This review was first posted on Ruby's Reads. 
 The Distance Between Us is the perfect summer read. Okay, maybe not the perfect one--there's no armchair travel to be had here--but the content is just right. It's girl meets boy with a liberal dose of humor coated in characterization. Side note: Caymen's name did not make me think of the Cayman Islands (and is never really explained), but of the caiman, that smaller cousin of the alligator. 
 Though the driving force of the story is Caymen's mother's ongoing prejudice against the wealthy, it really takes a back seat to the romance. Caymen's mother runs a doll store that acts as both their home and their only source of revenue. It's also how Caymen and her love interest, Xander, meet. It's sarcasm at first sight. Despite her mother's lifelong warnings against rich boys who will use and discard poor girls like her, Xander worms his way into Caymen's life. Better, he actually courts her--which is an old-fashioned way of putting it, maybe, but it's also apt. 
 Caymen is an instantly relatable character. Yes, she's sarcastic, but she doesn't alienate people with her sarcasm. I think she and I would really get along, which is always a good sign in a character. Better, I think she'd make me laugh and that's just about my favorite trait in a human being ever. Snark doesn't define Caymen, though, which is honestly refreshing. Authors tend to overdo sarcastic heroines, but West gets it just right. Caymen uses humor to defuse serious situations, but she genuinely cares about the people in her life and struggles to find the best way to support her mother without being eye-rollingly self-sacrificing. Xander, in turn, is a great foil for Caymen. He's patient, he doesn't rush her and he encourages her to talk rather than brush things off with her patented dry humor. 
 Another thing I really enjoyed about The Distance Between Us is that it doesn't fall into the traps that come standard to the rich boy/poor girl story. There were a lot of moments in the story where I was prepared to groan at the cliche I thought was coming only to be pleasantly surprised when West took the situation in a slightly different direction. The only part of the book that failed to please was the ending, which felt a little bit rushed and incomplete. The romance between Caymen and Xander comes full circle, but the plots with Caymen, her mother, their financial worries and her mother's past gets short shrift. I needed more resolution; especially considering that Caymen's grandparents disowned their daughter when they found out she was pregnant. 
 I read The Distance Between Us in a day and even stayed up late to finish it, which--since I'm an old fogey, now--I don't often do anymore. The Distance Between Us is a snappy read. That's what makes it perfect for summer: the feeling that you could finish it during one long, happy day at the beach or by the pool. I'll be digging my copy of Pivot Point out of my TBR pile, but I sincerely hope Kasie West writes something else in this genre--I can't wait to gobble that up, too!