Book #18

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

435 pages

To say I was disappointed in this book would be an understatement.

I've long said Sarah Dessen is my favorite YA author. And she still is! This book was, for sure, though, my least favorite of her books.

I usually read Dessen's books as soon as they hit my library's shelves. This time, I ended up waiting almost exactly a year to read it. I didn't feel the story pulling me in from the synopsis a year back and it definitely didn't pull me in a year later.

Emaline works at her family's rental agency on a picturesque beachside town. She had a strained relationship with her long-distance father, but has an excellent relationship with her high school boyfriend. A film production crew rents one of her family's rental homes for the summer, and Emaline starts falling for a production assistant -- not unlike her parent's romance of almost 20 years earlier.

 

I really had a hard time relating to any of these characters. The guy you're supposed to be rooting for at the beginning comes off as annoying to me in the very first couple of scenes he's in. That really bothered me. Surely I was not the only one who noticed this!

 

Of course, I will read Dessen's next novel. But, I will not be re-reading this one.

Next: I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak