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?
The Distance Between Us
by Kasie West
Series
n/a; standalone
Genre
Young Adult
Contemporary Romance
Publisher
Harper Teen
Publication Date
July 2, 2013
When I read YA, it’s almost always paranormal, with a romance or a mystery thrown in occasionally. This read was one of my occasional young adult romances that I found on one of the blogs I follow awhile back-my memory is too gone to remember which blog. Sorry!
Cayman is seventeen and a senior in high school, although none of this book happens at the school. She spends most of her time working at her mother’s porcelain doll shop, and lives with her mom upstairs over the shop. She buys her clothes at thrift stores, as does her best friend Skye. They live in a beach town where the rich people almost outnumber the locals. Cayman has never known her father, as he left the scene as soon as her mother told him she was pregnant. He was rich, and his parent’s hush money is what gave them the start of the doll shop. And her mom’s parents disowned her. So it’s just Cayman and her mom and has been that way for always. One day a young and very noticably rich guy comes into the store to find a present for a birthday. And that’s how this story and friendship really starts.
Cayman was so refreshing for a main character. Her specialty is sarcasm and lots of it. She uses it in all sorts of situations and most of it was really funny, although at times it wasn’t exactly appropriate. She’s a worrier, she knows the shop is failing, and her mom won’t tell her anything. Xander is the third son of a mega rich family of hotel owners. He doesn’t know what he wants to be, no more than Cayman does. So they decide to have career days where they each pick somethng to do to see if they will like that for their future. Those days in the book were some of the fun parts of the story. Of course with Xander’s money, his ideas are way more interesting than Cayman can come up with. There is problems with their relationship, namely the fact she has to hide him from her mother, instead of the other way around. Her mom has a deep seated hatred of rich people due to her past, whereas Cayman meets his parents early on. And did I mention, the tabloids that show pictures of him with another girl? Yes, there’s problems.
I ended up enjoying the whole thing. Start to finish, and it was such a quick read for me. Way less than a day. I went to look to see what other books the author had written and found two. What I also found was that these two eBooks are listed for more than you would pay at a discount store when they are brand new out. $9.99 for an older ebook is just wrong in my opinion, so I won’t be buying them. I doubt that many young adults have that kind of money for a book either. Jumping off my soapbox now! This particular book was way more reasonably priced so that’s the good news.
Highly recommended to young adult romance readers.
The review copy of this book was purchased by the reviewer.
About Kasie West
I write YA. I eat Junior Mints. Sometimes I go crazy and do both at the same time. My novels, published through Harper Teen are: PIVOT POINT and its sequel SPLIT SECOND. And my contemporary novels: THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, ON THE FENCE, and THE FILL-IN BOYFRIEND. My agent is the talented and funny Michelle Wolfson.
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