Save the Date by Morgan Matson

SYNOPSIS

Charlie Grant’s older sister is getting married this weekend at their family home, and Charlie can’t wait—for the first time in years, all four of her older siblings will be under one roof. Charlie is desperate for one last perfect weekend, before the house is sold and everything changes. The house will be filled with jokes and games and laughs again. Making decisions about things like what college to attend and reuniting with longstanding crush Jesse Foster—all that can wait. She wants to focus on making the weekend perfect.

The only problem? The weekend is shaping up to be an absolute disaster.

There’s the unexpected dog with a penchant for howling, house alarm that won’t stop going off, and a papergirl with a grudge. There are the relatives who aren’t speaking, the (awful) girl her favourite brother brought home unannounced, and a missing tuxedo.

Not to mention the neighbor who seems to be bent on sabotage and a storm that is bent on drenching everything. The justice of the peace is missing. The band will only play covers. The guests are all crazy. And the wedding planner’s nephew is unexpectedly, distractingly…cute.

Over the course of three ridiculously chaotic days, Charlie will learn more than she ever expected about the family she thought she knew by heart. And she’ll realize that sometimes, trying to keep everything like it was in the past means missing out on the future.

Synopsis from Goodreads

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PERSONAL REVIEW

I love weddings and I love Morgan Matson, so this was such an exciting book for me to get my hands on! I find that Matson’s books always have really great characters, she knows how to create a story that is more than just the boy meets girl clichés, and she does a great job really grounding these stories and these characters into the present day.

All About Family
Matson’s books are usually about personal relationships, but not just romantic ones, and this one is mainly about the different family relationships. I find that in a lot of YA contemporary fiction, authors dedicate their books to the romantic relationship that the main character has. I really like that Matson’s books always make a point of looking at other important relationships in peoples lives: their friendships, their family, and learning about themselves. It was great that Save the Date gives us the chance to look at Charlie’s relationship with her family, but both the negative and positive aspects of it. Charlie really grows as a character over the course of this wedding weekend, and I really liked that we got to see her interact with so many different people. From her siblings, to her parents, to the guy she has a crush on, and to the wedding assistant, we see Charlie develop in each of these relationships.

Team Mike!
I was completely Team Mike this entire book. One drawback for me is that I don’t feel like there was ever a resolution between Mike and his mom, and I don’t think she ever really understood or acknowledges what she had done wrong. What she did was such an invasion of privacy and I honestly think I would’ve reacted similar to how Mike did if it happened to me. I don’t quite understand how no one else seem to have a problem with it. I completely sided with him, I understood what he was feeling, and I was really confused that no one else seemed to get it. Yup, I’m definitely Team Mike in this family feud!

Cameo by Andie and Clark!
I loved that we got to see Andie and Clark again! I’m a huge fan of when authors throw us characters or events or places that we’ve seen in their previous books. Even if books are not specifically sequels, I like when there is that connection that tells us that these books we love are happening in the same universe, town, etc. Plus, it was really great to know what was happening with Andie; we got to know her in The Unexpected Everything and I LOVE that we were given a brief cameo to tell us what her life is like now (and that her and Clarke and still together).

I really liked this book; I thought it was fun, it was a classic Matson’s story, and I loved the characters that she gave us in this one (J.J. alone would have made this book for me). It takes place over a weekend, but it didn’t feel like we were being rushed along or missing things. There was a great flow to the story; I could really feel the stress from the characters and do not know how I would’ve handled the things that Charlie had to deal with! Overall, I’m really happy that I read this and that I got the chance to meet Morgan Matson in person and tell her how much I love her books!

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FINAL RATING: 4.5/5