Along for the Ride --- a review by Alex Fennesy

Along for the Ride
By: Sarah Dessen

****

Along for the Ride is a romance novel about an 18 year old girl, Auden. Auden is very intelligent. As she grew up, her parents fought non stop, thus leading to divorce. As a child and young teen the only way Auden thought she could gain their attention was by achieving good grades and participating in anything academic at her school. Between her parents constantly fighting and the strain of maintaining good grades, Auden missed out on a normal childhood. Instead of coping with her problems, she became an insomniac, and avoided everything by staying awake studying, or drinking coffee at her favorite twenty- four hour café.

Her brother, Hollis, was always the “outcast” of the family. He constantly moved all over the world, doing everything against his parents wishes. Auden secretly wishes she could be as free as Hollis, but her parents have set such high expectations for her. About a week before school gets out, Auden decides she’s had enough and wants to escape the constant her mother’s constant dinner parties and guests. She plans to spend the summer before her freshman year of college in Colby with her father, his new wife, and their newborn baby, Thisbe. While she’s there, Auden discovers something about herself through her stepmother, her new little sister, and working at her stepmother’s store with the girls her age. But most of all, through Eli, the mysterious biker, she learns that she can still have a normal life.

Although the plot of the book is predictable, I loved every minute of it. It was entertaining, fun, and you became involved in the story. If you like other Sarah Dessen novels, then I think you will enjoy Along for the Ride. I would recommend it to others.