Challenge Corner discussion

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.

Chapters 1-4

(view spoiler)[I love Dessen so much 😭 I missed her books!!! This one is cute so far.... I like tbe MC so her voice is easy to read. However there is a lot of explaining and narrative so far, which isn’t terrible but if it keeps up much longer it’ll start to drag..... (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 5-10

(view spoiler)[ This is so weird but.....I think this is the first time that i’ve ever been annoyed with/haven’t liked a Dessen boy. I don’t like Luke at all and Theo annoys me to no end. I only love Morris..... like oh my God I LOVE that kid but I’d be surprised if he was the main love interest. But lther than this little hiccup I like the book so farn 3.5 star material atm. I want more stuff to happen but honestly not much has happened at all in 220 pages..... Hmmmm..... (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 11-17

(view spoiler)[I seem to be struggling with thtis one. I don’t hate it, but it takes me at least 10 pages to finally get sucked in again. I’m not itching to pick it up either. Once I’m into it I enjoy it enough but it’s not *amazing*. I think this is the first Dessen book where I haven’t been, like, 100% glued the entire time 😭 Emaline is a decent narrator but she’s kind of boring as a person..... I like her family and Clyde and Morris and Daisy but I don’t really like Theo and Luke and I definitely don’t like Ivy. Meh. (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 18 - End

(view spoiler)[ I don’t think this book was meant for me. It had a few strong points but it really didn’t do much. It reminds me of Lock & Key, long and uninteresting. But at least I zoomed through Lock & Key. Idk what happened here. Oh well.....onto the next Dessen 😂 (hide spoiler)]

Ch. 1-4
(view spoiler)[I like Emaline so far, she seems relatable. So far not much has gone on, seems like we’re just meeting all the characters and learning how they fit into Emaline’s life, etc.
I am wondering what happened with her birth father that he was so all in for her college and paying to have that abrupt turnaround and then basically drop back from her life... (hide spoiler)]

Ch.5-12
(view spoiler)[So I like this story still mostly, but I can’t stand Theo, he seems very pretentious. And on top of that Emaline is pretty annoying with how she’s acting. From what I can tell, Luke’s ‘cheating’ was calling another girl back and meeting her at a club but not acting on anything. While this is bad and definitely lying and a huge break of trust, I would emphasize it as cheating like she keeps doing. The other thing is I feel she’s only saying it to justify herself, because she waited less than 4 hours to KISS another guy, whom she’d already hung out with while they were dating. To me that’s just as bad as what Luke did. Either way, I feel they were both wrong and their relationship was bound to end. Not to mention how quickly and easily she moves on to Theo even after this, pretty tacky and means her 3 year relationship must not have meant anything to her. She seems fine, not even upset at all. This makes her less likable to me, along with the fact that he’s not very likable and she’s basically not being open about anything that Theo does that bothers her. I also don’t really feel any attachment to Luke either though. It’s kind of weird, I feel like I normally like the characters better in a Sarah Dessen book... (hide spoiler)]

Keri wrote: "Ch.5-12
[spoilers removed]"

Omg this is exACTLY how I felt about it. I wish I’d liked more of the characters because her characters are usually so lovable. That’s half the reason why I read Dessen in the first place 😅

Ch.13-16
(view spoiler)[I can’t stand Theo, I’m really not sure what Emaline sees in him. He only cares about what he likes and what he wants to do. She even thinks to herself multiple times about how she dislikes wine as she sucks it up and drinks it or doesn’t enjoy whatever food he picked, or just goes along with where he picked to go even though she suggested a totally different option. It’s basically his way or the highway. Her dating him is making me like her less.

On the plus side I do enjoy all the parts with Emaline and Benji bonding. Really I like the rest of the book if we could just remove Theo. (hide spoiler)]

Finished
(view spoiler)[wow I didn’t realize it was possible for Theo to get worse! Thankfully as he did FINALLY Emaline came to her senses and got rid of him. Ugh.
I really liked the end part where she and Luke worked together and Emaline told off Ivy and then actually they worked well together, added bonus of frustrating Theo lol. I was glad she told off her birth father too since he turned out to be a pretty selfish jerk too...I think it was more for Benji she hoped to get through to him so he’d be a better father to Benji
I didn’t like this as much as previous Sarah’s Dessen books but I still enjoyed it. (hide spoiler)]

Keri wrote: "Finished
wow I didn’t realize it was possible for Theo to get worse! Thankfully as he did FINALLY Emaline came to her senses and got rid of him. Ugh.
I really liked the end part where she and Luke ..."

Once again we have the SAME feelings about a book 😂 It was nice to see her grow a pair, but it was also less enjoyable to read about for the first 375 pages 😅