ARC, 293 pagesRelease Date: July 1, 2014Published by: HarperTeenStand-aloneSource: Around the World ARC ToursFor fans of: Contemporary Romance, Sports, Realistic Fiction, Sparkly Covers, YA
She's a tomboy. He's the boy next door…Charlie Reynolds can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn't know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at a chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world. To cope with the stress of her new reality, Charlie takes to spending nights chatting with her neighbor Braden through the fence between their yards. As she grows to depend on their nightly Fence Chats, she realizes she's got a bigger problem than speeding tickets-she's falling for Braden. 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.
Fun, original, and endearing, On the Fence is a romantic comedy about finding yourself and finding love where you least expect.
*MY THOUGHTS*
It's official.... Any contemporary romance that Kasie West writes I'm auto-buying it. I'd thought The Distance Between Us was amazing, but she definitely knocked it out of the park with this one! (Pun intended lol)
"'...but you're not a normal girl, so that doesn't count."
pg 105
In this story we meet Charlie, a girl who's grown up with just her brothers and father and they're more than just "rubbed off" on her. She plays tackle football with them, she dresses in basketball shorts and sweat pants, and she is into beating them up on a daily basis. All things that "normal" girls don't do. Her neighbor and best friend is Braden, a guy who's been there her entire life, much like her brothers. Braden and Charlie don't realize how much they really know about each other until they start hanging out next to their fence for late night chats.
"'I was a sporting event type of girl, not a loud music event one. At least that's what I had always thought. But here I was standing in this store, in these clothes, hearing the sound of laughter in the back room, and realizing that maybe there was more to me than I realized."
pg 142
What I loved about this book was the fact that I saw so much of me in Charlie. Now I know I say things like that about a lot of characters, but this one really hit home. She did some of the same things I've done, wore some of the same things I've worn, and felt some of the same feelings I have. When I say I felt like I was reading a story of my childhood, I couldn't be more accurate. Even when her and Braden were being hard headed I was on her side. I knew that feeling of being rejected because of my tomboyish qualities. I knew that it takes a while to get over something like that. Especially since it seems like no one else has noticed you. I also admired her when she realized that there was another side to her. I was happy that she realized that being that other side of herself didn't make her fake, it just made her a little different. She was just finding herself. And that's exactly what teens do. They go through many different experiences to find out who they really are.
"'I'm so glad that's over. It was way harder in real life than in practice.' I laughed. Now that I could relate to."
pg 152
Unfortunately, even though I loved Charlie so much, I didn't really fall for Braden. Don't get me wrong, I did like him, but they didn't really get together until the end so by then it wasn't really any time for swoony times. And we all know how I like my swoony times lol Don't get me wrong, there were some, but not with the certain person I wanted it to be with. Hopefully in the next book (are there more? Please say yes!) we can see a glimpse of Braden and Charlie (or even her brothers, especially Gage) just like we caught Caymen playing around in her shop in this one!
I've never connected to a character like I have with Charlie. She no doubt made me feel old lol but she also made me realize so much about myself. I realized that I'm still the stubborn, tom-boyish girl that I was a long time ago. I'm so happy that just like her I was able to find someone who loved me for me and not what I pretended to be."'It was amazing what happened when you let yourself be open to new things."
pg 288
Overall, I give this
