This Lullaby

This Lullaby
By Sarah Dessen

While going through my past posts I realized that there is one genre I haven’t explored—romance. Though the majority of the books I’ve reviewed have a love story on the side, there isn’t one book that is completely about the most complicated thing on earth, love.  Looking for a book , my friend strongly recommended “This Lullaby” by Sarah Dessen, also claiming that if I ever want to read a really good book, Sarah Dessen is a great author. Wanting to test her theory I agreed to read the book, which, by the way, I have mixed feelings about. My goodness, love is so complicated, even in writing about it.

The book is written in the first person, narrated by 18-year-old Remy Starr, who doesn’t believe in love. Who could blame her, when her mom is about to enter her fifth marriage? Her dad, who died a few years earlier, claimed to love her and even wrote a song for her called “This Lullaby”—it became a huge hit— yet never showed any concern for Remy.

Before I start to explain the story there is one thing you need to know about Remy, she is really organized! When I say organized I mean really REALLY organized, not only in cleaning but also in her life. Remy is the type of girl who wants to have everything planned to the last detail, I guess to balance out the messiness of her mother Barbara  and brother Chris. With so much disfunction in her family all Remy wants to do is get out! Which is exactly what she is planning to do; by the end of the summer she is heading to Stanford University.

While Remy is at the car dealership where her mother’s fiance Don works , to talk to Don about details of the wedding, an awkward and clumsy musician named Dexter tells her they are meant to be together. Then he surprises Remy by writing on her hand without her consent; putting yourself in Remy’s shoes you would understand why Remy would be freaked out by this guy. No matter how much Remy tries to shake Dexter off he just won’t budge, and coincidentally Dexter’s band is the one Don hired to play at the wedding. Then Dexter’s band is hired to play weekly in the bar Remy frequently goes  to with her friends. Though Dexter is not Remy’s ideal guy, especially being a musician and messy , he is very persistent. Eventually Remy falls for Dexter.

Knowing she is going to college, not wanting to bring things from her old life to her new life, plans her relationship with Dexter to be just a summer thing. As time passes, people, including herself, are wondering why is she with Dexter. Her friends, knowing Remy, think her relationship with Dexter doesn’t make sense. Remy is such a strict person with high standards and rules that Dexter in no way follows. First of all he is a musician, a big no-no for Remy;he is messy, doesn’t have a steady job, never ties his shoelaces and makes the weirdest challenges—all sorts of things Remy doesn’t like. Yet Remy stays with him— maybe she is in love! Remy, who believes love doesn’t exist, denies it: loving Dexter isn’t on her agenda. She claims the relationship is a summer fling, but is it really? And what about Dexter? Does he see as it a summer fling, or something else? Want to know the love story of detailed-oriented Remy and disorganized Dexter? Pick up the book and read it!

In my personal opinion it is such a sweet story! The only problem I had with the book was that it’s really predictable. Maybe it’s just me because I grew up watching soap operas and I know how conventional love stories go. But while reading the book I could literally finish a sentence without looking at it. Still, I am not going to lie, I was addicted to the book! I guess it was the girly-girl inside of me that wouldn’t let me sleep without finishing the book. So for all the softies out there and lovers of romance, read this book, I highly recommend it! Until next time, READ!     

 My Rating:

~A.BW