Each week, I’ll do mini reviews of the books I’m reading to keep everyone who doesn’t read my other blog up to date on my thoughts on the books that I’m reading. Enjoy!

P.S. I Like You by Kasie West
Release Date: July 26, 2017
Publisher: Scholastic, Point
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 330
Format: eBook
Source: Gifted
Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

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…

This should have been a really fast read for me but I was in a weird reading funk so it took me quite a while to finish this one but it was super cute. It’s not my favorite from Kasie West but it was still really good. The main character, Lily, was a little hard to take at times with her constant assumptions where the love interest was concerned but she came around and she apologized for being a punk so I didn’t hold any grudges. I thought the love interest (which I spotted a mile away) ended up being really cute and I really liked him.

Kasie West really shines writing contemporary young adult romances and I hope she never stops writing books because she’s one of my favorite contemporary YA authors. P.S. I Like You was cute and fluffy and perfect for when you want something light instead of something deeper and all angsty. I’m super looking forward to reading her next release, By Your Side.

My Rating

4 out of 5

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Release Date: August 9, 2016
Publisher: Harper Collins, William Morrow Paperbacks
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 384
Format: eBook
Source: Gifted
Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Debut author Sally Thorne bursts on the scene with a hilarious and sexy workplace comedy all about that thin, fine line between hate and love.

Nemesis (n.) 1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.
2) A person’s undoing
3) Joshua Templeman

Lucy Hutton has always been certain that the nice girl can get the corner office. She’s charming and accommodating and prides herself on being loved by everyone at Bexley & Gamin. Everyone except for coldly efficient, impeccably attired, physically intimidating Joshua Templeman. And the feeling is mutual.

Trapped in a shared office together 40 (OK, 50 or 60) hours a week, they’ve become entrenched in an addictive, ridiculous never-ending game of one-upmanship. There’s the Staring Game. The Mirror Game. The HR Game. Lucy can’t let Joshua beat her at anything—especially when a huge new promotion goes up for the taking.

If Lucy wins this game, she’ll be Joshua’s boss. If she loses, she’ll resign. So why is she suddenly having steamy dreams about Joshua, and dressing for work like she’s got a hot date? After a perfectly innocent elevator ride ends with an earth shattering kiss, Lucy starts to wonder whether she’s got Joshua Templeman all wrong.

Maybe Lucy Hutton doesn’t hate Joshua Templeman. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game?

I wanted to read this book because it sounded good and early reviews were very positive but then I read a review that made me not want to read it. I talked that over with my friend Ames and she gifted me the book so I could give it a try (she really liked it) but I didn’t read it until last week and holy cow am I glad that I didn’t let that one bad review stop me from reading this one because…I really liked it too.

I loved seeing the change in both Josh and Lucy’s relationship. I loved that it was a gradual change and not that insta-love business. I enjoyed their bickering, their games and then seeing them have eachothers backs. My favorite scenes in the book were probably the office paintball competition and then Lucy letting Josh’s Dad have it. When she went on Xena Warrior Princess on Josh’s Dad, I wanted to stand up and applaud.

The romance felt real, the feelings that crept up for both characters made me laugh and then happy sigh so you know that I enjoyed this one. I did catch the things that the bad review complained about but they were such small parts of the story. The thing that kept throwing me out of the story was the authors use of CVs instead of resumes. I thought the story was set in the US so when Lily and Josh talked about updating their CVs, that threw me off because I don’t know of anyone in the US that refers to their resumes as CVs but then Ames told me that the author is from Australia and that made sense. Still, this was a great book and I will definitely be reading more from this author.

My Rating

4 out of 5