Audio: The rest of the story by Sarah Dessen

Narrated by: Rebecca Soler

Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-04-19

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

YA fiction

I received this book in exchange for an honest review

Emma is sent to her grandmother for the summer as her dad goes on his honeymoon, and her other grandmother travels. But she has not seen any of her mother's family for 10 years, she can not remember them at all.

I did feel her anger was a bit misplaced at times, as she got to know them she grew to like them, and she was angry at her dad for not taking her there sooner. But the road goes both ways, none of her mum's family came to visit her either. And I do get why her mother never wanted to go there (as the story progresses.)

But this is a story of finding yourself and family. Her mother od, and all Emma remember are the stories she told of the Lake. Her mother was in and out of her life a lot since she was an addict. Now she gets to know more about her mother, and again, I understand her father's reluctance, that place means the place that made Emma's mum an addict. But at the same time it was a wonderful place where they fell in love.

I also felt her dad changed in a strange way at the end, like he also had to learn the lesson of what family means. Maybe I am too old, but I get where he is coming from, Emma might have it in her genes and he feels like the lake brings it forward. It is about summer, drinking and having fun.

Ok, I need to get back to the surface now. I liked Emma, even if I did not get the whole call me Saylor thing.  And how it felt like she wanted to live there forever, she did have other friends and family too.

I liked the lake and it's drama, Lake North and North Lake. Her newfound family, her newfound crush (and I liked that it moved really really slow, like not almost happening at all.)

It was a good book. Real and true.

Narrator

I liked the narrator (even if at times she changed the voices a bit before remembering.) I think this was my first time listening to her, and I would listen to her again.

Emma Saylor doesn’t remember a lot about her mother, who died when Emma was 12. But she does remember the stories her mom told her about the big lake that went on forever, with cold, clear water and mossy trees at the edges. 

Now, it’s just Emma and her dad, and life is good, if a little predictable...until Emma is unexpectedly sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family, whom she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl. 

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 also divided into two people. To her father, she is Emma. But to her new family, she is Saylor, the name her mother always called her.

Then there’s Roo, the boy who was her very best friend when she was little. Roo holds the key to her family’s history, and slowly, he helps her put the pieces together about her past. It’s hard not to get caught up in the magic of North Lake - and Saylor finds herself falling under Roo’s spell as well. 

For Saylor, it’s like a whole new world is opening up to her. But when it’s time to go back home, which side of her - Emma or Saylor - will win out?