Book: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Published July 2013 by HarperCollins|218 pages

Where I Got It: I own the e-book

Series: None

Genre: YA Contempoary

Money can’t buy a good first impression.

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers learned early that the rich are not to be trusted. And after years of studying them from behind the cash register of her mom’s porcelain-doll shop, she has seen nothing to prove otherwise. Enter Xander Spence—he’s tall, handsome, and oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and the fact that he seems to be one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But just when Xander’s loyalty and attentiveness are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. With so many obstacles standing in their way, can she close the distance between them?

I thought I’d like The Distance Between Us a lot more than I actually did.  I loved On The Fence, and thought I’d be reading something sort of similar, but it was something I didn’t like as much as I thought because it left me feeling like I was reading something really different than what I thought I was getting.

I did like the humor in the book, and I think that’s something West does well.  But I think, of the books I’ve read by West so far, this one is my least favorite.

I didn’t care about the romance and it was a bit too much on the Cinderella-side.  It’s not that a guy like Xander couldn’t be interested in Caymen, because he could, but something about it felt a little too fake.  It’s a little hard to believe that a guy with Xander’s social status would be interested in Caymen.  It seemed a little too cliche, and it wasn’t done in a way that made me not care how cliche it was.  I just felt like there was no chemistry between them, but I did like that they were both trying to find their place in the world.  It felt more platonic than romantic.

I also felt like their financial situation and why Caymen never knew her grandparents was a little bit forced.  The grandparents showing up seemed really abrupt, and things were perfectly fine, even though they weren’t part of her life until that point.  Even though I can understand why her mom had issues with wealthy people, it also seemed a little fake, like it was there just as a random obstacle coming between Xander and Caymen.

I also wish we saw more of the relationship between Caymen and her mom, because while Caymen talked about how good of a relationship, I also wish we saw it instead of having it be told to us.

Actually, now that I think about it, a lot of the elements of the book reminded me of Gilmore Girls…but as a book, and not as good.  I just felt like some of the issues that we see in the book weren’t given a lot of attention, and even though I really like the premise, this book just didn’t work for me.  Adult me wasn’t a fan, but I think maybe teenage me would have loved the book.

2 stars.  The Distance Between Us was just okay.  I liked how Caymen was really sarcastic, and her dry sense of humor, but the romance felt forced and cliche.