Along for the Ride

By: Sarah Dessen

Narrated by: Rachel Botchan

Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Soon to be a Netflix film!

From the award-winning and New York Times best-selling author of Once and For All.

Nights have always been Auden’s time, her chance to escape everything that’s going on around her.

Then she meets Eli, a fellow insomniac, and he becomes her nocturnal tour guide.

Now, with an endless supply of summer nights between them, almost anything can happen...

Sarah Dessen is the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contributions to YA literature, as well as the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award.

Books by Sarah Dessen:

• That Summer
• Someone Like You
• Keeping the Moon
• Dreamland
• This Lullaby
• The Truth About Forever
• Just Listen
• Lock and Key
• Along for the Ride
• What Happened to Goodbye
• The Moon and More
• Saint Anything
• Once and for All

©2009 Sarah Dessen (P)2009 Penguin

Critic reviews

"Beautifully captures that sense of summer as a golden threshold between past regrets and future unknowns." (The Washington Post)

“As with all Dessen’s books, [this] is a must-have” (VOYA, starred review)

Pretty good!

It took me a few minutes to get into this book, as I thought the narrator was kind of annoying. I gave it a chance and her voice began to grow on me. Book was very cute, with a good story. I was pretty sad when it ended! Will download another from this author.

Finding your childhood

What made the experience of listening to Along for the Ride the most enjoyable?

The story of finding your childhood while dealing with an over controlling mother and realizing that it is similar to what I've experienced or seen in the world.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Along for the Ride?

Auden watching her dad and step mom argue and her step mom trying to deal with the new baby and balance the checkbook with no help from her dad and then Auden decides to balance the checkbook for her one night.

What does Rachel Botchan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A kind of innocence to the characters

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not really it is a little long but I did manage it while on the bus

Fun Story

I always love Sarah Dessen’s novels as a high school and college student. Now as an adult, it’s always nostalgic and fun to read or listen to them. This particular story line is a great one about growing up and learning to find yourself when things don’t always seem to work but then it turns out in the end!

Not Just "Chick-Lit"

I've read several books by Sarah Dessen, and this one is my favorite so far. The main character, Auden, is smart, and I love intelligent female characters. She's decided to spend the summer between graduation from high school and her first year at college with her father in a beach resort town. This new location and the people who come into her life there make this summer one of change and transition for Auden. Usually a loner, she starts to reach out and make friends, including a boyfriend. She's forming new relationships with her stepmother and step sister. Most important, she's confronting her own feelings about her parents' divorce.
This book has realistic characters and situations. It gets the reader to consider relationships among family members and friends, as well as how people can or cannot change.

Super cute and sweet

I loved this book so much. I finished it in a week! I really appreciated the sweetness and innocence of it all. It was just lovely

The perfect summer read!

I listen to this book at the beginning of summer every year. I just love it. Please don’t be dissuaded by the Netflix movie. This audiobook is so much better! The narrator does a wonderful job with my favorite Sarah Dessen novel. I appreciate both artists more and more every year.

Great in conjunction with reading for saving time

I used the audiobook to help me finish the book within a day. For that purpose it was good. The narrator is “cuter” than I would have casted, but I grew to like her voice. The pauses in the recording should have been edited out for sure. Nice story and characters and I really liked the experience of reading and listening to this book! Made me want to read more of Sarah Dessen.

Good story, movie is better than book, horrible narration.

I loved this story when I saw the movie on Netflix. I always think books are better than movies so I was so excited to read/listen to this one! However, I was quickly disappointed. Firstly, the narration is horrible. I listen to maybe 3-4 books a month give or take? And I have for years. And by far this is hands down the worst narration ever. Super long pauses. Makes listening to this miserable. I had to listen on 1.7 hyper speed to get her sentences to sound normal. Ridiculous.
Then, regarding the story, the book has major plot holes that the movie fills in. The movie has a way better story line. The book has so many scenes that don’t make any sense and are super juvenile.
Skip reading this book. Just watch the movie.

The Best Of Times

Along For The Ride is undoubtfuly my favorite book. I learned from it so much. Every second sentence is one that I would be proud to quote. I laughed and cryed with the carichtors, I could really feel for them all most of the time. The author has a really good sence of humer. The reader is excellent, I really loved the way she read. Her reading made the book come alive for me. The carichtors are developing and changing during the book, and the ending is a kind of new begining for everyone. When you buy this book, you are along for many rides. So enjoy your rides.

Took a while to settle into the narrator

The story was, as usual, well done, difficult & painful. I had trouble with Ms Botchan's reading as I found it sounding a tiny bit too young for the MC (but I did get used to it so that's probably on me). The primary issue I had was the cadence. The pauses were at times, seeming inappropriate & most definitely WAY too long for the most part. However, this book is well worth the read, be it print or aural.