When Katie Met Cassidy

Camille Perri

Jun 2018 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

"A film-ready rom-com about finding love when you least expect it."--Elle

"My favorite romantic book of recent memory." --Emma Straub

"The delightful, sexy, queer rom-com of the summer . . . [with] all the makings of a Nora Ephron classic." --Vogue

*One of NPR's Best Books of 2018*
*One of Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2018*

From the acclaimed author of The Assistants comes another gutsy book about two women who find their lives turned upside down by their unexpected chemistry.

When it comes to Cassidy, Katie can't think straight.

Katie Daniels, a twenty-eight-year-old Kentucky transplant with a strong set of traditional values, has just been dumped by her fiancé when she finds herself seated across a negotiating table from native New Yorker Cassidy Price, a sexy, self-assured woman wearing a man's suit. At first neither of them knows what to make of the other, but soon their undeniable connection will bring into question everything each of them thought they knew about sex and love.

When Katie Met Cassidy is a romantic comedy about gender and sexuality, and the importance of figuring out who we are in order to go after what we truly want. It's also a portrait of a high-drama subculture where barrooms may as well be bedrooms, and loyal friends fill in the spaces absent families leave behind. Katie's glimpse into this wild yet fiercely tightknit community begins to alter not only how she sees the larger world, but also where exactly she fits in.

Ratings and reviews

When Katie Met Cassidy is a well-written, lighthearted, easy summer read. That said, I came away from it with some mixed feelings - some things I liked and some, well, not so much. The biggest drawback for me was the emphasis on Katie's background. She's a Kentucky girl, complete with riding horses, close knit family, and traditional values. She's quick to ask questions about things she doesn't understand and to speak her mind with her observations - at least with Cassidy. On this part, I totally got her. However, when she runs into her ex and company, she becomes someone else, including suppressing her Southern accent. That aside, the traditional values part of her background is where I had a problem. As a Kentucky girl, myself, and also raised with traditional values, it never fails to irk me when this comes up in a book. The stereotype that Southern born and bred equals intolerance is just that - another stereotype, and this type of labeling has become all too common in LGBT romances. Enough on that, I'll get off my soapbox now, and talk about what I did enjoy in this story. While it is completely predictable, almost from the minute this pair meets, it's also witty, fun, and even a bit silly at times. The story is told in dual points of view, bouncing between Katie and Cassidy, who are quite different in personality, but somehow just work together. We also get a great bunch of secondary characters, who at times, are even more interesting than our romantic couple. Some I absolutely loved, and some I wanted to just give a good shake, Gina in particular, but love them or hate them, they're all colorful, interesting characters. But here's the thing, even with the predictability, there's just something oddly compelling with this story. Whether it's the writing style, which is very good, or the flow, also good, I found myself wanting to see what was next, moving on to that next chapter to get the other person's view on any given situation. In the end, even though this story had its ups and downs for me, the author's talent did shine through and I would happily read other works from her.

This was a good find and a fun read. Romance and humor lace seamlessly throughout this story as the natural chemistry between these characters build to a satisfying climax.

About the author

Camille Perri is the author of The Assistants and When Katie Met Cassidy. She has worked as a books editor for Cosmopolitan and Esquire. She has also been a ghostwriter of young adult novels and a reference librarian. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from New York University, where she majored in English and gender and sexuality studies, and a masters of library science degree from Queens College. Perri lives in Brooklyn with her partner.