The Moon and More

All of Sarah Dessen’s books make their way into a special place in my heart. There is a reason she is my favorite author: her stories don’t even feel like stories at all—they feel real. With the first line in the first chapter of each book, I am pulled in and I experience the story right alongside the characters, instead of observing them from the outside. I become part of that world, part of that journey, and I live, learn, and grow just like everyone else. There’s none of that “Oh-I-remember-experiencing-something-like-that-way-back-when” or “This-reminds-me-of-the-time-I…” There is just me. Right then. Experiencing everything right as it happens, not missing a beat. That’s why, whenever the story comes to an end, I always feel a sense of hope: I know it isn’t the end, but the beginning of the next chapter. I always cry, because the lessons learned are my own. And I always breathe a sense of relief, knowing that, in one way or another, I’ve grown. I don’t know how to explain it, but Dessen just has a magical way with words. Whenever I finish one of her books, I am so overcome with emotion that I am at a loss for words. I feel like I can never do her justice in describing just how amazing her stories—OUR stories—truly are. All I can say is that I love them. Every word, every struggle, every moment of joy… all of it. The moments are my own—part of my own life—and I am always grateful for every one of them. I’m sure that if I really sat down and thought about it, I could think of parts of every story that were my favorite. But it truly seems that I love each book *that* much more than the last. Perhaps it is because the experiences have helped me grow, and I’ve learned how to appreciate each moment more than the last. You could say I’m sentimental, but it isn’t just that. I have grown up reading Dessen’s novels. They each mark a specific moment in my own personal life. I’ve walked alongside each character, learning from their mistakes as though they were my own. At the same time, I’ve learned my own mistakes. Each book has truly become a significant part of my life. You could even say that each chapter represents one chapter of my life. There is something magical about Dessen’s books: somehow, no matter how much I grow, each new book seems to be exactly what I need, hitting shelves at the exact moment I need it. That is the magic of Sarah Dessen: you know that you can always count on her to be there for you when you need someone the most. *** This story, like all of Dessen’s others, is truly beautiful. I love the fact that her stories are more than just “coming-of-age” stories or “cute stories about a boy and a girl.” “The Moon and More” isn’t about a summer fling, or the boy-next-door. It’s about Emaline. Her friends, her family, her complete journey. Her mistakes, her triumphs, her successes and failures. Her fears and beliefs. Her life. And 21 chapters that amount to just one part of her journey. A journey that we share with her—one that becomes our own. “The Moon and More” is real. Pure. It isn’t a fairytale where everything always comes up roses. It’s better than that: it’s a real telling of what it is like to truly experience life. The good, the bad, and everything in between. Everything that we know we need in order for life to be just what it should be: wonderful.

~4/5 I'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.]

I love all of Sarah Dessen’s books!! Highly recommended! Cute summer romance book with complex characters. Easy read and fun twists.

I struggled with what to write in my review of The Moon and More for a long time. I have been a fan of Dessen for many years. I have been reading her novels since I was in high school, and even now, as an adult, I look forward to the releases of all of her novels. I have long since considered her one of my favorite authors, and definitely one of the most talented YA authors I've ever read. That is why I was so disappointed with The Moon and More. Overall, I found is to be my least favorite of Dessen's novels. The characters were weak and overly written. I found myself forgetting the names of main characters and getting confused throughout the book. I struggled with what Dessen was trying to portray in Emaline's relationship with Theo. For 3/4 of the book I was extremely upset because I believed that I was supposed to like Theo, when I really did not. I think that my lack of enjoyment of The Moon and More stems from the fact that this is not "just another Sarah Dessen novel." Without giving away the plot and ending, I will say that this book does not follow the same pattern as her other books. While I commend her for trying to change, I found it to be too confusing because I didn't realize that she was trying to change it up until I was 90% done with the book. If you are going to go for a change, go big. This book had too similar of a beginning to her other books, thus causing confusion from this reader. The book IS well written, however. It does stay up to par in that area. I was able to find the same humor that I usually find in her novels, and found myself laughing out loud at the situations Emaline got herself into. And I now find myself randomly using the line, "that's so crackers" in day-to-day conversations, which is the catch phrase of Emaline's BFF Morris. And as always, I did enjoy Dessen's Easter egg references to pervious characters from her other books. Although she didn't answer the one question I am dying to know- are Auden and Eli still together!? :) I guess I'll just have to use my imagination on that one. Overall, I think that new readers of Sarah Dessen will enjoy this book for its well written dialogue, ingesting plot, and humorous writing. Old readers of Dessen, however, may find it lacking something that is hard to put a finger on.

