Once and For All Review

I now pronounce Once and For All as the perfect summer wedding book!

Once and For All by Sarah Dessen follows Louna, the cynic daughter of a wedding planner that tragically lost her first love. Amidst a crazy wedding season Louna meets Ambrose, a charming and somewhat annoying player, who joins her mother’s wedding planning team. Louna puts her heart on the line again when she makes a bet with Ambrose that she can go on multiple dates per week and that he can maintain the same girlfriend for seven weeks.

When I saw Sarah Dessen was releasing another book, I couldn’t contain my excitement! I discovered Sarah Dessen’s books and ever since, she’s remained my favorite author. Her books are an auto-buy for me and I pre-ordered this book a few months back. If you’ve seen other posts on my blog, you would know that I purchase most of my books from thrift stores. When I pre-order a book, then I definitely have high expectations. While Once and For All isn’t my favorite Sarah Dessen book, I definitely enjoyed it and would recommend anyone to run out and buy it!

I once saw Sarah Dessen’s books as about nothing, but about everything at the same time and I couldn’t agree more. Nothing truly remarkable happens to the characters in any of her books and any of her character’s stories could happen in real life. However, the messages in her books will resonate with all readers because at once in your life, you’ve probably felt like the characters in her books. Once and For All is no exception. While I can’t relate with every aspect of Louna’s story, I think a lot of readers will relate to opening up your heart again after tragedy and looking at love more positively. Like Sarah Dessen’s other heroines, Louna is extremely relatable and realistic.

Another important aspect of Sarah Dessen’s books are the relationships. While Once and For All doesn’t contain my OTP of Sarah Dessen’s books, I really liked Louna’s love interest in this book. Ambrose is very different from many of the other love interests in Sarah Dessen’s books. He’s a serial dater, smooth talker, and in Louna’s opinion, a “slightly annoying” person. I found myself constantly smiling and laughing at Ambrose throughout the novel and though he complimented Louna well. Ambrose was definitely a highlight of this book!

The final ingredient in a class Sarah Dessen book are the supporting characters. I think out of all the supporting characters in the book, William was my favorite. He was definitely different from Sarah Dessen’s other supporting characters which made him really stand out. Unfortunately, many of the other side characters in this book reminded me too much of characters from other books by Sarah Dessens. For example, Louna’s best friend seemed to be a mash-up of a few other characters, which made her forgettable. However, I did appreciate the bonus chapter on the end of the book which featured many of Sarah Dessen’s past characters!

I really enjoyed Once and For All and thought it was the perfect book to read in preparation for this coming wedding season. I had such high expectations for this book and was not disappointed! I give Once and For All by Sarah Dessen four out of five stars,

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