Just Listen

Title: Just Listen
Author: Sarah Dessen
Rating: 5/5
Summary: Last year, Annabel was "the girl who has everything"—at least that's the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf's Department Store.This year, she's the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen's help,maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.


My Thoughts: Just Listen is one of my favorite books hands down. I could read it again and again. Annabel Greene has had the farthest thing from a perfect life. Her sister Whitney has an eating disorder and the household seems to center around her needs. Her other sister Kirsten is away at Collage. Annabel is the only one left out of her two sisters that still models. She wants to quit, but doesn't have the heart to tell her mother. On the outside you could say she has “a great life.” But Annabel is hiding something from her family and the rest of the world. Her family has no idea that Annabel is hording a horrible secret. She seems fine to them and they have a lot on their plate with Whitney. Annabel has pushed away her problem into a small corner of her mind and she doesn't want to face it head-on, then she meets Owen. Owen changes everything. He loves music and always tells the truth. He sees Annabel differently then she sees herself. After a fight with Owen Annabelle finally hears her heart. “I understood now. This voice, the one that had been trying to get my attention all this time, calling out to me, begging me to hear it—it wasn't Will's. It was mine “