Seventeen-year-old Abby Turner’s summer isn’t going the way she’d planned. She has a not-so-secret but definitely unrequited crush on her best friend, Cooper. She hasn’t been able to manage her mother’s growing issues with anxiety. And now she’s been rejected from an art show because her work “has no heart.” So when she gets another opportunity to show her paintings Abby isn’t going to take any chances.
Which is where the list comes in.
Abby gives herself one month to do ten things, ranging from face a fear (#3) to learn a stranger’s story (#5) to fall in love (#8). She knows that if she can complete the list she’ll become the kind of artist she’s always dreamed of being. But as the deadline approaches, Abby realizes that getting through the list isn’t as straightforward as it seems… and that maybe—just maybe—she can’t change her art if she isn’t first willing to change herself.
This is the first in a set of three standalone books with crossover characters.
5 Drink Me Potions
**Love, Life, and the List comes out December 26, 2017**
Thank you Edelweiss and HarperCollins for this copy in exchange for an honest review
Kasie West is honestly a GODDESS when it comes to her contemporary romances! It renders me speechless at how well she can capture such poignant emotions of your average heart in her words. Can we just sit here and bask for a moment how she continually astonishes me?
Okay, moment over. Now, where do I even BEGIN with this book?
Love, Life, and the List is a book basically about character development in our protagonist, Abby. She’s just your typical high schooler but with a love for creating art. Having been surprisingly rejected from being a part of the only museum in town’s art show, she’s told that she needs more emotional depth to translate into her paintings.
And thus the list was born.
I normally adore any cute story that centres on a list or some sort (ex. Morgan Matson’s Since You’ve Been Gone), and this list is short but doable. Listen to a stranger’s story, try some new things, face a fear. All sound great for character development right?
And it does. Abby grows from experiencing things that she’s never had in her few years of life so far. Yet the true beauty in this story is the underlying romantic tensions with her best friend Cooper. Ah, the heartache of unrequited love. And with a bestie. You can tell I was immediately hooked on this story formula.
Needless to say, the progression of Abby’s ups and downs with Cooper over the summer they spend together alone from their normal group of four was realistic and so very sweet. She’s not so far gone that she’s senseless in her love for him, but you can tell it’s also not something so easily to be shaken away. Of course, the darn guy either is completely oblivious to her feelings or doesn’t return them – which had me on the edge of my seat the WHOLE time.
I will reiterate that Kasie West brought out another couple with their own challenges and created a beautiful story of self-discovery and love. It’s pure gold. I read this in one sitting (which I shouldn’t have but I have no regrets at all). No matter that it’s winter now, it’s an amazing read for this time of the year or in the summer for which this book definitely emanates that kind of appeal.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, even if you’re not a normal contemporary reader. It’s a definite must-read!
Overall Recommendation:
Love, Life, and the List may seem to have a simple formula: a girl with a list for the summer and her heart set on her best friend who may not feel exactly the same way. However simple the synopsis seems, Kasie West delivers yet another gorgeous story that features the complex nature of a close friendship that yearns to be a little bit more and the kinds of experiences that shape us and our characters. With a heavy focus on friendship, family and love, what reader cannot relate to such things? Contemporary lover or not, I know you need to read this when it comes out!
Down the Rabbit Hole 
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