More than the love story, I liked Along for the Ride for all the important things that Auden learns about the importance of having friendship around her in her life. She learns about the people in Colby, learns to see past the first, instinctive judgments, and learns about herself and her heart and her strengths in the meantime. Definitely along the same general ideas that Dessen addresses in The Truth about Forever - overachieving girl meets rebel boy and makes new girlfriends who help her grow and blossom into who she's meant to be - but I think the magic comes from all the varied and crazy situations and learning experiences said girl and boy and friends go through to get to their final destination that makes the stories in two books, and the half I've read so far of Someone Like You fresh and memorable and different. :))