Author: Sarah Dessen

Mini Reviews | One Great Lie & The Moon and More

Posted October 4, 2021 in Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

There’s something about the way Deb Caletti writes that completely transports me. I am taken from my time and place and I am truly IN the protagonist’s mind. So with One Great Lie, I embarked on a dark summer adventure in Venice with protagonist Charlotte as she navigated the cruel, often heartbreaking truths of being a woman in society, both in the past and in the present. Caletti’s YA novels often seem to tackle current social issues, and One Great Lie is no exception. Charlotte wins an incredible, once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in a summer workshop abroad […]

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen | In Which I Fall In Love With Dessen’s Summer Stories Again

Posted August 26, 2019 in Bookish Thoughts, California Here We Come, Reviews / 6 Comments

I think there are few adult readers in the YA communities that didn’t grow up with Sarah Dessen being a staple on their summer reading list. Whether it was set on the shores of the lake in Colby or in the quiet suburban streets of Lakeview, reading her novels are like coming home to one of the best summers of your teenage life. I was, however, a little scared that this magic was starting to wear off when I was terribly underwhelmed with Once and For All and then reread This Lullaby and could not fathom why it was a […]

Rereading Sarah Dessen | Once and For All Review + Dessen Favorites!

Posted June 29, 2017 in Features, Reviews / 7 Comments

Most readers and bloggers can agree that Sarah Dessen is the Queen of Contemporary. Her books have been around long before YA was a well-known genre and I remember her books being some of the first I ventured into in middle and high school summers when the YA section at my local library was lacking and I didn’t even really know what a contemporary novel was. Over the past 12+ years I’ve read and loved almost all of her books, and with Once and for All out this Sarah has surely been on everyone’s mind! Lauren from Bookmark Lit and […]

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen | #ReadADessen Tour and Giveaway

Posted April 27, 2017 in Blog Tours, Reviews / 6 Comments

It’s just a few weeks until the Queen of Contemporary YA, Sarah Dessen, has a new book hitting shelves! While eagerly waiting for my copy of Once and For All to arrive, I’m joining Penguin Teen’s #ReadADessen campaign for week 2 reviewing on of my FAVORITE Dessen novels of all time- Dreamland. Note: I was provided a finished copy of Dreamland by Penguin Teen to read, review, and feature on my blog as a #PRHPartner. Many, many years ago I read Dreamland for the first time. It was one of my first, if not THE first, Sarah Dessen novel I […]

Sarah Dessen Mini Reviews | Along for the Ride & Lock and Key

Posted February 20, 2017 in Reviews / 12 Comments

Along for the Ride is one of the best Sarah Dessen books that I’ve read in a long time. While many of her books focus on flawed family dynamics, this one gave such an intimate view on so many specific issues: divorce, second marriages, half-siblings, parenting gender roles and responsibilities, and age differences in marriages, just to name a few. These are all witnessed and/or experienced by Auden, the protagonist who goes to visit her father and his new wife and baby in Dessen’s well-loved seaside town setting of Colby. Though Auden isn’t a warm protagonist (at least at first), […]

Mini Reviews: My Life Next Door and What Happened to Goodbye

Posted August 12, 2015 in Reviews / 9 Comments

Feeling like one of the only bloggers who had yet to read and love Huntley Fitzpatrick’s debut novel, I eagerly started it while on my vacation this summer. I expected a light, fluffy read with perhaps some slight shades of dysfunction, similar to a Sarah Dessen novel. However, I found My Life Next Door to be much more nuanced than I anticipated and found it really lived up to the hype and expectations I had for it. While the book is often primarily seen as a romance, and the romance is very present and very well done, this book managed […]

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen | Review

Posted June 16, 2015 in Reviews / 3 Comments

“There has to be a middle. Without it, nothing can ever truly be whole. Because it is not just the space between, but also what holds everything together.” *Thank you so much to Penguin Teen for the review copy! I’m no stranger to Sarah Dessen novels. Back in my much younger teen years, I devoured Sarah’s first seven novels, chronically checking them out from my local library every summer. The release of Saint Anything had me nostalgic for Sarah’s quietly profound contemporaries, and within one week I aquired three of her novels, fully intending to make my way through as […]

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen | Review

Posted June 12, 2015 in Reviews / 19 Comments

“You only really fall apart in front of the people you know can piece you back together.” If you’re an avid reader of YA, it’s no secret that Sarah Dessen is considered by many to be the Queen of Contemporary Summer Novels. I read a lot of Sarah’s work back when I was in middle school and high school, long before I started blogging, and I always appreciated the subtlety with which she wrote, while still making an impact with her plot lines and characters. I picked up Sarah’s newest book, Saint Anything, and though it’s been years since I […]