Kasie West has done it again. I flew through this book. The dynamic between Finley & Theo is so fun & cute. The familial element with Finley and her grandmother story is so so sweet. If her podcast was real I’d 100% be listening to it. As for Finley’s friend group? Chef’s kiss. 🤌🏻 Talk about people who have your back & support you. They are a fun group of characters. Also, Kasie really knows how to write a villain because Jensen made my blood boil & he deserves all the bad karma. 😤 But seriously this book is amazing so add it to your tbr.

Thank you to NetGalley & Random House Children’s for the advance copy.

Every time the two of them interacted, I couldn't help but smile because it was just the right amount of corny. This high school romance was clean, sweet, and adorable. It was a cute story, even though the plot was pretty obvious.

3.5 actually. I got the ARC of this book as I requested it as I like this authors stories. This one didn’t disappoint as sweet coming of age with good lessons for the main character. No surprises just a sweet story definitely of YA origin. Theo and Finley definitely have chemistry and was a quick fun read

A middle grade romance surrounding love, revenge, and ties between family and friends, Kasey West does it again.
I loved reading this book, especially the side plot of Finley’s personal podcast. I didn’t put a full synopsis because I feel that this book is best going in blind.
Thank you to Netgalley and Delacourte for an eARC of this book.

Better Than Revenge is a cute YA story. It’s actually a very cute story even though it’s based solely around revenge. Finley and Theo are very cute together. Very entertaining book!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the arc of this book.

This was another cute, really fun YA book by Kasie West. It had a great emphasis on friendship and meaningful family relationships, as well as a delightful slow-burn romance. Finley and Theo were warm yet imperfect, multifaceted characters, whose interactions had me increasingly invested in their growing relationship. I was quickly anticipating their HEA.

Finley’s delightful grandmother is a huge part of the overall storyline. A woman experiencing early dementia, her retelling (via Finley’s podcast) of the story of her own first love actually connects both the characters and ultimately numerous facets of the overall storyline.

As the title indicates, there is also an underlying message of “karma” over the value of revenge.

I was privileged to receive an early digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my own honest opinion

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this beautiful sweet story.

One may say revenge is best served when cold but not to Finley. She wants revenge now and she doesn’t stop till she gets it. But she didn’t expect to fall for the enemy. But was he really the enemy? Or was she just misinformed. Once these two start to plot and engage with the revenge, something else happens. They fall for one another. Finely fights so hard to get revenge but in the end she knows she’s better than that. And Theo helps to make things easier.

I loved the story of her Grandma and her first love…it really made the story come full circle. I enjoyed this sweet read and it was really entertaining.

Highly recommended YA story.

It always takes me a second to get into YA books because of how *young* the characters are. I have to remind myself that they are supposed to be immature and kinda cringe because all teenager are 😅 Once I got past that and just let the book be what it was, I actually enjoyed it.

I loved Finely and how open she was with how he felt. Even when she knew she was being petty and kind of irrational, she just accepted it and let herself feel it. Her list of ideas for revenge against Jensen was so funny and so petty. I was actually pissed along with her when he thought the spam texts were just funny 😂

Ugh I loved Theo and I knew he had to have wanted Finely way before we thought he did. It was so obvious he liked her before the revenge plot. It was kind of predictable about how he got his knee injury and I’m a little mad nothing more came of that. His grand gesture was cute even if it was so far fetched. I liked them together a lot.

Overall, it was very cute and I did find myself laughing and gushing a little bit. Definitely was a YA book with how it was written and the maturity level of the characters but it was still good.

This was a solid Kasie West, but it didn’t completely wow me.

I enjoyed Finley’s arc, but it’s definitely been done before. But I did love Theo, he was so sweet and I would have loved to get more depth from him and all of Finley’s friends. I really wanted more from them, but they ended up pretty bland.

Thank you to Delacorte Romance and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I could not get enough of this cute story!

Finley is our lead girl and I just absolutely adored her! The dedication this girl has is beautiful.
Jensen can kick rocks.

I found Better Than Revenge to be a wonderful high school drama story. It was innocent and so sweet, the exact read I was looking for after some tough days following the election.

If you’re looking for light-hearted, laugh out loud, fun you are absolutely going to need to put this one on your TBR!

Coming January 2025!

A sweet and fluffy high school romance that does a fantastic job of remind you of first love. Finley knows what she wants, and that’s to be a podcaster. She’s a shoo in for until her boyfriend steals the sit right out from under her. Finley decides to team up with Theo (her ex boyfriend’s nemesis) to take revenge!
This was a great story because it flowed nicely. It had enough things going on that compelled you to read it without feeling overwhelmed by random plot points. While the main characters are in high school, this could definitely be read by 7th or 8th grade students.

