I was so excited to start reading Sarah Dessen's newest release and I was even more excited to finish it. No, not because it was boring but because I really had no idea how it was going to end and I was so anxious to find out. Like I had previously said, Sarah did not stray from her usual genuine and charming style. It was the real Dessen but just with a different flair.Something that I most definitely loved about the book was the way I connected with the main character Emaline. I think one of Sarah's great strengths and talents is her ability to make her main characters relatable. I think she has been able to master that skill.
True to Dessen form, there was a girl who had a boyfriend that ended up fizzling out to mistakenly fall for another boy. It is the typical theme that is always a comfortable favorite of mine.
And so Emaline, who is going to to college in the fall, has lived in Colby, a beach town her whole life, always admires the tourists that come and stay at her family's rental home business because of the new and endless possibilities to them that are nothing special to her.
Luke being her boyfriend for 3 years, had a great relationship with Emaline, that got distracted by Theo, the city boy tourist on a work related vacation, to film a documentary with the famous Ivy on a local artist who made it big in New York but left mysteriously back to his hometown.
Theo was nothing like Luke but on the day the high school lovers broke up, Theo ended up kissing her and the rest was just a summer romance. Emaline learned more about him and found nothing was what it had seemed.
All the while she was trying to repair a relationship with her estranged father who was not around her whole life and left a trial of broken promises and disappointments. She ends up coming to terms with her paternal circumstance and learning to love her 10 year old step brother Benji.
Without giving it all away, I would have to say this book was great but not amazing. There were many plot lines that were left unfulfilled and the ending seemed harshly abrupt. The characters seemed to evolve rather quickly but then everything in the book happened very fast. Personally, I would have written it differently but that's okay. It is genuine Dessen quality; I just felt it lacked in spots.I wish I could say that it was amazing because I love Dessen but it was still great and I still highly recommend reading it, especially if your a huge Dessen fan like myself.
I think I gave just enough to tease you into buying it. There are a ton of more people and events that I wouldn't be able to fully map out for you so it's my job to get you to read the book! Try it for yourself and let me know what you think ! :)
*Remember: Sunday's at Tiffany's is next up!*
P.S. The picture I took on the first day the book came out. It is from my nook on my intsagram:cherylelizabeth
