Book Talk: Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West

I’m pretty sure our entire team of YA writers has read and loved Kasie West’s clean and clever teen romance books. A few of hers are so funny and draw you in so well, that I can’t help but go back to them over and over again. And since I’ve been revisiting Listen to Your Heart this week, I thought it was a perfect fit for Friday Book Talk.

West’s characters are original. They are well-researched with consistent, often quirky characteristics that make you love and relate to them. (Seriously, she’s one of the best character-builders out there.) Her heroine in Listen to Your Heart is Kate Bailey, a chill, sarcastic, lake-loving girl whose first boyfriend moved away and forgot her over the summer. She’s not the most social girl, either, so her bestie Alana is her perfect girl-mate to balance her droll temperament (and get her in predicaments she wouldn’t otherwise touch with a ten-foot pole).

Also, Kate has an unusual family, and they are half of the joy in this book. While her living situation is unusual, her siblings and cousins and aunts and uncles and parents all have tight, heart-warming connections that bring her both chaos and love and increase the charm of this story.

SOMEWHAT SPOILER: The problems arise when Kate is dragged into Alana’s hyped expectations for their high school podcasting class and, much to her dismay, is named the host of the show for the year. She is seriously the last kid who wants that kind of attention, but in the face of a needed grade, she will have to follow through with the course.

I love how this predicament terrifies, yet sets Kate free. Courage isn’t always about the fears we face on purpose, and this book details this lesson in a beautiful way. Kate finds that she is quite good at connecting and relating to strangers, so much so that her advice is sought after by fellow students. She learns how to enjoy new friends whose personalities she thought would grate on her. It’s a thousand little life-lessons all wrapped in a story that will keep you laughing while tugging at your heart until the last sentence when you’re sad to let it go.

I hope you’re convinced already! And good news to those of you who listen to audiobooks, the audio narrator adds a lot to the characters. So if you have a long car ride this summer with teen girls, check it out!