About the Book
-
Author:
- Sarah Dessen
- Genre:
- Contemporary
Cover Story: Nostalgic
BFF Charm: Yay!
Talky Talk: Dessentastic
Bonus Factors: Dessen Easter Eggs, Sisters
Relationship Status: Reunited And It Feels So Good
Cover Story: Nostalgic
It might be the “Big Face” aspect that reminds me of YA covers of yore, or it may be that simply seeing the name “Sarah Dessen” on a book gives me the most wonderful flashbacks, but dang this artwork evokes a lot of memories of when I was first falling in love with the young adult genre.
I also want to call out the nice little details of Finley’s diner apron and the reflection of Ben in her sunglasses. Cute!
The Deal
Y’all, it’s a new Sarah Dessen. WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW? (Okay, twist my arm and make me talk about a new book from HRH of YA Lit.)
It’s the day of high school graduation, and Finley Hope has got it all figured out. After a trip to NYC with her mother, Catherine, a corporate bigwig who only sees her a few times a year, Finley is headed to the U with her boyfriend, Colin Frisbee, student council president and all around golden boy. Everything is going according to plan… until suddenly it isn’t.
Instead of NYC, Finley’s mom takes them to North Lake to pack up the childhood home of Catherine and her sisters, Liz and Kasey, neither of whom Finley has seen since she was little. Her mom, and her relationship with her family, has always been a mystery, and now suddenly Finley is thrust into this small town life with relatives who are strangers and a past that grows increasingly complicated. To make matters much worse, Colin dumps her almost immediately (because he suuuucks), sending Finley into a tailspin.
Things seem pretty bleak, but what Fin doesn’t yet realize is that she’s landed in the best possible place* for a worst-case scenario. There’s the Egg, a diner down the street, where she somehow ends up with a job, and then there’s the random assortment of people in her orbit, from family she can finally get to know (including her very own mother), to Lana, a free spirit with bestie potential, to a very charming yet unassuming guy named Ben. It’s certainly not the summer that she expected, but it is might be just be the summer she needed.
*In other words, a Sarah Dessen novel.
BFF Charm: Yay!
Can y’all imagine if Sarah Dessen wrote a heroine I didn’t like?!! Please.
Finley reminds me a lot of my high school self. She’s extremely organized and conscientious; she follows the rules; and she always plays it safe. We’re talking major Macy vibes from The Truth About Forever, and not only because both girls dated undeserving asshats (Colin is SUCH a Jason, ugh). Like Macy, Finley is forced to grapple with an immense amount of uncertainty, and her true colors, well, let’s just say they come shining through. I adored her sneaky sense of humor and her gentle compassion, even while she sometimes exasperated me by underestimating herself. Thankfully, I had a surrogate in Lana—who, not to keep the Forever comparisons going but is most definitely a Kristy— a fellow waitress at the Egg and a dynamo gal not afraid to challenge Fin out of her shell.
Okay, now I’m picturing a party at the lake where I get to hang out with all of Sarah Dessen’s heroines and their besties and yep, that’s now my definition of The Good Place.
Swoonworthy Scale: 7
Ben had me at, “I can get awkward over anything. It’s one of my strongest skills.” This boy!! Not only does he have a charismatic bravado about his weirdness, he’s also very emotionally intelligent for a teenage guy. His mom died when he was a kid, and his dad is a screw-up who forced them to move all the time, so Ben has that rare, heady mix of deep empathy and cool adaptability. Does he cultivate a safe space with Hadley so they can talk about real shit? Absolutely. Does he also engage in flirty banter and self-deprecating honesty when she needs a distraction? You bet! (There are soooo many exchanges I want to quote here but I will resist since obvs you will be reading them for yourself soon enough.)
Oh yeah, and did I mention he plays guitar? And not like, in that lame way where he whips out an acoustic guitar at a beach bonfire; he’s reluctantly in a band that he refuses to acknowledge is a real band because he thinks that’s cringe, a.k.a. the COOLEST way to be a guitar player. Don’t tell Finley but I am totally a Ben groupie.
Talky Talk: Dessentastic
I’m not sure I can express how damn good it feels to read a new book from Sarah Dessen. It’s been seven years since The Rest of the Story was released, and if you follow her Friday Five, you know that Sarah’s writing/publishing journey since the pandemic has been a rough road. Now to be clear, I never had any doubts that Sarah would find her way back to her readers, and not only because we were cheering her on so loudly that there’s no way she couldn’t find us again. Sarah has many gifts as a writer—heart, humor, and an eye for the beauty in the mundane, to name a few—so it was only a matter of time before that Dessen magic unleashed itself like a swarm of hummingbirds in her backyard (and yes, a few of those tiny creatures appear in this book!).
Change of Plans carries all of the Sarah Dessen trademarks we have come to expect: genuine characters; realistic and nuanced arcs; small but mighty moments of joy; an eccentric ensemble; and, of course, the BEST dialogue. Please enjoy this exchange between Lana and Ben as they take a ride in Finley’s mom’s rental car:
“I mean, this car doesn’t just have seat heat,” she pointed out. “There’s seat cooling, too! For a hot day!”
“Impressive,” Ben agreed.
“And,” she continued, “Four airbags. I could hit a tree and live!”
“Not necessarily,” he said.
“My chances would be good, though.”
Like all of her novels (with the exception of Dreamland, of course), Change of Plans isn’t simply a book. It’s a place you want to be, a world you want to soak up, a hang that you wish would never end.
Bonus Factor: Dessen Easter Eggs
Skip this section if you want to avoid spoilers on the Easter eggs!
I feel no shame in admitting that I get absolutely giddy when I spy an Easter egg from the Dessen-verse. There are some obvious ones, such as Finley living in Lakeview, and the book’s setting of North Lake (featured in The Rest of the Story), with mentions of the Tides and Calvander’s Motel. But y’all, we got a BIG ONE with this book. Yes, it’s true, another “Hate Spinnerbait!” has been unleashed!!! (And Owen gets a mention along with it.) Guess I need to send Ben a sticker.
Bonus Factor: Sisters
One of the things I enjoyed most about Change of Plans is that the adults aren’t just in the background. Finley’s mother, Catherine, and her sisters Liz and Casey are prominent characters, and their fraught relationship is front and center. Along with Finley, we learn about the sisters’ childhood piece by piece, each memory more fully forming Cat as a person beyond “Finley’s mom.” The sisters face the bittersweet task of packing up their family home before it sells to The Tides resort, and the dynamic between them is wonderfully complex. Also, shout-out to Liz’s (adult) daughter Anne, aficionado of self-help books and arguably the kookiest member of the entire crew.
Relationship Status: Reunited And It Feels So Good
Honestly, I’m not sure how I made it this long without getting to read a new book from my all-time fave YA author. But you better believe it was worth the wait! While all of the things I love about Sarah Dessen’s writing are on full display in Change of Plans, it still feels like a welcome shift in her bibliography. There is a gravity amidst the lakeside vibes, a sense of earning that happy ending by facing the hard shit. Perhaps I’m projecting the author’s journey onto her pages, or maybe I’m just thinking about my own life post-pandemic, but as someone who published their first novel 30 years ago, Sarah Dessen remains remarkably timely—yet timeless—in her storytelling.
Literary Matchmaking
Head into another post-graduation summer with Rachel Lynn Solomon’s top-notch contemporary, Today Tonight Tomorrow.
Ready for another engaging story about a control freak with a sudden change of summer plans? Pick up Morgan Matson’s The Unexpected Everything.
Travel to Europe for more mother-daughter time with Dana Schwartz’s And We’re Off.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. I received neither compensation nor cocktails for this review.
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