I thought this book was really cute and perfect for younger teens! It's short and wholesome and I really don't have much bad to say about it. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone older than the age of 16 because it was very juvenile, but it is a YA novel so that is definitely to be expected. Overall, a really cute book

*4.5

Borrow My Heart was an incredibly cute story in Kasie West’s signature sweet style. Borrow My Heart was different compared to West’s other titles- her growth as an author is definitely evident in this novel. I loved the characters and, while I guessed the plot twist, their romance took a somewhat unique and funny turn that I really enjoyed. Asher was such a sweet character and I appreciated how much personality each character had- they were easily distinguishable. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves sweet romance, fake dating, and loveable pets.

I loved the pet rescue aspect of this book and Bean the dog!! However, I was a bit confused by the whole catfish scenario and how it all wrapped up but other than that this was a cute story!

Really cute and sweet rom com story. Great story about letting your walls down and letting people in.

Borrow My Heart by Kasie West is a solid young adult romcom. The plots twists were well done and the characters were so cute. The writing was just amazing and you could really feel how each character felt.

A cute YA romantic comedy gone awry!

Wren, an animal shelter volunteer, takes pity on a boy being catfished at a coffee shop. In pretending to be his date, she opens herself up to a world of paddle boarding, Dungeons & Dragons, and social media campaigns. Little does she know that the boy she decided to protect had secrets of his own.

A super cute, sweet YA novel about a girl who rescues dogs during her summer vacation and, at the same time, trying to help a stranger by being his supposed online date in a sort of backwards catfishing incident. I loved that the book has an adorable rescue dog named Bean (the same name as my pup!) and they go to Lake Tahoe, one of my favorite places in the world. It's a super easy read as well, I read it in two sittings over a weekend. I love West's writing and this is no exception!

4/5 ⭐️

This is an adorable fluffy, wholesome YA romance. I really enjoyed this books it was a cute fast read.

Our main character Wren deals with dysfunctional family dynamics. She struggles with the abandonment of her mother. And her need to have control of her life as well as her dating life.
Then she meets Asher and her point of view on dating begins to change.

There are some very important social media topics addressed in this story (the use of video without consent and catfishing)

Overall I really loved the story, it was a fun, cozy read. I definitely recommend if you enjoy YA romance with tropes like:
-Grumpy/ Sunshine
-Secret Identity
-Fake Dating
-Animals(specifically grumpy dogs 🐕)

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC

While I don't read much YA, I found this cute. Since it does start of with a lie, you are waiting for the shoe to drop when Asher finds out the truth about Wren. I do have admit that I found the romance bewteen Asher and Wren a bit lacking. However, all of the time spent at the shelter made up for that. I was growing attached to Bean the dog as the story progressed!

All in all, this will be a cute summer read for younger readers.

Wren is a control freak, so when she steps out of her comfort zone and helps a stranger, things get complicated. Asher is being cat-fished, and to save him from total humiliation, Wren pretends to be his online crush. Then, Asher, and his skeptical friend Dale, keep showing up and Wren has to continue the charade.

As someone who volunteers regularly for an animal shelter, the scene where the woman gets mad at Wren for not "reserving her dog," hit me - it was super realistic, so Kasie West obviously did her research.

The characters were realistic, the situation was interesting, and the plot was paced nicely. I enjoyed this book a lot, and I would definitely recommend it during reader's advisory.

What a cute summer read for teens! Fans of fake dating and pets will love this book. It was such a sweet, summer story.

Borrow My heart is such a sweet story. It is told from Wren's perspective. She is a high school student on summer break, living with her father. She works at a pet rescue and has a best friend Kamala.
Wren was visiting her friend Kamala at her work - a coffee shop, where she overhears these 2 guys Asher and Dale. Dale is giving Asher a hard time about a girl Asher has been talking with. This is where Wren steps in. Wren kind of takes on a fake identity. I will stop there so I don't reveal all the sweet moments. This is the perfect book for young adults to read on a summer day at the beach. Fall in love with Wren and Asher as they get to know each other even with a secret in the way.

"𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇," 𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅, "𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒖𝒃𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒄𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒃 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖?"

My top reasons to read this book ~

• I loved how each chapter started with a dating rule and the plot turned out to be opposite of that.
• This was cute, charming and if you love rules and also love to break them, read this.
• This was a light hearted emotional roller coaster with great characters and lovable dogs, specially Bean.
• Social media, catfishing, family dynamics are main theme here.
• This YA romance has a twist that you won't see coming.

The first part to create buzz was funny.
I wish Wren let's Asher know because he is definitely going to get hurt was my first thought while reading this but what happened was unexpected. Dale and Asher were stupid stupid. Wren was my absolute favourite.

I recommend this sweet read.

This is a sweet YA romance with some teens dealing with social media. I really enjoyed this book and I'm a big fan of the author.

Nothing could go wrong while fake dating and hiding your identity, right? Wrong.

A fast-paced story and witty sarcasm are two of my favorite things. Next, throw in animals and furever homes and it’s easy to understand why I’m a huge fan! Being a bit of a control freak myself with anal retentive lists, I definitely identified with Wren. I adored Kamala and Wren’s wonderful and supportive friendship. Asher is a great guy and enjoyed his role in the story. It’s not all romcom here, the author does a fantastic job of touching on abandonment and the effects of social media. Great YA read.

