A review by sassystump
Once and for All by Sarah Dessen

2.0

I loved Sarah's books as a pre-teen/teen and identified so much with her characters but this one just had rushing through it to get this book over with it.



The premise for this book was so promising and I was excited to read it but Louna was just so flat as a character and Ambrose was annoying the majority of the time. Louna is the daughter of a famous wedding planner, and is a bit of a cynic with a combination of her mother and godfather's cynical views on love and her own tragic romance history. In one wedding Louna ends up dragging the son of the bride (this is her third wedding) to the big event, thus sparking the meeting of Louna and Ambrose. The sparks are mostly of Louna being annoyed at him due to him delaying the wedding, he ends up being in her life more due to his sister having an upcoming wedding. His mother seeing that he is annoying his sister has Louna's mother give him a job helping them out. Throughout the book, Ambrose flirts and ends up at multiple girls home's meanwhile Louna is irked at him. I just didn't see the chemistry, I'm all for opposites attract but when the main character literally gets angry at the potential romance all the time. Moving on, Louna is still trying to get over her last boyfriend who is no longer in the picture and whose fate I saw coming a mile a way.

I did appreciate Sarah working in current issues but it's hard to feel anything for a character that the main character really barely knew herself. Let me explain, Ethan (last boyfriend shockingly normal name) was a guest or something at one wedding that Louna had a connection with and I did feel like they had chemistry but Louna ends up hooking up with him after literally meeting him within a few hours. I don't mind women hooking up and am not slut shaming but this is a book about a teenager with a mostly teenage audience. I don't think we should be teaching teenage girls that they should just rush it that simply because it "feels" right, she literally knew nothing about this guy and yes he did turn out decent but in real life? That would be rare and chances are she would never hear from him again.

This was not her best work and if this is your first time reading Sarah Dessen then pick something else like Just Listen, Lock and Key, What Happened to Goodbye, Dreamland. It is a fast read, and I did get nostalgia feelings because at times I saw myself in Louna. And I did enjoy the friendship between Jilly and Louna, but towards the end I didn't buy the "love" between Ambrose and Louna.