Book Review: What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

Summary: Mclean's no stranger to moving. In the past 2 years, she has lived in four different places with her dad after her parents divorced. At each place, she takes on a new name and personality, whichever one she sees fit. Then, when it's time to leave, she packs up and leaves without even a goodbye. But once they move to Lakeview, she finds herself being Mclean again, forming new friends and relationships, which makes her even more confused than ever on who she is. Can she figure that out before it's time to yet again leave behind an old life and people without a goodbye? 


Review: I must say that when I picked up this book, I expected to be giving it 5 stars. The cover looks amazing and Sarah Dessen is one of my favorite authors but for me, this book just wasn't the same as her others. I really liked the originality of the story and the unique characters, but it sort of dragged on. This book is 400 pages, and Mclean (the main character) doesn't actually ended up being with the guy until the last 5 pages. And any time she spent with said guy, there were no sparks or chemistry, just little hints that they may or may not like each other. So as a romance, it kinda sucked. The major themes here were about family and knowing who you are as a person, so I was kind of let down since I was hoping for the same romances I've read of Sarah Dessen's before. And for being 400 pages long, not that many things really happened. Moments were sometimes dragged on and there was a lot of talk about emotion and feelings, but not as much action. I don't know, maybe it's been a while since I've last read some of Sarah Dessen's books and they were all actually like this, but I was sometimes bored and didn't find myself wanting to figure out what happens next like so many good books I've been reading lately. So overall, the plot and characters were really good, cute ideas, but the actual book fell short for Dessen's usual standards.