The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
Viking Juvenile (June 4, 2013)
ISBN-10: 0670785601
ISBN-13: 978-0670785605
384 pages
Ages 12+
Buy Here for $15.85
My Rating: 4/5

Summary from GoodReads: 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.
The Verdict: This is one of the few Sarah Dessen books I haven't given 5 stars. And I really did like it but there were some things that frustrated me too much with it. For starters, Theo is a douche. He has no respect for emotions or privacy. No sense of social boundaries. He's socially retarded. And only cares about prestige.
I didn't believe Emaline should end up with Luke forever just because he was her first boyfriend. But she could have definitely gone for someone who reflected her backgrounds more than Theo. The entire fact that they ever had any sort of connection was so ridiculous. This sentence in chapter 12, sums up my frustrations with their relationship: "Here I was, sitting on the remains of someone's house, drinking wine I didn't like, with food I could barely tolerate, while rehashing the worst part of the past year."
For me it came down to the middle of this book being so out of character to the Emaline we are first introduced to. She starts off so driven and strong-willed to end up with no backbone after a few chapters.
While the ending did redeem itself, it was so hard for me to get to that point because every time Theo appeared in a scene, I really want to hurl the book across the room (or my kindle across the plane as a matter of fact).
I do have to say, I loved Emaline's parents (bio-dad not included), especially her mother, and thought their relationship was very believable. I love that Sarah Dessen always tries to emphasize parental relationships unlike many other YA writers who make them nonexistent or blithering idiots. And I especially love that the title of The Moon and More plays directly on that relationship.
I am so happy I did pre-order The Moon and More as it was a wonderful book to read on our way home from Amsterdam and as always I can't wait until Dessen's next.