**The beach is several hours away, so I decided to take a carriage. The air was warm, but not humid, with the sun bright in the sky, so I packed a picnic lunch and trekked to towne to take a carriage ride to the nearest beach. Once there, the sand was warm and the water was cool. I stare at the fish swimming happily around, read my book, and eat my lunch, enjoying the day at the beach.**

Book: Along For the Ride

Author: Sarah Dessen

Page Count: 383 pages

Genre: Young adult contemporary

I recently finished Along For the Ride by Sarah Dessen. This is a book I have wanted to read for quite a while now, like probably a few years. It follows an eighteen year old girl named Auden who hasn’t slept at night since her parents’ divorce. After being invited by her new step-mom, Auden decides to spend the summer with her dad, step-mom, and new baby half-sister. While staying in the beach town where they live, Auden gets a summer job at her step-mom’s boutique where she learns about all the things she missed out on growing up. She eventually meets Eli, a fellow insomniac, who takes her around the beach town to fill their long nights.

I need to start learning my lesson and read books I’m interested in sooner because I tend to not really them so that way I don’t have to be excited for such a long time. Starting with the plot, I feel like there wasn’t a strong story here. This book is 383 pages but feels like it’s about 450. This book is a lot of Auden spending time in the town of Colby and basically just interacting with the other characters. We also learn about her family and the divorce. I just feel like nothing really happened here.

I also wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style. I don’t like a lot of page breaks or where the author tells us what happened in a period of time compared to showing us in the moment. I also felt like it was just a bit dry. I couldn’t find myself caring about the characters or the story.

For the characters, I didn’t love our main character Auden. I think that she is how she is because she’s a product of her environment and her parents so it is understandable though. Her mother is stoic and kind of cold and judgemental. Then the dad is kind of selfish and . . . manipulative, if that’s the right word? I think Auden is more like her mom with the stoic personality and judgemental tendencies. I did like Heidi, Auden’s step-mom. She is kind and determined and a smart business woman. As for Eli, I thought he was okay. I felt like he wasn’t my favorite, but he was a kind character. I really liked the food fight scene. Then for the friends, I liked Maggie the best. Auden doesn’t like her much at first since she’s girly and likes pink but she also jumps bikes, is knowledgable about English and fairly unknown poets, and knows about financing. I really like how she says you don’t have to be either/or, how she can be girly but also interested in going to jump bikes with the boys.

Unfortunately, I was not the biggest fan of this book. I do think it had some good moments: the food fight scene, a few other scenes with Eli, Auden’s relationship with Heidi. But I found myself bored and just could not get into it like I wished I could. Maybe if I read this a few years ago I would have liked it more, but it just wasn’t for me personally. Hopefully my next read will be a bit better.

xoxo,

Just another reader