ARC, 324 pages
Release Date: May 29, 2018Published by: Scholastic Point
Read from: May 28-, 2018Stand-aloneSource: TxLAFor fans of: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Realistic Fiction, YATalking to other people isn’t Kate Bailey’s favorite activity. She’d much rather be out on the lake, soaking up the solitude and sunshine. So when her best friend, Alana, convinces Kate to join their high school’s podcast, Kate is not expecting to be chosen as the host. Now she’ll have to answer calls and give advice on the air? Impossible.
But to Kate’s surprise, she turns out to be pretty good at the hosting gig. Then the podcast gets in a call from an anonymous guy, asking for advice about his unnamed crush. Kate is pretty sure that the caller is gorgeous Diego Martinez, and even surer that the girl in question is Alana. Kate is excited for her friend … until Kate herself starts to develop feelings for Diego. Suddenly, Kate finds that while doling out wisdom to others may be easy, asking for help is tougher than it looks, and following your own advice is even harder.
Kasie West’s adorable story of secrets, love, and friendship is sure to win over hearts everywhere.
*MY THOUGHTS*
“Success doesn’t happen without some failure.“pg. 79
Kate is a really private person, so when she gets roped into doing a podcasting class with her best friend, she’s more surprised than anyone that she gets cast as the host. She gets to be pretty good, and can even tell who some callers are, including the boy who is calling over her best friend. But when Kate starts to get a crush on him too, she doesn’t know what to do. Giving out advice is becoming easy, it’s much harder to do accept it for yourself….
“Venting is validating.“pg. 119
First off, let’s start with the glaringly obvious love triangle that the synopsis gives away. I normally don’t care for them, but this one was between two girls and a boy and it was different than all the other love triangles of two boys and a girl. I also found it pretty interesting because it was between two best friends. Normally love triangles are between two different people, but this one was between two friends. Best friends at that. And that made it kind of weird for me. Especially towards the end. But it worked out in the end. As for the romance, it was a really sweet one. They seemed really into each other and I thought that was cute. I love seeing a new romance blossom after such a slow burn. However, I do feel like there should have been an epilogue with them from later on. I really just want to see them actually together.
“Do you honestly want guys just walking around kissing all the girls they like if the girls aren’t into them? I just saved all of girl manity.“pg. 127
Another thing I didn’t care for was the synopsis. It literally tells the whole story. I re-read the synopsis on my ARC, and it’s different than the one on Goodreads, and I don’t understand why. I feel like they should have kept it the same. Now there is no surprise for others.
“Everything starts somewhere.“pg. 248
I really loved the look into podcasting too. I just recently started listening to some podcasts (like within the last year) and I think they’re pretty cool. It was nice to get a behind the scenes look at how they’re made and what they do. It made me want to look into them more.
“You don’t necessarily get over fear.“pg. 271
This book was different, but I guess a good different. It was different from her other books as well as different from other books on the same subject. Y’all should check it out! Give podcasts a try too!
It's such a bummer when the synopsis gives away most of the story- I've been finding more and more books are doing that :
The podcasting aspect of this one sounds really cool and makes me want to read (even with the weirdish love triangle–NOT a triangle fan!)
Kasie West books are really a hit or miss, I'm glad Listen to Your Heart was mostly a hit for you! Great review, Nikki!