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[Blog Tour] The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Monday, June 03, 2013



Title: The Moon and More
Author: Sarah Dessen
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Format: Hardcover, 435 pages
Release Date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Penguin, Viking Juvenile
Source: ARC received from publisher for honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Chapters | TBD | 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?



I have been reading Sarah Dessen since I was in high school, and she has fast become one of my favourite authors of all time. The Moon and More was high on my list of books to read this summer because of my love for its author so when I received an early review copy from Penguin Canada to participate in the blog tour, I was thrilled.

Sarah Dessen has always been amazing at writing books that deal with hard subjects, and The Moon and More is no different. The subject matter of an absentee father is always a touchy subject for anyone, but this really hit home for me since I didn't really know my Father until I was 16. I went through the heartache of seeing all of my friends with both of their parents and wondering why I only had one. And even though Emaline had a stepfather, it did not dampen my connection to her.  I related to Emaline in a way that I never expected and I found myself invested in her relationship with her father, because I wanted her to have what I didn't. This aspect of the story was what I loved most because it released a lot of emotions I had hidden for years inside of me. I had a lot of anger towards her father and I think that is why i felt Emaline's emotion so potently. I knew what she was feeling.

The one aspect I did not love was the love interest. I found the inclusion of a summer fling a little forced and it really didn't fit the rest of the emotions within the story. That being said I did like Theo's character because he brought out a very different side of Emaline, one that was a little tougher and a little more daring. I loved that Emalines character progressed at the same rate as her relationship with Theo. She was no longer Luke's perfect girlfriend or the girl who works at the beach resort. She was just a girl trying to find her place in the world.

The Moon and More was not my favourite Sarah Dessen book (the honor still, after all these years goes to Dreamland) but that does not mean I didn't not enjoy this book. It was a great contemporary read that will be loved but Dessen fans and new fans alike. It was a great read that I would recommend to all contemporary lovers.

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