The Biased Bibliophile‘s Spoiler-Free Review of Borrow My Heart
*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Random House Children’s on NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Expected Publication: 13 June 2023
Series: Book 1 in the Borrow My Heart Series
Genre: YA Romance
Pages: 320
Rating: 5 Stars
Publisher’s Blurb
When a girl overhears a guy getting verbally destroyed by his friends for being catfished, she jumps in to save the day—and pretends to be his online crush. A young adult romance from the critically acclaimed author of Places We’ve Never Been.
Wren is used to being called a control freak. She doesn’t care; sticking to the list of rules she created for herself helps her navigate life. But when a cute guy named Asher walks through the door of her neighborhood coffee shop, the rulebook goes out the window.
Asher is cute, charming . . . and being catfished by his online crush. So Wren makes an uncharacteristically impulsive decision—she pretends to be the girl he’s waiting for to save him from embarrassment. Suddenly she’s fake-dating a boy she knows nothing about. And it’s . . . amazing.
It’s not long before Asher has her breaking even more of her own rules. But will he forgive her when he finds out she’s not who she says she is? Wren’s not so sure. . . . After all, rules exist for a reason.
Review of Borrow My Heart
Kasie West knocked it out of the park again with her newest novel, Borrow My Heart! This book has everything you could want in a rom-com from a feisty shelter dog to a loyal best friend. Sometimes I feel like authors who write many books within the same genre become boring and their books feel monotonous, but Kasie West continues proving that she is anything but boring.
First off, I love the premise of this book. The protagonist, Wren, steps in to save a stranger from humiliation when she realizes he is probably being catfished. She plays the role of his online mystery girl, but ends up being roped into a complex situation. At every turn she tries to find a way to tell Asher that she is not the girl he thinks she is, but after the two are put together to find a forever home for Wren’s favorite shelter dog, Bean, she keeps finding reasons to keep up the ruse.
While the romance in this novel was adorable, it was all the smaller details that really made the story shine. Wren’s best friend, Kamala, is equally supportive and skeptical of the situation. Likewise, Wren has a complex family dynamic that adds another layer of depth to the story. Throughout the novel she learns to cope with her mother abandoning her, and she realizes that her relationship with her father and sister will be forever-changed by her mother’s decision.
Bean was also a highlight of the story. Wren and Asher’s plight to find him a family was adorable and offered up the perfect scenarios for them to bond. I adored the fact that Bean was not your typical cute and loving dog. He was a little rough around the edges, not necessarily the friendliest, and very sneaky. I love that West’s depiction of Bean helps show that not all shelter dogs have to be the cuddly stereotype to be loveable and adoptable. My family has one of those very dogs, and we couldn’t be happier.
Finally, there was an element of intrigue with Asher’s catfish. There was a small plot twist that I didn’t see coming. In hindsight, it’s probably pretty obvious, but I purposefully don’t try to figure things out when I read West’s books. Her stories are so immersive, it is therapeutic to simply lose myself in them.
As a whole, Borrow My Heart is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Whether you’ve read West’s previous books, or you’re looking to start reading romance, I highly recommend it.
