xander Spence—he's tall, handsome, and oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and the fact that he seems to be one of the first people who actually gets her, she's smart enough to know his interest won't last. Because if there's one thing she's learned from her mother's warnings, it's that the rich have a short attention span. But just when Xander's loyalty and attentiveness are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn't a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she'd ever realized. With so many obstacles standing in their way, can she close the distance between them?
Review:
The Distance Between Us was such a cute story, yet I struggled with quite a few things. So here are some of my thoughts……..
✮ An adorable story-line –
He laughs a little. “You live above a porcelain-doll store; your best friend lives in a cemetery. You’ve pretty much grown up surrounded by creepy things. Is there anything you’re afraid of?”
You.
Carmen and Xander both wanted to figure out what they were going to be when they’re older, since they’re both slated to take over their family’s businesses. They created these career days that I loved. And those moments always led to scenes where my emotions were the strongest. But even before that I loved watching their tentative friendship form. It was such a cute story, and it was so easy to devour.
✮ A girl I wasn’t the hugest fan of –
Before him, I thought I knew if a guy was flirting with me. But he says things so subtly, so smoothly, that it’s hard to tell if it’s purposeful or if he’s just playing along with my jokes.
So confession time, I’m awful at getting sarcastic humor at times. My whole family laughed at me, during our weekly Sunday dinner last weekend, because I didn’t catch my Aunt being sarcastic. Multiple times in her texts. So my sporadic ineptitude towards sarcasm may have played a huge role in why I never clicked or connected with Caymen. You see, Caymen’s like the queen of sarcasm and dry humor all rolled into one person. I tried again and again to connect and get her humor, yet I continually failed at it. It was so frustrating.
✮ A boy that I was obsessed about –
He lowers the visor in front of me and flips open the mirror. “You still have paint on your face.” He runs a finger down my cheek, tracing the paint line. My breath catches for a moment when his finger seems to linger a second longer than necessary.
Xander MADE this book for me. He was thoughtful, caring, and compassionate towards Caymen. He was also persistent, charming and I loved how he initiated the friendship between the two of them. And that he kept coming around and helped the friendship grow. He was such a good guy, and it was impossible to not fall hard for him.
✮ Lack of communication –
I didn’t want my mom to have bad feelings toward him. Somehow the guy had managed to climb out of the box full of people I had already labeled off-limits with a permanent marker and he’d become different. And now, much to my irritation, I feel some form of loyalty to Xander Spence.
I had to change this immediately.
So the two main conflicts in this book stemmed from lack of communication. And it wasn’t like the people involved in the lack of communication weren’t around one another countless times. They didn’t have missed opportunities to ask questions. It was just never done, and the questions were never asked. Unfortunately that can be a book pet peeve of mine depending upon how it’s handled, and I struggled with how both of the situations were handled.
✮ A HFN that didn’t sit well with me –
This is the second book I’ve read by this author where that last page didn’t leave me feeling all smiley and happy. Sometimes I struggle with HFN (Happily For Nows) because there’s still so much up in the air. And in this case there were still sooooo many things that needed to be worked out, figured out or I just wanted to know what happened. I wish there were a few more chapters explaining what happened so that way some of the outstanding issues would be resolved.
So now I’m left wondering if maybe this author and I aren’t that great of a fit after all? Oh my gosh, I just don’t know. I loved On the Fence, but The Fill-In Boyfriend had one of those HFN endings where I needed more. I still have PS I Like You sitting on my shelf and Pivot Point sitting in my Kindle, so I guess I’ll find out if this author truly isn’t a good fit for me after reading those two books. Here’s hoping if you pick this up you’ll enjoy it much more than I did!
Sometimes even authors you’ve liked, come up with a dud. I hope you wind up liking the other two books Jen.
It’s so emotionally taxing when we don’t love one of their books. Like it should just be automatic that we love them ya know? Ugh. I hops so too, thanks Kim!
Hmmm, this one is sitting on my Kindle waiting to be read. Might need to bump it down the list for now. Great review, as always, Jen.
If you go to pickup one of her books, definitely try On the Fence. That one was super adorable and I was perfectly fine with the HFN. Plus it had some deeper moments/problems too. Thank you!
Thanks for the recommendation. Off to pick it up. I’m having a really hard time these days finding something I really connect with. I don’t know if it’s me and my tastes changing or if I just need to find the right book.
Theresa Hernandez recently posted…Series Reveal – Whiskey and Lies Series by Carrie Ann Ryan
Well I’m an emotional reader so my tastes change sporadically lol. Ohhh Good Girl or Walk of Shame by LL if you’re in the mood for banter although beware that Good Girl has an asshole guy, Letters to the Lost if you’re in the mood for gut wrenching, Angelfall if you want dystopian/paranormal or possibly Under the Never Sky (slooooowww start though fyi) if you want just dystopian. Riders by Veronica Rossi was a very different fantasy book and I’m hoping to read the final book in the duology next month. I need to stop or I’ll just keep writing about books ha!
You know I love me some LL. How assholey is the asshole guy? Like does she totally submit to him, or transform him? Because I hate the submission stuff which is why I stopped reading erotica. Too much of a feminist, I guess 🙂
And I love me some dystopian! Will check all of those out. I need something that keeps me up at night reading. I can’t remember the last book that did that to me.
Theresa Hernandez recently posted…Series Reveal – Whiskey and Lies Series by Carrie Ann Ryan
The guy is definitely an asshole and does stuff to the girl that cements himself in that category. But here’s the thing, she neither submits to him or transforms him. She inspires him to be the man he USED to be before stuff happened to him that made him into the asshole. 🙂
I ♥ when books make me stay up and read them straight through. Once I hit the 25% mark on #Nerd that happened to me last week. I couldn’t put it down and now need to finish reading that series!
Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! Read Pivot Point. That’s, by far, my favorite West book. I think this one was my least favorite, actually. I get frustrated, too, when the main conflict in a relationship is a refusal to communicate. It’s a definite pet-peeve of mine.
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction recently posted…Otherworld by Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller: Review & Giveaway
AWESOME! THANK YOU!! I’m moving Pivot Point as my next book to read by her. Thank you so much for that insight! And yes, lack of communication drives me bananas sometimes. Thanks Nicole!