Save the Date

Set against the backdrop of a disastrous wedding weekend, SAVE THE DATE follows youngest sibling Charlie who couldn’t be more excited to have her siblings back in their childhood home as they prepare for their sister Linnie’s wedding. Charlie is dreading all of the changes happening in her life: the sale of their home, choosing a college to attend (without her best friend by her side), and her mother’s world-famous comic strip coming to an end. All she wants is a perfect weekend together as a family once again, but around every corner is chaos and another thing that is bound to go wrong. There is a runaway wedding planner, family member drama, unexpected plus-ones, a dog on loan for the weekend, a neighbor with a grudge, and a childhood crush that has decided to take an interest (finally), just to name a few things in the mix. Thankfully, there is a cute wedding planner assistant there to help put things back together, and sweet family moments that make it all worth it. There are so many reasons to love SAVE THE DATE. Morgan Matson does a fantastic job at portraying family dynamics and slowly budding relationships, and truly is a force to be reckoned with in the YA world. If she isn’t already, Matson belongs in the YA contemporary hall of fame. Charlie is grasping at every bit of familiar she can; she yearns to have her siblings and family all together in their home, just like when they were growing up. She is in denial that the house is sold and she must move on to a new stage of her life this coming year as she transitions into college. She is still obsessed with her brother’s best friend Jesse, who she has loved since she was little, and is clinging to her idea of him even as he becomes a reality in her life. As the pieces of this perfect wedding weekend starts to fall apart, Charlie is continuously made to confront her preference for the past and how this might actually be a bad thing. She grows so much over the course of three days, and that’s why I loved her character. The Grant family was honestly so much fun to get to know. Five siblings in all: Linnie (the bride), Danny, J.J., Mike, and Charlie (plus Rodney, their brother-in-law to be). They all have unique personalities, fun nicknames, and interesting stories to tell about their shared childhood growing up in a chaotic family that was turned into the perfect family in Grant Central Station (Their mother’s comic strip). I loved that we got to know each and every member of the Grant family, and that they didn’t feel like minor characters. I romance felt secondary to the family elements, but still was well done and fully explored. One romantic interest starts with a bang, and stays throughout the story, while the other is built up slowly over the course of the weekend. I loved how Morgan did the romance in this story. SAVE THE DATE was wonderful, and I would highly recommend you pick it up for yourself!

3.5 crowns This book...was a bit of a messy experience for me? Which I mean, fits so well, since the Grants were a little messy and poor Linnie's wedding weekend was a total mess (however, in the best rom com kind of way). This book had me teetering between Full On Annoyance and OMG This Is Great. But I seriously couldn't stop reading it either way???? I think one of my biggest issues with the characters. I had a lot of beef with Charlie for about 5/8 of the book? Like, she was so selfish and focused on just here. Yes, there is a big change around and some redemption arcs, but it took a while to get there. She was the girl that I needed to root for, but I honestly just wanted things to go wrong in the book because that was the entertaining part. I couldn't deal with a lot of her stuff - especially with how she treated Brooke. I get this wasn't part of the program and she wanted to hang with your brother, but it wasn't any excuse to treat poor Brooke (who legit was my favorite character of the novel so I don't know how to deal with this). Lol, but legit Brooke and Waffles were my favorite characters which is sad since Waffles is a dog and Brooke was the poor girlfriend of one of the brothers that got left behind. Also Bill. I liked Bill. And maybe even Will! OH, Rodney and his parents was cool beans, too. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the Grant family. Like, I thought they had some interesting dynamics, but I didn't really see quite the draw? Yes, it's totally a messy and realistic family, but I never really connected with the family unit. It felt like they were a clique that I wasn't a part of and didn't understand. I thought they were better at the end - the GMA interview really redeemed a lot for me - but I had some issues with them as a whole. This was probably the biggest issue that I had with the book. I felt like the characters just made me really annoyed and I had to set down the book a few times to decompress from them. However, there were a lot of good points as well. I really liked the comedy aspects of the book. I think it made me laugh out loud twice? Which is BIG for a book since I never laugh out loud for anything. And there were some witty twists and turns (some I predicted, some I did not), and I thought that it honestly was like a fantastic romantic comedy that I was watching play out. I did really enjoy a lot of the hijinks and I think the middle third of the book was all I needed from this book to make me feeling good. The end did leave me with a pleasant contemporary afterglow. Also, I think the pacing was really good. It did seem to go on a little long, but I think overall it was pretty well done. I liked how everything came together, and dramatic moments happened when they needed to be. Matson is definitely a talented contemporary writer. Overall, this wasn't quite the summer contemporary adorable cheesy goodness that I was looking for, but it still had some good moments. I think the latter part of the book really brought it up for me since I had a lot of issues in the front half of the book. There were some good characters, but a lot of the main ones rubbed me the wrong way. It might be nice for a light read, but there could be some annoyance involved...unless it was exceedingly high expectations again. If so, OOPS. 3.5 crowns and a Jasmine rating!

Great quality. Can’t remember if I should’ve been expecting it to be signed but either way it was a pleasant surprise.(I pre-ordered).

I just love Matson, she writes such fun and cute contemporaries.

Morgan Matson is one of my all time favorite authors and so far I've loved all of her books. As in all of her previous novels, the characters were well written, easy to fall in love with and realistic. The thing is though, that after a while the books become kind of predictable and repetetive. It was a really nice book and I will read it again, but it would be nice to be surprised by a character development or a story line from time to time.

Muy buen librero, el mejor de Morgan Matson creo que es The Unexpected Everything pero este también me gustó

Fue un libro tierno pero todo el tiempo sentí que esto era una película y no un libro. La protagonista no es de mis favoritas y hubo momentos en los que me desesperó.