P.S.: I Like You

West, Kasie. P.S.: I Like You. 2016. 329p. 6 hours 56 minutes long. ISBN 978-0-545-85097-1. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

Lily stands out at her high school, and not for the better. Now a junior, her nemesis Cade gave her the nickname “Magnet” back in middle school, and it has stuck ever since. Cade is conceited, thinks he’s the most beautiful boy in the school, and bestows nicknames and insults to everyone that crosses his path. Her inability to catch a basketball was so funny to her classmates that they all kept passing her the ball, hence the nickname Magnet. Lily has never forgiven Cade, and when he dated her best friend Isabelle she did everything she could to undermine the relationship.

Lily wants to become a songwriter. She’s always writing lyrics and accompanying her songs on her trusted guitar. She’s not ready to share any of them, however, not even with Isabelle. Her home life is frantic and loud, with two younger brothers. She also has to share a bedroom with Ashley, her older sister who attends community college but stays at home. Her parents do their best, but there’s never peace at home.

During a moment of inattention in Chemistry, her teacher catches her writing away, and he tells her that from now on she cannot have her trusted green book in front of her. In her despair later on that week, she writes a song lyric on her desk. To her surprise, when she sits back down at her desk she discovers that someone completed the lyric. Soon, she’s exchanging old fashioned letters with an unknown male correspondent. With Chemistry classes taking place all day, it could be anyone. That guy is sensitive, with a distant father and a demanding stepfather. They share the same musical tastes, and they expose each other to new bands.

But when she discovers that Cade is her secret penpal, everything changes. How can the boy she’s falling in love with be the jerk that makes her life hell? Can Lily reconcile Cade’s two dramatically opposed persona into a person she can truly love and who will love her back?