The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen (Review)

Hey Everyone!

So I just finished reading The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen, which was released earlier this month!

Here's my review:

From Goodreads:

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.

My Thoughts:

Sarah Dessen has this great way of incorporating some of my favorite characters from past novels into her other novels, that it's great finding out how they are doing!  In The Moon and More, Auden, the main character in my all-time-favorite Sarah Dessen novel, Along for the Ride was mentioned!

The Moon and More brought on the story of a new character in Sarah's favorite town of Colby.  Emaline.  Emaline, who is about to embark on one of the most difficult parts of life...going on her own to college, is trying to make the best of her last summer with her boyfriend of four years, Luke.  That is before her Father comes into town!  Not her, dad, but her FATHER.  Her dad, is the man who raised her all these years, and adopted her at the age of three, her Father is the man who abandoned her and her mother when her mom found out she was pregnant with Emaline at the age of eighteen.

And then to make matters worse, her relationship with Luke, might not be as stable as she was thinking.  And there is that kid, Theo...oh yeah, he comes into the picture too, just to complicate things even further...

Anyway, overall thoughts of this one...disappointed, honestly.  I love Sarah Dessen's book.  I've read ALL of them, and enjoyed the majority of them!  However, this was one of those miss ones for me unfortunately.  I thought The Moon and More was somewhat uneventful.  While there was drama, and Emaline's inability to make responsible choices in her life, I honestly just felt there something missing to this story.

I didn't find any kind of climatic elements to the story, just sort of a straight through book of Emaline figuring things out, in a somewhat unexciting way.

Overall rating:

Overall, I will say there were some things I enjoyed about this one.  For one, it's a Sarah Dessen book...so in other words, one of my favorite authors...aka I can't give it a super low rating!

I liked a few of the characters very much, such as Emaline's half-brother, Benji.  I thought he was a great addition to the story.  I also actually really liked Ivy, the lady in charge of the documentary...Theo's boss.

The characters I didn't really like, were Theo...he was a shallow bastard!
I wasn't a huge fan of Emaline at times, just because of her inability of not being able to make decisions.

I didn't like how fast she moved on from her four year relationship with Luke...exactly two HOURS!

While, this was unfortunately, and disappointingly a miss for me, when it comes to Sarah Dessen's novels, I'm definitely still looking forward to what Sarah has in store for the future...aka another two years at least!!

So here's to the future! :)

The Romance Bookie :)