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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
This was the first Sarah Dessen book I've ever read. This is the story about perfections; who has it, which don’t and what it truly means. Macy our girl wants to be perfection; like her boyfriend Jason. When Jason’s away at camp over the summer Macy learns about a new side of her. Not the quite ‘think before speaking girl, but a crazy fun and spontaneous girl.
Sarah Dessen writing is memorizing and yes I did stay up to dawn to finish this. If you read her book before you notice the same sort of style she has in other books. What I like most is how she connects her books together. Macy’s mom is the owner of Queen Home; have you heard about that in the book Lock and Key? And let’s not forget our favourite beach town Colby. So sit back and enjoy another teen love story.
Sarah Dessen writing is memorizing and yes I did stay up to dawn to finish this. If you read her book before you notice the same sort of style she has in other books. What I like most is how she connects her books together. Macy’s mom is the owner of Queen Home; have you heard about that in the book Lock and Key? And let’s not forget our favourite beach town Colby. So sit back and enjoy another teen love story.
It was great!! It didn't focus only on Macy and Wes' relationship but also her family relationship, her ex boyfriends and even friendship. I loved how you could see Macy's character development throughout the whole story she developed into a better person.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
i love almost all of sarah dessen's books, but this one forever (lol) has a place in my heart. i connect with macy and her need to be seen as perfect so strongly, and i have so much love and admiration for wes, kristy, delia, caroline, bert, and even macy's mother.
this is a beautiful story about a girl who has lost her father, and her entire life has imploded. i love the little details of this story. i love the characters. i love the relationships. i love the way this makes me feel, the way it explores identity and life and friendship.
this story is one that i fell in love with and first felt seen by when i was 12 years old. even now, as a brand-new adult, i see myself in macy's struggle and transformation.
people who dismiss sarah dessen as a writer of cheesy romances for teenage girls are missing out on the powerful themes, strong family dynamics and valuable insights on growing up and finding yourself and coming into the world.
this is a beautiful story about a girl who has lost her father, and her entire life has imploded. i love the little details of this story. i love the characters. i love the relationships. i love the way this makes me feel, the way it explores identity and life and friendship.
this story is one that i fell in love with and first felt seen by when i was 12 years old. even now, as a brand-new adult, i see myself in macy's struggle and transformation.
people who dismiss sarah dessen as a writer of cheesy romances for teenage girls are missing out on the powerful themes, strong family dynamics and valuable insights on growing up and finding yourself and coming into the world.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Like most books I’ve been reading for the past few months, I came across this book via YouTube, as part of the Sarah Dessen book club. I have never read a Sarah Dessen book, or even heard of her before I started watching Booktubers, so I thought I’d give it a try. I didn’t go into this book with too many expectations, which I am glad I did, because I didn’t really know what I thought about it at first.
The story starts with a girl called Macy saying goodbye to her boyfriend, Jason, who is going to Brain Camp for the summer. Jason asked Macy to work his job at the library over the summer, which she accepted. However, after helping out Wish Catering, at her mother’s party, and after she told Jason she loved him at the end of an email (and they break up) Macy starts taking matters into her own hands. Macy meets Wes, who is clearly an obvious love interest for her, and it turns out that they are alike. A year and a half before the story starts, Macy’s dad died while out running. Wes relates to this as his mum died of cancer. In the story, you can tell Macy is still hurting from her dad’s death, which becomes very important towards the end of the story.
Macy’s character develops a lot during the story, which I like about the book. At first, Macy annoyed me with the whole ‘everything has to be perfect’ phase, but at the end, you can see that she has such a good group of friends that she doesn’t need everything to be perfect. When Macy mentioned about her Dad dying, it actually made me feel really sad, and I called my Dad the next day and spoke to him for a while. It made me feel a bit sad for all the teenagers that have lost parents. I think Dessen really captured the mind of a young teenager girl that’s just trying to impress her parents. I know when I was 17 (which was only a year ago) I was trying hard to find my place and make my parents happy, as I was going through a really hard time when I started college. It took me a while to find discover this, but now I’m happy, studying at university, and know who my true friends are.
