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?
Been super busy lately and, like my last review said, marching band has kept me busy.
I was so super-duper excited for this book to finally happen. It's been two years since the last book, What Happened to Goodbye, came out. Seriously! I was at a parade for my brother (who graduated a year ago, but he wasn't in marching band last year) and that's when I got it! So, two years. Yeah.
Anyways, I'm going to be honest.
Whether it's because I've moved on from this genre, or whether it's because I'm just not having it with this book, I thought that maybe . . . it sort of . . . wasn't as good as the others? I guess. Maybe? I don't want to sound like I don't like it, I do! I really do, just not as much as Keeping the Moon or What Happened to Goodbye. I guess maybe I don't love every single book by Sarah Dessen, but again, I still really liked and enjoyed The Moon and More.
The setting is like all of Dessen's books, present day. It's in Colby, the same town that Keeping the Moon is set in. Cool, right? I think that happens a lot. Like, Dessen uses the same names for people, stores, places. Et. Cet. Er-a.
So, enter Emaline, the main character. Okay I don't like something specific she does towards the end of the middle of the book, but otherwise I really liked her! I didn't like what she did, but I still liked her! Hm, how do I explain Emaline? Well, I love her name for one. Also she just seems really real. That sounds dumb. But, yeah, for sure, she's realistic. She has fears and she gets disappointed and she cries. She also gets angry at her sister for being in her room, which I can relate to. Completely.
Luke is the next character. He's Emaline's boyfriend. I like Luke. He's very likable. Very nice, well-mannered. Can't say much about him but that also means I can't complain.
Okay here's where I mention Theo but he's, uh, not my favorite. So, we'll just forget about him.
I guess Theo's okay. I like him.
Okay, I don't know! He's one of those characters that you just cannot figure out.
So, that's it. Pretty much.
I know this review and the one that I did before this one, for Virals by Kathy Reichs, are both kind of short but I'm just really excited for Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein (author of Code Name Verity). It's like, a really long time until it comes out (September 10), but still. Cannot wait.
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