Along For The Ride

In Sarah Dessen's novel Along For The Ride a girl named Auden grew up through books and grades with both her parents being college professors and the summer before college she stays with her Dad and his new wife and daughter, where through new boys and girlfriends she finds the true teenager inside her. This is a fiction novel set at a small beach town called Colby. I have a video attached from amazon, that i believe does explain the setting in Along For The Ride, of the beach that inspired Sarah Dessen. I have not completed reading this story but so far I really like this book because it relates to me in the way that Auden, the protagonist in the novel, goes to the beach and learns many new teenage ways just as I go to a small beach town, called Watercolor in Florida which i meet new friends and have time to have fun and learn new activities which inspire me in different ways like Auden was inspired and learned there is much more to life than just grades and school. I recommend this book to all teenage girls who have always been too involved in school and have not lived there life too the fullest, however, this does not mean school is not important but girls should have a little time to be a teenager. A book review by Nice Girls Read Books recommends this book to "Any fans of contemporary teen stories. I think Sarah Dessen is pretty much the go-to already. Still, if you haven’t tried Along for the Ride yet, I’m urging you to give it a go!" which I do agree with because their review i read involved a lot of the same ideas i have, while reading this novel. Also Harmony Book Reviews, who's reveiw on this novel was much the same as Nice Girls Read Books which i do agree a lot with, puts Along For The Ride in their top four of Dessen's novels. In addition, on the back of Sarah Dessen's novel it gives some critical praise including from the Washington Post "Captures that sense of summer as a golden threshold between past regrets and future unknowns, a time that shimmers with the sweet promise of now." As well as "Sleepless nights have never seemed so romantic!" from Seventeen, and lastly, NPR's The Roundtable stated "Helps us realize that people aren't what the seem and there's always time to change. A wonderful book!" Sarah Dessen also makes biking and trick biking a huge part of the novel which she explains why in a video attached from Amazon that explains not only bike riding but also overall ideas in her novel. Her husband is a bike rider himself and she believes bike riding is a part of growing up especially when a kid gets his/her training wheels off not only on their bike but in life too people do say it is time to take your training wheels off and grow up. This also shows how Auden, in Along For The Ride, changes her way of life and matures in many different ways.

http://nicegirlsreadbooks.com/review-along-for-the-ride-sarah-dessen/

http://www.amazon.com/Along-Ride-Sarah-Dessen/dp/0670011940 (LINK TO BOTH VIDEOS)

http://harmonybookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/along-for-the-ride-by-sarah-dessen/