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Summer of Sarah Dessen : This Lullaby
“Everything, in the end, comes down to timing. One second, one minute, one hour, could make all the difference. So much hanging on just these things, tiny increments that together build a life. Like words build a story, and what had Ted said? One word can change the entire world.”
― Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
- Release Date: March 27th 2002
- Page Number: 345
- Genre: Contemporary
- Publisher: Speak
Synopsis: When it comes to relationships, Remy doesn’t mess around. After all, she’s learned all there is to know from her mother, who’s currently working on husband number five. But there’s something about Dexter that seems to defy all of Remy’s rules. He certainly doesn’t seem like Mr. Right. For some reason, however, Remy just can’t seem to shake him. Could it be that Remy’s starting to understand what those love songs are all about?
Remy Starr is better, she swears.
She doesn’t sleep around anymore, she doesn’t smoke nearly as much and , most importantly her eyes are set on Stanford in the fall. The only thing standing in her way ? The summer. This will be the summer the girl who thinks she knows everything gets a lesson in love, the Potato Opus and what one summer can do.
Unlike Dessen’s previous novels Remy is not a “good girl”. Remy is not a quiet introspective character. She isn’t best friends with the screwed-up rebellious girl, she IS that girl.
The love interest Dexter, provides a nice foil to the extremely “Type A” Remy. He is the spastic, hyper lead singer in the band, Truth Squad. When this group of essentially “lost boys” rolls into town with nothing but a white van and Dexter’s dog, Monkey, things on Remy’s side of town is never the same.
After reading Dessen’s novels in publication order, I think This Lullaby is a turning point in Dessen’s novels. It combines the friendships, eccentric parents and quirky characters of her first three novels, with the summer time setting of Keeping The Moon. It also plays up romance and love much more than her previous novels…
Book Review: Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry
- Release Date: July 31st 2012
- Genre: Contemporary/ Coming-of-Age
- Pages: 384
- Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Synopsis: No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.
Yay, my first Harlequin (okay, Harlequin Teen ) novel !
Echo Emerson is trying to honor her dead brother, as she recovers from a violent encounter with her bipolar mother that left her with plenty of scars, but no memory.
Noah Hutchins wants nothing more than to be a family again with the brothers he was separated from in the foster care system, but he just can’t seem to stop screwing up.
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Book Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (Delirium #2)
“In a world without love, this is what people are too each other: values, benefits, and liabilities, numbers, and data. We weigh, and the soul is ground to dust.”
― Lauren Oliver, Pandemonium
- Release Date: February 28th 2012
- Genre: Dystopian
- Publisher: Harper Teen
- Pages: 375
Synopsis: I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare, pushing aside thoughts of Alex, pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school, push, push, push, like Raven taught me to do.The old life is dead.But the old Lena is dead too.I buried her.I left her beyond a fence,behind a wall of smoke and flame.Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.
Sequel reviews are always hard for me but, here we go. It was a bit of a shock going from listening to the audio book of Delirium to reading the print copy of Pandemonium. I was finally seeing names and places on the page instead of just hearing them. I had to remind myself our protagonist was Lay-na and no Lean-a and there are In-val-ids not In-val-eds
That said, Pandemonium is pretty much nothing like Delirium, in fact, it feels like a different series entirely.
Pandemonium is erratic with a faster paced and more passionate story than Delirium. Whereas Delirium is a discovery story, Pandemonium is one about a journey. This book embodies the kids in the woods phenomenon seen in a lot of post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction. This idea where it’s mostly the teens and young adults that leave civilization to fight the status quo.
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Summer of Sarah Dessen : Keeping The Moon
“You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.”
― Sarah Dessen, Keeping the Moon
- Release Date : September 1999
- Publisher : Viking/Penguin
- Genre : Contemporary
- Pages : 240
- School Library Edition : 228
Synopsis: Colie expects the worst when she’s sent to spend the summer with her eccentric aunt Mira while her mother, queen of the television infomercial, tours Europe. Always an outcast — first for being fat and then for being “easy” — Colie has no friends at home and doesn’t expect to find any in Colby, North Carolina. But then she lands a job at the Last Chance Cafe and meets fellow waitresses Morgan and Isabel, best friends with a loving yet volatile relationship. Wacky yet wise, Morgan and Isabel help Colie see herself in a new way and realize the potential that has been there all along.
Keeping The Moon is a short read that manages to hold its own and pull a at the heart strings. This was the first Sarah Dessen novel I’d ever read almost ten years ago *cringe* when I was 14-years-old. I remember that as soon as I finished it I sat there for a minute and then started to read it again.
Now 45 pounds lighter, Colie Sparks is no longer the “fat” girl in school.While she could easily shed the pounds, losing her low self-esteem and self consciousnesses is going to take a summer of change.
With bullying a hot topic nowadays this novel is still relevant today. Fifteen year old Colie Sparks has been lled fat, she has been made fun of and is even called a slut. She is so down in her self that she begins to expect these things even whens she spends the summer in a town where no one knows her.
In the beach town of Colby, NC Colie befriends a pair of 20 something best friends; Morgan who is a sweet optimist and Isabel, the straight forward brash beauty.As we are introduced to the town of Colby and its residents you really get the feel that you are meeting and getting to know these people for the first time
I did find this novel off plotting wise. It seems as if two plots; the friendship between Colie’s and her aunt’s young border, Norman, and her friendships with Isabel and Morgan could have been worked together. Instead it felt like they were separated into different sections, as if they weren’t apart of the same story.
This isn’t your average light summer at the beach novel. This novel begins real turn in Dessen’s writing. Plot and message began to flow more evenly in her writing after this. This is one of Dessen’s first books about summer and I think she really finds her place there.
Connections
I didn’t pick up any connections to her previous three novels.
