The Story Of Us by Deb Caletti

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Date:  April 24th 2012
Pages: 389
Source: Publisher
Age Range: Young Adult

Cricket’s on a self-imposed break from her longtime boyfriend,but she’s picked a bad week to sort out her love life. For one thing, her mother’s romance is taking center stage: After jilting two previous fiancés, her mom is finally marrying Dan Jax, whom Cricket loves. But as wedding attendees arrive for a week of festivities at a guesthouse whose hippie owners have a sweet, sexy son, Ash,complications arise.

Cricket’s future stepsisters make it clear they’re not happy about the marriage. An old friend decides this is the week to declare his love for Cricket. Grandpa chooses to reveal a big secret at a family gathering. Dan’s ex-wife shows up. And even the dogs,Cricket’s old, ill Jupiter and Dan’s young, lively Cruiser,seem to be declaring war.
While Cricket fears that Dan is in danger of becoming ditched husband-to-be number three, she’s also alarmed by her own desires. Because even though her boyfriend looms large in her mind, Ash is right in front of her....

I still have to figure out what to think of this book. The story and the in between emails (really, I've had it a little with email parts in between chapters..) to Jansen where a little odd. At firsthand this seem like a typical girly book with a pink rug and backcover. I found this book in a sale and as it looked like some kind of Sarah Dessen type of book I had to check it out! Let's go the plot first: the plot simmers on and on, without any peaks or dips. It just goes on a bout Cricket and her family. Cricket's mother is marrying another man after the divorce with Cricket's dad. They spent the summer at a guesthouse full of hippie kind of people. The romance part for Cricket comes from the innkeepers son Ash. The plot was very thin and I felt what was coming all the time. It was a bit predictable and it just didn't kept me very interested to the end. Caletti's style is very full of "telling." Some of it's nice, but some of it leaves a great deal to be desired for me. The type of telling in anecdotes or flashbacks is okay with me, especially because they have the feel of listening to a friend tell me about her life or something that happened in her day. However, I feel like much of the dialogue in particular has too much information (or information that's too general, like "he's nice,") and feels stilted. An easy quick read. Not bad...but not great at all.