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Summary
Summary
A New York Times bestseller
Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun.
He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.
Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo's sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.
Emaline's mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he's convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?
Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she's going?
Sarah Dessen's devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.
"Completely engaging, infused with moments of sweetness, humor and major epiphanies." -- Kirkus Reviews
Also by Sarah Dessen:
Along for the Ride
Dreamland
Just Listen
Keeping the Moon
Lock and Key
Someone Like You
That Summer
This Lullaby
The Truth About Forever
What Happened to Goodbye
Author Notes
Sarah Dessen was born in Evanston, Illinois on June 6, 1970. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993 with a degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing. Her first book, That Summer, was published in 1996. She mainly writes for young adults. Her books include Someone Like You, Just Listen, Along for the Ride, Keeping the Moon, Dreamland, What Happened to Goodbye, Saint Anything, and The Moon and More. She also teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Dessen does not stray from her usual formula in this latest novel (Viking, 2013). Emaline, a highly motivated type A personality, lives in Colby and, over the summer, must deal with family and love life issues. It is the author's lyrical and evocative use of language that keeps this story from feeling stale. Allie has been with her boyfriend Luke all during high school. It's the summer before college, and Emaline meets Theo, a filmmaker, and she begins to question her small town life and her future possibilities. Characters from Dessen's previous novels show up in small roles throughout the book, and listeners will have fun trying to remember where they last met each of them. Narrator Allie Gallerani maintains a slow, easy pace throughout and provides well-matched vocal interpretations for the long list of characters by changing inflection, pitch, and volume. Fans of the author and newbies will embrace this latest offering and look forward to another visit to Colby in the near future.-Shari Fesko, Southfield Public Library, MI (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Emaline has grown up happily in the quiet beach town of Colby, N.C. (a setting that will be familiar to Dessen's many fans), where she lives with her mother, stepfather, and stepsisters. She's been dating a handsome local boy, Luke, for four years; they both work for her grandmother's property rental company and plan to attend East U in the fall. Then Emaline's quasi-estranged birth father and her 10-year-old half-brother, Benji, show up, as does another out-of-towner-an ambitious and romantic filmmaker's intern named Theo-upending Emaline's life and aspirations. Family, self-discovery, and change have always been key themes in Dessen's (What Happened to Goodbye) work, and they take center stage. Even though Emaline has two boys falling in and out of love with her, what's most at stake for her is figuring out what she wants for her future and deciding who to prioritize within her highly populated and very busy life. Dessen is as skilled as ever at turning out steady, satisfying stories about teens that are easy to fall for. Ages 12-up. Agent: Leigh Feldman, Writers House. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
For Emaline, the summer between high school and college is filled with transitions, bringing new possibilities as well as difficult goodbyes. Working at the family business, Colby Beach Rentals, means regular run-ins with her loud but loving sisters, her grandmother, and her parents -- Mom, who had Emaline when she was a teenager, and Dad, Emaline's caring stepfather who raised her from age two. She also has plenty of time to spend with her best friends, Daisy and Morris, and her gorgeous longtime boyfriend, Luke. Things get complicated after her estranged birth father inexplicably pulls his offer to pay for an Ivy League education and arrives in town with her little half-brother in tow. A sudden, unexpected breakup with Luke is immediately followed by the stirrings of a new romance, leaving Emaline simultaneously grieving for her past relationship and excited about a new one. Exploring both family and romantic relationships, this quintessential Dessen novel sets Emaline's time of self-discovery in a beach-town summer of sunny, sandy days and soft, warm nights filled with promise. lauren adams (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A high school graduate realizes that having a near-perfect life means not always having the best of everything. It's Emaline's last summer in her hometown of Colby, a seaside tourist mecca where nothing ever changes. But there're big changes in store for Emaline, and what starts out as a happily predictable summer turns into one of emotional twists and turns. Accepted at Columbia, her dream school, Emaline must instead settle for the lesser, local college when her chronically absent father reneges on his offer to pay. Then her perfect, steady boyfriend suddenly begins behaving imperfectly. Another curveball comes in the form of Emaline's burgeoning relationship with Theo, a sophisticated, go-getting film student from NYU who comes to Colby to shoot a documentary and who urges Emaline to aim for greatness. But she is torn, weighing the comfort of her family and the familiarity of small-town life against her belief that her potential rests only in bigger, better things. In the end, Emaline's plans seem almost as surprising to her as they might be to readers. Dessen's characters behave as deliciously unpredictably as people do in real life, and just as in real life, they sometimes have to make difficult choices with not-so-predictable outcomes. Luckily for her readers, it also makes for good fiction. Completely engaging, infused with moments of sweetness, humor and major epiphanies. (Fiction. