ARC Review: On the Fence by Kasie West

Title: On the Fence

Author: Kasie West

Genre: YA contemporary

Published by: HarperTeen

Release date: 1st July 2014

Source: received in exchange for review (thanks SO much, HarperTeen Australia! You rock!)

Blurb: 

She’s a tomboy. He’s the boy next door…

Charlie Reynolds can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn’t know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at a chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world. To cope with the stress of her new reality, Charlie takes to spending nights chatting with her neighbor Braden through the fence between their yards. As she grows to depend on their nightly Fence Chats, she realizes she’s got a bigger problem than speeding tickets-she’s falling for Braden. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high.

^^^ Me when On the Fence arrived in the mail. Basically.

While reading it:

But how to review it?

Okay, let’s start with

PLOT

Awesome things include:

– Charlie’s brothers chucking her into a mud puddle

– Awesome trivia games over the fence

– Glimpses of characters from The Distance Between Us

– Guys trying to come up with four items of make-up (hilarious)

CHARACTERS

Charlie’s brothers are awesome. In fact, they were the highlight of the book. They’re always teasing her and are really sweet and funny. Gage is my favourite.

Our main character is also great. She’s a tomboy and that becomes a bit of an issue for her, with the whole struggling to be a girl without her mother thing. She’s a really well-written character.

Braden, I feel, we could have seen more of. Despite his and Charlie’s “fence chats,” I didn’t know that much about him.

OTHER STUFF

If I was smarter I could probably categorise this stuff, but I don’t want to because I just want to fangirllllll.

Loved how protective her dad was. Loved the added family dilemmas. Loved her part-time job and Linda’s reading of her aura. It’s a beautiful story about family and friends and love, right up there with Anna and the French Kiss. This is only the second book I’ve read of Kasie West’s, but MAN. I am HOOKED. I simply must read Split Second  and Pivot Point now (did I do those in the wrong order??).

The romance was pretty light, actually, and I loved how much the family played a part. My favourite bits were those with all of her brothers, goofing around and generally being idiots. The beginning is a perfect example of this.

ONLY COMPLAINTS were that the whole thing with her Mum felt kind of like it came from nowhere. And Braden became a bit jealous. But hey, I can ignore those things. I mean, I have complaints about Harry Potter too (*cough*19yearslater*cough*).

I’m totally up for a reread.

I couldn’t wait to review this. I just HAD to share with everyone how awesome it was.

 Rating: 5/5 Wonderkitties