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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Isn't that the way everything begins? A night, a love, a once and for all.
As much as I love Dessen's books, I couldn't help but think about her other books as I read this one and how similar they are. It's almost like a formula: you have the cynical main character who doesn't believe in love, then there is the happy go lucky boy who is determined to make the cynical girl live a little, and then there is typically only one parent in the picture. Now not all of her books follows these guidelines, but most do. Even though I know the formula after reading almost all of her books, I still couldn't help but be sucked in after page one! This one even made me tear up several times (okay there is a point in every one of her novels that makes me tear up, but this one made me tear at least twice more than usual)!
Once and for All is told from Louna's point of view in the present and then we get flashback chapters of her and Ethan spread throughout. We get a sense pretty early on that Louna is I wouldn't really say jaded, but turned off on love and that whatever happened had to have been pretty bad (basically she comes with a lot of baggage). As we learn her story and what happened almost a year earlier, it becomes clear and you can't help but feel for her. When Ambrose comes into the picture, I couldn't help but wonder how Dessen was going to weave him into Louna's story.
In contrast to Louna, Ambrose is very social and outgoing. He has a dating philosophy of no commitment and only enjoying the firsts of any relationship. When he starts to work for Louna's mom, they make a bet basically to date using each others philosophy. They continue working at her mom's wedding planning business and partaking of the bet. It becomes obvious early on that they both like each other, but doesn't want to admit it to each other until one of them finally does. After that happens, the book kind of slows down for me until near the very end when we get our happy ending.
Other than Louna and Ambrose, we really get to know the secondary characters as well. Normally, I don't really care for them or I forget about them as soon as the book is over, but this time Dessen made me remember them! I hope in her future books, she does the same thing.
Ambrose would again reach out a hand, asking me to dance. And this time, I'd say yes.
Overall, this was a very quick read because I didn't want to put the book down! I loved going back to Lakeview and seeing how Dessen was able to weave in some of her past characters into this one. As much as I enjoyed it, I wouldn't put it as my favorite (that will probably be This Lullaby or The Truth About Forever tbh). If you love contemporary novels and haven't picked up a Sarah Dessen book, definitely do! She is probably one of my favorite (she used to be my only until recently when I discovered Kasie West) ya contemporary authors.
As much as I love Dessen's books, I couldn't help but think about her other books as I read this one and how similar they are. It's almost like a formula: you have the cynical main character who doesn't believe in love, then there is the happy go lucky boy who is determined to make the cynical girl live a little, and then there is typically only one parent in the picture. Now not all of her books follows these guidelines, but most do. Even though I know the formula after reading almost all of her books, I still couldn't help but be sucked in after page one! This one even made me tear up several times (okay there is a point in every one of her novels that makes me tear up, but this one made me tear at least twice more than usual)!
Once and for All is told from Louna's point of view in the present and then we get flashback chapters of her and Ethan spread throughout. We get a sense pretty early on that Louna is I wouldn't really say jaded, but turned off on love and that whatever happened had to have been pretty bad (basically she comes with a lot of baggage). As we learn her story and what happened almost a year earlier, it becomes clear and you can't help but feel for her. When Ambrose comes into the picture, I couldn't help but wonder how Dessen was going to weave him into Louna's story.
In contrast to Louna, Ambrose is very social and outgoing. He has a dating philosophy of no commitment and only enjoying the firsts of any relationship. When he starts to work for Louna's mom, they make a bet basically to date using each others philosophy. They continue working at her mom's wedding planning business and partaking of the bet. It becomes obvious early on that they both like each other, but doesn't want to admit it to each other until one of them finally does. After that happens, the book kind of slows down for me until near the very end when we get our happy ending.
Other than Louna and Ambrose, we really get to know the secondary characters as well. Normally, I don't really care for them or I forget about them as soon as the book is over, but this time Dessen made me remember them! I hope in her future books, she does the same thing.
Ambrose would again reach out a hand, asking me to dance. And this time, I'd say yes.
