Sarah Dessen fans

I had to go out and buy That summer (1996) by Sarah Dessen because I heard it was a good idea to read them in order yet I was missing that first one. I finished it last night. While this is a great first book I would say Dessen quickly grew in style as the other two I've read (Someone like you and This Lullaby) both seem to have more snap and crackle to them. This one is definetely worth the read though, especially if you are a Sarah Dessen fan!

That summer is about a girl in transition. Haven is fifteen (tough already), her father leaves her mother for the local weather girl and her older sister, Ashley is planning her own wedding.

In the middle of all that unrest Haven could really use a friend except her best friend, Casey is back from 4-H camp and is too busy getting into trouble on her own. Sumner Lee always seems to be around but he's Ashley's ex-boyfriend and all Haven remembers are the good times when Sumner and Ashley were together, her parents were together and everything around was simple. Haven figures out how to keep her life back on track but not before freaking everyone out-I would guess a rite of passage in teen land! I know I freaked my parents out more than once!

My favorite paragraph from the book sums it up:

As I walked I kept seeing my father in my mind, with his hair and that smile,
proud and bursting, father-to-be. Lorna Queen with her little ears and
blond hair. A baby with my father's round face and my last name. My
father's new life was progressing as planned, one neat step at a time. And
I felt it, again, that same feeling I got whenever another change or shift in my
life was announced to me-selling the house, Ashley's tantrums, now the baby-that
need to dig in my heels and prepare myself for the next shock and its
aftermath. I was tired of hanging on, taking the torn pieces to make
something whole with them. (p. 123)

I've discovered the teenage years are much more difficult than anything my kids could have thrown at me as a toddler. I'm glad Sarah Dessen writes books about this age; I just know it's going to help me later with my own seven-year-old sweet pea!