This Lullaby

Sarah Dessen is the kind of author that you can always expect great things from. This story is definitely not an exception. While it wasn’t one of my favorites from hers, I wasn’t disappointed at all.

I was a bit annoyed at times. Remy’s character is so headstrong, and she’s so full of

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attitude, but it makes for a great read. Without that bitterness to her, the relationship between her and Dexter wouldn’t have been so .. beautiful. Even though Remy has her issues, and she’s so dead set against a full-term boyfriend, they ultimately become each other’s best friends.

It didn’t hook me nearly as much as some of Dessen’s other novels did, but I certainly enjoyed it a lot. I went from rolling my eyes at Remy, to literally wanting to be her. (Because admit it- who doesn’t want someone like Dexter?)

Overall, I really liked it. I wish I could write a longer review about it, but the story is very basic and though there’s definitely plot twists and big gasping moments, I don’t want to give any of those away. I definitely recommend checking it out!

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I read it ultra-fast, like all Dessens. This one has the marks of a Dessen classic: charming eccentricities in the characters which serve to illuminate their inner lives, also great scenes of suburban life. The scene in a fictionalized Linens-N-Things was brilliant, and (just like character

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eccentricities) moved the plot forward in a meaningful way. Loved it!

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This Lullaby was really cute. It was a little 8th gradish for my taste but it had a cute meaning behind it I think. This book would be good for 14 and 15 year olds who like simple classy romantic books.

i'm plowing through sarah's books and she is unbelievably amazing. the next one out is "lock and key" and i hope i can catch it before my teens do...

Remy, the main character in this book, is not a romantic. Her mother is about to embark on marriage number five. Remy is going to Stanford in the fall, and she wants a summer fling that she can end before moving away. This is the plan when her path collides (literally) with Dexter. Dex is

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everything Remy is not: artistic, disorganized, a free spirit. His band is in town for the summer, and then they will move on to the next town. This seems like a perfect match! Until Remy starts to realize that some people are worth holding on to...
This was my first Sarah Dessen book, and I read it in 2 days! I would definitely read some of her other titles.

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Remy lives at home with her five-time married mom. However, Remy has a habit of being the complete opposite of her mother and breaks up with her boyfriends before she becomes emotionally attached. One day at her step-dad's car dealership, she meets a musician named Dexter. She can't get away from

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him fast enough. But, not long after Dexter persues her and against her initial instincts she gets to know Dexter and his band members better. Soon after Dexter and Remy start to date, the time when the emotional attachment starts to form came and now Remy doesn't know what to do. Overall I really enjoyed this book. It dealt with the many of the emotional issues girls my age have to encounter. I would recommend it as a summer read because it was just very enjoyable.

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I enjoyed the book and it was a quick read. But it was teen fiction (pc: junior adult?) and it read like that.

This Lullaby is one of my favorite books. I always read it when I get bored and it is the first book that I would recommend to someone who wants a funny light read that will keep you interested. Remy's personality reminds me of a friend it is a little weird! I love Derick in this book; he is really

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a funny character. One of Sarah Dessen's best books I would say!

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Remy doesn't usually go out with any guy long enough for it to get serious. When Dexter, a messy, disorganized musician, enters her life, it is possible that Remy's romantic rules don't apply anymore, but she doesn't know enough to get rid of the rules and it causes lots of problems. Has some

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swearing and some drinking scenes so I'd restrict it to older readers. I really like this author.

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This lullaby is an amazing book. It’s not all mushy but there is some romance in it. There are problems that a normal 18 year old girl would have. I personally think Remy has a pretty easy going life but when she has had a millions of step dads it might get a little overwhelming. All of her

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friends are there for her even when she gives all of her time to her new boyfriend Dexter...who I might add didn’t ever see herself being with. Remy’s going off to college at the end of the summer and thinks that Dexter is just a summer fling...but she’s wrong.

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The book opens with Remy planning her mother's wedding...to her fifth husband. While Remy is in control of her mother's wedding, she is not prepared for Dexter, whom she meets unexpectedly. While Dexter is straightforward regarding his feelings for Remy; Remy doesn't know if she even believes in

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love or everlasting relationships. During her last summer before she leave for college, Remy learns quite a bit about herself and just exactly how much she believes in love.

On a side note; I love how Dessen depicts Dexter and Monkey! They both amuse me!

