Once and for All

This book and it's characters were funny and very enjoyable. I have read all of Sarah Dessen's novels, and this was one of my favorites! The character of Ambrose had me laughing out loud at many parts and I definitely wanted to be friends with many of the characters. Sarah does a great job of setting up her story and characters in a way in which readers get truly invested in it. This book will make you laugh, cry, feel super happy, scared and yes, sometimes in love (with Ambrose)! As an English teacher who loves a good romance novel, I would highly recommend this to anyone! The only downside for someone (not me!), would be that it is a young adult novel and characters are teenagers (seventeen). I know some older readers may be turned off by this fact, but in my opinion, it just takes me back to that age! Pick up a copy right now and read it! You won't be disappointed!

Once and For All is a true Sarah Dessen romance. This coming of age story is an emotional story that will have you believing in second-chances before the last page. Ambrose's eternal optimism is a stark contrast to Louna's heartbroken cynicism and exactly what she needed. I don't want to give any spoilers, so I will simply state that Once and For All is sadly relevant to today's society, but hopefully it won't always be that way. Sarah Dessen has long been one of my go-to authors. Once and For All is a good read, but it wasn't my favorite of hers. This book is just as emotional as her others, but there isn't quite as much romance throughout. The lack of undeniable romance throughout is the only thing that kept this from being a 5-Star read for me. If you enjoy heartfelt, clean, coming of age romances, then I recommend Once and For All as one of your next reads.

So I am reviewing this book completely on story and characters alone. I love Sarah Dessen books with all my heart, the first one I picked up was The Truth About Forever and I've read them all since then. So when she announced this book I couldn't wait, I have literally been overjoyed for this book for like a year, and it came out yesterday, I got it in the mail at like 4 and I blew through it tonight. I adore her writing style and her characters they just grow and this story just... I loved it so much. Now I am not going to talk about any representation when it comes to this story because that isn't why I read her books. There is a gay male father figure to the main character named William, I adored him but I can speak on if his life story is realistic and I don't want too. I really just want to enjoy the story. I know a few had issues with the fat representation when it come to Jilly the best friend, I didn't really notice it and I again wasn't looking. Louna is going through a hard time with her grief and you learn about her story as the book progresses and why she feels so cynical about life at the moment. I think she was written well and I like we were so far removed from the horrible incident. I don't like shooting stories, though I know it is realistic and it happens I just don't think those stories should be made into fiction, it doesn't help and it is never portrayed well. So the fact she wasn't directly there but suffered such heartbreak still put us there I guess in a way I could keep reading. I loved Ambrose as I love all Sarah Dessen guy love interest characters but this book was so focused on Louna I didn't feel he got a fully fleshed out character. Usually we get why they act they way they do and this one there was just a weird guy who did a lot of things nobody understood with no explanation. Overall I adored this book like I do all of her books, the characters, the story, everything just pulls me in and gets me hooked till I know they get their happy endings. This one is dealing with a lot heavier subject matter than usually but it still read so well on the page and I still cared so much by the end. I will probably read all her other books again because her writing style just floors me every time, I mean What Happened to Goodbye will forever be my go to book for summer days.

The 5 stars are for shipping only, book was in pristine condition and shipped promptly. I feel like my rating of the book itself has no basis to change that. If I had to leave a rating for the book, like many of the reviews I've seen I do agree that the book overall while enjoyable, didn't really measure up to her previous books. I am a lover of Sarah Dessen and currently own all her books, but I will say that this is one that I actually had to force myself to get through. The idea to the story was wonderful, kind of playing off the "always a bridesmaid never a bride" mentality, but in the case always a wedding planner and never the bride. I just felt like the characters themselves were underdeveloped and their relationship almost forced. I do still love Sarah Dessen and I look forward to reading her future work!

I remembered like, really disliking this book back when it first came out. Rereading it as a married adult definitely helped give me a new perspective and I enjoyed it a bit more this time around. It's not my favorite of her books by any means. I did appreciate seeing weddings through the lens of a planner because truly, weddings are so involved and require so much more thinking than you realize. I think there were just too many plots going on and it made it hard to focus. If you ask me, Louna + Ambrose are just Remy + Dexter 2.0 (from This Lullaby). It was hard to fall in love with Ambrose because we were also getting the chapters of her and the other boy (whose name I already forgot oops) and their magical night together. I don't know if we needed the "dating competition" aspect to get Louna and Ambrose to be together and honestly, I'm still not sure how Louna went from being bothered by him all the time to actually liking him. The school shooting aspect of this book also just felt...really heavy? In a way that I feel conflicted about. Like yes, this is something our teenagers have to deal with (sadly) but it feels like such an out of place topic in a teen romance. I think this is just one of her weaker books and while I liked it a lot more than the first time I read it, I don't know if I plan on revisiting.

Actual Rating: 4.5 ‘It was the closest thing to “I love you” a boy had ever said to me. Maybe it meant even more.’ It’s been years since I read the blurb of ‘Once And For All’ but remembering it’s wedding planner premise and thanks to its cute style cover I was honestly expecting a light hearted, swoon-worthy read for my first contemporary of 2022. Boy were my expectations wrong. The swoon factor was there, the rom-com elements popping up time and time again but this book packs one hell of an emotional punch too and deals with some unexpectedly dark – and potentially triggering – subjects as well. So please do bear that in mind and look into its triggers if necessary. All that being said I adored this novel. It tackled some heavier issues than I’d expected but I can hardly fault it for that when it did it so well. There are two major love stories told over the course of this book – Louna’s previous one that’s left her guarded and the present day one, building up throughout the book. Both were wonderfully well done and felt utterly believable to me. Perhaps some people would find one of these love stories to be a case of ‘insta-love’ but for me the connection felt believable and that’s what ultimately counts in my mind. One day, whirlwind romance stories exist for a reason, after all. Ambrose was delightful, making me smile time and time again during his appearances across the page. Louna was interesting and believable, her jadedness towards love understandable given her back story. Her best friend felt vibrant and real with a hectic life of her own and her family were intriguing too. All in all I didn’t really feel that any character wasn’t fleshed out fully. The drama of planning weddings led to some wonderfully creative moments that made me laugh. Personally I could read dozens of stories within this family business and would happily follow in any of these character’s footsteps again. As I said earlier Louna’s past experience with love is an ultimately difficult read though so please do bear that in mind. It’s handled with care and felt like a realistic take on such trauma but as it covers a very traumatic subject I feel that warning readers to look into this book’s triggers is due. I’d say it goes without saying that I wholeheartedly recommend ‘Once And For All’ and am kicking myself for having let it sit unread on my Kindle for so long. This is my first book by Sarah Dessen in years but it certainly won’t be my last. Diving into this tale reminded me of all the reasons I adored what I’ve read by her in the past.

A wonderful story! Idk if it's just me but this story had me in tears a number of times (I always love a good cry) but Sarah Dessen Always does make up for it with the development of the story! A beautiful story of a teenage love - or two.

I recommend this book to anyone that love aldult romance. I read all of sarah dessen books and love them all. Always something different.

Retrouvez les conversations et situations drôles typiques de Sarah Dessen avec une ombre plannant sur l'histoire tout de même un peu plus sombre cette fois.

Not my favourite Dessen book but still just as adorable as usual. I think the reason it didn't get five stars from me was that the relationship we were all waiting for only happened at the end of the book. I kind of wanted to spend some time with the couple. Also, some of the wedding parts got a little boring especially at the beginning. Still a great and adorable summer read!