Kasie West

A sweet and swoony contemporary Young Adult novel about a cross-country family road trip that puts one girl and her childhood best friend on an unexpected road to romance!

Norah hasn’t seen her childhood best friend, Skyler, in years. When he first moved away, they'd talk all the time, but lately their relationship has been reduced to liking each other’s Instagram posts. That’s why Norah can’t wait for the joint RV road trip their families have planned for the summer.
 
But when Skyler finally arrives, he seems...like he’d rather be anywhere else. Hurt and confused, Norah reacts in kind. Suddenly, her oldest friendship is on the rocks.
 
An unexpected summer spent driving across the country leads both Norah and Skyler down new roads and to new discoveries. Before long, they are, once again, seeing each other in a different light. Can their friendship-turned-rivalry turn into something more?

Places We've Never Been

While on a cross-country RV trip with her family, aspiring video game animator Norah reunites with an old friend, prepares for her college interview, and encounters unexpected romance and revelations.

I'm so anxious about whether or not they'll fight about her not saying anything about his mother. I hope there's no close-to-the-end-breakup!

Sophia

"You think I'm not going to remember that when I'm gone? I've loved you for half my life. I'm not going to forget."

My thirteen-year-old self knew it and my seventeen-year-old self knew it even more.

 didn't matter what my mom said, or the hard things we were going to face in the coming years. I knew we'd face them better together.

Right now it feels like life is just happening to us, outside of our control. One day we'll get to pick everything about our lives. Where we want to live, who we want to spent our time with. Who we don't.

He draw her after saying that he grew out of it gosh this is too cute

At first, I didn't quite understand what I was seeing. My brain was trying to make sense of Paisley being responsible for the drawing in front of me. The style and technique felt so familiar. Then my mouth dropped open. "You didn't... Is this...?" It was a sketch of me. A super-detailed, hyperrealistic, picture-like drawing of me.

"It was hard for me when I left too," he said.

He brushed a piece of hair off my temple.

"You radiate positive energy, and when that was out of my life, I was in a dark place. It took me a long time to come out of that. And the thought of coming back here, of remembering what it felt like to have you in my life every day only to have to leave again was a hard thought."

"You packed up and took away my whole life, my entire heart.

Those first few months felt like drowning. Meeting Willow was the first time I could breathe again. So I'm sorry if you just wanted me to sit there and drown without you and I didn't.

I'm sorry if you don't approve of my life rafts. They're my friends. And being popular isn't a character flaw, last I checked."

The desert landscape wasn't the prettiest - dry, monotonous, and yellow - but there was something about plants and animals being able to survive in such bleak conditions that was intriguing.

Willow shook her head. "Oh, no, that's not happening. I just came her to help Norah pack and check out my competition." She gave Skyler a hard stare. "Now that I'm sure I have none, I'm taking off."

A very quick, cute read. Overall really enjoyed the book. 

Tallie Packett

this was a pretty cute YA rom com! i loved the road trip aspect, and connecting with the entire family involved. i think it lacked a little bit of an emotional element for me, but it was a super fun and quick read! 

Lindsey Davis Blanchard 

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Places We’ve Never Been

Author: Kasie West

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 4/5

Diversity: Gay character

Recommended For...: young adult readers, contemporary, romance, road trip, summer, grumpy/sunshine

Publication Date: May 31, 2022

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Age Relevance: 13+ (romance, underage alcohol consumption, child abuse, drugs, divorce, cancer, gore)

Explanation of Above: There is some romance in this book, though it takes a bit for it to take off. There are mentions of underage alcohol consumption and to a character being roofied. There is also vague context to child abuse in how a father character treats their child. I’m not sure if that was implied by the author or not but that’s how I saw it. There is also a brief mention of divorce and some mentions of cancer. There is also some very brief gore with blood.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pages: 336

Synopsis: Norah hasn’t seen her childhood best friend, Skyler, in years. When he first moved away, they'd talk all the time, but lately their relationship has been reduced to liking each other’s Instagram posts. That’s why Norah can’t wait for the joint RV road trip their families have planned for the summer.

But when Skyler finally arrives, he seems...like he’d rather be anywhere else. Hurt and confused, Norah reacts in kind. Suddenly, her oldest friendship is on the rocks.

An unexpected summer spent driving across the country leads both Norah and Skyler down new roads and to new discoveries. Before long, they are, once again, seeing each other in a different light. Can their friendship-turned-rivalry turn into something more?

Review: Overall this was a good YA Contemporary Romance book. I loved the grumpy sunshine aspect of the romance and I loved that it was a road tripping romance as well. I also loved that the MC was a coder and an artist! The book did so well to develop all of the characters and the world building was also decent. I thought that the book was interesting and I read nearly all of it in one sitting.

However, I did think that the book had a lot of characters and it was confusing in how they were all introduced. It was a bit too quick for me. The book had a lot of flashbacks as well, but they weren’t sectioned off well in the arc I was given, which also led to some confusion. I also thought that the book was super slow and that it took a long time to get anywhere with the romance and overall story. The book also had a bit of a cliffhanger in how a certain character dealt with another character and it seemed like a big deal to me but wasn’t in the book, which I found very confusing.

Verdict: It was good!



Kathryn

<I>“You feel better?” he asked.
			I nodded against him.
			“See,” he said. “I remember my thing.”</I>

I think this is a very sweet YA childhood-friends-to-lovers book. I love how the author wrote about the importance of being your authentic self, I think it’s an extremely important message, especially at that age. 

Sadly I felt like the first half and the second half of the book didn’t flow easily together. It almost read like two different stories to me. There was also a lot going on plot wise and I’m not sure all of it was necessary, but it did keep me engaged in the story. 

The romance was also very sweet but it felt like a switch was flipped and everything changed overnight. But I still shipped them because they were SO CUTE, especially at 13.

Even though this book may not be for me I did really enjoy how personable, funny and relatable the characters were! The authors writing style was fun and she delivered the perfect summer road trip vibes in her book. 

3/5⭐️

Places We've Never Been

Reviews

Highlights