This Lullaby

This Lullaby, a romance novel by Sarah Dessen, features main character Remy Starr, an eighteen-year-old who struggles to have faith in love after her mother's many failed marriages. The book takes place the summer before Remy leaves for college, and as the novel progresses, Remy learns not only how to trust her boyfriend Dexter, but also how to trust herself enough to finally let herself fall in love.

The book begins with news of Remy's mother's impending fifth marriage to a man named Don Davis. Don owns a car dealership; he meets Remy's mother, Barbara when she and Remy visit the dealership to buy a new car. Barbara, a serial monogamist, often gives her heart away to men who don't deserve it. Because of that, Remy has taken an opposing view, choosing to break up with boys after only a few weeks dating or at the first sign of anything slightly off-color. For Remy and her brother, Chris, Don is another man in the long line of stepfathers they acquire and then promptly lose. He is a bizarre man, who collects violent and sexually explicit artwork and leaves pyramids of empty Ensure cans scattered around the house. Remy and Chris are hopeful that this marriage will also be short-lived.

The action begins when Remy meets Dexter, a musician in a local band called the Truth Squad, at Don's car dealership. Dexter is not Remy's type at all – he's social, a little awkward, lanky, and incredibly romantic. For cynical Remy, who rehearses her thorough break-up speeches with would-be boyfriends after a few weeks of casual dates, Dexter is all wrong. However, Dexter is persistent, and as he continues to woo her, Remy realizes that she can't stop thinking about him. Her friends Chloe, Lissa, and Jess don't understand what Remy is thinking when she chooses not to break-up with Dexter on her usual schedule.



Remy is startled by Dexter's emotional honesty and sweetness. For Remy, who sees everyone around her delusional in love – her mother, Don, her friend Lissa who has adored all of her boyfriends, even the absolute losers. Despite Dexter's sweet nature, Remy can't totally shake her old ways. Just before Dexter is about to tell Remy he loves her, he overhears Remy saying that she sees Dexter as just a summer fling, nothing more. The two promptly break-up.

As Remy and Dexter part ways, there is both drama and good news in the Starr household. Barbara and Don get married, but only a few weeks after the wedding, he is caught having an affair with Patty, his secretary. Barbara is devastated again. Remy can't help but feel that her mother has trapped herself again. Remy starts dating another guy, but she doesn't care much about him – instead, she finds herself thinking about Dexter more and more the longer they're apart. Just as Remy is more confused than ever, hope appears. Chris, Remy's older brother, reveals that he is engaged to his fiancée, Jennifer Anne. Remy begins to realize that making a relationship work is both possible and more complicated than she realized.

At the end of the novel, Remy realizes that her love for Dexter trumps her fear about romance and the dangers of falling in love. Remy dumps “Perfect Paul,” her unappealing rebound, returning to Dexter. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger; it is unclear whether Dexter and Remy will stay together after Remy leaves for college.



This Lullaby is one of many books in Sarah Dessen's universe and allusions are made to other books in the series in various ways. Many characters are crossovers, and the bands featured in the book appear in her other books. Remy and Dexter appear backstage in Just Listen, and both Truth Squad and Paul's competing band Spinnerbait appear in Saint Anything, The Moon and More, and Once and For All. Remy and Dexter also appear as a couple in Someone Like You, confirming that they do, in fact, stay together after Remy leaves for college.

Sarah Dessen, from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, writes romance novels for teens and adults. Her first book, That Summer, was published in 1996. She has won an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults award, has been a New York Times bestseller many times over, and has won the School Library Journal Best Book Award for her novels Someone Like You and Keeping the Moon. Dessen has written fourteen books. Her latest, Once and For All, was published in 2017.