Sarah Dessen

Fifteen-year-old Colie Sparks, a former fat girl, spends the summer working as a waitress in a beachside restaurant, staying with her overweight and eccentric Aunt Mira, and trying to explore her sense of self. By the author of Someone Like You.

Keeping the Moon

Shannon Leigh Williams

Keeping the Moon (reissue)

Jeannette Ordas

Quick enjoyable read about growing up and standing on your own two feet.

Morgan Quinn

Alexandra Mellas

Keeping the Moon (also published as Last Chance) by Sarah Dessen is the quirky and heart warming story of former chubster 15 year old Colie. She is sent to stay with her eccentric Aunt Mira, a fat artist who designs condolence cards (for your dead post man, former pets and ex-lovers). Along for the ride is arty Norman, bitchy Isabel and proverb spouting Morgan.

Keeping the Moon is about friendships, self confidence and acceptance. If you can accept and respect yourself then others will follow suit. Dessen is trying to share Colie's experiences with her readers by showing that words can only hurt if you believe them.

This is an excellent read for teenage girls, especially those who can empathise with Colie. However, Dessen has some issues in this book. The idea, while not entirely unoriginal, follows the usual story of girl feels unworthy, girl has makeover, girl feels confident, girl meets boy. The story can be predictable at times and the characters are mostly one dimensional until they inspire an epiphany in Colie.

Keeping the Moon was a teenage favourite of mine, but I have unfortunately outgrown it. I hope others can enjoy it as I used to.

Jimena Vázquez Oliver

Very quick read, but I did like it a lot. Think it might be one I re-read every now and again.

laura

This book was a my first ever sarah dessen read. I really did like the small town this book was set it and also the main character. It was a super fast pace read and just the prefect summer read. I want to feel more connected to most of the characters but I really did enjoy the lead girl. I liked how this book focused a lot on self discovery and and also on self confidence. I also liked the unique female relationships we explored in this book. I def want to read more sarah dessen this summer and this was def a good start!

Megan Leprich

I still have yet to find a Sarah Dessen book that I have not loved. Her writing style, her relatable characters and her storylines make for amazing books.

When Colie is shipped off to live with her Aunt Mira for the summer while her fitness extraordinaire mom is traveling around Europe she expects the absolute worse. After hearing many stories about her eccentric Aunt Colie is dreading the summer almost as much as the workout equipment her mom sends along with her. Always having been an outcast, first for being fat and then getting wrongly labeled a slut, Colie has no friends at home and is not expecting to make any in Colby. When she starts a waitress job at Last Chance Cafe she meets best friends Morgan and Isabel and through them starts to gain more confidence, especially when she starts to see her Aunt's "roommate" Norman as more than just a dorky hippie. 

I love this short but sweet novel and I loved every character in it. Isabel and Morgan could not be more different from each other but somehow were still the best of friends. This is a great novel!

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

“It’s so, so stupid what we do to ourselves because we’re afraid. It’s so stupid.”

Colie and her mother, Kiki Sparks, fitness guru, used to be quite heavy. Because of this, Colie went through a lot of teasing back home in school. Upon her mother’s transformation into Kiki Sparks, both Kiki and Colie lose weight and become much healthier, avoiding all fatty foods and living a healthy lifestyle. Because Kiki is going on tour in Europe for the summer promoting her fitness regimen, Colie is sent to stay in Colby with her aunt, Mira. She’s sure this will be her worst summer yet. But little does she know she will actually meet quite a few people that will end up changing the way she thinks about life, especially about herself.

“Self respect, Colie. If you don’t have it, the world will walk all over you.”

What hit me the hardest about this story was that I saw a lot of myself in Colie. Colie took everything personally. She felt everyone else’s emotions as if they were her own. She struggled a lot with being so overly sensitive, thinking with her heart more than her head. I am extremely emotional myself, and I felt for Colie. I knew her struggles, having lived through some of them myself, and I so wanted her to learn to shed the emotions to better herself. Trying to live to please others is exhausting. Learning to love yourself and live life successfully that way is what’s most important.

Though Sarah Dessen is known for her “ya romance” novels, I think they’re much more than that. From what I’ve read, her books are more “coming of age” stories that always pack such valuable lessons between the pages. Colie learns so much over this summer, both about herself, as well as the way she sees others. Her mental and emotional growth throughout this book is what’s most important. Secondary would be the adorable romance that also takes place.

“You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.”

Keeping the Moon portrays such a gorgeous and extremely important message regarding self-respect. Especially during our teenage years, it’s the hardest to remember to always respect yourself first. Trying to live up to others’ is tough… learning that’s not necessary, and that being yourself is the most important, is even tougher. I love the Sarah Dessen’s stories always have these beautiful lessons for teenagers these days. Being a teenager is extremely difficult, and having books like this around is priceless. Another wonderful story by S. Dessen!

Find this review and others like it at Lost in Literature!

Milana Marie Waller

I’ve had this book for quite a while and for some reason, i expected to not like it. welllll I was kinda wrong as you have prolly already guessed. This book was definitely... different but in a good way , in a way I didn’t expect. The characters were all very real because they weren’t perfect but they were definitely good. 

SMALL , MINOR ISSUE.


so there’s a used bookstore where I could prolllly get a bunch of Sarah Dessen books for super cheap, but used and older editions. 

OR

Sarah dessen books are on sale for buy two get one free braaand new at books a million. ADVICE .?

To begin my review of this book, I will tell you this: I read this book in one day, something I honestly don't do very often.
I've never been in Colie's situation. In fact, I look like the direct opposite of it. But somehow, I related to this story immensely. I loved it.

Keeping the Moon

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