Rambling Review: P.S. I Like You

P.S. I Like You

by Kasie West

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.5 Stars

Collective Updates for P.S. I Like You

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 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…

Okay.  So here are my thoughts:

I really, really, really enjoyed reading this book.  In fact, I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.  To be honest, the past two Kasie West books I've read have been a little deflated, and a little bit of a step down from what I'd associated with Kasie West based on the first two books I'd read of hers: Pivot Point and The Distance Between Us.  Up to last year, The Distance Between Us was my favorite of the Kasie West books currently published.

The rest of the books I've read since The Distance Between Us have been enjoyable, but just never on that same level of squee-worthy love.

Until now.

I'm not the type to go hardcore fangirl too often.  Okay, maybe I am.  But I often see a lot of reviewers tout a recent release by a favorite author as "the best of so-and-so's work," and I often wonder if that's not too exaggerated.  I mean, maybe you love it that much because it's new and older works are a distant memory, you know.  Then again, everyone has their own preferences, and I can understand why people would make such an absolute declaration.

Because I'm probably about to do the same... or at least something similar here.

Kasie West is an author I follow and love.  She may not be an all-time favorite, but I do, absolutely enjoy the wit and humor she infuses into her books, when that particular quality is present.  I'm not going to lie:  On the Fence and The Fill-In Boyfriend were two enjoyable books on a superficial level; but both books seemed to lack that dry sarcasm and nonsensical, charming appeal that I'd long ago associated with Kasie West based on her first two works, Pivot Point and The Distance Between Us.

It had actually been because of the Pivot Point and The Distance Between Us combo that had me automatically dishing out more money than was necessary for each following Kasie West book.  But with two not-as-squee-worthy books in a row bought, I ended up a little hesitant of West's work.

So instead of automatically buying and jumping into the next of her books (this one), I put myself on a hold request wait list for a library copy.  And now I'm a bit conflicted, but with P.S. I Like You, everything that I loved about Kasie West has returned... and now I need to decide whether it'd be worth it to spend ten dollars on my own Kindle copy to add to my Kasie West collection.

Because, to date, I am fairly certain that P.S. I Like You is my favorite of all the Kasie West books written.

Quirky characters, quirky main character, quirky friendships, quirky family... a sweet, fun, and cute little love story...  P.S. I Like You was so enjoyable that I found myself finishing the darn thing before I realized that I should probably get some sleep.

I only get Book Hangovers for books I really, really got into.  I only get Book Hangovers with books that I truly want to continue reading once I've reached the end, even if they are just random scenes for the sake of cute.  Because between Lily and her mystery man (no spoilers), there was definitely a lot of cute!

I wish I could talk about who Lily's mystery pen pal is, but I don't know if that would end up being a big spoiler.  I'm not sure if the identity of this guy is meant to be a secret or not, because honestly, the moment he's introduced in the book, I already figured out how the entire story would go down.

And you'd think that, with the predictability, it would take away from my enjoyment of this story.  Instead, the way in which the story was presented, coupled with all the wonderfully created characters, and the awesome character interactions made the journey from beginning until the end very, very enjoyable.  The moment that Lily discovers who her mysterious pen pal is and the new conflict happens was wonderfully presented; all the new interactions between Lily and mystery pen pal were sweet and sweet and so darn sweet.

I really wish I could talk about Lily's mystery pen pal without spoiler tags, if only because he's present from the start and I want to talk about his development.  Because I loved how West played up their relationship.  Then again, like I said, it's quite obvious from the way he's written in who the main love interest is--it's a Kasie West book after all, and all the signs are there.

There are quibbles, of course.  I had my doubts about the love story in the beginning, but I'm actually quite okay with how everything worked out.  And I had a slight problem with how the ending dragged out.  And I think that the entire book could have done without the whole "Mean Girls" angle--it felt highly unnecessary.

But then you have best friends who squee at creating a morning routine tradition, an older sister who keeps walking in on you talking to yourself, a crazy family who is more likely to scare away new acquaintances just by being their normal selves, and a pet rabbit who pees on your blind date's sock...

If anything, I'm just absolutely in love with Lily's entire family, as well as Lily herself.  I'm in love with the craziness of Lily's family.  I'm in love with all the character interactions, whether good or bad.  It's just all very lovable, really.

On a side note, aside from the passion for song-writing, and the whole getting-a-boyfriend thing, I can totally related with almost everything else in Lily's life.  Lily's socially awkward, introvert personality was essentially me during my teens.  Lily's tendency to be more eloquent on paper as opposed to in-person is so similar to how I've always been my entire life.  Even down to her off-trend sense of fashion and her dislike for P.E.