Better Than Revenge was a cute story. Although the story revolves around upper classmen, I can see freshmen enjoying this story. I thought West did a wonderful job with Theo and Finley's relationship. I liked how their relationship developed from friends to lovers. Theo was sweet and layered. The flag football scene with him was adorable. I appreciated how he owned up to his mistakes. Despite being dramatic at times, Finley was a decent main character. I liked her voice and podcast with her grandma. The side plot with her grandma and Andrew was neat. I liked the parallels between grandma and Finley's lives. I felt like Finley's relationships with her friends could have been developed better, especially with Deja. The side characters were fine enough. Finley's parents were VERY underdeveloped. It was a little mindboggling to me that they were mostly uninvolved in Finley's day to day drama. I also thought the setting could have been expanded on. There were very little setting descriptions and when there were some, they felt basic. This was a tame YA romance. I can see younger and older high school readers liking this one. I know younger me would have loved this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Romance for the ARC.

This was everything I wanted and needed it to be! A fun, cutesy, clean romance perfect for any YA readers. The characters were so lovable and the ending was satisfying. I really enjoyed reading about Finlay’s relationship with her grandma who has
Alzheimer’s. It added more depth to the story!

Finley's dreamed of being on her high school podcast for years! She's shocked when she finds out not only did she not get the position but her completely uninterested boyfriend did! Determined to get him back for taking away her dream she recruits his nemesis to help her win his starting Kicker position on the football team.

I loved this book! It was funny, sweet and also taught some important life lessons. Finley and Theo were adorable and I love their relationship. The relationship and storyline about her grandma was so cute and added an extra element to the story. Kasie West is still a favorite!

Thank you Netgalley!!

As usual, I adored a book by Kasie West. She's a must-read author for me even though I've stopped reading as much YA. I really enjoyed both of the main characters.

Thanks so much to Kasie West and Random House Children's | Delacorte Romance for the eARC of this title. Kasie West is an auto read for me. I loved this one. You can never go wrong with a story from West.

I don’t fully understand why the girl is so into podcasts at her age since I think it is a very niche hobby, but it creates a good background to get the story started, and gave me more insight into the actual skills of broadcasting. What I loved about this book was the chemistry between her and the male love interest, he is sweet and green flags in his actions. But much like me when I was a teen, she is insecure and afraid to trust. This was a really rewarding and cute YA romance that helped me get out of a reading slump and kept my cheeks in pain from smiling. It was just so cute and sweet. It is definitely something I would feel comfortable with my younger cousin (14) reading, because it has age appropriate romance for the main characters, is clean and fluffy. This way she could experience the joy of seeing two characters fall in love without anything too mature for her.

I'm so grateful to Netgalley and the publisher for this early copy.

My daughter and I are huge Kasie West fans and have read everything she's written so far. This is one of our new favorites! Great main characters to root for and a villain you'll love despising, along with a fun storyline and an heartwarming story within a story.

Better Than Revenge is one of the best YA romances I've read. Finley knows exactly what she wants out of her last year of high school-one of the coveted spots on the school podcast and the college internship that follows. But when her boyfriend Jensen slips into an audition, using one of HER ideas to earn the remaining spot, Finley is livid. Thus, a revenge plot is born; Finley decides to try and steal what Jensen most covets.

There was so much to love here: flawed characters who grew and matured, Finley's podcast detailing her grandma's first love, and Finley's budding romance. A must read!

Finley Lucas has been dreaming of being the host of her school’s podcast since 7th grade. She is finally getting her chance to try out since host spots are reserved for the senior and she has confidence that she will get a spot… until her boyfriend, Jensen, decides to try out as well. This throws Finley for a loop; she can’t understand why Jensen would suddenly want to compete for a spot when he has never shown any interest in hosting a podcast before and he knows that there are only two spots open. When the spots are announced, not only has Jensen stolen the spot from Finley but says some unkind things not knowing the mic is still hot. Finley decides that instead of getting angry…she wants revenge. Being a former soccer player, she decides to try to take Jensen’s coveted first-string football kicker position for him. She has one month to practice and get good enough to take it away and she is going to need some help…enter Theo Torres, who also would like some revenge on Jensen, to help teach her how to kick and win the spot.
I really enjoyed Kasie West’s newest novel. I know often times her novels are called “swoon-worthy” but my favorite part of her novels are how real the characters are… they are flawed, they aren’t perfect, they have lessons to learn along the way and that makes them much more relatable and fun to read. I loved the growth we saw in Finley in this book- from anger and wanting revenge to learning what is more important to her and going after her dreams even if they have shifted a bit. I really enjoyed Finley’s podcast with her grandmother and her desire to get her grandmother’s memories recorded before she can no longer tell her stories due to advancing Alzheimer's disease. Revenge is sweet…or is it? Read “Better Than Revenge” to find out.