Review: Love, Life, and the List (Love, Life, and the List #1) by Kasie West
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Series: Love, Life, and the List #1
Author: Kasie West
Published December 26th 2017 by HarperTeen
Goodreads Synopsis
What do you do when you’ve fallen for your best friend? Funny and romantic, this effervescent story about family, friendship, and finding yourself is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han.
Seventeen-year-old Abby Turner’s summer isn’t going the way she’d planned. She has a not-so-secret but definitely unrequited crush on her best friend, Cooper. She hasn’t been able to manage her mother’s growing issues with anxiety. And now she’s been rejected from an art show because her work “has no heart.” So when she gets another opportunity to show her paintings, Abby isn’t going to take any chances.
Which is where the list comes in.
Abby gives herself one month to do ten things, ranging from face a fear (#3) to learn a stranger’s story (#5) to fall in love (#8). She knows that if she can complete the list, she’ll become the kind of artist she’s always dreamed of being.
But as the deadline approaches, Abby realizes that getting through the list isn’t as straightforward as it seems... and that maybe—just maybe—she can’t change her art if she isn’t first willing to change herself.
Goodreads
Review
I've always enjoyed Kasie's books, and when this one was announced, with a best friends to lovers plot line, I couldn't wait to read it. Abby Turner has always had a crush on her best friend, Cooper, but after disastrously trying to tell him how she felt a year ago, she's played off the crush. Now it's summer, and their other best friends, Rachel and Justin, will be out of the country, Abby is always with Cooper, and it's becoming too difficult to ignore her feelings. Her dad is serving abroad, and her mam's anxiety has got so extreme that she can't even leave the house any more, and Abby is barely holding it together. Just to top it all off, instead of being allowed to show her artwork at the local museum exhibition, she is told that her paintings lack heart. Completely devastated, she creates the list, of 10 different things that should help her broaden her experiences and improve her artwork. With Cooper at her side, they start making their way through, facing their fears, and speaking to more than their immediate friendship group, but Cooper's new girlfriend has thrown a spanner in the works, and Abby can't see how to go forward.
This book, I just don't get where it went wrong. I mean, nothing is explicitly wrong with it, but I just didn't enjoy it much. Abby was a decent character, and I loved how she did grow through the experiences she had, but other than her and her grandpa, the other characters were really lacking. I understand why her mother was the way she was, but she wasn't there for Abby when she needed her, and I felt for Abby then. Cooper was awful, and the relationship between him and Abby just did not work! They were okay as friends, but I never got a vibe from them about a romantic relationship, and hated the fact that Abby had had to work so hard to get him to notice her that way. All in all, a disappointing read from one of my favourite authors.
Dates Read:
May 23-26, 2020
Rating
2 Stars
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