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Emaline is on that precipice familiar to most new high-school grads: knowing where you come from, anticipating where you're heading, and struggling to reconcile the two. She's a lifer in the small beach town of Colby (the setting of two of Dessen's previous novels), comfortable with her longtime boyfriend, Luke, her chaotic blended family, and a job at Colby Realty. But when NYU student Theo and his boss arrive to film a documentary about reclusive local artist Clyde Conaway and Emaline's biological father and half brother come to town summer takes unexpected twists. On the same day that it's over with Luke, Emaline kisses Theo; but is he just a summer fling, or could he be something more? Dessen returns to familiar crowd-pleasing territory here, offering up perfect beach weather, plenty of romance, and a capable protagonist coming to terms with change. As always, she explores YA-relatable themes, from divorce to absentee parents, in nuanced and thought-provoking ways ( You think it's all obvious and straightforward, this world. But really, it's all in who's doing the looking ). Fans will be waiting; after all, it's not summer without Dessen. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A national author tour and major media campaign ensure that this is as well received as Dessen's previous best-selling titles.--Kelley, Ann Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
SUMMER is here, and with it the search for the perfect beach book, a pithy, plotty page turner that can be discussed with confidence at any cookout or party since everyone seems to be reading the same thing. Best of all is stretching out on the sand with a beach book that is actually set at the shore; somehow it heightens our delight in the transient joy of summer. Sarah Dessen, a seasoned young adult author, and the bold newcomer Leila Howland present readers with two different visions of sun and surf. While each features a young woman struggling to make the right decisions about life and love, one reads as smoothly as a rowboat ride across Central Park Lake while the other tumbles you like a rolling Coney Island wave. In "The Moon and More," 18-year-old Ematine is trying to savor her last summer in Colby, a fictional beach community that is a familiar destination to Dessen's fans. Like every teenager, Emaline longs for both security and adventure. While most people in Colby "either wanted to stay forever (and usually did) or couldn't wait to get gone and never look back (ditto)," Emaline wants to have her beach and leave it, too. "It seemed like things either stayed just the same or changed irrevocably. And like most times I found myself with hard choices, I just wished there was something clear and easy, right in between." But even as Emaline clings to what is comfortable, she also begins to push against the confines of her sheltered life. After discovering that her longtime boyfriend is cheating, she breaks up with him and begins dating an aspiring filmmaker named Theo, one of the suspect "summer people." She confronts her birth father about his failure to come through with the college funds he promised and takes on a new job as an executive assistant as a way to break free of her family's beach rental business. In short, she grows up, coming to the mature if prosaic conclusion that "for a life to be real, you need it all: good and bad, beach and concrete, the familiar and the unknown, big talkers and small towns." Dessen's writing is so assured that it sometimes has the effect of blunting the sharp corners of Emaline's multiple conflicts. While the story sails along smoothly on Dessen's polished prose, it also feels tame. And it isn't just a matter of style: Emaline's risks are safe ones, her college attendance is guaranteed (even if she's not going to her first choice) and her supportive family stands at the ready with a life preserver. The stakes are never high, but sometimes that's exactly what we want in a beach book: a beloved author returning to a familiar setting with an everygirl character we can settle down in the sand with like an old friend. Not so with Howland's debut, "Nantucket Blue." When we first meet 17-year-old Cricket Thompson, she's face down in the dirt after being socked in the jaw with a lacrosse stick in a championship game. Instead of bursting into tears, Cricket gets back on her feet to score the goal that puts her team on top. The opposite of Emaline, Cricket doesn't waffle. Her parents, who teach at the exclusive private school she attends in Rhode Island, are divorced, and don't "have enough money for a summer place or European vacation." If she wants something, she has to go for it with gusto. That's why, when her best friend Jules's mom dies unexpectedly and Cricket's invitation to stay with Jules's family on Nantucket is rescinded, Cricket decides to go anyway, even if she has to work as a chambermaid at a bed-and-breakfast to do so. She wants to be there for Jules, but, at the same time, she's eager to see more of Jay, a boy she's had a crush on since eighth grade, who is also vacationing on Nantucket. Her summer dreams sour when Jules abruptly shuns her, Jay turns cold and Cricket finds herself awkwardly attracted to Jules's younger brother, Zach. Suddenly the fearless lacrosse player is on shaky ground. "What was this feeling, anyway? This need to move? This need to get a little more air, cross my legs, squeeze something? ... I wasn't supposed to be feeling this way about Zach." Death, devastating betrayal and a brief but sexy skinny-dipping scene let you know you're not in Colby anymore. Unlike Dessen, who doesn't miss a stroke in her measured novel, Howland sometimes drops her paddle but still manages to steer straight. While the pacing loiters a bit after the bang-up beginning, catchy similes like "The horn sounded, the ferry launched, and my summer swung open like a saloon door," stick with you. And though Howland doesn't make enough use of her colorful cast of secondary characters, she evokes the Nantucket setting vividly, from the "quaint, preserved, one of a kind" streets to the ocean, "a million different shades at once, changing with the few clouds that floated above, darkening with depth, reflecting the deep canyons and sandbar stripes below the surface." Howland and Dessen offer different kinds of summer pleasures, but when it comes to indulgent beach reading, sometimes it's more fun to get pushed over by a wave than to stay safely on your towel. Jennifer Hubert Swan is the middle-school librarian at the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School. She blogs at Reading Rants. Jennifer Hubert Swan reviews two books for young readers ages 12 and up: "The Moon and More," by Sarah Dessen, and "Nantucket Blue," by Leila Howland.