Review: On the Fence

 

 

 

 

 

On the Fence

Author: Kasie West

Publication Date: July 1st 2014        

Publisher: HarperTeen

~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~  

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.

Fun, original, and endearing, On the Fence is a romantic comedy about finding yourself and finding love where you least expect.

 

 

 

Hey, seen all the squeals and happy happy reviews over On the Fence? Well this is another one. First, I have a confession. This is my first Kasie West book, yes, I know.  I feel slap-yourself-in-the-face-stupid that I've waited this long to read one, and ohmygod cuteness overload. I think it's my quota for the month. I'm not a cutesy reader, only when it's Jennifer E Smith, but even I was smiling all the way through it. LOOK WHAT YOU DID BOOK. And I get it now, I do.

This is probably going to make no sense because you know how it is when you just love a book so much you want to gush about it and you can't even review it properly because there are no words to describe it? Hello, On the Fence. You know what surprised me the most about it though? The fact that while Sport plays a big part in our characters lives, and they spend a lot of time playing different types, I was never bored. And really, Sport is the one thing that bores the hell out of me, it does. I can appreciate it, but nope.

 

I'm not a sporty person, unless it comes to Badminton and Tennis, then yay, because I love playing for fun, operative words being for fun, just don't mention the rules to me because that's when we part ways because my brain shuts off. It's not that I can't play by the rules, because I can, it just literally does not go into my brain. The fun thing about On the Fence though, while I couldn't identify myself within the book, I loved all the characters. I would say I'm more like Charlie though, because while I'm not that sporty, I was kind of a tomboy, because I sure as hell wasn't girly like Amber. But it was fun to see how Charlie interacted with that, and while she's not exactly girly as her either, she gets a happy medium that fits just right with her, and she can explore that side of herself that she couldn't before because she's literally surrounded by guys, her three brothers, her father, and the best-friend-basically-brother-next-door-neighbour Braden.

You guys, the way they all were with each other was freaking hilarious and I want to be in that group, okay? That's where most of the smiling came from. And then we have the awkward stages of Charlie realising she likes Braden as more than what she thought she should see him as, and while it was slap-in-your-face obvious between the both of them, it was so cute to just watch them come into their own, it doesn't happen straight away, and there's a lot of fighting on both parts but when they do, ahhhhhhhhhh. So. Freaking. Cute. And sweet. Smiling time.

It's not all cuteness and smiles though, we do have a serious issue plot to do with Charlie's mother, that wasn't what I was expecting and while the subject is pretty heavy, it never felt heavy in here, you know? There's secrets, and with Charlie not knowing it created this issue inside her that remained unresolved all those years, and that gave her issues with herself.  It was one of the saddest things to see in here because while Charlie was so sure of the person she showed everyone else, she forgot to show that person to herself,  she felt she was supposed to be strong all the time, and that anytime she felt weak, she was insecure about it.

On the Fence was a great introduction to Kasie West, and if you're like me and hadn't read any of hers, read this one first. It's my favourite, though I haven't read the rest, but don't care. It still counts.

 

 

 

Rating: 5/5