Along for the Ride

Along for the Ride is a novel by Sarah Dessen. It was released on June 16, 2009. The novel focuses on Auden West, who never sleeps at night due to her parents' continuous fighting when she was in high school. Before heading off to college, Auden decides to spend her summer before college with her father, his wife and their new baby. Although Auden is at first reluctant, she comes to really like her stepmother and half-sister. Auden also ends up spending her nights making up for her lost childhood with Eli, a loner and insomniac with an intriguing past. She learns that second chances are possible and questions if people can truly change. Plot summary Auden West is an academically accomplished girl who didn't get the chance to enjoy the activities young children often got to do (such as riding a bike) when she was a child. After being accepted into Defriese University upon graduating high school, Auden is not sure on how to spend her summer. After receiving a package from her brother Hollis who is touring Europe, she decides to take up her father's offer to spend her summer before college in the beach town Colby. When she arrives, she hopes she can have some bonding time with her father. However, she is disappointed to find that that will not be the case since her father spends all his time working on his novel. One night Auden heads down to the Tip, a stretch of beach where all the teens hang out. At the Tip she runs into a guy named Jake, with whom she almost ends up having a one-night stand with. Feeling guilty and wrong about what she was doing, Auden leaves for home. Early in the morning, she helps out her young stepmother Heidi by supervising her newborn half-sister, Thisbe, while Heidi rests. Auden also helps Heidi run an errand for Heidi's boutique named Clementine's. There she meets one of Heidi's employees, Maggie. Maggie's friends Leah and Esther walk into the store and reveal to Maggie that her ex-boyfriend Jake (who she is still in love with) hooked up with a girl the previous night, though they don't know that it was Auden yet. Once they figure out who he hooked up with, Auden ends up briefly explaining to Maggie that she has no relationship with Jake whatsoever. The next day Auden's family decides to head down to the Last Chance diner for dinner. It is clear that Auden's father is irritated since he does not want to leave the house so he can finish his book.