I have to start off by admitting that I’ve never read anything by Kasie West until now. She’s published so many books! How did I miss her before? Sunkissed is the perfect fluffy, summer read that any fans of YA are looking for. It’s charming, innocent, and all around lovely. After a betrayal from her best friend, Avery is actually glad to be spending the summer at a remote family campground. She needs the space to process what happened, and it turns out, she needs these few months to start discovering who she is and what she really wants. Cute boys and cool bands help to make everything a little bit more exciting for her along the way.

Avery is the perfectly written teenager. She’s going through a bit of an existential crisis–pretty normal for any teen about to enter their senior year of high school. She feels like she plays second fiddle to her younger sister who’s life is social media and who has a natural talent for putting herself out there and taking chances. Avery has always liked to play it safe, which hasn’t been bad, but it hasn’t exactly brought her to any unique or interesting experiences. This story follows her as she blossoms into a young woman, full of potential and confronting her fears head on. There is a huge transformation that takes place with her character (you all know I LOVE well developed character story arcs) and the book has a warm and fluffy ending that brings all the feels.

The story is just the right balance of friend drama, family bonding, romance, and self-discovery in one neat package. It’s happy, light, and the perfect book to read out in the sun. Whether your out for a picnic, down at the beach, or chilling in your yard, grab a floppy had an an iced drink and sit out with this book. It’s a wonderful distraction and it’s easy to get sucked into West’s world.

This was such a sweet read and definitely the first of many I will be reading by this author. I found all the characters relatable in their own way. The romance aspect was written so well.

Kasie West's contemporary novels are some of my favorites—full of well-developed characters, nuanced arcs, and the kind of summer hijinks we all always dreamed of. Loved this new one!

Avery has always used music as an escape. But after her best friend betrays her, even her perfectly curated playlists can't help her forget what happened. To make matters worse, her parents have dragged her and her social-media-obsessed sister to a remote family camp for two months of "fun." Just when Avery is ready to give up on the summer altogether, she meets Brooks—mysterious, frustratingly charming Brooks—who just happens to be on staff—which means he's off-limits. This is classic Kasie West. A fun rom-com that is clean and well written for young adults. I always recommend Kasie.

Kasie West has, and will always be, one of my favourite romance authors to exist. This book will make you smile and warm your heart, which is exactly what you want when reading during the summer months. This book is super easy to read and love, you will fly through it and it will help you with any reading slump that may be coming your way.

This was such a fun, quick, hilarious read and exactly what you should read during the sunny summer months.

If you read the synopsis and thought "this sounds like Dirty Dancing" you would be quite right. This is a contemporary take on the beloved movie, albeit a bit more tame and innocent than the movie. Avery and Brooks quickly connect on their love of music which is what brought me to want to read this one in the first place. I feel like this was written in a way that is easy to devour in a day, but so lovely that you don't even realize you have been reading. I got exactly what I came for and easily connected with the characters.

Katie West nailed it with this one!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Kasie West is my go to author when it comes to ya contemporaries. For years she’s been my favourite and by now I know with her books I can’t go wrong.

Sunkissed was entertaining, fun, fluffy at times and perfect pick to spend a relaxing day with.
I read it twice and enjoyed it both times.

The book was written in first person which made it so easy to flew through. Avery was a good narrator to follow and I have to say, she has good sense of humour.
You know who has even better sense of humour? Her sister. I enjoyed conversations between them and liked their relationship even more than Avery’s and Brooks (who is the love interest).

If you like music and happen to like music making, this story could be the one for you because it features the band and all the things that go along with it: writing, rehearsals, member fights, live gigs…

I wish we got to see more of family camp Avery visited with her family, and if the author decided to include at least one or two camp visitors as well, but overall it was a good book that I would recommend to ya contemporary summer reads.

This was a good book, but nothing special. It was just your typical romance, but for this once it really worked well for me. It was a little below Kasie West standards for me, though.

Give me a Katie West novel, a cold drink, and a comfy chair and you won’t see me until the last page is turned. Perfect reading for a lazy summer day.

Kasie West is one of the authors who’s books I’ve read a lot. In fact, when I see a Kasie West book, I’d add that to my to-be-read (TBR) list right a way and buy her book, or request it to NetGalley. I’m so thankful that I’ve been granted this book (e-book) via NetGalley. I love how Kasie West writes, it’s always been an easy read, fun and lovely book. Once again, this book proved that how she creates stories never fail.

