ARC REVIEW #156: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Title: The Distance Between Us

Author: Kasie West

Publisher: Harper Teen

Release Date: July 2, 2013

Pages: 320, Paperback
Source: ARC obtained from trading

Summary from Goodreads:

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s 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 Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she's beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty 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. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

DID I LOVE THIS BOOK OR WHAT? I want to display it on my bookshelf on a raised platform with a spotlight and queue up harmonic music every time someone gazes upon it. I want to snuggle with it at night and fall peacefully asleep to thoughts of Xander. I want to rewind my life and replay the few precious moments spent reading this on loop.

Alright, maybe I am getting carried away. But seriously, I devoured this book. This is definitely one of my new favorite light-contemporaries, in the distinguished company of My Life Next Door. If you have ever had so much as a passing thought about reading contemporary, you should pick up this book right now.

Kasie West, can we be besties? I seriously love your work.

The best thing about this book? Besides Caymen and Xander and Xander and Caymen (and Caymen’s grandfather) has to be the humor! Caymen is the queen of sarcasm and was absolutely hilarious! And her jokes were usually at Xander’s expense, which – hello! – makes them a bazillion times funnier. Here are some of the things she said that made me laugh:

"In the world of science, if Skye were a host, I would be her parasite. She has a life. I pretend it's mine."

"'Tomorrow is Saturday. Don't you have a tennis match to watch or something?'
'What? No. I hate tennis.'
I look around. 'You might want to keep your voice down when you say stuff like that. You wouldn't want to be kicked out of the club.'"

"'And since we're all into this matching up the career day to our traits I guess I should find a career for you that involves ironing T-shirts or using lots of hair product.'"

"I am not in denial. Okay, so I'm totally in denial, but I need her to play along with me until all the feelings I am trying to convince myself I have are actually true."

"'You think I can blackmail him? Show up at his work screaming, 'Daddy'? Like Will Ferrell in Elf?' 'Caymen, joking about it isn't going to help either of us feel better.'
'Elf is no joking matter. That movie is a classic.'"

And can we give a shout out to the long lost grandfather here? When you put an old man in your book and make him funny – you get bonus points from me.

"'Hi, I'm stranger one and this is stranger two. Are you uncomfortable yet?'"

Caymen and Xander were pretty fantastic as separate entities - but together? - absolutely, perfect !This was the type of romance story where both parties are obviously interested in each other, but due to several misconceptions and no one speaking up about it, it’s not acted upon. That means you have your ‘AWW’ moments, your ‘Grrr’ moments, your ‘UGHHHH’ moments, and your ‘)(*&@#$)(‘ moments, many times over before you finally get your ‘!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ moment. And I enjoyed every damn second of it.

So we have a winning romance here, but that’s obviously not all. This is Kasie West we are talking about so obviously this book goes deeper. We tackle some stereotypes and resolve some family issues. But really who cares about that when you have Caymen and Xander and Xander and Caymen (and Caymen’s grandfather). They could have watched paint dry for 300 pages and I’d probably still be writing a glowing review.

Right so I hated this book. (That was a test to see if you were paying attention). I was in exactly the right mood for it and it was beyond enjoyable and funny. If I haven’t convinced you to read it yet, then you must have no soul (kidding!).