My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Title: The Rest of the Story
Author: Sarah Dessen
Format: Hardcover (owned)
Pages: 440 (but Exclusive Version has a bonus 13 pages)
Categories: Family Dynamics, Slow Burn Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary
Emma Saylor doesn’t remember a lot about her mother, who died when she was ten. But she does remember the stories her mom told her about the big lake that went on forever, with cold, clear water and mossy trees at the edges.
Now it’s just Emma and her dad, and life is good, if a little predictable…until Emma is unexpectedly sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family—her grandmother and cousins she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl.
When Emma arrives at North Lake, she realizes there are actually two very different communities there. Her mother grew up in working class North Lake, while her dad spent summers in the wealthier Lake North resort. The more time Emma spends there, the more it starts to feel like she is divided into two people as well. To her father, she is Emma. But to her new family, she is Saylor, the name her mother always called her.
Then there’s Roo, the boy who was her very best friend when she was little. Roo holds the key to her family’s history, and slowly, he helps her put the pieces together about her past. It’s hard not to get caught up in the magic of North Lake—and Saylor finds herself falling under Roo’s spell as well.
For Saylor, it’s like a whole new world is opening up to her. But when it’s time to go back home, which side of her will win out?
What is it about Sarah Dessen and summer time? The two go hand in hand! I first read her books in college back when they were first published and I haven’t stopped (23 years later).
It’s also fitting that I finished the book just before the fourth of July, since The Rest of the Story takes place during the height of summer. Emma Saylor, has lost her mom to drug addiction and her dad has remarried. An emergency leaves Emma with no place to stay for the summer, but she ends up heading over to North Lake, where her mom grew up. She meets a whole bunch of family she’s never really known and puts together the missing puzzle pieces of her life.
Sarah Dessen knows how to write about family dynamics in a way that is so relatable. I mean, this book is about summer on a lake – I’ve never done that, but I live on an island, and our economy is tourism. My mom and most of my aunts all worked as hotel housekeepers. I’ve heard complaints time and again, all my life, from my mom and aunts. It’s hard work! Also…try living with a mom who cleans rooms for a living. I’ve inherited cleaning anxiety, I always feel my house isn’t clean enough when my parents come over. 🤦🏻♀️😂 So once again, different location, different cultures but I could still relate to this book! That’s why Sarah Dessen books are amazing and special.
I love how Emma, who deals with anxiety on a daily basis learns to cope with the Calvanders (her mom’s side of the family). They are a large family – noisy, confrontational at times and basically…family. Emma is an only child and grew up with her dad and Nana so this was out of her comfort zone. I related to the Calvanders so much. They reminded me of my relatives – and I have a lot. Lots of aunts, uncles and cousins.
While Emma is in North Lake she learns about her mom and what she was like growing up. It’s not a pretty picture at times and that’s another reason why I love Sarah Dessen stories. She goes there, in the imperfect places of a character’s past and life but there is always a silver lining in the end.
And then there is the friendship to lovers romance in this book. It’s slow and sweet, and you hope they make it eventually! The romance is never the focus of the book, the family issues are, but it’s nice to see Emma try to find a summer romance, because didn’t we (or some of us) want one at that age? I totally did!
I don’t know if it’s because I’m older now and I just felt more at 18 years old reading her books and relating to her characters, but this time at 40-I can totally understand the parent in the book so much more than Emma. Due to the fact I am a parent myself and in a few years will be dealing with a teenager (I’m scared lol). 😅 But I still understood where Emma was coming from. I was, once upon a time, a teenager too.
I love that Emma gets a chance to figure things out and make mistakes along the way. And just because a story seems over…it isn’t. 😍 I also love that this book shows how families are complicated. This is a Sarah Dessen summer book for sure: light reading, a little romance, lots of family love, a happy ending…and “the rest of the story”. ☀️ 😉
Get it here: Amazon
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