Rowena’s review of The Distance Between Us by Kasie West.
Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.
So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s 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 Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she’s beginning to enjoy his company.
She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty 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. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.
After reading On the Fence, I kind of glommed the hell out of Kasie West. I read everything that I could get my hands on and I enjoyed each and every single book that I read by her. This one included.
So this book follows Caymen Meyers, who works in her mother’s porcelain doll shop. There’s not a lot of money in dolls so it’s not surprising that Caymen is poor. When Xander comes into her shop to buy his grandmother a porcelain doll for her birthday, Caymen knows that he’s not poor like her. He’s rich. They should have nothing in common but when Xander keeps coming around, Caymen is helpless. He’s so charming and he’s good company so Caymen looks forward to hanging out with him.
But the longer they hang out, the more Caymen realizes that they may have loads in common but they also belong on opposite ends of the money train. It doesn’t help that Caymen’s mother isn’t a fan of the rich. She thinks that they’re all spoiled brats who think they’re better than everyone and because of this mindset, Caymen finds it hard to bring Xander around his mother which makes things kind of awkward for everyone.
Caymen was an easy person to fall in with. Her sense of humor cracked me up at every turn and her relationship with Xander was too cute. She isn’t this cookie cutter protagonist that could be any one, she had a unique personality that I thought was adorable and too funny.
Xander was a lot of fun. He was kind of a jack of all trades and I really enjoyed getting to know him through Caymen’s thoughts because like Caymen, I was completely charmed by him. I loved the thought he put into his field trips with Caymen and I loved how excited he was on Caymen’s field trips. He was an all-around good guy and I adored the hell out of him.
I thought Xander and Caymen complimented each other really well and was only too glad to see Tic go on his merry way. One of the things that I really liked about this book was that Xander didn’t have the clichéd rich family who thought that Caymen was beneath them because she lived over her mother’s doll shop. I loved the way that they embraced Caymen and that it was Caymen’s mother who didn’t approve of Xander. It was a nice change up from the norm.
This was an easy book to fall into. The characters were charming, the storyline moved at a nice pace and the writing was pretty fantastic. I am a total Kasie West fangirl and this book only added to my love of her. I definitely recommend.
Grade: 4 out of 5
This book is available from Harper Teen. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.
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