Someone Like You

"Someone like you makes it hard to live without Somebody else Someone like you makes it easy to give ..." anyone else? or is it just me??

COULD NOT get this song out of my head while I read this.

Description: 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.

Sarah Dessen gets the high school viewpoint.  Halley gets attention from a 'bad' boy and falls in love with him and struggles about whether or not to have sex with him.  I think a very poignant part of the book is when Scarlett is asking her if he loves her and Halley says, yes and Scarlett asks her if he has said it and Halley replies with no, but I know he does.  Also, Halley tells Scarlett that it's not a big deal to Macon so maybe it shouldn't be a big deal to her and I love that Scarlett says, "It is a big deal to girls like us."  There may have been some comparison with another high school girl, but you get it.  It's a good frank conversation about losing your virginity and a good look at how different highschoolers boy or girl look at it. 

“There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifting from where you've carefully placed them, it shakes your faith, right where you stand.”  

Also, Halley and her mother have always had a rock solid relationship until this summer and then they start drifting apart.  Clearly, they see life a bit differently which is made obvious by their 'fights.'  However, I really did NOT like Halley's mother.  She is supposed to be a therapist and tells other teens and their parents what to do but she SUCKS with her daughter.  She just yells and throws out demands and ultimatum's that most people who deal with teens know THAT WILL NOT WORK.  She does not let Halley talk until finally Halley gets a word in at the end of the book, but then again Halley should not have been lying.  However, she rarely got to finish a sentence so some of her lies were lies of omission or her side was never heard.   

“I watched my mother do what she did best, and realized there would never be a way to cut myself from her entirely. No matter how strong or weak I was, she was a part of me, as crucial as my own heart. I would never be strong enough, in all my life, to do without her.”  

“And that was it; it was so easy for her. My own memories did not even belong to me. But I knew she was wrong. I had seen that comet. I knew it as well as I knew my own face, my own hands. My own heart.”  

“He wasn't what I'd thought he was; maybe he never had been. I wasn't what I'd thought I was, either.”  

I really recommend it! I love a good YA book now and again. 

Have you read any books by Sarah Dessen? What other YA authors do you enjoy?