This is what I liked about Dessen’s writing, as she captured this at the end of the book when Macy’s mum was having a little breakdown about her big party and started grieving about her husband. The mother-daughter moment between Macy and her mum was very precious and reminded me of all the times my mum has been there for me and my sister. I think this moment in the book was possibly one of my favourites. I preferred this moment to when Macy left Jason and finally got with Wes.
There were parts of the book that made me want to stop reading it, but the little plot points, like Delia’s water breaking made me continue reading. I am glad I did, because there are some lovely quotes in this book. Such as:
“It's all in the view. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.”
I thought how true this quote is, of how you should make your life count, and how you don’t know when your life may come to an end. When I think about it, I have tried to make life count, even through the bad times.
Overall, I think Sarah Dessen did a good job with capturing the mind of a young adult trying to find herself. However, because there were times when I wanted to give up reading it, I’m giving the book three out of five stars. But I am not completely giving up on the Sarah Dessen Book Club, as I have already purchased the next one. Hopefully it will be faster paced than this one. But I did enjoy most of the book.
The story starts with a girl called Macy saying goodbye to her boyfriend, Jason, who is going to Brain Camp for the summer. Jason asked Macy to work his job at the library over the summer, which she accepted. However, after helping out Wish Catering, at her mother’s party, and after she told Jason she loved him at the end of an email (and they break up) Macy starts taking matters into her own hands. Macy meets Wes, who is clearly an obvious love interest for her, and it turns out that they are alike. A year and a half before the story starts, Macy’s dad died while out running. Wes relates to this as his mum died of cancer. In the story, you can tell Macy is still hurting from her dad’s death, which becomes very important towards the end of the story.
Macy’s character develops a lot during the story, which I like about the book. At first, Macy annoyed me with the whole ‘everything has to be perfect’ phase, but at the end, you can see that she has such a good group of friends that she doesn’t need everything to be perfect. When Macy mentioned about her Dad dying, it actually made me feel really sad, and I called my Dad the next day and spoke to him for a while. It made me feel a bit sad for all the teenagers that have lost parents. I think Dessen really captured the mind of a young teenager girl that’s just trying to impress her parents. I know when I was 17 (which was only a year ago) I was trying hard to find my place and make my parents happy, as I was going through a really hard time when I started college. It took me a while to find discover this, but now I’m happy, studying at university, and know who my true friends are.
This is what I liked about Dessen’s writing, as she captured this at the end of the book when Macy’s mum was having a little breakdown about her big party and started grieving about her husband. The mother-daughter moment between Macy and her mum was very precious and reminded me of all the times my mum has been there for me and my sister. I think this moment in the book was possibly one of my favourites. I preferred this moment to when Macy left Jason and finally got with Wes.
There were parts of the book that made me want to stop reading it, but the little plot points, like Delia’s water breaking made me continue reading. I am glad I did, because there are some lovely quotes in this book. Such as:
“It's all in the view. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.”
I thought how true this quote is, of how you should make your life count, and how you don’t know when your life may come to an end. When I think about it, I have tried to make life count, even through the bad times.
Overall, I think Sarah Dessen did a good job with capturing the mind of a young adult trying to find herself. However, because there were times when I wanted to give up reading it, I’m giving the book three out of five stars. But I am not completely giving up on the Sarah Dessen Book Club, as I have already purchased the next one. Hopefully it will be faster paced than this one. But I did enjoy most of the book.
So I said I was excited to be done with this book, but now i'm sad that its over! This was super adorable, but also super predictable. It kind of reminded me of Second Chance Summer. Glad I gave this a go!
I love this book because the dad reminds me of my dad. While the book was a little slow to start the ending was amazing and tied everything together. I’m so excited to read more from Sarah Dessen.
Even though I would like to give this book four stars, I just can’t. I’ve owned a copy for ten years and loved it thoroughly, it’s just one of those books that I come back to now and again and love it every time.