Borrow My Heart has officially joined the ranks in my list of top YA summer rom-com books! I loved everything about it – the characters, the chemistry, the overall summer vibes, and all the fun shenanigans you would expect a summer YA to include.

Borrow My Heart is about teen “control freak” Wren, who overhears a random guy named Asher, being humiliated by his friend about getting cat-fished at a café. To save Asher from further embarrassment, Wren pretends to be his online crush and goes on the date. Despite having many dating rules in place, Wren continues dating Asher under the fake persona, breaking her own rules and falling for him in the process.

What I love the most about YA summer romances is reading about the fun summer things the main characters get to experience, so I was excited when Borrow My Heart included just that. This book was jam-packed with YA summer-filled adventures which includes working summer jobs at the pet rescue shelter, going on lake trips, and of course, finding a summer romance.

The characters were so easily lovable and relatable. Asher has massive “golden-retriever” energy while Wren has the “black cat” vibe and I absolutely loved them together. The chemistry between them was amazing and despite the unfortunate catfishing aspect, their meet-cute has to be one of my favourites because it’s unique and plays a big role in their relationship throughout the book. This was also just a great take on the “fake-dating” trope.

I decided to give it a 4 out of 5 because I felt like there were some things in the end that I needed some answers to, like what happened to Wren’s mom at the end? Who was the catfish?

Overall, I truly adored this book. So, if you’re a fan of other YA romance books by Kasie West or looking for the perfect YA summer romance vibes, I definitely recommend reading Borrow My Heart!

Recommended for readers looking for:
✅ YA summer contemporary romance
✅ Rom-com with dogs!
✅ Golden retriever and black cat duo pairings
✅ Forced proximity with a new take on the fake-dating trope
✅ Kasie West and Morgan Watson YA vibes

Cass x

💻 Check out more book reviews on my What Cass Reads blog and my Instagram!

Borrow My Heart by Kasie West is such a feel-good book I have read in a while. Because of the pet theme in this book, I loved it even more.

Wren's love for pets made me feel connected to her. She worked in a Shelter where she got attached to Bean, a sweet Pitbull. Finding a forever home for Bean has been the subplot, which I love more than the main plot.

Wren saved Asher, the male protagonist, from his friend embarrassing himself because he said he would humiliate Asher if the girl he (Asher) met online didn't show up to the Coffee Shop. So, Wren jumped in to save the day. First of all, I wouldn't say I like this scene because it's so unrealistic. You don’t save a stranger because his friend was teasing him. It's their business, not yours, Wren.

This was literally the very first scene, so I thought I might not love this book very much. But I was wrong. Interactions between Wren and Asher were so sweet. Wren's sarcastic responses throughout the book were my favourite.

The characters were so good in this book. Kamala, Wren's friend, was an excellent support for Wren, unlike Wren's mother, who left her when she was little. I adore how Wren handled her relationship with her mother.

This book has a super flow and is fast-paced from the beginning, and I didn't expect a twist. I was only eagerly waiting for what would happen if Asher knew that Wren was lying all along. But nothing happened as I expected. There was a total change in the plot, which was a perfect twist. Also, the book cover is so beautiful and I am in love with it.

This book is a cute, feel-good young adult story with a great subplot involving animals.

When guarded teenager, Wren, overhears a boy is about to be catfished, she steps in and pretends to be the girl he is supposed to meet to save him from embarrassment. Before she can tell him the truth, she gets in a little too deep and her closed heart begins to slowly open up to him… This was my third Kasie West book, and I love her writing style. All of her books are witty, relatable, and easy to read. This book was no exception. I read it very fast and found it easy to invest in the characters. Wren was a beautifully flawed human and I loved her. Her journey from being guarded and terrified of letting people in to opening up was beautiful and I couldn’t help but root for her. I loved seeing her family’s dynamic and how their mother’s leaving affected them all differently. It was apparent in all three of them how the events of their past created who they were today and that character development was superb. Asher was a delightfully sweet character, and almost a little too perfect. He was great for Wren though, so I’ll let it slide. My favorite character, by far, was Bean the rescue dog. He was definitely the star of the show. The plot was fun and sweet, focused mostly on Wren’s growth with some doggy shenanigans thrown in there. Borrow My Heart is a good solid summer read if you’re looking for a well-written light-hearted YA rom-com.

3.5 stars
Another good Y.A. novel from author Kasie West.
I got bogged down at the beginning with the amount of different characters to keep straight. And, I’ll be honest, all the social media terms made my head spin (yeah, I’m old, I know!)
Once the plot picked up with efforts to try to get Bean the Shelter Dog into a forever home , I became more interested. I’ve worked in shelters myself, and it was always difficult to understand why some sweet animals just never got chosen. There was always joy for those who did, though, mixed with some sadness at the goodbyes.
I think young adult readers would get into this one easily and happily. For me, I wished for “more animals, less romance.” Still, a sweet story!

I thought this was a fun read. I really liked the main character alot and realted to her a ton. I thought that this was a fun take on fake dating and i also loved the puppy content. I like that this book had a unqiue third act conflcit and also really liked all the side characters and hope to see them in future books! It was a quick read and one that i enjoyed by this book and loved the unque premise!