Summary
“Riding a bike is one of the many things Auden’s missed out on. Even before her parents’ divorce, she was cast into the role of little adult, never making waves, focusing on academics to please her demanding mother.

Now she’s spending the summer before college in the tiny beach town of Colby with her father and his new wife and baby. A job in a trendy boutique introduces her to the world of girls, their friendships, conversations, romances. And then there’s Eli, an intriguing loner. A fellow insomniac, Eli introduces Auden to the nocturnal world of Colby. Together they embark on a quest: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to put a tragic episode behind him. Combine two lonely people with a charming beach town and an endless supply of long summer nights, and just about anything can happen.”

Review
Humans are afraid of change. As creatures of habit, we easily become complacent in the hand the universe has dealt us. Almost convincing ourselves that we are happy with what we have because we've had it for so long. Thus any time we see change come our way, for better or for worse, we hide, run, and resist at every turn; determined to endure this consistency just to avoid it.

Along for the Ride is a book about learning to go with the flow of things instead of pushing against it, choosing to stay where we are. It also can be said that this book is about embracing our true selves and the true selves of others. Learning to accept the many facets of people and not just accepting the surface of a person. And most completely, this book is about change and the breaking of our own habits.

A habitual creature, Auden West is a product of a divorced home, who has developed insomnia. Having spent many a night staying awake to hear her parents fight, now awake, Auden spends most of her nights alone, sipping coffee at her local dinner, studying to appease her academic driven mother while slowly being robbed of her childhood, forced to grow up too soon. However, this summer before college, her father and stepmother, Heidi, have invited her to stay with them and meet her new baby sister Thisbe, in the beach town of Colby. Getting a little inspiration from her brother Hollis, a nomad of life, she decides to take a chance and make a change, accepting her father’s invitation.

Upon arriving at the beach, things are not at all as she would have hoped. Thisbe won’t stop crying, Heidi is exhausted yet forcibly happy and her father is unhelpful and non-existent, repeating the same offenses he did when married to Auden’s mother. Once again, Auden is thrown back into a world of problems between her parents that result in her inability to sleep at night, forcing her to preoccupy her time until sun up.

While on her nightly adventures, she runs into a kid named Eli, who doesn’t have much to say, and uses his nights to avoid the daylight of a traumatizing event in his past. With Eli, she discovers a whole other world, a whole other life of fun, youth and carefree bliss that she did not have growing up. Auden gets a second chance at her childhood as well as a first shot at love and the dramas of being a teenager. Slowly but surely, Auden lets go of her strict, parent pleasing ways and learns to take things as they come, living her life.

Also while revisiting her childhood; Auden confronts her true feeling about the divorce, instead of running away with them into the night. She learns to stop being a “mini-adult” with her parents and finally gets to be the child, having them take responsibility for her upbringing and allowing her the freedom to be herself. Thus, in a way, she is given a second chance at being their daughter instead of being a young adult companion.

Along for the Ride will make you nostalgic for the time of your youth or aware of how short youth is, making you embrace every single moment and person in your life. This novel will also help you see that there is more to a person than meets the eye. Most importantly, this novel will help you see the habits you’ve kept for years and break free, running for change.

Reviewed by Camia Rhodes

Book Information
Publisher: Penguin Group
Release Date: 6/16/2009
Pages: 432

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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.

Review
Often times, an internal conflict can be easily solved when one attempts to be truly honest with themselves. There is nothing wrong with dreaming about the opportunities the world offers outside of one’s niche. Sarah Dessen’ s unique novels each display an unimaginably unique story that I can’t help but dive right into. I was immediately sucked into Emaline’s world as I realized the frustrations and decisions she was faced with are all questions that everyone has had to ask themselves at least once, including myself.

During the summer before college, Emaline views the world from the sandy beach of her hometown Colby as the perfect situation. Between her handsome and witty boyfriend Luke, who has been with Emaline all through high school, a summer job at the family realtor office and two best friends to spend the summer with, why would she want anything more? The constant internal wonderment that occurs in a person who dreams at night about wanting more, is actually an outline of a person’s true ambition for themselves. In the case of The Moon and More, she simply realizes that her life doesn't need more, it needs change. Change is inevitable in all of us, but rather than facing it head on, she wonders what types of changes will benefit her, while hurting the ones she loves as little as possible.

As if making decisions about the future isn't enough to think about, Emaline’s daily summer routine of work, boyfriend, obnoxious yet endearing family and personal thoughts keep her quite occupied. There seems to be a new puzzle to solve very frequently throughout the summer as strangers walk into her life assuming they know what is best for her future. Her estranged father suddenly wants to claim a right to helping choose her future college, and Theo, the edgy New Yorker tourist assisting on a documentary in town seems to view Emaline as a girl with much more to offer than a permanent life in Colby. Everyone knows that the summer after high school graduation is full of decisions and goodbyes, but Emaline remains conflicted as to whether or not she wants to say goodbye to her life in Colby and hello to a four year college far away from anything familiar. Once she realizes she has options to consider in terms of her future, Emaline begins to grasp the idea that summer won’t last forever.

Emaline is a young woman that makes the reader feel as though you are walking in her sand filled sneakers as she struggles with the contemplation between leaving for good or staying small and comfortable. Whether it is the relentless summer heat, the battle of estranged family members attempting to make themselves noticed, the pressures of a comfortable boyfriend or the intrigue of a new stylish tourist, Emaline has a lot to think about and not a lot of time to do it. Dessen’s novel takes the adolescent transition from high school to potential future to a whole new level.

Reviewed by Nicole Williams