This Lullaby

“Everything, in the end, comes down to timing. One second, one minute, one hour could make all the difference.”

Probably my least favorite out of Dessen's books, the characters were not quite as endearing or interesting to me this time. She especially missed the mark with the love interest, I didn't like Dexter at all. This is most likely why it took me so long to finish it. Nonetheless, it had her usual enjoyable writing style so I can't bring myself to give it a lower rating.

Remy's mother is getting married...to her fifth husband and just like with all of her mother's past weddings Remy is in charge of practically everything; a task you think might be a bit too much for a recent high school graduate to take on but with Remy's experience she is practically a pro and does indeed have everything under control. In fact, weddings are not the only things Remy can handle. Remy was the person who got herself a new car without getting a loan, who got into Stamford despite having to re-take the SATs twice, she's also the person who made sure her brother woke up on time to get to work so he wouldn't get fired and she is the person who does not believe in love. Love is a sham, people don't stay together forever, there is no love at first sight but there is definitely lust, this is what Remy believes. Her mother may have fallen madly in love with every husband she's had and writes heart-filled romance novels but her daughter is quite possibly the biggest cynic you will ever meet.

Then comes Dexter, well actually then comes Dexter crashing into little Miss Type A's life, literally, and he unabashedly proclaims to Remy, who is just meeting him for the first time, that they are meant to be together. Dexter is clumsy and disorganized, his shoe laces are always untied, he can't focus on one thing for more than five minutes and he is in a band, a musician. Not only are all the previously listed traits enough to have Remy running in the other direction but she has a strict rule that she has never broken: no musicians. As in she doesn't date them. Her father was a musician, a one-hit wonder, a hit that Remy hates because that hit is a song he wrote for her when she was born by a man who never even knew her, who she will never meet but his song will live on forever.

This Lullaby isn't a young love story it's a story about a girl who doesn't believe in love fully understanding what love actually is and why risks should be taken. There are no guarantees in life, you can't go into everything knowing what exactly the outcome is going to be because limiting your life to “always certain” isn't living at all its observing and it takes Remy not only this clumsy guy to help her realize it but also her in love with love mom, her boy crazy friends who'll she have to say goodbye to at the end of the summer, and her newly in love brother who used to be just as big a cynic as she is. Every character played a role in This Lullaby, none of them to me were insignificant or there to fill a scene, which I believe is a fact with all Sarah Dessen novels, her characters are people with opinions and attitudes and traits that I can see within my own friends and families and acquaintances.

I initially gave this novel a three star rating and I think that's because I didn't have that completely satisfied/happy feeling I have gotten with other Dessen novels when I had read the last page because this one did have a slightly different feeling. Maybe it was because of the main character Remy who is a lot different from previous Dessen MCs. She's colder, keeps herself at arms length, hides her emotions, was pretty wild back in high school and I couldn't honestly relate to her. But writing this review I can see that I understand what the story was trying to say and believe that it was written well even if I didn't love the characters and thus will bump the rating up to a more appropriate four.