Review: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Title: The Distance Between Us
Author: Kasie West
Published: July 2nd 2013
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Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

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.

There’s nothing better than a book that proves you wrong. You see, I knew that people adored this book so so so much and I was very hesitant to try it. When it came out, I started reading it, but the first chapter felt so cliché that I put it down and didn’t even try to push through it. Sometime later, during a cold November day, I thought I really ought to give it one more go. Best. Decision. Ever.

“Sometimes it's the little things that bring that special someone back to us in some small way.”

How many times have you seen a movie or read a book about the poor girl and the rich boy and their star-crossed love story? A million? Probably. I was so sure that I had all of this figured out beforehand, but boy was I wrong! First of all, the characters? Yipiiyay. Caymen (trying really hard here not to make a Caveman joke) was full of sarcasm and dry humor. This girl was the perfect lead to such a seemingly cheesy story. Also, Xander was a really great male lead since he wasn’t the prince charming, but a very sweet guy nonetheless. Their career days were my favorite and I wish that someone would have helped me out with all the decisions prior college. There’re so many options nowadays and it’s hard to make the right one at such a young age.

Also, you know the plot formula that goes like this—girl meets boy; they fight their feelings, fall in love, get together; families try to tear them apart, especially the rich person’s parents; they break up over some jealousy issue or an obvious lie; everything gets sorted out and they live happily ever after. Sounds familiar? Ha. I was waiting for the break up, for Xander’s family to start sabotaging the relationship... Nada. Nothing like this happened. It was so refreshing and truly felt like a breath of fresh air. I loved how it didn’t make me cry, but rather kept a huge smile on my face. I basically looked something like this throughout the entire novel:

See? I was this happy with The Distance Between Us and I truly loved every single moment of it. I don’t think it’s the strongest novel I have ever read and I wasn’t perhaps that emotionally invested in Caymen’s story, but it was so cute and warm—the perfect kind to make a cold day all kinds of fuzzy and happy. Since you’ve all probably read this one already, there’s nothing left to say than you were right and I was wrong. Now I just need to get myself to read Pivot Point asap :)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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