Tuesday 11 December 2018

Save the Date by Morgan Matson

Publication:June 5th 2018 by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers 

Goodreads Description:
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 favorite 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.

My thoughts:
Save the Date was a lighthearted, family orientated story with lots of hijinks but it just didn't live up to my expectations of a Morgan Matson book. I had fun reading for the most part but it is definitely my least favourite Morgan Matson book; it was just missing something.

This book was so funny with everything falling apart. It was actually ridiculous how everything that could go wrong went wrong. It was hilarious to me at the start but towards the end I was over it, it was too unrealistic and I knew what was going to happen. The hectic mess of everything falling apart was stressing me out too at times.

I also didn't like the main character Charlie. I usually love Morgan Matson's protagonists because I can see myself in them and they few real but Charlie was so annoying. She felt very young and naive and I could relate to her at all. Her obsession with her brother's friend, Jesse, drove me mad. She was so blinded by her childhood crush. Her attitude towards her brother's girlfriend threw me off too; she was very cold to her. And Charlie was such a bad friend to her best friend. I felt like I was reading about a 13 year old.

While Save the Date is about a wedding it is not romance heavy at all. The blurb was misleading- I expected more of a focus on Jesse and the wedding planners nephew and was sitting around waiting for something to happen. I love Morgan Matson's books for their cute romances and love interests but the 'romance' was a tiny sub plot in this book. I was a bit disappointed about it.

I loved the focus on familial relationships though! The Grants are a big family and it was so much fun reading all the different dynamics between brother's and sisters and parents. I loved all the siblings interactions; they were so much fun and full of banter and bickering which is exactly like me and my siblings.

The plot felt a bit like this was the 'before' of the real story, of that makes sense. I felt like this was all leading up to the actual story. The plot was also very predictable because of everything going wrong I just started assuming it would go wrong. 

I really liked the message about putting people on a pedestal and building them up into something they're not in our minds and how that stops us from seeing them as just people like everyone else. 

I loved the little cameo of characters from The Unexpected Everything! 

Save the Date is long but fast to get through. It has some very sweet family moments but it's not a cute contemporary romance like Morgan Matson's other books. It ended up being my least favourite book from her.

Thanks for reading,

A :)

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