I admit, I've never thought of reading any Sarah Dessen's books before just because I think her target audience are more of 12 to 18 years old teenagers.
The first book that I have read from her is
That Summer.
I found this book in a book sale for just 75pesos and read the book for 3 hours only. From what I remember, this books tells about this teenage girl who undergoes big changes in her life physically and emotionally.
here's a little review of the book i got from Sarah Dessen's website [
http://www.sarahdessen.com]
In Sarah's Words
That Summer was the first novel I sold and for that reason it will always be special. It was actually the third one I wrote, after a terrible book I did in college and one that was marginally better the year after. I never intended That Summer to be a YA book while I was writing it: to me, it was just a novel with a teenage narrator. But when I got an agent, she suggested it would be a good book for teenagers. When I look back over That Summer now, I always think that I was writing a bit more freely then, because it was before I knew to worry about reviews or publishers or what everyone else thought. Sumner Lee, Ashley’s long-lost boyfriend, has remained one of my very favorite characters of all time. Plus when I was planning my own wedding, I found that I could relate, in a way I never had before, to Ashley’s Bad Bride Behavior (although I didn’t always want to admit it). That Summer to me, though, is mostly about Haven finding a way to feel comfortable in her skin. It’s a theme that comes up in a lot of the other books as well, especially Keeping the Moon: this idea that confidence can carry you further than you ever could have believed. Also notable about That Summer is that it contains my husband’s all time favorite scene, where Sumner is filming the cheese commercial. It doesn’t matter what else I write, to my husband that’s the best. Hands down.
