EARLY REVIEW: P.S. I Like You

P.S. I Like You, by Kasie West
Publish Date: July 26, 2016
Publisher: Point
Format: e-ARC, provided by the publisher via Edelweiss
Genre: young adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 5 STARS

(Synopsis) What if the person you were falling for was a total mystery?

While Lily is spacing out in Chemistry one day, she picks up her pencil and scribbles a line from one of her favorite songs on the desk. The next day, someone else has written back to her on the desk! Soon enough Lily and the mystery student are exchanging notes, and lyrics, and even sharing secrets. When Lily finds out that her anonymous pen pal is a guy, she's flustered -- and kind of feels like she's falling for him. She and her best friend set out to unravel the identity of the letter writer -- but when the truth is revealed, the guy is the LAST person Lily could have ever imagined it to be. Now that Lily knows the truth, can she untangle her feelings and gather the courage to listen to her heart?

From beloved author Kasie West (The Distance Between Us) comes an utterly charming story about mixed messages, missed connections, and the magic of good old-fashioned secret admirer notes.

I have a total girl crush on Kasie West. Because she writes the best books that make me smile SO BIG. 

I adored the concept of P.S. I Like You. Lily has a secret pen pal, and she knows that this person is not only in the same grade as her, but also in the same high school. This person shares the same desk with Lily in a different period of chemistry, and every day they share a few words about their lives in a note lodged under the desk. Lily has no idea who this person is, but before she knows it, she's sharing more of herself with this stranger than she does with most other people. 

I loved the fact that Lily had no desire to discover the identity of her mystery pen pal. She recognized that part of the magic about the entire situation existed in the fact that neither of them knew who the other was. They were much freer with their words and thoughts and feelings. It was such a special relationship - and they didn't even know each others' names. 

P.S. I Like You was so much more than this budding relationship between Lily and her secret admirer. Lily's home life is happy, but crazy with lots of siblings that never give her any privacy. She's awkward and not at all in with the popular crowd. She loves music and writing lyrics, but she is dealing with writers block, along with an insufferable year in a chemistry class she hates. 

There's a boy she likes from afar who barely knows she exists and a boy she hates very openly who seems to make opportunities to irritate her. Both boys are very much not what she expected when she has a chance to get to know them, and they both play a part in her fantasies about who her secret pen pal is. 

I enjoyed everything about this book. It is witty and smart. The concept is fresh and new in an old school kind of way. The romance angle is sweet and completely adorable. It was the perfect book for me to read in between heavy, suspenseful emotional books. It was like a breath of fresh air, and I never wanted it to end.