The Moon and More, written by Sarah Dessen

If you've finished Suite Scarlett and are looking for another beach read, here you go! Sarah Dessen's The Moon and More is almost the epitome of a beach read. I mean, look at the cover!

Of course, it takes place in a beach town during the summer, with romance and friendships and whatnot. But beware, because reading this will make you realize that you have done basically nothing this summer so far except read and watch vlogbrothers videos and will start questioning if you even have a social life....

Anyways... Though the whole "beach summer romance" thing sounds cliche, this novel actually had a lot more depth than I expected. Character development is prevalent and the plot line is unlike anything I've ever read. A lot of the novel is Emaline figuring out who she is and how she relates to her family and friends as those relationships change the summer before she goes to college. It's a character driven story, rather than plot driven, which actually works really well in summer books such as this (authors, this is where you start taking notes from Sarah Dessen).

There were a few problems I had with Dessen's writing though. Her writing style is engaging and shows she is talented, but there were some issues with her characters. I found the character development somewhat lacking. A lot of characters undergo a transition through the book, but the transition was usually awkward and poorly explained. One character that sticks out to me is Morris, who changes from lazy slacker to competent hard worker fairly quickly with no real explanation except that he decided he should. The only person that had a smooth transition was Emaline, but that's where my other problem comes in.

It's hard to relate to Emaline sometimes, and any issues relating to her are things that Dessen could have easily fixed. The first time I noticed this was a few chapters in when she calls Daisy "my best girlfriend." Only women over 40 call women who are their friends "girlfriends," so it sounded absolutely ridiculous coming from an 18-year-old. There were other questionable word-choices similar to this too. Another problem was Emaline's break-up with Luke; very few things about it seemed realistic. Emaline's actions and feelings were not really explained and therefore made the whole situation confusing at best. If these problems are ignored, though, then I really liked Emaline as a character.

In conclusion: It's not perfect, but The Moon and More is pretty good, especially if you are looking for something easy to read. It is more of a chick book, but well worth reading. It definitely made me want to check out Dessen's other novels, at least!