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Why I chose this book....The Cover;) What I thought...Thought it was a good story...long at some points, will definetly read this author again.

I enjoy the world that Sarah Dessen creates. It is fun to "discover" characters from other books who make cameos in this book. I enjoy reading about Remy who doesn't believe in love who can't help but fall in love with a hopeless romantic who seems to be nothing she wants.

YA, romance, trust, family relationships

Another fantastic book from Sarah Dessen. Remy is a character who has flaws, and as irritating as they can be, she's lovable anyway. Dexter, the boy hero in this novel, is different enough from his counterparts in Dessen's other novels to not be repetitive, but still be that stand up guy you know

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he is. Though the book follows the same pattern as her others, faithful readers will find this comforting and will enjoy Remy and Dexter's saga.

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Remy is a control freak. She likes to organize everything from clothes to her car to relationships. She wants to know where everything stands so that she knows where to go to fix something if a problem arises. Her stoicism comes from having to take care of her whimsical mother and watching said

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mother go through several failed marriages. That’s why Dexter perplexes her so much from the beginning. He’s her polar opposite—chaotic and optimistic—past guys.

Dessen builds Remy three-dimensionally as with her other main characters. While we know that Dexter is going to change Remy’s pessimistic view on love, Remy doesn’t hang around with him all the time or spend her time day-dreaming about him. She has a life away from Dexter, and Dessen details it just as much as her time with Dexter, if not more. As such, we really get a feel for her as a person throughout the book. We learn that Remy isn’t as much of a b*tch as she thinks she is; sure, she’s pessimistic about love, but it’s because she hasn’t had a stable familial life. She has motivation for acting the way she does.

I really like Dexter. If it were another guy, the whole instant attraction deal would have seemed absurd. With Dexter, his easygoing attitude and optimistic take on life and love made it sweet and adorable. I can’t imagine how he’s forever tripping all over the place, but considering how it’s Dexter I find it believable—and endearing. He may have had a hard time making his way into Remy’s heart, but he won me from day one.

Remy’s friends and family are a delightful cast of characters. Her friends are very realistic and engaging people that suit Remy’s character. Her brother’s a cool guy with an interesting hobby of raising monitor lizards, and her mom is a whimsical woman that you can’t help liking. I love how big Remy is on family and how protective she is of them. As for Dexter’s band, they’re pretty cool guys, though it’s pretty obvious that Remy isn’t too fond of them, especially Ted and his strong opinions on his craft.

I also love how Dessen starts off each section telling us which month it is. Not only does it reflect how time passes in Remy’s mind, it shows us just how long it takes Remy to change. It shows us that it takes time for Remy to open up to Dexter, to finally open herself to love. Such changes don’t take place in a couple weeks. It takes timing, an important concept that Remy grows to recognize over the course of the book.

If it was any other writer, perhaps I would have liked the book. Perhaps I wouldn’t have. But with Dessen behind the book, I can relate to Remy. I don’t hate her. I love her and her down-to-earth attitude. This Lullaby is about learning how to open yourself to the goods and bads of a relationship. It is about learning to let go of your fears and to learn how to love. I recommend this story to those look for a contemporary read filled with laughs and tears.

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I liked this lullaby, but not as impressed as I expected to be. I don't know how to describe my reaction, but it is almost like I would have enjoyed the book better if I had read it earlier. Instead, it kept reminding me of other books - I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, bloom, girl, HERO - so I think

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this lullaby came a tad too late.

Yet I cannot deny that there was a beauty to Remy and Dexter's relationship, however fragile it appeared to be. The skepticism, the optimism, the challenges each presented to the other. I especially liked the challenges - serious and silly - that Dexter presented.

Dexter seemed to be the perfect complement for Remy, and I could relate to Remy as she came to terms with her feelings - how scared and unsure she became.

If you enjoyed cracked up to be (sidenote: I would say Remy is friendlier than Parker) or I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, this lullaby may be right up your alley with similar themes and personalities, but it definitely focuses on relationships moreso than the other books.

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I came at this book with the wrong expectations. Reading the description, I was expecting a typically silly (I mean that in a good way) teen romance. But This Lullaby is less a romance than it is a novel about love. Let me explain. Remy's mother's experience has unintentionally taught Remy to

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believe that love cannot last, and therefore, it is not worthwhile. Remy has a timeline for her boyfriends, and as soon as the first rush of pure lust is over, she dumps them. That's all she allows herself to believe in, and she's not looking for anything more.

