Book Review: Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West

Nobody else’s opinion about you is going to matter to you until yours does

After loving By Your Side earlier this year I wanted to pick something else by Kasie West. Love Life and the List wasn’t as interesting as By Your Side, but still a good book none the less.

Book Review: Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West

Rating:


Title & Author: Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Release date: December 26 2017
Series: Standalone
Publisher: HarperCollins

Synopsis

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.

I give Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West four out of five hearts because it was a great story about Abby finding her own. But it too much hinged on the romance, which wasn’t there all that much.

Abby is struggling with two things in this novel, she wants to be seen by Cooper the same way she does him and getting the things she wants out of life, like getting into the art program in the winter. She is a well-designed character and I liked her because of that.

Cooper is the object of Abby’s affection, but even after her telling him she liked him still doesn’t return her feelings. He is dating Iris and I felt he was rubbing it in with Abby.

Overall I thought the story started out okay, but I did get more problems with it the further I got into the story. Abby’s mom’s problem was barely discussed. Yes, she has problems with anxiety, but where are they coming from. Why does it only flair up when Abby’s father is away? None of it was explained. Then there is the romance story, Abby has told Cooper she liked him the year before, but then crawled back and told him she was joking. But she does expect a year later to be over her crush and when she isn’t she gets annoyed with him for living his life. So yeah. Lots of issues and the biggest issues I had came at the end. When Abby finally gets over herself and asks a different friend to join her to go to a cave garden, Cooper at first does not expect her to be with anyone even though the entire book she has been going places, almost always with others, and then goes to confessing he loves her without there ever being a clue that he likes her.

So yeah. I am even considering changing my rating to only three hearts, but I think it’s okay. It was a fun story to read.

Let me know what you thought of this book!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.

For now, let books enrich your life!

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