Uncomfortably aware that she's missing out in some way, that there's something more in life, Auden decamps to her father's beach home for the summer. She isn’t very comfortable with being out of her element, and only very slowly develops friendships, and starts spending time with a guy, Eli, who has some issues of his own to work through.

Sarah Dessen is the author of six stunning teen novels: Just Listen, The Truth about Forever, Lock and Key, That Summer and What Happened to Goodbye. Our current partner charities in the UK are READ International, the National Literacy Trust, Room to Read.

Along for the Ride was hard to put down, and I could have read it in one sitting if life hadn't gotten in the way. It is a liminal time – that limbo between who you were in high school and who you want to become in college. The closing scene is of Auden rereading a postcard from Eli in Barcelona before she and Maggie, college roommates, head to lunch. In her signature pitch-perfect style, Sarah Dessen explores the hearts of two lonely people learning to connect. Auden is rarely shown around her new baby sister, Thisbe, in the movie, but she often helps care for her in the book.

Sarah Dessen is the author of six stunning teen novels: Just Listen , The Truth about Forever , Lock and Key , That Summer and What Happened to Goodbye . When something’s difficult to come by, you’ll do that much more to make sure it’s even harder―or impossible―to lose. She has her flaws and her good points, and nothing about her screams too perfect, or too much of a mess. I read That Summer as well, and found them both so hauntingly similar that I just had to skim through them before writing this review to remember what happened in which book.This book is definitely worth reading if you love a good love story, or if you just love Sarah Dessen! I was up at all hours, feeding the baby, trying to sleep or trying to stay awake, and it got me thinking about the night, and how it can seem so long or so short, depending on what you have waiting for you in the morning. Boys on bikes fly past her as she walks to the beach, and a mysterious, attractive boy in a hoodie—her future love interest Eli—nearly bumps into her. A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. Once being nursed from toddler to child, she didn’t play with the kids in the cul-de-sacs or have sleepovers in elementary school and that carried through the years.