Listen to Your Heart

Kasie West is back with a new YA contemporary novel full of podcasting, relationship advice, cute boys, and days on the lake. Listen to Your Heart, out on May 29th, is the latest in Kasie West’s exploration of high school relationships, complete with a love quadrangle and a podcast hosted reluctantly by her new protagonist.

Here’s the Amazon blurb:

Talking to other people isn’t Kate Bailey’s favorite activity. She’d much rather be out on the lake, soaking up the solitude and sunshine. So when her best friend, Alana, convinces Kate to join their high school’s podcast, Kate is not expecting to be chosen as the host. Now she’ll have to answer calls and give advice on the air? Impossible.

But to Kate’s surprise, she turns out to be pretty good at the hosting gig. Then the podcast gets in a call from an anonymous guy, asking for advice about his unnamed crush. Kate is pretty sure that the caller is gorgeous Diego Martinez, and even surer that the girl in question is Alana. Kate is excited for her friend . . . until Kate herself starts to develop feelings for Diego. Suddenly, Kate finds that while doling out wisdom to others may be easy, asking for help is tougher than it looks, and following your own advice is even harder.

Kasie West’s adorable story of secrets, love, and friendship is sure to win over hearts everywhere.

I love Kasie West’s books. They are such a breath of fresh air from other novels and everyday life. I always get surprisingly into the relationships in her books, and I was definitely all about Kate and Alana and Diego and Frank. I like that West plays with the love triangle/quadrangle trope a bit and lets is resolve cleanly without any sacrificial lambs. I also enjoyed that Kate had such a fun relationship with her family but not entirely perfect, which is so often a trope in contemporary novels (either perfect or completely fractured.) Kate loves her cousins and her parents but their relationship over her podcast and her time on the lake makes their relationship more realistic. Then there’s Diego who’s sweet and more on the quiet side without being completely shut-off from society. Kate’s relationship with Alana was interesting but I was definitely more interested in the scenes with Diego. Whoops. Sorry not sorry.

If you love podcasts and advice columns and young love and dunk tanks, check out Listen to Your Heart, on sale on May 29th wherever books are sold.