Shon reviews The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Title / Author: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West
Publisher / Year Published: HarperTeen / July 2, 2013
Rating: 3.5 stars

Synopsis

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.

My Review

I really like this book. I thought it was very cute. It was a little cheesy at some point but that is what made the story cute.

This book reminds me a lot of The Gilmore Girls.  A single mother and her daughter living in the small town filled with colorful characters.  The mother has difficult relationship with her wealthy parents.  (Which we don’t meet until the end of the story.)  So, if you are a fan of The Gilmore Girls, you should give this book a try.

The story is told from Caymen's, the daughter, point of view.  She is VERY sarcastic, so much that people never know if she's serious or joking.  I like that about her character.

Caymen works in a doll shop owned by her mother.  Her mother raised her to hate the rich and Caymen father, a man from a rich family, left her mother when his family told him to and paid her to never tell anyone that he is the father of her daughter.  I know it sound like a plot from a bad 80s movie of the week. 

So, one day, a cute but rich guy come into the doll shop and beckons Caymen over.  She has to do everything in her power not to go off on him, right then and there in the store.

The cute but rich guy named Xander came back to the store again. Over the course of the story, a friendship develop between Caymen and Xander, as they help each other with their family issues.  And later, their friendship turn into feelings for one another. But Caymen's mother is iffy about the relationship between them.

Enter right on cue, another guy, cute but poor, who also likes Caymen. Given the story, the always unpopular, unneeded, and unwelcome love triangle. Whom Caymen's mother likes only because he's poor and can care less that he is in a rock band. 

Now Caymen has to choose between the two guys, fix her relationship between her and her mother, and fix the relationship between her mother and grandparents.

It is a lot to take but by the end of the story I still wanted more.   All in all, it was a cute story.