My favorite is The Truth About Forever. I could really sympathize with Macy’s struggle to appear perfect for her mom while also trying to figure out who she really is. Also, Wes was my first legit book crush.

I also love This Lullaby because of how no nonsense Remy is.

Along for the ride was the first book I read of hers and I loved how the ending was NOT a typical perfect ending

First one I ever read was “just listen” and I was hooked from there

I know I love them all so much!

This is hard to decide! I hope she continues to make more. My heart feels so full after reading one of her books.

I love This Lullaby because of the scenes with Dexter/Remy. In a lot of Sarah's other books, the relationship part of the book is only really shown at the end or is interrupted a lot. I also love music and any scenes spotlighting interactions within the band.

I just finished reading through all of her books a few months ago. I know it’s not a favorite, but I really enjoyed Saint Anything. Keeping the Moon was also one of my favorites! I loved Aunt Mira!

My all time favorite is just listen, and I re read it every year, just finished it yesterday.

The Truth About Forever is my #1 favourite! Wes and Macy are such a great match, and the side characters are so fun to read. Bert and Kristy made me crack up multiple times.

The Rest of the Story came into my life at an important time, but it was also my first Sarah Dessen, and after having read a lot of the others I don't know if it still would be. I think Along For The Ride probably.

This Lullaby and The Truth about Forever were my gateway into contemporary YA—I still think of them very fondly! I haven’t read much of Sarah Dessen’s work after 2009. I think I might have DNF’d a few of her more recent novels that didn’t quite capture me.

LOVE Sarah Dessen. My two absolute favourites of hers are The Truth About Forever and Just Listen, but I'm also really fond of Along for the Ride and Saint Anything! Wes was probably one of my first ever book crushes, and I still think of that scene from JL everytime I go through a car-wash, so I have a major soft spot for Dessen. She's still an auto-buy author for me even in my twenties now.

Yes, I’ve heard of the three that they wanna make into a movie! I’m quite excited for it honestly and I can’t wait to see how they’ll portray the stories. I feel like Sarah’s books are honestly just a part of life like once you read one and you really enjoy it, it’ll stay with you for so long.

So, I feel like a bad fan because I really don't like her later books as much. I didn't care for The Rest of the Story and HATED The Moon and More. Once and For All was nice and Saint Anything was just alright. I really do love her writing but Just Listen is still her best book imo.

i love her! Just Listen helped me through my trauma and is definitely my comfort book. i think i read it at least 2 times a month.

You want a non-formula Sarah Dessen? Dreamland or The Moon and More

Glad you liked this one!

TTAF is definitely one of my faves of hers! This Lullaby is my absolute all-time favovrite, and I do feel like it slightly veers away from her typical story. (The MC is a little more prickly lol.)

But I totally agree her books follow a definite formula! Which can get tiring if you read a bunch in a row, but I've started to see them as comforting? Reading a Sarah Dessen book is so cozy and familiar. Also I love when you start to notice the connections and former characters making short appearances and cameos throughout!

Really glad you're enjoying her books so far! :)

I'm so glad you said this! It is honestly one of my favourite books of all time and I'm in my late 20s! The formula is pretty much exactly as you said I think, but it doesn't bother me. You know what you're getting with a Sarah Dessen book :)

Also one of my faves! Just Listen is another one of my faves from her, it hits a lot of heavy topics and is really well written

I love the earlier Sarah Dessen novels. They’re like a hug in book form. I haven’t been able to get into anything that came after “Along For The Ride”. “This Lullaby” and “The Truth About Forever” are my favourites.

I would recommend all her books to people, but I think the biggest moment of dissonance for me was at the end of Dogsbody when Kathleen gets a new dog and a character comments that the new dog is female so that means there’ll be puppies!

Just such a different culture than now when spaying and neutering is so prevalent and important!

Not what OP is looking for (answering the title more lightheartedly lol), but I don’t really recommend House of Many Ways to anyone, because while my family liked Howl’s Moving Castle, they could not get through HoMW and had to drop it, because “why do you like this book? Nothing is happening except housework.”

For a while they didn’t look at me the same and thought I had bad taste.