When Remy meets Dexter, she's forced to reconsider her position. As far as I'm concerned, this novel is really about whether love exists, and if so, whether it's worth the risk. It sounds heavy, right? It really doesn't feel that way as you're reading. There's lots of comic relief to be found in Dexter's band members (reminds me a bit of the movie That Thing You Do - which I love.) Their big original song is called "The Potato Song." Ah, love in the produce aisle. Remy's friends and their antics also keep Remy's self-reflection from feeling too intense.

Dessen truly has a gift for transporting the reader into the life and emotions of a character. Even though Remy and I are extremely different people, I felt myself getting deeply involved in her story. I love when a book gives me that sense of getting outside myself!

This is only my second Dessen book (my first was The Truth About Forever), and I'm struck by the way they both explore slightly dysfunctional mother-daughter relationships. In The Truth About Forever, Macy and her mom are stuck in their grief over Macy's father's death. In This Lullaby, Remy's mother's life history has given Remy some very messed-up ideas about life and ways of relating to people. I have Along For the Ride waiting on my shelf, so I'm curious to see if there's a similar theme there.

I really liked this book. I read it in one feel swoop, ending at 2am (which, for me, is practically an all-nighter... I'm a mom.) I definitely recommend it.

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I love how this book basically shows the story of a "love cynic" and how she sees tht her ways ideas can not be applied to everyone because everyone is different. This nook has some REALLY REALLY good quotes in it. I basically folded every page because I wanted to remember every quote. haha. i just

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can not see myself returning this book to the library. It is the kind of book that makes you want to read it over and oever and over, even when you already know how the stories going to end.....it'll give you hope. :)

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This YA book by Dessen has at its center, Remy, just graduated from high school, who doesn't believe in romantic love. Her own life experience tells her that it doesn't exist. Her mother is about to embark on marriage number five. Her musician father left before she was ever born, wrote her a now

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famous song when she was born (complete with lyrics exhorting her to not count on him), but never laid eyes on her. She's always skinnied out of any relationship that seemed like it might be getting too deep and the summer before she leaves for college should shape up to be just another in the same superficial dating scene. Then she meets Dexter, who crawls over all her barriers and makes her break all her rules. First, he's a musician and she's always had a no musicians rule because of her father. Next, she doesn't dump him for one of the myriad small reasons that she's tired of boys before. And finally, he's gotten under her skin in a way that no other boy ever has and he is persistent, not allowing her to pull back and retreat when she gets scared. So although Remy knows how a relationship goes, even to being able to predict how long it will last from first infatuation to last goodbye, nothing about Dexter is by the book for her.

Dessen has drawn very believable young adult characters, tapping into their belief that they know how the world will always work and in Remy's case, into the sad cynicism she uses as a shield so she won't ever be hurt. Although the adult characters are very secondary, Dessen skillfully uses them to help Remy grow and mature and see the world in a new way. There was only one instance in Remy's interactions with her mother that seemed a bit preachy and obvious, otherwise they were understated and subtle. While this was very obviously a teen romance, it was more than that. It was about the existence of love and the ways in which we close ourselves off from or conversely, open ourselves up to, that experience. It's not about first love or lasting love but just the willingness to accept love, with all its attendant hurts and healings, whether it lasts forever or just a short time. Readers of young adult literature will certainly appreciate this one as it is a nice representation of the genre. Teens will enjoy it too, whether they think love is ephemeral or that they have already met the love of their lives.

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The plot was kind of bland and dull. There was no interesting conflict or challenge really. The climax lasted about a page and stirred no emotion. AHS/MP

i fell in love with this book my sister is reading it right now i got her to this book is pretty awesome i loved it my teacher recommanded it to me i would recommanded to all the girls who like band guys or just who ever all though this book is for girls im pretty sure who ever reads it will like it

This book was interesting and it kept my interest. I thought the book had a lot of details and told a good, realistic story. It was pretty long, but worth it.

Remy and Dexter's relationship is so unique that the book holds it's place on the bookshelf for a while, and it deserves it's spot. The characters have their own unique twists and turns, brinign you along with them through their happiness, tough times, and heartache. This book is an awesome one.

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Sarah Dessen is amazing.

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