Room to Breathe by Kasie West - ADVISABLE

Room to Breathe by Kasie West, 272 pages. Delacorte Romance (Random House), 2026. $13.

Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: G

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: SEVERAL

Once best friends, Indy and Beau no longer talk to each other. Until they get locked in a bathroom after school on Friday. Avoiding each other is impossible in their new close quarters, and their school supplies can’t distract them the entire night from addressing the mistakes they made.

The short chapters flip from their current predicament to before their falling out and back again, letting readers watch the fallout as the aftermath is discussed. Indy’s story is about making both mistakes and amends. Although every reader’s situation might not turn out as well as Indy’s, there is hope in seeing that devastating changes in a life do not ruin every path forward. Even if an end to a period of difficulty is not ideal, we can choose to change and start a new period.

Indy and Caroline are described as White, Ava is described as Asian, and Beau is depicted as White on the cover. The mature content rating is for alcohol use, mentions of drugs, partial nudity, kissing, and illegal activity.

Reviewer: Carolina Johnson