Review: Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein

Title: Dear Cassie
Author: Lisa Burstein
Publication Date: 3/5/13
Pages: 352
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
From Goodreads:
What if the last place you should fall in love is the first place that you do?

You’d think getting sent to Turning Pines Wilderness Camp for a month-long rehabilitation “retreat” and being forced to re-live it in this journal would be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.

You’d be wrong.

There’s the reason I was sent to Turning Pines in the first place: I got arrested. On prom night. With my two best friends, who I haven’t talked to since and probably never will again. And then there’s the real reason I was sent here. The thing I can’t talk about with the guy I can’t even think about.

What if the moment you’ve closed yourself off is the moment you start to break open?

But there’s this guy here. Ben. And the more I swear he won’t—he can’t—the deeper under my skin he’s getting. After the thing that happened, I promised I’d never fall for another boy’s lies.

And yet I can’t help but wonder…what if.
My Thoughts:

I received this advanced copy in return for an honest review. This has not influenced my review in any way.

Dear Cassie was a good story. I didn't read Pretty Amy, the [first]companion book, before but I found that I didn't need to. The book is written as Cassie's “Assessment Diary” at Turning Pines. The events that brought her there are explained well, without feeling like a bunch of info dumping.

Cassie was very easy to like. Her no nonsense attitude reminded me of myself. She was kind of harsh at times, but she felt it necessary to stay guarded.. Cassie was definitely my favorite part of the book, and everything else besides her journey faded into the background.

Pretty much everyone other than Cassie was a secondary character, even Ben, the love interest of the story. I found the weak relationships a little off putting. I usually like a fair amount of romance and friendships. The friendship that Cassie developed with Troyer, one of her cabin mates, spoke volumes. Troyer, who is mute by choice, is the only one that Cassie feels comfortable talking to in her cabin. Nez, the other cabin mate, loves getting under Cassie's skin. They both try to out-bitch each other, which got a little bit annoying. Ben was an okay love interest, considering he wasn't really much of an interest to Cassie. She did whatever she could to push him away[and once I realized why it was kind of understandable]. Ben was relentless in his pursuit of Cassie, but their relationship still fell kind of flat for me. I didn't really feel like Cassie fell in love with Ben at all.

This book made me think about the mistakes I've made and the things that I've kept hidden inside. I definitely enjoyed the journey and progression of Cassie, and it made up the best parts of the book. I felt that the relationships could have been better, and the secondary characters could have been more developed.

Overall, I enjoyed Dear Cassie. I look forward to reading more books by this author, and I would definitely like to read about what happens to Cassie after Turning Pines.

-Kait