Sarah Dessen's Books

• Along for the Ride

  It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.

  A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

  In her signature pitch-perfect style, Sarah Dessen explores the hearts of two lonely people learning to connect.

• Lock and Key

  "Ruby, where is your mother?" Ruby knows that
  the game is up. For the past few months, she's been on her own in the
  yellow house, managing somehow, knowing that her mother will probably
  never return.That's how she comes to live with Cora, the sister she
  hasn't seen in ten years, and Cora's husband Jamie, whose down-to-earth
  demeanor makes it hard for Ruby to believe he founded the most popular
  networking Web site around. A luxurious house, fancy private school, a
  new wardrobe, the promise of college and a future—it's a dream come
  true. So why is Ruby such a reluctant Cinderella, wary and defensive?
  And why is Nate, the genial boy next door with some secrets of his own,
  unable to accept the help that Ruby is just learning to give?

• Just Listen

  Last year, Annabel was "the girl who has
  everything"—at least that's the part she played in the television
  commercial for Kopf's Department Store.This year, she's the girl who
  has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped
  her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no
  one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark,
  and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to
  truth-telling. With Owen's help,maybe Annabel can face what happened
  the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

• The Truth About Forever

  Sixteen-year-old Macy Queen is
  looking forward to a long, boring summer. Her boyfriend is going away.
  She's stuck with a dull-as-dishwater job at the library. And she'll
  spend all of her free time studying for the SATs or grieving silently
  with her mother over her father's recent unexpected death. But
  everything changes when Macy is corralled into helping out at one of
  her mother's open house events, and she meets the chaotic Wish Catering
  crew. Before long, Macy joins the Wish team. She loves everything about
  the work and the people. But the best thing about Wish is Wes—artistic,
  insightful, and understanding Wes—who gets Macy to look at life in a
  whole new way, and really start living it.

• This Lullaby

  When it comes to relationships, Remy doesn't
  mess around. After all, she's learned all there is to know from her
  mother, who's currently working on husband number five. But there's
  something about Dexter that seems to defy all of Remy's rules. He
  certainly doesn't seem like Mr. Right. For some reason, however, Remy
  just can't seem to shake him. Could it be that Remy's starting to
  understand what those love songs are all about?

• Dreamland

  Rogerson Biscoe, with his green eyes and dark curly
  hair, is absolutely seductive. Before long, sixteen-year-old Caitlin
  finds herself under his spell. And when he starts to abuse her, she
  finds she's in too deep to get herself out.

• Keeping the Moon

  Fifteen-year-old Colie is spending the
  summer with her eccentric Aunt Mira while her mother travels. Formerly
  chubby and still insecure, Colie has built a shell around herself. But
  her summer with her aunt, her aunt's tenant Norman, and her friends at
  the Last Chance Diner teaches her some important lessons about
  friendship and learning to love yourself.

• Someone Like You

  Halley has always followed in the wake of
  her best friend, Scarlett. But when Scarlett learns that her boyfriend
  has been killed in a motorcycle accident, and that she's carrying his
  baby, she's devastated. For the first time ever, Scarlett really needs
  Halley. Their friendship may bend under the weight, but it'll never
  break--because a true friendship is a promise you keep forever.

• That Summer

  For fifteen-year-old Haven, life is changing too
  quickly. She's nearly six feet tall, her father is getting remarried,
  and her sister, the always perfect Ashley, is planning a wedding of her
  own. Haven wishes things could just go back to the way they were. Then
  an old boyfriend of Ashley's reenters the picture, and through him,
  Haven sees the past for what it really was, and comes to grips with the
  future.