The Moon and More

Sarah Dessen is a magician with beautiful, clean, innocent, but meaningful romances set in Colby, the calm, beach town that swells during tourist season. With The Moon and More she wrote a different kind of novel. All the components you love are there, but this story is about Emaline and Emaline only.Emaline's family runs Colby realty, renting houses for the owners to pushy tourists hungry for some time at the beach. As her last summer before heading to college, Emaline should be hanging out with her boyfriend and friends, enjoying the freedom before she heads off for college. Unfortunately, her sister Margo has recently returned from business school and has taken the opportunity to transform their comfortable family business into a well-oiled machine. And Emaline's boyfriend Luke has recently been unhappy with the way their relationship is progressing, or rather, not progressing. But when a high roller rents the biggest house in Colby for two months, its occupants are about to change Emaline's life in a way she never would have expected.Ivy and her assistant Theo are making a film about Clyde Conaway, the reclusive Colby native who also happened to be a world-renowned artist at one point. To everyone in Colby he is just Clyde, but to these ambitious New Yorkers he is much more: he is the ticket to fame. When Emaline's boyfriend turns out to not be the guy she thought he was, she finds herself in the arms of Theo, a somewhat dorky film student from New York who is more ambitious that even his boss understands. When Emaline's father (not her dad, but her biological father) comes to town to stay for the first time since getting her mother pregnant at the age of sixteen, she has more than just her romantic life and the rentals to deal with. He was the man who abandoned her mother, ignored her most of her life, and most recently, reneged on his offer to pay for Columbia, forcing her to go to East U in the fall. With her half-brother in tow, he spends the summer in Colby working to sell his aunt's house and adjusting his son to the separation of their family and the inevitability of his parents' divorce. What Emaline didn't expect was to really get to know Benji and to get to know the real man behind the fatherly emails. But even bigger was the opportunity Emaline had in one summer to truly and deeply get to know who She was.Dessen usually writes these amazing romance novels, but this book was not a romance novel. Not because you aren't really invested in either Luke or Theo (who is a total tool, but every girl finds herself with a tool at least once in her life, right?!), but because they are not really the focus of the story. Instead, this is a coming of age story for a girl who has always approached life passively and agreeably who finally stands up for herself and goes for what she wants, not what someone else wants for her. I think if you go into this story thinking you are going to find a romance, you will undoubtedly be disappointed. In fact, the jacket blurb talks about Theo as though he is a cool, almost sheik film student who transforms town. Instead, he is a tool. A total tool. He starts off pretty dorky, a guy who never had a girlfriend, never went to prom, was generally miserable in high school. Now this alone doesn't make him a toolbox. I tend to like the dorky guy (brings me back to my love for Duckie, if you must know), but when he become an arrogant, pompous, over-ambitious jerk, I had had enough. And still she stayed with him for most of the novel. This annoyed me at first, but I realized, after a great deal of anger and confusion that I waited for so long for a Dessen romance and got THEO instead, that Emaline needed to date this tool. She dated Luke, not because she was madly in love with him, but because he was comfortable. He embodied all that was Colby, and for a girl who was abandoned by her father, who saw her stepdad as her real dad and his daughter's as her sisters, whose mother was duped and got pregnant in a typical summer romance that faded before she even reached her nine months, she needed her stable, loving family. Theo, on the other hand, was different. It didn't matter that he wasn't a good different (because lord know he wasn't), but just that he was different. But quickly, Emaline realized that she didn't want different. She loved Colby. She didn't want to be "stuck" there for life like so many others, but she didn't want to flee like the other half of its recently graduated population. Instead, she wanted choices while also having her roots. And that was what made me really love this novel.Instead of your simple romance, this was a complex and emotional coming of age story. Emaline never knew how to define herself, but throughout this story, you watch her finally become comfortable in her own skin and her own desires. Sometimes it takes the exact wrong guy to help you realize what you really want, and Theo was certainly that guy (I can't stress enough how much I disliked him). So, don't go looking for a lovely Dessen romance. You won't find it and you will be disappointed (I know I was at first). But if you go into this thinking you are going to find one of Dessen's more serious novels hidden within a beachy, carefree cover, you will enjoy the book as much as I did. It isn't your typical Dessen, but that is what I love about her the most. She isn't predictable, and neither are her characters. I can't say I loved this story, but I really liked it in more ways than one. But more importantly, I came out the other end of the story loving Dessen more than ever before.