I just read Fire and Hemlock for the first time as an adult and I think it’s not something that I would have had a problem with as a child. I wouldn’t have been sensitive to the predatory potential between Tom and Polly, in any case, the way I am now. There are pure friendships between adults and children. Whether that should blossom into romance is obviously a different matter, and in the real world it would make me feel sick, but this kind of narrative is all over ancient myths, stories, literature, etc., throughout history. I think Diana went with her instincts here and decided not to censor herself, and the grandmother’s various suspicious comments about Tom do a lot of heavy lifting for me to show that Diana was certainly aware of the implications of the intimacy between the two characters and not glorifying the idea. But it is a little queasy at times and it was certainly a big point of my discussion about the book with my partner after we finished it. It’s a huge elephant in the room that is quite literally impossible to ignore as an adult reader, whether that’s by design or not.

And then in Castle in the Air and many other books, she is sort of cruel toward overweight people. This specific book I actually did read as a child and I have to admit, far from bothering me, it tapped into a very real part of my emotional experience. It was only when reading the book to my partner as an adult that I experienced it as a sort of unnecessary and mean part of her characterization. For me, I’m kind of the opinion that an author should tell their story how it is, and sometimes Diana could be sharp with her pen and that’s not necessarily a bad thing—I feel sure she’d have been ready to accept the consequences of her writing. But for my partner it was too much, she was very uncomfortable with the way it was written and as I said, as an adult it did strike me as a bit cruel.

All that is to say, ironically, rather than preventing me from recommending these books to children, it would prevent me from recommending them to adults. Lol

Yes, I also find myself deeply uncomfortable with the age gap in Fire and Hemlock, even though it’s one of her best books. It’s acknowledged that Tom IS grooming Polly—although not for sex, he is using her. The Power of Three is another one of my favorites but the way Brenda is described is so cruel, I wouldn’t give it to a younger reader either.

I recently reread Dark Lord of Derkholm and I was SO bothered by that bit. I think we are meant to be bothered by it, but in the book a dragon just comes and gives her super-therapy and that’s not an option IRL unfortunately

Deep Secret is an adult book so I wouldn’t recommend it to a younger person anyway—I just don’t think they’d like it. That particular scene did not bother me, I think my interpretation was that what Rupert meant was “intimate,” he just didn’t have the word for it. That’s a man who doesn’t understand his own feelings if ever I met one.

I think she's great! Her newest book The Home has to be my favorite with psycheward blues being a close 2nd. Beast of burden Is alot of fun especially if you're a metal fan which I am. I also enjoyed Low Blasphemy and Summer never ends. I personally haven't disliked any of her work.

I've seen a book or two of yours in a Facebook group so I guess I'm gonna have to read one of em lol!

Just finished The Clown Hunt! Will never forget the wishbone scene 🤣 but an absolutely great read.

She's the best. I've read a ton of her stuff and still have lots to do. Psych ward Blues, Low Blasphemy, for the sake of...man, she can write so many ways, but her characters always feel special and not just like "husks" for a gross story.

My favorite is Hell: A Splatter Novel. It's my favorite type of extreme horror - the type where the antagonist is a supernatural force of evil. I've also read the two No One Rides For Free books and they had some decent gore/torture too, but I'm just sick of stories where the horror's supposed to come from human behavior.

I love her. She replied to my comment once so I think that means I’m indebted for life now

Memory and Dream by Charles do Lint. Amazing story that sets up so many more.

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I love this story so much but the second time I was reading it, I forgot about the ending so I was HEARTBROKEN

What was the ending? SOMEBODY SPOIL IT FOR ME PLEASE 😭

A classic!

I’m ngl, I was super into it until the ending 😭

I remember crying so hard

Urban fantasy short story “Zoo Day” by Jim Butcher.

Not romantic love but love for family. The characters are from the series The Dresden Files, but this short story stands on its own.

It’s just delightful, especially parts two and three.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis has a very subtle and sweet love arc hidden in the mystery and time travel adventure

Learning to Flirt and Learning to Trust by Kallie Mont

Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford

Le chant de la rivière by Wendy Delorme but I don’t think there’s a translation out just yet unfortunately, on the off chance you are from a french speaking place or speak french yourself I do recommend it though