Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
3.5 OUT OF 5 STARS.

“It was unrealistic to expect to be constantly in the happiest place. In real life, you’re lucky just to be always somewhere nearby.”

Goodreads Description: Peyton, Sydney’s charismatic older brother, has always been the star of the family, receiving the lion’s share of their parents’ attention and—lately—concern. When Peyton’s increasingly reckless behavior culminates in an accident, a drunk driving conviction, and a jail sentence, Sydney is cast adrift, searching for her place in the family and the world. When everyone else is so worried about Peyton, is she the only one concerned about the victim of the accident? Enter the Chathams, a warm, chaotic family who run a pizza parlor, play bluegrass on weekends, and pitch in to care for their mother, who has multiple sclerosis. Here Sydney experiences unquestioning acceptance. And here she meets Mac, gentle, watchful, and protective, who makes Sydney feel seen, really seen, for the first time.

I first want to start off by saying this was my first Sarah Dessen read, so I really had no idea what to expect from her. I’ve noticed that so many people really love her books. I was so on the fence about what the rating for this book should be. I finally settled on a 3.5 stars. It took awhile for me to really get into it. It started off really slow for me in the beginning, but slowly started to get better and more enjoyable.

I liked Dessen’s writing style and how she wrote the conversations between the characters. I thought that was so well done and I really enjoyed that. The storyline was good and I liked the idea behind it. I felt like it could have been a little better though. Something that really bothered me a lot was Sydney’s mom. I wanted to strangle her throughout the entire book. She seemed kind of crazy and she would not give Sydney the time of day or allow her to even get a word out of her mouth! It was SUPER annoying and the fact that the dad just sat there and didn’t speak up was just as bad. I did not like Sydney’s parents AT ALL!

Ames was such a creepy character and I hated the scenes that he was involved in. He rubbed me the wrong way from the very beginning. Honestly, I think my huge hatred for Ames and Sydney’s mom is what made me not really like the book as much as I would have. They just irked me and annoyed me so much! I really enjoyed Sydney and I was so glad for that! I swear I’ve been hating main characters lately, lol! I felt so bad for her throughout the book and I am so glad she had her friends Layla and Mac there for her. Layla and Mac were such awesome friends and Mac, oh Mac…total book crush! He can bring me pizza any day! I don’t think Sydney would have gotten through everything without them. I also ended up really liking Peyton as the story went on.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and glad I gave it a chance. My kind of low rating is mostly because some of the characters were just way too much for me and made it not as enjoyable as it could have been. I also really wanted more from the ending, but I can understand why it ended the way that it did. I think I will definitely give some of Sarah’s other books a chance.

“The future was one thing that could never be broken, because it had not yet had the chance to be anything.”

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think? Have you read any other Dessen books? Let me know what some of your favorites are and that you think I should check out!

I am off to work! I hope you all have an awesome day! 🙂