~4/5I'm going to admit, from the very start, that I am a huge Sarah Dessen fan. Have been since I first read one of her books, and will continue to be. Her books excite me beyond belief, I love all of them, and I don't even think I'm able to give her books any lower a rating than 4 (although her first couple might come close--I have to re-read them first to find out). Now that that's out of the way: this book surprised me in many ways, some of which made me a little wary and unsure of how I feel about it. But then, again, I also kind of loved it like I always do, and it has a lot of reasons for me to love it. I'm a bit conflicted.Emaline, in the summer before she goes away to college, is starting to have some problems with her long-time boyfriend Luke. Her father, who she's had a mostly internet based relationship with, is in town with her younger step-brother. Plus there's this new, older boy in town, Theo, working on a documentary with a grumpy woman, starring Clyde, a mystery of a man who lives in town. Then there's Morris, her best friend, and Daisy, her best girl friend, who are going out together, but going to college in very different areas.First, Emaline's family. I love the originality of her family situation. Her mother got pregnant with her when she was younger, ended up growing apart from her father, and then Emaline decided to reach out and get to know him, and has thus far mostly had a relationship with him through email, mostly talking about school. But aside from that, she has her dad, who adopted her and her mom married when she was three, and her two older step-sisters, who she all loves. And then there's Benji, her father's son, who she's just now starting to get to know.I loved that her family life was messy, and I generally just loved her family, and maybe even would have liked more time with her dad, who was so sweet, and Benji, who is just plain adorable. Her sisters and her fight and argue, but they're very close. Her mother has a problem with Emaline's father, but can't really do anything about it. And her father is kind of a misguided jerk.Now, the romance. That's the main point that leaves me so unsure. I don't want to give anything away, but it was not what I was expecting. I liked Theo at first, and then not so much. I liked Luke at first, and then was unhappy with him, and then really liked him at the end. And I understand what happened at the end, even though I'm a little unhappy with not knowing what's going to happen between them, and even unsure if they should get back together or not. I will say that I'm happy with the growth that Emaline did in the book--she was in a very good place with herself by the end of the book, and I'm happy about that.Lastly, Morris and Daisy. I liked Daisy, and was happy with her and Emaline's relationship. But it's Morris that I loved. He is such a Sarah Dessen character, I could tell from the first time he was introduced, and I loved him right off. Morris is somewhat of a slacker; he moves slowly, he does everything slowly really, and he has to be told, very specifically, what to do in order to do it, or he won't do anything. And his relationship with Emaline is so fantastic. He's fantastic, really. And I was so happy with how much he'd grown by the end of the book, along with where his and Daisy's relationship was by the end.The writing, the development, the characters, everything, was so great. I loved all of it--every bit. I didn't want it to end, even as I read it in one sitting, not wanting to but not being able to put it down. Right after I finished, too, I mourned the fact that I'm going to have to wait about two years for her next book, and then promptly re-read most of Dessen's other books.I'm a little unsure of what to rate the book, because of my feelings on the ending, but I know that it's no lower than a 4. It's probably between a 4 and 4.5, really.[This review is also available on my blog.]

