Once and for All - Sarah Dessen

Written by Sarah Dessen
Read by Karissa Vacker
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: June 6, 2017
Duration: 10:41:23

Is it really better to have loved and lost? Louna’s summer job is to help brides plan their perfect day, even though she stopped believing in happy-ever-after when her first love ended tragically. But charming girl-magnet Ambrose isn’t about to be discouraged now that he’s met the one he really wants. Maybe Louna’s second chance is standing right in front of her.

Sarah Dessen’s many fans will adore this latest novel, a richly satisfying, enormously entertaining story with humor, romance, and an ending that is so much more than happily ever after.

Seventeen-year-old Louna was in love once, but it ended in tragedy when her long-distance boyfriend, Ethan, was killed in a school shooting. Louna has since stopped believing she will find love again, though constant reminders of it surround her: She works for her mother’s successful, high-end wedding-planning business. When Louna’s mother temporarily hires Ambrose, the gorgeous but unpredictable son of a client, Louna is charged with making sure that Ambrose doesn’t make their summer weddings any more difficult.

Dessen’s fans will revel in the familiarity of her steady, empathic writing, as well as her attention to detail—particularly the painstaking care Louna and her mother devote to every aspect of a wedding, including their nervous and tightly wound clients—and the emotionally layered characters that populate her story. Dessen (Saint Anything) include a hint of romance between Louna and Ambrose, but this novel is more about grief and recovery. Flashbacks of Louna’s relationship with Ethan, interspersed among the present-day chapters, movingly juxtapose her loss with her tentative efforts to move forward from it.

Author Sarah Dessen is top-notch at fast-moving teen dialogue, and narrator Karissa Vacker is wonderful at delivering it. Vacker captures the witty sarcasm of Louna, who believes that the possibility of love is limited. Vacker nails the jaded attitude of an 18-year-old who’s been raised by a busy, problem-solving mother, a wedding planner extraordinaire. Vacker also reveals the deeper side of the hurt that underlies Louna’s views of love’s limitations. As Louna quickly rejects the romantic overtures of the wealthy, spoiled Ambrose, Vacker lets his genuine affection for her shine through despite Louna’s distain. The emotions that play out in this Dessen romance will captivate fans new and old

I found so many reviews praising both the story and the narrator. You are in for an exceptional reed.