Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Published by Viking's Children's Books on June 16th 2009
Genres: YA contemporary, romance
Pages: 383

Goodreads

Along for the Ride is a novel written by Sarah Dessen. It follows Auden West, an insomniac. Ever since her parents started fighting she had not been able to rest well. (They're divorced now.) In the late hours, she goes to a cafe called Rays to spend her time until the morning lights come shining through. Auden decides to spend the summer at Colby where her father, stepmom Heidi and her new-born stepsister Thisbe reside. There she expects to do the same things as she always does: studying ahead for her upcoming university classes. What Auden did not expect, was that she was going to meet some kick-ass friends and a boy who shares the same problem as her. They spend their nights together and make some amazing memories, but who knows what will happen?

Characters:
I think Sarah Dessen's characters are so amazing and also relatable. She creates these characters that remind us that not everyone is perfect and everyone does have flaws. I especially loved the growth and transformation of each character. The development of each and every one in this book was just marvelous. I loved and enjoyed reading about them.

Auden:
For once I didn't hate the main character, I didn't find her annoying and I didn't get irritated. That’s actually a surprise lol, a very good one because I absolutely CANNOT stand annoying, immature protagonists. Most of the times I get very annoyed with the MC. Not for the whole book, just some scenes. I didn’t have that problem here and I’m so glad I didn’t because I was kind of tired of hating everyone and everything in this world of ours. The way Auden grew to the person she is now, is fantastic. One summer changed her entire life. She grew out of her shell and learned who she truly is. Not the person her mother and father had strived her to be. My guess is that they were much stricter with Auden because of her brother, who is traveling Europe instead of fulfilling the dream of their parents by becoming a lawyer. Or something like that. But thanks to the wonderful Eli, she got to relive the childhood she never had. It was so heart-warming to read about them and every time they got a little bit closer, I was just smiling so hard : ). I actually found it pretty funny that Jason dumped Auden, TWICE! Poor Auden even though I was relieved he cancelled the second time too because duh. Eli. They’re my OTP for sure.

Eli: *Swoons* I love Eli Stock. He's so incredibly...Eli? Haha. I just really adore him. He's been through a lot and is still being pressured by some people to continue what he did before the accident. I understand why he stopped doing what he did. He was so mysterious at first and I didn’t really know what to expect from him. I ended up really, really liking him as you may already have noticed. Auli (a.k.a. my ship name for Auden and Eli) moments were my favourite to read about. They’re just so cute and ughhh the feels. Anyways, Eli is boyfriend material.

Heidi: When Auden's mom described Heidi, I expected her to be a woman whose wardrobe only consists of pink clothing and is a (little bit) dumb. She was the opposite of that. Well not the pink part because she does wear a shit lot of pink. Heidi's actually a really good business woman. She runs the clothing shop Clementine's but isn’t in the store a lot because she’s taking care of Thisbe, and Robert (Auden’s dad) isn’t really helping her with anything. Heidi doesn't want help with the baby because she wants to do it all by herself. This causes her to stress a lot and when Auden arrives, Robert's using his daughter to watch Thisbe so he doesn't have to do it. Anyways, Heidi is a headstrong person, just like almost every other character in the book. She knows that she's doing. I really enjoyed reading about Heidi.

Hollis: Hollis is living my dream. He's traveling through Europe and even though I live in Europe I haven't been able to travel to every country. I'd love to do that one day! Hollis is that funny brother that loves himself a lot. I laughed at how he sent Auden a photo-frame with 'the best time' on it and a picture of him in front of the Taj Mahal inside. The note was even better! And when he met Laura, Hollis changed completely! He was willing to change because of a girl soooooo I think he really likes her. ;)

Maddie, Esther & Leah: I LOVE THESE GIRLS. They're your typical teenage/on the verge of being adult girls! They gossip, they read magazines and they talk about boys of course.
Maddie's my favourite of the three girls just because she's the most relatable to me. And she was the one that accompanied Auden when she was feeling a little down. Maddie also surprised me when she was riding that BMX. I thought she was too girly to do those things, oops. I shouldn't be judging someone by her/his looks, I know. When I read that Auden and her were roomies, I was internally screaming.
Leah was so funny! She constantly talked about how she wanted to go to the Taliho (??? I forgot the name of that club) and score some hot, older guy who she doesn't already know for a long time. But no, no, no to the Taliho!
Esther was the nicer one of the group and she had a car, that broke. When she first said that, I thought someone of her family died or something, not her car.
So in short: I loved all three of their personalities and them of course.

Robert (Auden's dad): In my opinion, Robert should've helped Heidi more with Thisbe. He is so egoistical and keeps using his excuse that he needs more than 9 hours of sleep to not be moody or something. Just like Auden's mom said: 'people never change'. He was just like this when Hollis and Auden were born. In the end, he did his 'best' and helped Heidi more.

Auden's mom (I forgot her name): She expected Auden to be a copy of her own and was disappointed when she saw that Auden changed during her stay in Colby. They fought because of that etc.. She learned to accept that Auden wasn’t going to be a copy her. I’m actually hoping that she ends up with Finn (the student) and does not shut him out.

Thisbe: Like I said, I loved all of the people in this book. Even Thisbe had character! As a new-born baby, she cried a lot, more than the average baby I’m guessing, because she has intestinal cramps (I’m not sure if that’s how you say it). It’s normal for a baby to do that though!


Plot:
Just like most contemporaries, I did not know what to expect from this book. I also didn't expect to love it. But man, I loved it! I loved the characters, their growth throughout the story, the plot, just everything!

I did read the Dutch version, which is called Spring Maar Achterop and had some troubles with it. Some details weren't correct and some sentences just didn't make sense? I don't think that's the case with the original.
(I recommend you to read the original, English version instead of a translated one for the sake of those who're like me and get annoyed easily with these minor details.)

When I got the book at this book expo, it seemed very appealing. Afterwards, I was not anticipating reading the book because...I don't really know. I forced myself to start reading Along for the Ride and the first 30-50 pages were a bit slow for me, but after those pages I was very into the story and loving it. I enjoyed Along for the Ride way more than I expected and I hope you do to because I recommend you to read it! I haven't read any other of Dessen's books, but I'm excited to because I really liked this one and can't wait to find out if I'll like the rest.

Overall I gave it a 4.5 stars.

“Life is full of screw-ups. You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existence.”

“What defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back up.”