Blog Tour: The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Publisher: Viking Juvenile 

Publication year: June 4, 2013

Genre(s): Young Adult (Contemporary)

Source: Publisher (Penguin Canada)

Format: ARC 

Pages: 480

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?

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I've read my fair share of Sarah Dessen books. They are the perfect contemporary fluff that you would look for in a summer read. I have to say, I adore her books, and always look forward to new releases by her to get my cute romance fix, however The Moon and More is so much more than that. This is her only book that you could actually distinguish between her previous novels. Her previous novels, if you've read most of them, tend to blend together (not sure if that is a good or bad thing), but for The Moon and More? I'll always know it is that Sarah Dessen book of a girl that in the end didn't need any guy to define her. 

I love that all (at least most) of Sarah Dessen's books are set in the same beach town, Colby. I love love beach settings and that is the reason why I always read any new Sarah Dessen book. This book is no different, it is also set in Colby (yeay) and our main protagonist, Emaline, works at her family's business, running a couple of resort houses along the beach. Emaline has the perfect boyfriend. We all know what that means right? trouble in paradise of course! and that is what happened. Also, enter Theo, and stuff gets complicated, fast. I have to say, through all the drama, Emaline never acted in a way that frustrated me, and trust me, that always seems to happen whenever a romance goes wrong. Emaline was very mature (the book is set the summer before she goes off to university), and I loved how even with her romantic life getting all messed up, she never lost sight of herself. However this book was mostly about her finding herself, her "true calling" if we are being a bit cheesy. My only tiny complaint is that the novel was a bit too long for such a plot. 

I liked that even with her trying to find herself, she still never lost sight of her family, and her relationship with them never faltered. I loved her family. Emaline has two step sisters (her mother married her step-father who already had two daughters). She doesn't think of them as a step family because her mother married when she was three. One part I always laugh at is when Emaline comes home and finds her mom and her older sister in her room, on her bed, talking and eating, as if it is a lounging area (their father was renovating the house). Her family was definitely the comic relief in this novel. I lastly have to mention her relationship with her stepbrother (from her biological father). He is around 8 i think? and he is ADORABLE! I also LOVED his growing relationship with Emaline! All in all, I think The Moon and More would appeal to the older fans of Sarah Dessen, however I do recommend it to all fans.  

Sarah Dessen grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and attended UNC-Chapel Hill, graduating with highest honors in Creative Writing. She is the author of several novels, including Someone Like You, Just Listen and Along for the Ride. A motion picture based on her first two books, entitled How to Deal, was released in 2003. Her eleventh novel,The Moon and More, will be published in June 2013. She lives in North Carolina.

Follow Dessen through her: Website || Goodreads || Twitter

This Blog Tour is hosted by Penguin Canada