Along for the Ride

by Sarah Dessen

Dedication: "For my mother, Cynthia Dessen, for helping me to learn almost everything I know about being a girl and my daughter, Sasha Clementine, who is teaching me the rest."

First paragraph: "The E-mails always began the same way. Hi Auden!! It was the extra exclamation point that got me. My mother would call it extraneous, overblown, exuberant. To me, it was simply annoying, just like everything else about my stepmother, Heidi."

Review: After receiving a gift from her brother, Auden decides to step a little out of her comfort zone and spend the summer with her father and step-mother in the small beach town, Colby. After fate intervenes she embarks on a quest to take back her childhood and the summer shapes up to be nothing like she expects and everything that she needs.

I really liked this book. I thought it was the perfect blend of teenage angst, girly fluff, and sappy love. The plot is pretty predictable and you know who the love interest is going to be from the first time she runs into him but this book was written to be suspenseful so I wouldn't really say that knowing what is going to happen is a bad thing.

Also, I thought it was really well written. The story just flows and each character was well developed. So much so that I actually related more with one of the supporting characters. I think it takes skill to allow the readers to really connect with anyone besides the protagonist.

The only thing I didn't really like about this book was the ending. The story was going along and then it was over. There wasn't really much of a wrap up. I guess some people might like that sort of ending. I, however, am not one of those people.

I have more to say about the book in my head but it's just not coming out right in the words I type so ... maybe you should read it yourself and let me know what you think.

Click here for Sarah Dessen's Along for the Ride website.