Keeping the Moon - Sarah Dessen

Keeping the Moon is about fifteen year old Colie who goes to stay with her Aunt Mira for the summer while her mom goes to Europe promoting her fitness line. When Colie was younger, her and her mom moved around a lot and were both fat. Her mom then decided a change was in order and became KiKi Sparks, face of a fitness movement.

Colie arrives in Colby and quickly finds that her Aunt Mira is very eccentric. She's an artist, loves yard sales, and nothing in her house works properly. She wonders why her aunt puts up with the people in town talking about her, because she knows first hand that all the snide remarks and mean comments can hurt no matter how much you try and fight it. She learns that Mira is really not bothered by it because she's happy with who she is.

During Colie's summer, she ends up getting a job at the Last Chance Bar and Grill and befriends her co-workers Isabel and Morgan, as well as Norman who lives in Mira's basement. Isabel has no patience for Colie until she overhears a classmate of Colie's saying mean things. As Colie begins spending time with Morgan and Isabel she blossoms into a young-woman who finds confidence and learns to stand up for herself. She also finds that she's attracted to Norman the more time she spends with him while he does her portrait.

Although I related to Colie in the fact that she wasn't comfortable with herself, I never felt a real connection with the character. Maybe it was because I was hurrying to read this book so I could reach my goal of 50 books read in 2009 (finished with 90 minutes left!) but even so, I found myself not really caring what happened with the character as I did in the last Dessen book I read. I also think it had something to do with just finishing Shiver earlier, that is a book that you need to digest for a day because it's just that good and not fair to the book that follows it.