Sunkissed is a good book where you can actually feel the summer vibes. I’ve never been to a “camp” but, this book gave me a good view on what it actually looks (or at least a glimpse of what a camp looks). The characters are all lovely and funny at the same time. I love the charm between Avery and Brooks. Both characters are trying to discover their selves, escaping reality being with each other’s comfort. Avery made this trip to escape her best friend, they had a complicated relationship because of one guy. Brooks, is an employee at the camp who is also a breadwinner of the family. He works hard to achieve his dreams at the same time, to make his family proud. Avery’s parents is a good one who supports their kids a lot (some kids are not that appreciative to this kind of parents). And Avery’s sister is a social media obsessed kid. She records everything and especially this camp trip which she’s been looking forward to (but then, no internet. LOL). She decided to record Brooks band and cover the day to day activity up until their big break. To be honest, I like this kid a lot. She helped her sister in ways that big sisters can’t do.

As I’ve said earlier, the book is amazing and it’s fun to read. It is a fast read too. It’ll be fun to have a second book for this since I’m already invested on Brooks’ band, I’d love to know what comes next. LOL. I’m looking forward to more Kasie West book! I’d love to collect all of her books (someday though, someday)

A sugary sweet ya romance that I couldn’t put down. I loved every second of this. I swooned so many times.

Cute teen romance - this book will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Fun relationships, realistic conflicts, and quick pace make this a perfect summer read.

I'm going to start by saying that I do not think that this is a bad book at all. It's full of cute summer vibes, with great friendships and relationships throughout. I do however think that this book was not for me as a reader.

I really liked Brooks as a character. He was sweet and caring, and who doesn't love a guy in a band? His moments with Avery were some of my favorites throughout the entire book, but it would have fun to see even more songwriting sessions between the two.

The one thing I found myself wishing for, especially in the first half, was more interactions between Avery and her sister. They clearly butt heads, as all sisters do, but it would have been nice to see more interactions between them earlier on, starting around the 25% mark, that would have started to sow the seeds that that this summer would serve to bring them closer as sisters.

Maybe it's because I have moved on from young adult contemporary as a genre, but a lot of the character's conflicts (such as having to live without wifi for a couple months) weren't that relatable to me as a reader. I did, however, enjoy Avery's struggles with the betrayal of her best friend. That's a storyline I always resonate with, and I liked to watch her make new friends among the camp counselors.

Overall, this book had all the summer vibes that I like, but I struggled to connect with it and the characters. I don't think this is an issue of the book itself, rather it has more to do with my tastes as a reader and how I have personally outgrown the genre. But I do think it's worth a shot if you are looking for a light and fun YA romance.

Kasie West write the best YA romance! This book was cute and charming with a fun plot. I enjoyed the dynamic between characters as well as the plot development.

Avery is going away to a remote summer camp with her sister and parents. She is leaving behind a best friend and ex-boyfriend who did some less than favorable things that have ruined their friendships. Avery hopes that her time away will help her sort through her feelings. She starts to rediscover her love of music and a few people camp who help her with that.

Fun! I've purchased it for the library. I'm currently clearing out all of the books that were published in 2019-21 from my title feedback view!

Kasie West has a knack for transporting you back to your youth. Even if you’ve never experienced the same things as her characters, you can imagine yourself in their shoes. She’s a fantastic contemporary YA writer!

SUNKISSED is a story about family, friendships, first love and first heartbreak. The female protagonist finds herself suck at a summer camp with no connections to the outside world. Despite being completely cut off, she finds new friends and maybe even a new relationship.

I really enjoyed this story! I will definitely be reading more by this author.

Sunkissed is a great summer read, it takes place at a summer camp. The main character, Avery who gets betrayed by her best friend, and her family spend the summer at camp where cell phone service is hard to come by. Avery loves to sing and finds friends with the band that plays at the camp and even develops a relationship with one of the guys, Brooks. I loved how relatable the characters are, and that the aspect of spending time with family is heavily featured. This was such a fun, perfect summer read.

Sunkissed by Kasie West follows Avery when her family decides to spend the summer at a remote family camp. Avery's love of music quickly draws her towards Brooks, a camp employee, and musician in the camp band. I enjoyed the romance aspect of this book, and especially loved the music aspect and seeing Avery and Brooks work together to create something they are passionate about. I felt like the enemies-to-lovers trope was kind of forced, and it took a little while for me to get invested in the book and characters.

I love books with a camp setting because they bring me back to my summer camp days. This was the perfect summer read filled with everything I would expect from a Kasie West book.

This was just… not interesting in the slightest. All the characters felt super shallow and one-dimensional, I didn’t care if they achieved their goals or not, and there was really no good plot to this. The romance also felt super forced?? Not worth it.