I was admittedly a little concerned about how I would feel about this book after I really disliked her last book, What Happened To Goodbye. I really felt that one had a ridiculous premise and I didn't like any of the characters. I mean really? Different personalities? I couldn't get into it. But about this book! Back to her truly great form, and really better than ever. This had all the great father drama of This Lullaby, all the great sibling moments from Just Listen, and a gang of funny, interesting friends to rival The Truth About Forever. But even more than that, it managed to really hit home for me. Particularly the father stuff. SPOILER ALERT. I was really expecting her to have some happy little tied up ending about how her dad and her are best friends now and they sit around braiding each others hair and s***. But as someone with an estranged father that doesn't always happen and it takes a lot of growing up to realize that sometimes people can't be what you need them to be. I appreciated the real world ending to that storyline. Also the Theo storyline felt very authentic. Sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in something new for new's sake, but like Emaline learns sometimes that doesn't turn out how you thought at first. I like that it shows younger girls that it's not always better to go for something new and exciting in relationships, even if Luke and Emaline don't get back together. All around a great read!

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.

I'm a long time fan of Sarah Dessen's books and The Moon and More was no exception! She again had my emotions in her hands, making me gasp, want to cry and laugh many times. Like all of her characters, I felt a connection to Emaline and what she was going through. I however usually fall almost in love with the male character and in this one I couldn't get a connection with either of them. I wish there would've been more of an ending to both Luke and Theo. Either way, it's a fantastic book and I highly recommend it!

Sarah Dessen books tend to be rather formulaic and yet still a new and compelling story each time. I have come to know and love her pattern of her books. The Moon and More follows a rather unpredictable format that makes this one of her most compelling and yet inspiring books. I have read every book she has written and I have to say this is one of her best! Totally a great read.

An overall good book, THE MOON AND MORE, disappointed me due to my high opinion of Sarah Dessen's other works. But that doesn't mean that you won't read it. I enjoyed the writing and the characters, however the plot pulled down a star from here. Still, being a contemporary YA book( which I love), and having a near perfect romance, this book earned a four star rating from me. I would highly recommend reading this and Sarah Dessen's other( better ) books.

Es ist immer schön, wenn man ein Buch in einer anderen Sprache liest und man versteht den Inhalt! Das gibt echt Glücksgefühle - laut unserer Tochter, die gerne solche Bücher liest um ihre Englischkenntnisse zu verbessern oder sich einfach glücklich fühlt, wenn sie nicht so geläufige Wörter versteht.....

Prior to picking this up, I'd only read one Sarah Dessen book- The Truth About Forever. I'd really enjoyed it and so, after hearing good things about her latest, The Moon and More, I decided to buy it. I'm so glad I did because The Moon and More was a perfect summer read. The Moon and More is set in the fictional town of Colby and, boy, do I wish it was real! Dessen got the setting just right and I much preferred it to some books that are set in real places. It's Emaline's last summer before she goes off to college, leaving her hometown, Colby, and her family behind. Her life has always had the same familiarities until now. When Ivy, a film maker from New York, and her assistant, Theo, arrive in Colby everything changes. Suddenly, the summer starts getting busier and busier and Emaline has to face old problems being brought back up. I really liked Emaline as the main protagonist. The book flowed really well written in her perspective and Dessen had created a consist character. She was the sort of girl that you could easily become friends with and I'd happily read another book about her. I wasn't a huge fan of Theo, right from the start. His mannerisms really bugged me and I couldn't see why Emaline liked him. He was just so annoying! However, I did like Luke and found him so adorable. I craved the scenes he was in and his interaction with Emaline was just so sweet. The relationships between the characters was something I really loved. Emaline was so close to her family and it was nice to see a happy family unit, rather than one that has a lot of issues like we see in many YA books. I completely adored The Moon and More and will definitely be raiding my library for more Sarah Dessen books now.

This book made me feel so many emotions. It's so realistic. I couldn't put it down. I would seriously recommend this book to my friends.

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.