The Moon and More: review

Title: The Moon and More
Author: Sarah Dessen
Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 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?

Sarah Dessen's devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.

My review:


While this is not my favorite of her books, I still definitely recommend it to any Dessen or contemporary reader. It's a nice escape read, which was really good for me after reading a rather depressing and deep book. The Moon and More is on the longer side (for her books) at about 430 pages, but it's entertaining enough to deserve that length.

My favorite thing to do while reading Sarah Dessen's books is finding all the cameos along the way, from her other books. Colby is a small town, but with each book, I feel more and more familiar with it and it's people. I was able to find quite a few references in here, including a moment of "Gotcha!" which made me laugh.

Benji, Emaline's half-brother, is probably the character I like most next to Morris. My heart broke for that little ten-year-old, and if I lived in Colby, I'd totally adopt him as my little brother. He has a crazy spirit and is full of fun ideas. Morris on the other hand, IS my little brother...needing-exact-instructions and shuffle-step and everything. It's really hilarious how Emaline describes her best friend.

Emaline's famliy Realty company sounds busy, hard, and would probably be really fun to watch on a show. Her family is an odd bunch, but for the most part, everyone gets along and it's nice to read about them. I would like to see some other story off of one of those characters, even though they're all older...hm.

My main issue with the book is actually the whole relationship thing with Emaline. It seems a little weak, and even though the new-guy-love-interest (aka Theo which is an awesome name by the way) has some enjoyable quirks to start out with...well honestly he was really annoying. I feel if I met him in real life I'd just walk away while he kept talking. At first it was sweet, because he's so enthusiastic about everything in the world, but then I started to see what Emaline started to see: Not From Around Here. And I didn't really like it.

Luke, the boyfriend, was okay. He wasn't in the story overly much for me to really get a huge opinion on him. Nice guy. That's about all I can come up with. Not too much development.

Maybe that's what this book was supposed to be about, not about the boys and drama crap associated, but with Change, and how Emaline deals with that change; be it her father, Theo, Luke, Benji, school, everything. And that part of the story is really well done, that much I can say.

It's not summer anymore, but stick your feet in the sand anyway. It's a great feeling.