Fans of Kasie West have been known to recommend her books to anyone and everyone, and The Distance Between Us was just that for me. I’ve picked up this book from my local library because a friend wanted me to read it so bad, and I can’t say I was disappointed in the slightest. 

A cute YA rom-com, the work follows “boring” Caymen through a whirlwind friendship turned romance with stressful implications. She is just trying to graduate high school and help her mom out at their family store, a doll store, when the world is seemingly flipped, upside down by her introduction to a beloved customer’s grandson, Xander. 

Xander is everything Caymen hates about the world. He’s rich, a little standoff-ish, and basically the embodiment of her father that left before she was even born. As the two spend more time together, she comes to realize that while he is not exactly what she thought he was, he still comes from a place that wants nothing to do with her. She is spending her Saturdays helping her mom host doll parties to stay afloat while he’s getting off to help his dad run a hotel business akin to the Hilton’s. They’re from different worlds, and she knows it. 

Through trial and subsequent triumph, in both love and family, Caymen ultimately finds what she was looking for. 

I absolutely adore this book. I could tell that it was one of West’s earlier works based on the writing structure, but ultimately it is textbook, young adult fiction. The storyline flows very nicely, the feelings of both Caymen and Xander are portrayed magically, and there is an adolescent feel to it that makes it borderline cheesy yet understatedly sweet. I would like to see more of their so-called “career days”, mostly, because I feel as though that is when the readers got to see the most raw version of both characters. Not only that, but it was very cool, as someone who is not even remotely in science, or any of the other fields. Discussed throughout the work, to see what goes into those types of rolls, and the detail displayed by West was unmatched. 

In addition to this, I think there is a very true portrayal of some of the characters within this work. Ultimately, books are works of fiction, but the way that Xander was so down to earth and genuine made his character, since the whole point was to bridge the gap between these two very different people. From Caymen’s brutal honesty to Xander’s unwillingness to give her up, their personalities fit together in a way that most people would not, if this were to happen to them.

Overall, I am a huge Kasie West fan, and gave this book three out of five stars. It is one of her earlier works, so I suggest not judging her as an author based on this one book, because the majority of her works are masterpieces.