Places We've Never Been by Kasie West

Places We've Never Been

by Kasie West

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 Simons’s summer road trip is going to be absolutely perfect. She’s leaving California for the first time in her life. She’s interviewing at her dream college (the place for future video game animators). And she’s reconnecting with her childhood friend, Skyler Hutton—the boy who taught her to draw, the boy she’s never forgotten about after all these years. What could go wrong?

Cue the RV filled with three siblings, two moms, one bathroom, and years of memories, and suddenly this trip isn’t quite the vacation Norah was hoping for—especially when Skyler makes it clear he would rather be anywhere but here. But Norah isn’t one to give up without a fight. And as the families travel from desert heat to mountain vista, sparks begin to fly between these two ex–best friends—after all, friendship doesn’t just fade away. Does it?

Kasie West delivers another romantic and heartfelt story of family, first love, and how expanding your horizons can take you places you’ve never dreamed of.

Reviewed by ladygrey on

3.5 of 5 stars

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Kasie West is always a safe bet for a cute, fun story. For some reason this is one of her better ones in a while. I think a big part of it is that Norah is easily likable (despite her odd perception that her thoughts are weird or off-putting which didn't actually seem to be the case at all). Plus, even though some of her reactions are off base they're understandably justified from assumptions of a seventeen-year-old girl. So they're not annoying. And they don't wreak havoc with the story. Willow is also fun and very likable, really all the characters are. They move the story forward through a light plot by having a good time, even when they're fighting.

As is often the case, it ends too abruptly. It wraps everything up nicely but too quickly in barely a few summarizing pages when the fun of the book was the dialog and character interactions.

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Reading updates

  • 10 July, 2022: Started reading
  • 10 July, 2022: on page 0 out of 336 0%
  • 10 July, 2022: Finished reading
  • 10 July, 2022: Reviewed