Blog Tour Review: Places We’ve Never Been by Kasie West

Jenny (jenjenreviews)

Rating: 4 out of 5.

An extremely cute friends to hate to lovers romance with great family representation.

Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours and Kasie West for allowing me to be part of this experience and also providing me with a complimentary eARC and media kit!

Book Information

Genre: YA Contemporary
Publishing Date: May 31, 2022

A sweet and swoony contemporary Young Adult novel about a cross-country family road trip that puts one girl and her childhood best friend on an unexpected road to romance!

Norah hasn’t seen her childhood best friend, Skyler, in years. When he first moved away, they’d talk all the time, but lately their relationship has been reduced to liking each other’s Instagram posts. That’s why Norah can’t wait for the joint RV road trip their families have planned for the summer.

But when Skyler finally arrives, he seems…like he’d rather be anywhere else. Hurt and confused, Norah reacts in kind. Suddenly, her oldest friendship is on the rocks.

An unexpected summer spent driving across the country leads both Norah and Skyler down new roads and to new discoveries. Before long, they are, once again, seeing each other in a different light. Can their friendship-turned-rivalry turn into something more?

Content and Trigger Warnings

For a list of warnings, tropes, and representation for this book, check out its page on BookTriggerWarnings.com.

About the Author

Kasie West is the author of many YA novels, including The Fill-in Boyfriend, P.S. I Like You, Lucky in Love, and Listen to Your Heart. Her books have been named ALA-YALSA Quick Picks, JLG selections, and ALA-YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. When she’s not writing, she’s binge-watching television, devouring books, or bury-ing her toes in the sand of the Central Coast. Kasie lives in Fresno, California, with her family.

Author Links:

Review (no spoilers)

If you’d like to follow along with the rest of the tour, you can find the tour schedule here.

Hello friends and readers! Today I’m bringing you a review of a nice feel-good YA contemporary romance novel. Places We’ve Never Been was the perfect comfort read, particularly for these summer months. The story follows two childhood best friends whose families have decided to reunite after 4 years apart and go on a summer road trip together. Our main character, Norah, is extremely excited to catch up with her ex-best friend Skyler but is shocked to discover that he’s changed into someone unrecognizable. What follows is an incredibly cute friends to rivals to lovers story that will melt your heart.

I enjoyed reading this book a lot and I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the family relationships represented in this book were (for the most part) healthy and strong. So many YA novels rely on toxic relationships between siblings and/or parents to drive the story, but that wasn’t the case with this. Instead we got to see loving families having fun together, sharing playful banter, and strengthening their already strong bond of friendship. I really need more books like this in my life.

The plot also intertwines some themes about sexism/misogyny in the gaming industry which I thought was a nice touch. Norah wants to become a video game designer who promotes female empowerment in her products. We see bits and pieces of this dream throughout the novel. My only complaint about this storyline was that it was very binary when speaking about gender. Other than that, I appreciated the time taking to shed more light on the issues women face in that field.

Places We’ve Never Been was released today, so if you’re interested, don’t forget to grab your copy at the links above!

3 thoughts on “Blog Tour Review: Places We’ve Never Been by Kasie West”

  1. Pingback: The Cheesy Goodness Tag   – Books Are 42
  2. Pingback: TOUR SCHEDULE: Places We’ve Never Been by Kasie West – TBR and Beyond Tours
  3. Pingback: Blog Tour Review: Borrow My Heart by Kasie West – Jenjenreviews

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