PS I Like You

Kasie West does it again. In PS I Like You, Lily discovers she’s falling for the boy she’s been writing secret notes to in chemistry class,  But is he who she thinks she is? How will it affect her school life, and her friendships? If you love YA contemporary romance, music, and love/hate relationships, this is the book for you.

One of my goals in 2018 was to read every book by Kasie West, and I’m making serious progress on that goal already.

Here’s the blurb of PS I Like You:

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…

Lily has a secret pen-pal, a fellow Chemistry student who shares her love for music and eventually begins to share more about his life with her.  In the meanwhile, Lily is dealing with a crazy family, a crush on a cute boy, and a music contest.  So color her shocked when she finds herself falling for her pen-pal and determined to find out who it is. That’s the premise of PS I Like You by Kasie West, a feel good contemporary YA romance that takes the secret admirer concept to a new level, and intertwines it with a hint of real world family issues.

While the romance of the story is sweet and fine, though I saw it coming from a mile away,  I far more enjoyed the family dynamic that West constructed. She does a great job of showing that our protagonist has problems outside of her love interest. She’s trying to play the guitar and write music and be a big sister to two younger brothers and help her mother run her jewelry business and all that jazz. It’s not just about boys, but just because she has a crazy life doesn’t mean she doesn’t have time to think about boys.  The way the main love story intertwines with the personal family narrative was really refreshing and something I just genuinely enjoy about West’s books.

This book has not only the classic love story trope we’ve known since Pride and Prejudice but a glorified popular-snob bully that made me want to tear my hair out, but perhaps because West wrote her in such a relatable manner.  This character is not only a bad friend, a bad “girl”, but she’s an all-around person and her actions both in class and at the pep rally at the end of the book made me so angry. On the point of the pep rally, I don’t think that West accomplished much for the two lovers by embarrassing Lily in that manner, and I don’t think it changed things much other than showing just how mean that character is, so I wish it had been left out, but alas.

Overall, this book will make you AWE and scream in anger because they haven’t realized the obvious yet and want to fight for love and be a better friend and write a song, and I highly recommend it if you love YA contemporary or just really enjoy Kasie West’s books, like I do!