Tier-Ranking All of Kasie West’s Contemporary Books

Tier ranking posts are extremely popular across the bookish community, so I thought it was about time for me to do my own. Tier ranking is where you take a certain category, like series you’ve finished, and rank them into different levels. I first saw tier-ranking books on Hannah at Clockwork Reads channel (see here), although tier-ranking has been popular on various social media sites before this video.

Today, I want to tier rank all of Kasie West’s contemporary books. I was inspired to tier rank Kasie West’s books after reading her latest release, Moment of Truth, which massively disappointed me. Kasie West has always been a hit-or-miss author for me. While there are some books by her that I really love, others are either forgettable or memorable for all the wrong reasons.

In the comments of my Moment of Truth review, several other readers expressed how they love Kasie West, but they aren’t sure if she will remain an auto-buy author after her last few releases which disappointed them. I’m hoping that by sorting Kasie West’s contemporary books, I can see if most of her books fall into a positive category or if more of her books fall into a disappointing category.

I will link any book reviews to book titles as I tier rank them.

Disclaimer: Protect Your Privacy

Just as a note, I watched Peyton Reads video (see here) where she tier-ranked books by Sarah J. Maas and she gave some advice that I thought was worth sharing. While reading some fine print of tier ranking websites when in the process of creating an account, which makes you connect the website to your Twitter, she saw some questionable permissions, like blocking people that follow you or changing your Twitter settings. This is a little bit of a red flag, as Peyton noted, that they could go into your account and mess with settings completely unrelated to the purpose of the website.

While Peyton made a different Twitter to use to make an account, I just decided to make my own tier-ranking system using a document on my computer. If you want to participate in this trend, but think those permissions are a little fishy, I would recommend opting for the strategy that Peyton Reads used or making your own system using a program on your computer.

The Books

Kasie West has primarily written young adult contemporary books, however, she did write a couple of young adult science fiction books. Today, I will only be ranking her contemporary books as I haven’t read her science fiction books and I don’t plan on reading them in the future. In this tier ranking, I will also include Snow in Love, in which she wrote a contemporary short story.

Kasie West’s contemporary novels include: The Distance Between Us; On the Fence; The Fill-in Boyfriend; By Your Side; Listen to Your Heart; Lucky in Love; P.S. I Like You,; Love, Life, and the List, Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss; Maybe This Time; and Moment of Truth.

How will I rank the books?

• Heart Eye Emoji: These are my all-time favorite books by Kasie West. I have given these books a four or five star rating and I have re-read them multiple times.
• P.S. I Like You: These books are books by Kasie West that I really enjoy, but they aren’t my favorites. I probably rated these books as four stars.
• Average: These books are typical Kasie West books: easy to read, but weren’t unique enough to stand out to me. While I love the tropes that Kasie West typically uses, the tropes in these books didn’t have their own spin.
• Forgettable: This book wasn’t very memorable that I actually don’t remember much of the plot besides the tropes in the synopsis of the book.
• By West, but went South: These books lacked Kasie West’s typical charm in her writing. I struggled to get through these books and rated them under three stars.

The Rankings

• Maybe This Time (Heart Eye Emoji): Maybe This Time was an unexpected hit for me. I saw some negative reviews before I read it, so I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. I liked this book by West because the love interest had a very distinct personality, which her love interests don’t always have, and had a very different personality in general than other love interests by this author.
• The Fill-In Boyfriend (P.S. I Like You): The Fill-In Boyfriend is often one of Kasie West’s least popular books because of the main character’s very self-centered personality. This actually used to be in my top three favorites because I think there’s a lot of depth to the main character and the events unfold in a very authentic way which doesn’t always happen in West’s books.
• The Distance Between Us (Forgettable): The Distance Between Us was the first book that I read by Kasie West and I don’t remember much beside that the girl works in a doll shop. This is definitely one that I need to reread because I remember thinking it was average, but thinking I should have liked it more because West is such a beloved contemporary author.
• Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss (By West, but went South): Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss was a massive disappointment. This is the second book in the Love, Life, and the List companion “series” (I use the term series loosely). I expected to love this book because I really liked the main character in Love, Life, and the List. However, this book wasn’t as easy or fun for me to read as other books by this author. The characters and plot weren’t particularly memorable and seems very scattered.

• P.S. I Like You (Heart Eye Emoji): P.S. I Like You was the book that I read by Kasie West which made me consider her an auto-buy contemporary author. P.S. I Like You is like a high school movie. While predictable, the characters in this book are fairly developed and the plot is paced well. The main character in this book definitely has a unique personality which makes her stand out against other protagonists by this author.
• Love, Life, and the List (Heart Eye Emoji): I was hooked with Love, Life, and the List from start to finish. I liked the amount of character growth the main character, as well as the side characters, go through throughout this novel. This is always one of the best friends-to-lovers stories that I read because the emotions are very realistic, especially when the romantic feelings aren’t reciprocated at different times during the novel.
• Snow in Love short story (P.S. I Like You): I loved Kasie West’s addition to the Snow in Love short story collection and I wished that I got a full story featuring the characters in this book. It was unfortunate that West opened this book for me because none of the other stories could live up to how much I loved her part in the collection.
• Moment of Truth (By West, but went South): I recently reviewed Moment of Truth on my blog… and it wasn’t pretty. As I mentioned earlier, it served as my inspiration for this post. The characters, the plot, and the pacing were all completely off-kilter in this book which made for a frustrating and unenjoyable reading experience. This is the third book in the Love, Life, and the List series and I was hoping things would get better after Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I feel like this book could have been much stronger out of the confines of the companion series.

• By Your Side (Average): By Your Side wasn’t what I expected, or what many other readers expected, so that’s why it is only average for me. The whole pitch for this book was being stuck in a library, which wasn’t a significant chunk in the book and it got a little soap opera-esque at the end for me. However, it was still a cute and quick read that I enjoy from thisauthor.
• Listen to Your Heart (Average): Listen to Your Heart was a cute story, but whenever Kasie West involves some sort of mystery, I find the story not as strong as it could be. Because West’s stories are typically tropey, which I love, they are often very predictable and there really isn’t a “mystery” at all, but you have to watch the characters go through the same conversations and situations over and over again. I did like in this story, however, the relationship between the two best friends who liked the same guy. I found their response to this to be very mature and a good message for the target audience.
• On the Fence (Average): On the Fence is a cute story, and is often regarded as a favorite by Kasie West fans, but for me it is only average. It is one of her earlier books, but I read it after I had read some of my favorites, like P.S. I Like You and The Fill-In Boyfriend. As a result, I don’t think I liked it as much as I would have liked it if I read it prior to reading some of my favorites. Still, it was a fun and cute story, exactly what I look for from this author.
• Lucky in Love (Forgettable): There are a couple specific plot points that I remember from this book, but not much else. I think a factor of putting this in the forgettable category is that Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith was released around the same time, which made the two books blend together for me. To see my Battle of the Books for Lucky in Love and Windfall, click here.

Final Thoughts

Looking at my list, I can see my thoughts towards Kasie West books are a little mixed than in the past. While I love her fun books with cute tropes, there have been quite a few books by this author that missed the mark for me. That being said, when I look at my list, I’ve had a positive experience reading the majority of them with only a couple extreme outliers.

What are some of your favorite/least favorite books by Kasie West?

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