I just really, really enjoyed this book.  And I truly hope that the next Kasie West book will be just as excellent!


***

2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge

Collective Reading Updates for P.S. I Like You

P.S. I Like You

by Kasie West

~ Goodreads ~

The most recent updates are added to the top each re-post.  Any longer, essay-length reading updates are separate posts and linked within this collective reading update post.

Review for P.S. I Like You

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Progress on 10/30/16:  326 of 326 pages (100%) -- Finished!

Okay, so my attempts at keeping a collective reading update post is probably futile when I finish a book within hours of starting it.  But there was a point throughout the night/morning that I had decided to hold off on some updates... of course, I hadn't counted on sinking into the book so deeply and before I knew it, I was done.

Well, actually, before I knew it, I had less than a hundred pages left of P.S. I Like You left; and you would think that I'd have learned by now that less than a hundred pages still requires one to two hours to finish reading...

Anyway...  I have to say that I think this is the Kasie West I remember falling in love with: Sweet, cutesy love story; quirky characters; quirky family; tons of dry sarcasm and random nonsense...  This is what I love!

And now I've got a bit of a Book Hangover, and while there are a few things here and there that I could have done without, I'm going to honestly say that this is one of Kasie's better works compared to the previous two books she's put out.

I'm still going to have to think on this before I officially post a review though.  Of course, it's entirely possible I'm just going to reiterate everything I just said.

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Progress on 10/30/16:  66 of 326 pages (20%)

I'm feeling a slight kinship with Lily:

Isabel sighed.  "I thought that if you didn't know you were goin gon a date tonight, you wouldn't have time to stress.  That you wouldn't practice lines in your mind and imagine outcomes."

"You thought my awkwardness was from preconceived plans to be awkward?"

"Yes, actually."

I laughed.  "Well, now you know the truth."

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Progress on 10/30/16:  54 of 326 pages (17%)

I'm really digging the sibling relationship between Lily and her brothers and sister.  It's very cute.  I also love the friendship between Lily and Isabel... but I'm having some really bad "this friendship is going to be seeing some hard times" vibes, and I'm not sure I like that.

I guess, until then (whether those vibes turn out to be true or not), I'll just enjoy the cuteness.

"Monsters in trees," I said to Isabel the next morning when I saw her by our lockers.

"What?"

"That's what I thought about before going to bed last night.  Are we doing this or not?

She clapped her hands, then bit her lip in thought.

I laughed.  "Gabriel, right?"

"Shhh.  There was something after that.  I'm trying to remember.  Oh!  Nutella crepes."

"Now I'm hungry."

"And I'm confused," Isabel said, shutting her locker.  "Monsters in trees?"

"Fake song idea.  But I actually started a real song, one I'll read to you when I'm done."

"I'd like that."

"This is going to be a fun tradition."

"She laughed.  "It is.  I feel out friendship getting cuter already."

-- Page 54

Backstory:  Basically, Isabel had wanted to start a tradition with Lily as best friends and one of the ideas was to, each morning, telling each other what the last thing they thought about was before going to sleep the night before.  It certainly DOES sound cute.

So far there's a lot of the Kasie West dry humor that I love present in this book, so I'm really enjoying it.  Crossing my fingers and hope that it keeps up and that things don't get too angst-ridden and complicated.  Although with a Kasie West book, the emotional angst usually isn't too heavy and the romance is usually really sweet.

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Progress on 10/30/16:  15 of 326 pages (5%)

I have the distinct feeling I already know how this little love story is going to go down.  And to be honest, aside from one little quibble, I'm actually looking forward to it, because it will totally give this book a You've Got Mail vibe, and I'm quite okay with that.

Secondly, the girl on the cover doesn't really connect with the description of the girl in the book.  Lily takes a paragraph to describe her quirky fashion:

Today I was wearing an over-sized button-down that I had found at a thrift story.  I'd cut the sleeves to make it more like a kimono and tied a brown vintage belt at the waist.  On my feet were beat-up red high-top sneakers.  My look was quirky, not trendy, and I would stand out in a group like Lauren's where they were all perfectly put together in their slim-fitting jeans and tank tops.

--Page 6 & 7

The girl on the cover is wearing a pretty dress that, to be honest, doesn't seem to strike me as quirky.  Although she IS wearing the red high-top sneakers (??), though they do not look beat up.

I might be a little put out if this is an indication that Lily gives up her quirky sense of fashion when she starts her little love story.