Overall, this was a very quick read because I didn't want to put the book down! I loved going back to Lakeview and seeing how Dessen was able to weave in some of her past characters into this one. As much as I enjoyed it, I wouldn't put it as my favorite (that will probably be This Lullaby or The Truth About Forever tbh). If you love contemporary novels and haven't picked up a Sarah Dessen book, definitely do! She is probably one of my favorite (she used to be my only until recently when I discovered Kasie West) ya contemporary authors.
the bakers naming their twins kaitlyn and katherine is a Bad Idea what if they both wanna go by katy
i would think most wedding planning businesses use both parties' last names rather than just the bride's name just bc it's supposedly Her Day. what if there's two brides, what if there's no bride, what then natalie barrett!! and even so like. the idea that weddings are all about the bride is so weird, like. the groom should be excited too!
"ambrose clicked his pen open again.
5. louna doesn't get out much." SCREAM this was so funny i really do love ambrose
i feel like we could've known louna and ethan had this very significant romantic night without an "i love you" after knowing each other only hours. like, i would get them saying i love you after dating long distance, even if they hadn't seen each other since that night but. one night together is Too Soon, no matter how epic it is
also on a similar note, there was such quick progression to being Serious in the ambrose/lauren and louna/ben relationships. like, at least with ambrose and lauren that was how it was supposed to be re: his and louna's bet, but it was still like, getting snippy after a few weeks, like yeah planning the wedding was a high pressure situation, but you should still be in a honeymoon phase at that point, i would think. and with ben and louna, wasn't he getting out of a relationship he'd been in since middle school? like five or six years? and it had only been a few weeks since then when he jumps into being Committed to louna AND is like constantly posting about her on social media? it's not mentioned, but that seems more like "trying to make his ex jealous" behavior, but since it's not framed that way, it's still weird like. you just started dating, you don't need to post about it all the time, keep some things to yourself!
anyway i'm sure i'll look at the reviews and once again ppl will be mad that it's Different from her old books, but personally, after reading 5 or 6 books that followed the exact same formula in a row, i'm appreciating the fact that the more recent books deviate from that. and honestly, either way, following the formula or not, i just like certain books better than others. of the recent ones, i didn't love the moon and more as much, but i liked this and saint anything a lot. with older books, i didn't like keeping the moon and lock and key as much, but i loved just listen and dreamland a lot.
i would be fine if she DID follow the formula, and in fact i think this book kind of did after the last 3 or 4 didn't, just not multiple times in a row, it was a good thing i was reading other books in between, otherwise i would've gotten mixed up, seeing "girl pulls away, boy is a dick about it, he forgives her after she makes A Gesture at the end, and he never gets any blame" over and over. but this is different from the formula at least in louna's reasoning, because it's VERY understanding and i cried or at least came close multiples times just bc i get so mad about school shootings and scared for my loved ones who go to/work in schools anywayyyy. i do feel like sarah dessen could've made some points about our society, but she's not gonna go a ~political~ route so i understand that.
anyway, i personally enjoy dynamics where the couple don't like each other at first, though in this case it's really louna not looking ambrose, so long as no one's truly shitty to the other. which ambrose wasn't?? seeing people say he was just so immature and obnoxious and awful seemed a little extreme to me. like. yeah, he could be irritating, but there was more to him than that, and the good bits shined (shone? what is the word i'm looking for) through.
also, re: several comments i saw, yeah, i didn't like louna cheating on ambrose with ben, but 1. it wasn't like a fucking affair, she immediately told the truth, 2. they'd been dating for three weeks? a month at that point? not exactly a huge betrayal, especially when as i said earlier, the relationship moved weirdly fast, like why did they just immediately become Official boyfriend/girlfriend, when he just got out of his own very very long-term relationship? and 3. she'd literally just been panicking thinking ambrose was DEAD, like please, my god, cut the girl some slack
i would think most wedding planning businesses use both parties' last names rather than just the bride's name just bc it's supposedly Her Day. what if there's two brides, what if there's no bride, what then natalie barrett!! and even so like. the idea that weddings are all about the bride is so weird, like. the groom should be excited too!
"ambrose clicked his pen open again.
