Kasie West

Review for the audiobook, narrated by Laurence Bouvard)
This book was very, very cute and I liked it far more than the previous 2 by Kasie West that I’ve listened to (Love, Life & the List and Fame, Fate & the First Kiss).

It took me much longer than I usually need to finish a book because I was feeling quite uneasy at times o Maddie’s behalf and maybe I wasn’t in the right mood for feeling betrayed, lonely, insecure and confused.

My home situation at 17/18 looked a lot different than hers but I could nonetheless relate to her - a lot. How a very unideal family situation can turn you into a person who has to be accountable, responsable, reliable and who doesn’t like surprises, plans everything, wants to control everything possible and worries a lot about family and friends. I could definitely relate to that…

I felt like I knew her very well and maybe that is the reason I wasn’t too keen on these feelings and put the book aside for a while.

Anyway, the one big difference between Maddie and me is while she seems to be a trusting and very kind person, thinking only the best of others, I am very skeptical, suspicious of people’s behavior if they’re nice for no reason and don’t trust easily - and never have.

So, hoping not to be presumptuous I think I wouldn’t have made the same mistakes as Maddie and it seemed a bit strange to me that she did. But you never know, I never had that kind of money, not to mention from one day to the other and I wouldn’t want to. This whole topic made me anxious and I think Kasie West drew a realistic picture of how money changes people and their behavior.

Seth is actually the only one who doesn’t treat Maddie differently and I really liked him. He’s funny and kind, cares for Maddie but the whole romance part isn’t cheesy or over the top and for once the fight right before the ‘HEA’ didn’t seem totally unnecessary but quite realistic and understandable and when they talked things over it was cute and not a totally overdone romantic gesture which really annoy me and spoil sweet books and endings for me.

In the end not everything was great and resolved (which was great in itself, big reconciliations with everybody just aren’t realistic) but Maddie learned her lesson(s) and got the boy. So - I loved the book (and the anteater… (altro)

As most books I’ve read / listened to by Kasie West “Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss” is charming and lighthearted without being shallow or without depth.

I really enjoy Kasie West’s writing style and most of her characters and while I couldn’t put my finger on why - this one didn’t really do it for me.

Maybe the problem was that I was still quite upset with Abby and Cooper from the previous book “Love, Life, and the List” and Lacey is from the same “universe” and one of Abby’s rather new friends (who supports the way Abby and Cooper got together by the way…). Or maybe it’s the setting of a movie set and our main character being an (aspiring) actress and me not at all interested in this world. Or maybe it was the lack of chemistry between Lacey and Donovan (I liked them both individually and there were rather sweet moments, but they didn’t feel like a couple to me). Or maybe it was something else entirely, but I didn’t really feel it…

I wasn’t swooning over the love interest, I wasn’t anxious when Lacey got problems and seemed to be set up, I wasn’t angry at anyone. I just wasn’t really invested.

While I enjoy a slow pace and don’t really care for stories where getting to know and love each other and character growth is rushed through a few days, here there just wasn’t happening a lot in the beginning and when it finally did I still didn’t get hooked.

Even if I started to like Lacey about half through the book, Donovan was literally the only person I cared for or could relate to.

But because I can’t quite say what is “wrong” with the book I still give it 4 stars because others might love the movie setting and all that comes with it.… (altro)