What Occurs:Luke is the perfect boyfriend. He and Emaline have been together all through high-school in the beach town of Colby, where they grew up. But now it's the summer before college and Emaline has to decide what perfect really means.Enter Theo, an ambitious New Yorker who comes to town to assist on a documentary on a local artist. He's smart, sophisticated and definitely not a local. And best of all, he thinks Emaline is too good for Colby. And so does her mostly-absentee father, who is convinced that an Ivy League education is the only way she can be happy.Emaline is attracted to the bright future that both of them promise, but she also clings to her family and the town she's always called home. Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she's from with where she's going?Thoughts:The way Sarah Dessen stories unfold and the way she develops not only her central characters but the secondary ones too is fantastic. But there was something missing here. Don't get me wrong - I liked this book, really I did. But I didn't love it. Which is a Sarah Dessen first for me.Emaline was a great narrator - she was sweet and relateable and I really enjoyed her journey. But at times I just wanted to shake her! It was her last summer before college and she pretty much neglected spending any time with her family so she could hang out with Theo. I mean, seriously, blood before bros, Emaline!Speaking of Theo: uhm, no. One of the main reasons (okay, THE main reason) I didn't love this book was Theo. He was just awful: over-the-top and completely pompous. And he could be so rude. He really looked down on Colby (and Emaline, at times) and I just kept hoping he would disappear and we'd see more of Luke. Because him I liked. Unfortunately for me, he rarely made an appearance.Someone who did was Emaline's biological father, who comes to town for the summer. And I wish we didn't get to see him as much. I wanted to karate-chop him whenever he opened his mouth. When Emaline finally stood up to him I totally Hallelujah-ed. Out loud.Look, this book wasn't perfect, but I really would recommend this to any fans of Dessen or YA. Sarah is an amazing writer, so for that alone she gets four stars, but my problem was that this just wasn't up-to-par with her other books.Though this was definitely a fun summer read, in the end this book just didn't deliver the moon and more. The main problem was that we saw more of the annoying characters than the endearing ones. I wanted more Morris and Daisy. More of Emaline's stepdad and why he had this DIY-obsession. I wanted more Luke and Benji and Clyde. What I got instead was a whole lot of Theo and Emaline's father - both of whom I wanted to punch in the face.Fortunately, Emaline was a cool narrator and she kept me turning the page. And in the end, she completely kicked ass with both Theo and her father.

I am a massive fan of Sarah Dessen's books and have read them all, so when I was looking for new books to read and found she had a new one I was over the moon (and more). I read the other reviews saying that it wasn't as good as her others, that it was disappointing, etc. but I still decided to get it, just to see for myself. I agree with a few things said in other reviews, it was kind of hard for me to get in to, I'm usually hooked with the very first pages with her books, and there was just something about the characters that didn't do it for me. Also, I was expecting a romance, like with all her other books, which I didn't quite get from this book, but I was willing to let that go if there was a nice, interesting story. This whole documentary and finding out about Clyde really didn't interest me much, so I was kind of disappointed that it was the main focus of the story. Also, Theo was a really unlikable character, I hated him from the minute he appeared in the book, and I really hated when Emaline and him got together, he was over-confident and just plain annoying. I would have liked a bit more detail about the relationship of Emaline with her dad and I would have loved it if Luke was more of a central character instead of just making special appearances here and there. I think what I really liked in the book was the relationship that developed between Emaline and Benji, he seemed like the sweetest little kid.So yeah, not one of her best stories but I wouldn't say it was a complete waste of time and that I don't recommend it. If you haven't read anything in a while or you're looking for another Sarah Dessen then it's worth a read, but don't expect it to be 'the moon and more' like all her other books are :)Just as a side note, if you're new to Sarah Dessen, don't start with this book, my personal favourites are The Truth About Forever, Just Listen and Along For The Ride :)

I have read every other Sarah Dessen book and enjoyed every single one. I was not disappointed! Her ability to make you fall in love with the characters, setting and story grabs you into the book so much you find yourself living the life of Emaline as you flick through the pages. She explores important and sensitive issues through the voice of her characters that makes them easy to talk about. This book is great for any teenager or adult!

Very Pleased

Good read