5. louna doesn't get out much." SCREAM this was so funny i really do love ambrose
i feel like we could've known louna and ethan had this very significant romantic night without an "i love you" after knowing each other only hours. like, i would get them saying i love you after dating long distance, even if they hadn't seen each other since that night but. one night together is Too Soon, no matter how epic it is
also on a similar note, there was such quick progression to being Serious in the ambrose/lauren and louna/ben relationships. like, at least with ambrose and lauren that was how it was supposed to be re: his and louna's bet, but it was still like, getting snippy after a few weeks, like yeah planning the wedding was a high pressure situation, but you should still be in a honeymoon phase at that point, i would think. and with ben and louna, wasn't he getting out of a relationship he'd been in since middle school? like five or six years? and it had only been a few weeks since then when he jumps into being Committed to louna AND is like constantly posting about her on social media? it's not mentioned, but that seems more like "trying to make his ex jealous" behavior, but since it's not framed that way, it's still weird like. you just started dating, you don't need to post about it all the time, keep some things to yourself!
anyway i'm sure i'll look at the reviews and once again ppl will be mad that it's Different from her old books, but personally, after reading 5 or 6 books that followed the exact same formula in a row, i'm appreciating the fact that the more recent books deviate from that. and honestly, either way, following the formula or not, i just like certain books better than others. of the recent ones, i didn't love the moon and more as much, but i liked this and saint anything a lot. with older books, i didn't like keeping the moon and lock and key as much, but i loved just listen and dreamland a lot.
i would be fine if she DID follow the formula, and in fact i think this book kind of did after the last 3 or 4 didn't, just not multiple times in a row, it was a good thing i was reading other books in between, otherwise i would've gotten mixed up, seeing "girl pulls away, boy is a dick about it, he forgives her after she makes A Gesture at the end, and he never gets any blame" over and over. but this is different from the formula at least in louna's reasoning, because it's VERY understanding and i cried or at least came close multiples times just bc i get so mad about school shootings and scared for my loved ones who go to/work in schools anywayyyy. i do feel like sarah dessen could've made some points about our society, but she's not gonna go a ~political~ route so i understand that.
anyway, i personally enjoy dynamics where the couple don't like each other at first, though in this case it's really louna not looking ambrose, so long as no one's truly shitty to the other. which ambrose wasn't?? seeing people say he was just so immature and obnoxious and awful seemed a little extreme to me. like. yeah, he could be irritating, but there was more to him than that, and the good bits shined (shone? what is the word i'm looking for) through.
also, re: several comments i saw, yeah, i didn't like louna cheating on ambrose with ben, but 1. it wasn't like a fucking affair, she immediately told the truth, 2. they'd been dating for three weeks? a month at that point? not exactly a huge betrayal, especially when as i said earlier, the relationship moved weirdly fast, like why did they just immediately become Official boyfriend/girlfriend, when he just got out of his own very very long-term relationship? and 3. she'd literally just been panicking thinking ambrose was DEAD, like please, my god, cut the girl some slack
I usually enjoy Sarah Dessen’s books but this one just didn’t work for me. It took me SEVEN MONTHS to finish it. And I even skipped through the last couple chapters. I kept putting it down for other books that were more interesting and kept my attention better. To me, it’s definitely a summer read but it just didn’t do it for me.
Sarah Dessen always writes pleasant and predictable books. I did enjoy this one, it was just so cookie cutter. But including a school shooting tragedy, as is happening all too often lately, was very interesting.
i have mixed feelings about this. I feel like the main love interest really clearly had ADHD but it wasn't addressed. It played with the line between 'don't judge people too much on first impressions' and 'falling for the bad boy'. I don't know. I re
good written and kept my attention but not one of my all time favorites
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Mass/school shootings
Minor: Car accident
Like for many readers, Sarah Dessen was my gateway author to contemporary young adult novels. Every time I hear that she has a novel coming out, I get excited and mark it on my calendar. Once & For All sits somewhere in the middle of her books (rating wise) for me. It was a good book, but it didn’t stand out as much as others. Louna works for her mother’s company, Natalie Barrett Wedding Planning, helping make people’s wedding dreams come true. Between a current tragedy in her life and the cynicism that can come from dealing with so many stressful weddings, Louna has a guarded heart and believes that love may not be for her. There are so many cute aspects about this story, like how Louna’s father was not present in her life, so her mother’s best friend and business partner, William, filled the paternal role in his own unique way; or how her best friend Jilly’s family is such a handful. Crawford, Jilly's little brother, was a delightful addition with all his side comments and observations. Ambrose was fun; he was not my favorite of Dessen’s leading men, but I felt like there were moments between him and Louna when their different personalities proved they should open up to one another. This was a fun book that I couldn’t get enough of over my lunch break, so I would rush home and start reading again. Dessen will always have a spot on my bookshelf.