My review for Room to Breathe by Kasie West is going to be mixed. While I like the premise and the protagonist (Indy), I did not like most of the other characters. I found myself wishing the story had been about Indy finding a new friend group and love interest. These people are jerks who do not deserve to have Indy as a friend.
Because I get specific about things I didn’t like, the “What I Didn’t Like” section below contains SPOILERS. You’ve been warned!
Author: Kasie West
Genre: contemporary romance
Setting: coastal town in California
Themes: friendship, parent accused of a crime (fraud), former friends, forced proximity, regrets, honesty, rebellious behavior, destructive secrets, academic dishonesty, alternating timelines
Protagonist: female high school student, white, American
Recommended for: Grades 7-12
Starred Reviews: no starred reviews
Notes: Told in Then and Now chapters.
When the walls close in, the truth comes out.
When Indy’s life came crashing down, she made a rule: no one could know. To the world, she’s still the same Indy—cool, calm, unshaken. But behind the scenes? It’s chaos.
Her tight-knit crew—Beau, Caroline, and Ava—were once her everything. Now they’re strangers she can’t seem to reach—especially Beau. And the only person she talks to these days is Cody, a skater-boy she used to think was so not her type. Funny how everything changes when your world flips upside down.
And then, as if things couldn’t get weirder, Indy finds herself literally stuck in a school bathroom with Beau. After months of silence, and there’s no escape. If they want out, they’ll have to face the messy truth about what happened between them and find a way back to what they once had. Or maybe even more…
Kasie West’s YA romances are pretty much guaranteed to be solid, relatively clean books for school libraries. I have enjoyed several books by this author. This isn’t my favorite Kasie West book, but it is cute and very readable.
I enjoyed the THEN and NOW alternating timelines, which slowly drip the context of the friend group kerfuffle. The timelines kept me turning the pages.
I liked the protagonist, Indy. She and her dad were really the only characters I liked (a lot more on that below). Indy’s reactions to her friend and family drama are realistic for a teen. She has a whole lot going on, and her behavior changes are totally understandable.
I alternated my reading between the ebook and the audiobook. The audio narrator does a great job changing her voice to differentiate character dialogue. It’s well-paced and easy to follow.
The cover is cute and will attract teen readers. Bonus that it complements the story well!
Final warning – There are SPOILERS BELOW! If you plan to read this book, skip over this “What I Didn’t Like” section.
SPOILERS below
SPOILERS coming – scroll by this section if you plan to read this book
SPOILERS incoming now…
Most of my issues are with Indy’s friend group, her mom, and her horrible school.
We’ll start with Beau, who is Indy’s former best friend and love interest. Why is he so academically competitive with her? Total turn-off. How is the reader supposed to respect a love-interest who threw his best friend under the bus like that, just so he could get ahead of her in the class rankings?
I found myself wishing Cody had been developed as a love interest instead of Beau. He was not perfect, but he seemed fun and easy-going. Most importantly, he accepted Indy when her so-called friends didn’t. Even with his flaws, he still tops Beau as a romantic lead.
I also thought Indy’s friends did far worse to her than she did to them. There is enough blame to go around among the group, but I found myself wishing Indy had found some new friends. Indy’s reasons for not telling them about her father’s legal troubles is understandable and realistic.
Once the friends found about Indy’s big secret, they should have given her a whole lot of grace and support. They didn’t. Instead, Indy is the one apologizing first, and they still give her the freeze-out initially. Trash friends.
Indy’s mom is also a piece of work. She is self-absorbed and not worried enough about her daughter’s mental health in a very difficult and stressful family situation. When Indy comes home after being missing overnight and into the next day, the mom gets mad at her! Even after Indy explains that she was locked in a bathroom at school, her mom is such a troll to Indy. Give this poor girl some grace, people!
Now let’s talk about this high school. A broken bathroom lock? I would think the school would be a whole lot of apologetic and eating humble pie after two students were locked in a school bathroom overnight on a weekend. Indy’s father is a lawyer! As a parent, I would be all over that school after that incident. The school didn’t even bother to fix the lock until a teacher later also got locked in.
I guess this is par for the course for a high school that makes a top student retake 20 tests after she is caught cheating ONCE. Indy is going through a whole lot right now. She also goes two months without a Calculus textbook even though her teacher and librarian both know she doesn’t have one. I have worked in three high schools now. While they would charge a student for losing a textbook, I’m pretty certain they would not make a student – especially a top student – suffer academically when she couldn’t afford to pay for a new textbook.
All characters appear to be cisgender, upper-middle class, and white.
