Friday 18 July 2014

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

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.


I'll admit, I hadn't heard much of this before I spotted it, but I did like the look of the cover; it just screams summer romance, doesn't it? And it definitely was romantic, and funny and touching and a little bit sad but most importantly, totally gripping. It tells of Caymen as she works in her mother's doll shop, struggling to make ends meet and wondering what to do with her life. Enter Xander, typical rich boy, clicking his fingers and getting what he wants, but is surprisingly sweet and easy to talk to. 

Caymen was incredibly sarcastic, a typical defence mechanism which made her easy to understand completely. But with the life she's had, I'm not surprised she has trouble getting close to people. After all, Caymen is fatherless and has a seriously stressed out mother. Xander entered at just the right time to help Caymen sort her life out, and his at the same time. Caymen and Xander complimented each other, made each other laugh and feel relaxed against all odds considering their different up-bringing - they got to know each other as they tested out possible career paths, both terrified of the uncertainty of the future and not wanting to disappoint their parents.

As one would expect, it deals with much more complicated issues than first love; from their uncertain future to the issue of Caymen's family. You see, there's a reason Caymen's mother wants her to ignore Xander and go back to poor guitarist Mitch, and it has to do with Caymen's father and grandparents. Understandably, if you were pregnant and the father's parents paid you to go away, you'd have a thing against rich kids but this story was all about growth and it wasn't just Caymen that had to let go of her prejudices. 

You all know I love a good contemporary romance, and this was purely adorable and so much fun to read, but it had it's serious moments as well. I loved the growth that each character went through, especially Caymen and Xander with accepting what they truly wanted. They shouldn't have worked together but did, amazingly they just got each other. Of course, not everything in their relationship was perfect but by the end, the things that didn't work out, they promised to work on. Now that's a great relationship!

Published 2nd July 2013 by Harper Teen.

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