Review: The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Published June 4th 2013

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?

This is only my second Sarah Dessen book so I wasn’t sure what to expect. And while I liked this book a lot, I didn’t love it like I did Just Listen.

The Moon and More started out really great but I felt it became pretty slow early on. It’s fairly large book, around 450 pages, and I felt like quite a bit could have been cut out. There was a lot of backstory and at times, I really didn’t care about it.

I liked Emaline a lot but I didn’t really care for either of the boys. And because I couldn’t fall in love with them, I couldn’t fully fall in love with the story.

I did like the ending because it wasn’t the typical ending that I was expecting.

Overall, I liked The Moon and More and I’m glad I read it but I didn’t love it. It’s a good read but I found myself getting bored.