Lock and Key - Sarah Dessen

Rating: 5 - Loved it!

Pages: 432

Challenges: New Author, Library Book, Young Adult, Young Adult Romance

Synopsis (from Publishers Weekly)
Dessen (Just Listen) inverts a familiar fairy tale: what if Cinderella got the prince, the castle and all its accoutrements, but wasn’t remotely interested? After her mother abandons her, Ruby Cooper is flying below the radar of officialdom and trying to make it to her 18th birthday, when she’s busted by the landlord and turned over to social services. Ruby gets taken in by her estranged sister, Cora, who left for college a decade earlier and never looked back, and Cora’s husband, Jamie, the wealthy founder of a ubiquitous social networking site.

Resentful, suspicious and vulnerable, she resists mightily, refusing the risky business of depending on anybody but herself, and wearing the key to her old house around her neck. All the Dessen trademarks are here—the swoon-worthy boy next door who is not what he appears to be; and the supporting characters who force Ruby to rethink her cynical worldview, among them the frazzled owner of a jewelry kiosk at the mall. The author again defines characters primarily through dialogue, and although Ruby and her love interest, Nate, sound wiser than their years, they talk the way teens might want to—from the heart. A must for Dessen fans, it will win her new readers, too.

Review

Well this reader is a new fan of Sarah Dessen! This book was awesome. It kept me entertained and I could relate to Ruby's struggles with life and adjusting. I liked how she came into her own in the book.

I am so glad I joined the Young Adult Romance Challenge - it has introduced me to so many great books!