On
the Fence by Kasie West
Shannon
McManus (Narrator)
Audiobook
Published
August 20th, 2015
My
rating: 3 out of 5 stars
For
sixteen-year-old Charlotte Reynolds, aka Charlie, being raised by a single dad
and three older brothers has its perks. She can outrun, outscore, and outwit
every boy she knows—including her longtime neighbor and honorary fourth
brother, Braden. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn't know the
first thing about anything. So when she starts working at chichi boutique to
pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world of makeup,
lacy skirts, and BeDazzlers. Even stranger, she's spending time with a boy who
has never seen her tear it up in a pickup game.
To
cope with the stress of faking her way through this new reality, Charlie seeks
late-night refuge in her backyard, talking out her problems with Braden by the
fence that separates them. But their Fence Chats can't solve Charlie's biggest
problem: she's falling for Braden. Hard. 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.
My thoughts…
This
is my first Kasie West read/audio it was cute and very predictable.
Sixteen-year-old
Charlie (Charlotte) is a classic tomboy being raised by her father and three
older brothers, and her fourth brother and neighbor Braden. Charlie's mother died
tragically in a car accident when she was six years old leaving her with nightmares
and questions after all these years. To avoid the nightmares Charlie exhausts
herself throughout the day by running and playing sports with her four brothers.
On the nights that Charlie can’t sleep she goes out to the backyard hoping the
fresh air will relax her. Braden is there on the other side of the fence trying
to deal with his family difficulties. They develop a routine by meeting at the
fence and talking to each other during the night, they keep those conversation to
themselves during the day. Her family doesn’t know about the fence chats.
Charlie’s
father isn’t sure how to raise a daughter and he wants to do it right, he
basically reads a book trying to get information. Charlie has no idea, when
they have their talks he tells her a co-worker gave him suggestions. The said
co-worker is fake, her name is the same as the authors. Charlie sees how
uncomfortable her father is talking about ‘girly issues’ that she doesn’t want
to burden him with her feelings about the make-up, lacy skirts and having
female friends who don’t play sports. She also hides that she is doing make-up
modeling from her father.
I
enjoyed the relationship she had with her father, brothers and Braden, their
rough-housing, teasing, silliness, and their overprotective nature towards
Charlie. Her brother Gage and Braden were closer in age to Charlie and their
banter was fun to read.
I
didn’t care for the fact that Charlie felt like she was plain and just one of
the boys. She didn’t believe it or understand it when her female friends and
boss told her she was beautiful and asked her to be their make-up model. That is
one thing that really irritates me in books. I did like her character
development, she grew as the story progressed.
I
didn’t care for the ending, it just ended. I felt like there should have been
more. This month I will be reading The Fill-In Boyfriend, also by Kasie West,
hopefully I’ll enjoy that book more.
Happy
Reading -J
I have only read one Kasey West book and thought it was just ok. I had really expected to love it. It is hard to fall in love with a predictable book. Great review!
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