ARC Review: Save the Date by Morgan Matson (+UK giveaway)

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Save the Date
Series: None
Author: Morgan Matson
Published June 14th 2018 by Simon & Schuster Childrens Books

Goodreads 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 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.
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

Ever since I read The Unexpected Everything in 2016, I've fallen in love with Morgan Matson's style of writing, and couldn't wait to get my hands on Save the Date, so much so that I've ended up with two copies (be on the lookout for a giveaway on my twitter account). Save the Date, covers the span of a weekend were everything that could go wrong, seems to do so. Charlie's older sister is getting married, and is doing so at the family home. The only issue is that that home is being sold, so they've had to move up the wedding, and everyone has had to chip in and help. Charlie and her 4 siblings always had a strong family dynamic, which was helped, and hindered, in part to the fact that since they were children their lives have been played out in the newspaper through their mother's cartoon strip, Grant Central Station. However, one of her brother's, Mike, grew angry about his life being shown to everyone, and for a long time now has had no contact with the family, but this weekend will change it all. First of all, the wedding planner has ran off, and they've had to start from scratch the day before to get everything perfect, her favourite brother Danny brings home a surprise girlfriend who is getting in the way, Mike has brought a black cloud with him, and nothing is going right, at all. However, we do get to see some true family connections, and learn that everything going wrong might've been perfect all along.

 This book is more about family than it is about romantic relationships. As the youngest of 5, Charlie has had the pressure of her elder siblings achievements on her, and it's come time for her to pick a college, and the choice of her ideal school is marred by the fact that's where her estranged brother Mike goes, and she honestly doesn't want anything to do with him. So when he turns up at the wedding, which was unexpected to say the least, that threw a spanner in the works, as did his claim that he wouldn't be staying at home, but instead at his friend Jesse's house, who just so happens to be Charlie's crush. Awkward. As the book progressed, we get to see that Charlie has somewhat idealised her family, using the old comic strips of her pseudo self and confused it with reality. As she comes to term with the fact that her family isn't perfect, she finds herself understanding herself more, and understanding why each and everyone of the 7 Grant's have kept stuff bottled up for so long, and this weekend was the catalyst for it all to come to the surface.

 Thought the theme of family is the main part of this book, that's not to say there isn't any romantic parts to it. As I've already said, Charlie has had a crush on Jesse, Mike's best friend, for some time now, and we slowly learn more about their past encounters, and though he initially seemed like a good fit for Charlie, we learn that he's really not, and, even better, so does Charlie, and she knows she can do better than him. Luckily, we have Bill waiting in the wings, who has been helping his uncle deal with the fiasco that was left by the original wedding planner. Bill and Charlie are thrown together to get things back on track, and though there is never a proper romantic interlude between them, the chemistry is there, and I'm hoping in a future Matson book we will see them, again, like we did with Andie and Clark from The Unexpected Everything.

 Though I didn't love this one as much as I have others by the author, I seriously enjoyed it, and am looking forward to seeing what she has next for us.
Dates Read:
June 16, 2018

 Rating
5 Stars

Giveaway


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I'm a book lover and teacher from Durham, England.

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