~Book Review: The Rest of the Story~

My Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.25)

My Thoughts:

Hello book lovers and welcome back to my blog!

My goal is to slowly make my way through all of Sarah Dessen's books and I made progress after finish The Rest of the Story. It was very cute but also pretty heavy and serious.

Emma Saylor doesn’t remember a lot about her mother, who died when Emma was twelve. But she does remember the stories her mom told her about the big lake that went on forever, with cold, clear water and mossy trees at the edges.

   Now it’s just Emma and her dad, and life is good, if a little predictable…until Emma is unexpectedly sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family that she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl.
   When Emma arrives at North Lake, she realizes there are actually two very different communities there. Her mother grew up in working-class North Lake, while her dad spent summers in the wealthier Lake North resort. The more time Emma spends there, the more it starts to feel like she is also divided into two people. To her father, she is Emma. But to her new family, she is Saylor, the name her mother always called her.
   Then there’s Roo, the boy who was her very best friend when she was little. Roo holds the key to her family’s history, and slowly, he helps her put the pieces together about her past. It’s hard not to get caught up in the magic of North Lake—and Saylor finds herself falling under Roo’s spell as well.
   For Saylor, it’s like a whole new world is opening up to her. But when it’s time to go back home, which side of her—Emma or Saylor—will win out?

Sarah Dessen is an amazing contemporary author. I love how her story can make me really feel really immersed in the story. Especially in this certain book. The way she described the Lake really made me feel like I was right next to a lake myself and enjoying the summer weather and lake air. The family dynamic was amazing. All of SD's books have various family conflicts that make the stories so much more realistic. They really show that no family is perfect. You're going to have ups and downs but no matter what, you're still family and you stick together.

But.

This book was a middle of the road for me. I didn't fully love it, but I didn't completely hate it either. The story really focused on Emma Saylor discovering her lost past and her mother's story. And I really liked being able to discover it along with her. But for someone else who might be new to SD might find this book dull.

Not a lot happened near the beginning except for the mystery surrounding Emma Saylor's mom. Even then, we find out pretty quickly what happened and it was just back to Emma Saylor finding the story she left behind when she left the Lake.

I find most of SD's main characters to be the same. I am reading another Sarah Dessen book and Emma Saylor and Macy (the main character in The Truth About Forever) can be exact carbon copies of each other. It's something I don't necessarily mind. But reading all of her books one after another, it can get tedious and a little tiresome.

That being said, the story was still entertaining. Especially near the end where we got more action. I was fine with the romance...but again, I didn't LOVE it. I liked the friendship between Roo and Emma Saylor since that was what we saw the most. It was a slow-burning romance and not exactly the main focus of the book. I wouldn't say this was my favorite Sarah Dessen book but I don't regret picking it up.

Author:

Sarah Dessen is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen novels for teens, including The Truth About Forever, Just Listen, and This Lullaby. Her work has been published in over thirty countries and sold millions of copies worldwide. She is the recipient of the 2017 Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association for outstanding contribution to young adult literature. Click on the image above for the link to her website!

Information About the Book:

Pages: 448

Published Date: June 4, 2019

Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher

Do you like Sarah Dessen? If so, what's your favorite book of hers? I'm slowly making my way through them and so far, I've been liking most of them and loving a few. Thanks for sticking around until the end and I will "see" you tomorrow at 3! ❤

Click on the banner above for the link to the book's Amazon!