Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

This is the first e-book I’ve ever read but I don’t have any specific device for reading e-books so I just read this one on my computer.  Obviously, that’s not an ideal way to read a book but the ease of getting the book from the library and not having to remember to return it was pretty nice.  I’ve definitely been an anti-e-book kind of girl and I’m still not planning on buying a dedicated device but I’m starting to see the appeal.

Anyway, Auden, whose divorced parents are both a little self-involved, decides to spend the summer before heading off to university, with her father and his new wife and infant child.  When she arrives, she’s surprised to find her normally put-together step-mother, on the couch looking like she hasn’t slept or showered in a few days and not so surprised to find her father completely oblivious to the stress his wife is feeling.  As Auden tries to come to terms with what’s going on a home, she begins to form friendships with some of the locals who have issues all their own.

I loved this book.  There is something so comforting about Sarah Dessen’s novels.  She’s so good at telling basically the same story over and over but still making it a completely new and different story (if you know what I mean).  Her main characters are always individuals, they never feel like the same character from book to book (which a lot of authors that are a prolific as her tend to do).  And the story is always unique.  And her writing is just so easy to read.  It just flows.  I can read through her books so quickly and not even realize how much I’ve just read because it’s just so effortless.  Someday I’m going to run out of Sarah Dessen books to read and that’s going to be a very sad day for me!