Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

To say that Auden West has led a sheltered life is a little bit of understatement. Possibly the worst thing about it is that she sheltered her own self...from her father's distant manner, her mother's constant analysis and judgement, her brother's wayward manner, and the friendships and relationships that made her uncomfortable. Now it's the summer before she begins college and that feeling of having missed something leads her to head to the beach for the summer to live with her father and his new young wife Heidi and her brand new baby sister Thisbe.

She should have known better. Heidi is not the perky person Auden remembers, Thisbe screams all the time, and of course her father is oblivious to it all, having shut himself in his office to work. Auden's insomniac ways lead her all over the roads and streets of the little town of Colby and she makes a ton of mistakes along the way, including getting a bit tipsy and hooking up with the very recent ex of one of the employees at her stepmom's boutique. That was an awkward situation to uncover. Soon enough, Auden runs into the only other lonely, insomniac resident of Colby and finds that there is more to life than academics and it is all just waiting to be experienced.

I LoVeD Along for the Ride! I believe it would be a decent read-a-like for Twilighters too! There is absolutely nothing of a paranormal nature going on with this but it is a slightly awkward girl who meets a dark, brooding guy with secrets of his own and the sweet stirrings of romance follow along kind of bumpily in their wake. I will definitely be reading another of Sarah Dessen's novels.