I’ll be up front. I have major love for Sarah Dessen. Like, mega major love. She has a way, with her fluid, wistful style of writing, of sweeping me away. So I will say right now, this isn’t so much a review as it is thoughts about the way the book made me feel.

Each time I sit down to read her books, I find it darn near impossible to stop. When April and I started this read-along, affectionately named #DessenQuest2012 (Yes, I meant to include the hashtag. It’s a movement, people. There are only two of us, but we are rocking the hashtag!), we had a goal of five chapters per week. Silly us. There’s no way, none, that you can limit The Dessen to five measly chapters a week. Anyway…each day progressed with one or the other of us tweeting, asking to “please read just one more chapter, because we can’t possibly stop at this point”. Needless to say, what should have taken us nearly a month to read to around two weeks.
Sarah Dessen has magic in her. A way of transporting readers, even tired, frazzled mommies, back to their teenage years. Self-consciousness, inner turmoil and a little bit of angst are the name of the game. That time when every look and every word could change your life and the future felt endless.

I wasn’t sure that Along for the Ride could compete with the only other Dessen book I’ve read, The Truth About Forever. Could Auden compete with Macy’s endearing nature? Could Eli out sa-woon Wes? Would the story tug on me every way possible and leave me smiling while the tears were streaming down my face? The answers: yes, Auden was magnificent; nobody can out sa-woon Wes, but Eli is just as utterly lovable in his own right; and yeah, this book made me smile and cry at the same time, completely heart-tugging.

I’ve said this is only my second Sarah Dessen book, but I’m sensing a pattern, maybe. I don’t mean the stories, but the effect the stories have. I know that I can count (I think) on a main character that speaks with a real, resonating voice. You may not be just like Auden, or any other of the mc’s, but you can find a way to indentify or even just sympathize with her. She will make wrong choices and stumble a bit on the way, but she will find her path.
There will be girls. Girls who, while they may be seemingly unlike the mc, they will have an underlying quality that will surprise her, and you. They will teach her lessons she never expected from them.

There will be a guy. The guy. A Wes, or an Eli. He will be quiet, possibly have a troubled past; nothing too bad, but just enough to make him extra intriguing. But he’s a really, really good guy that you will fall in love with. He will be handsome, heartbreakingly handsome. He will, in his quiet way, teach the girl The Lesson.

Sarah Dessen’s books have become comfort books to me, my hot tomato soup on a cold, windy day. I look at them on my shelf and I smile. I know they are there, when I need That Boy and That Girl, and the comfort of a beautiful, poignant story, told only the way Sarah Dessen can.


Favorite Quotes:

“Leah looked at Maggie. ‘Great,’ she muttered. ‘He’s got the hots for you, and now we all have to eat wieners because of it.’ “ (pg.184)

“Maybe the truth was, it shouldn’t be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It’s the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something’s difficult to come by, you’ll do that much more to make sure it’s even harder –if not impossible – to lose.” (pg.299)

“You couldn’t just pick and choose at will when someone depended on you, or loved you. It wasn’t like a light switch, easy to shut on or off. If you were in, you were in. Out, you were out. To me, it didn’t seem complicated at all. In fact, it was the simplest thing in the world.” (pg.367)