This Lullaby is a 2002 young adult novel by Sarah Dessen.
Remy Starr, after eighteen years spent watching her Serial Spouse mother fall in and out of love, has realized that long-term commitment is unrealistic. Working from a mathematical formula, she enters relationships based on the principle that they will never last, leaving her free and clear to leave for college in the fall with no attachments. Her rules: never get too serious, and never date a musician. When a series of encounters with Dexter (a, yes, musician) and his friends forces her to reconsider her rules, Remy must face the cold, hard truth: maybe she doesn't know everything about love.
This novel contains examples of:
- Betty and Veronica: Dexter plays the Betty to a couple of Veronicas throughout.
- Catchphrase: Truth Squad's "Hate Spinnerbait!"
- Character Overlap: Scarlett from Someone Like You appears as the manager of a local coffee shop.
- Contrived Coincidence: Remy's mother has been married an absurdly high amount of times. She starts to bond with her love interest, Dexter, because his mother has been married even more times.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Remy does this throughout but doesn't acknowledge it.
- Love at First Sight: Dexter immediately falls for Remy and promptly tells her so. She, however, needs a lot more convincing.
- Maybe Ever After: Remy and Dexter's relationship status is left unresolved when she leaves for college at the end. (However, they reappear in Just Listen to give you a definitive answer._
- Promotion to Parent: Remy's friend Jess is one for her little brothers.
- Parent with New Paramour: Remy's mother, who is a serial bride.
- Really Gets Around: Remy. She inherited it from her mother, who has been married five times.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: This Lullaby is a Gender Flip, with Remy as the savvy girl and Dexter as the energetic guy.
- Serious Business: Ted is incredibly fussy over musical lyrics, and pretty much anything related to the band in general.
- Shipper on Deck: Lissa for Remy and Johnathan note , but Remy contests this doesn't count because Lissa "likes everyone".
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Chloe and Jess, although at first they start out as Headbutting Heroes.
