The Rest of the Story

I am a life-long Sarah Dessen fan. I have always enjoyed her thoughtful and romantic YA stories and her newest is no disappointment.

The Rest of the Story is about a girl named Emma Saylor who returns for the Summer to her dead mother’s childhood home on the lake to reconnect with her family. When Emma arrives at North Lake, she realizes there are actually two very different communities there. Her mother grew up in working class North Lake, while her dad spent summers in the wealthier Lake North resort. The more time Emma spends there, the more it starts to feel like she is divided into two people as well. To her father, she is Emma. But to her new family, she is Saylor, the name her mother always called her. Emma also finally begins to uncover her mother’s troubled past and how important it is to her to connect the dots between her past and her present.

Sprinkled in with some romance, and, as always for Sarah Dessen, a cast of quirky and insightful characters, this story is heartwarming and a good solid read.