Save the Date by Morgan Matson

Released: 1st July 2018

Published by: Simon and Schuster

Genre: YA Contemporary

Source: Publisher

Pages: 300

My Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Goodreads | QBD | Booktopia

Charlie Grant tries to keep her life as normal as possible. Hanging out with her best friend, pining for Jesse Foster - who she’s loved since she was twelve - and generally flying under the radar as much as she can.

But sometimes normal is just another word for stuck, and this weekend that's all going to change. Not only will everyone be back home for her sister’s wedding, but she’s also juggling: - a rented dog that just won't stop howling - an unexpectedly hot wedding-coordinator’s nephew - her favourite brother bringing home his HORRIBLE new girlfriend - fear that her parents’ marriage is falling apart - and the return to town of the boy she’s loved practically all her life…

Over the course of four days Charlie will learn there's so much more to each member of her family than she imagined, even herself, and that maybe letting go of the things she's been holding on tightest to can help her find what really keeps them together.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Australia for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

If there's one thing to know about Morgan Matson's books, it's that they're almost guaranteed to leave you grinning. In Save The Date, she's delivered another fun and endearing YA contemporary novel that takes the melodrama of wedding planning in its stride, with hectic family dynamics and the thrill of a crush in between. This is the perfect read for something light that still has a worthwhile message at its core about reacting to unanticipated situations and learning more about yourself as you look towards the possibilities in the future.

The pacing of the book manages to fit quite a lot into the course of four days surrounding Charlie's sister's wedding. With the original wedding planner no longer an option just a day out from the actual event, almost everything can go wrong. Add into that the big family dramas and there is a storyline that reads like movies with the same themes, except here there's even more of a cute twist. Morgan Matson always develops all her characters well, so it was definitely enjoyable to read about the Grant's and how they fit into the picture - the list of the wedding party at the beginning helped! This novel is one filled with so much energy, adorable moments and some heartfelt lessons too.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you're a fan of Morgan Matson's other brilliant releases like The Unexpected Everything or Since You've Been Gone, you will absolutely adore Save The Date! For a fun and well-developed story with heart, this book ticks all the boxes. 

Morgan Matson is a New York Times bestselling author. She received her MFA in writing for children from the New School and was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start author for her first book, Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, which was also recognized as an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults. Her second book, Second Chance Summer, won the California State Book Award. She lives in Los Angeles.

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Check out the rest of the blog tour here!

Pre-Release Tour: Guest Post from Morgan Matson - 5 Unexpected Things about The Unexpected Everything

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Releasing: 1st May 2016

Published by: HarperCollins

Genre: YA Contemporary

Source: Publisher

Simon and Schuster | QBD | Booktopia

Andie has a plan and she always sticks to the plan. Future? A top tier medical school. Dad? Avoid as much as possible (which isn't that hard considering he's a Congressman and never around).

 Friends? Palmer, Bri, and Toby - pretty much the most awesome people on the planet, who needs anyone else? Relationships? No one's worth more than three weeks. So it's no surprise she's got her summer all planned out too. Until a political scandal cancels her summer pre-med internship, and lands both her and Dad back in the same house for the first time in years.

Suddenly she's doing things that aren't Andie at all - working as a dog walker, doing an epic scavenger hunt with her dad and maybe, just maybe, letting the super cute Clark in closer than expected. Palmer, Bri and Toby tell her to embrace all the chaos, but here's the thing ... can she?

Morgan Matson always knows how to write compelling YA contemporaries with a cute side, but also with real heart. I adored both Amy and Roger's Epic Detour and Since You've Been Gone - so to see that she had another book coming out soon, I was pretty excited!

 

So, to kick off this pre-release tour and give you some more reasons to also be adding it to your TBR, here's Morgan Matson with a few things that were unexpected in writing this book.

Guest Post by Morgan Matson: 5 Unexpected Things about The Unexpected Everything

1) It did not have a title for the longest time.  I had a really hard time titling Since You’ve Been Gone too, and I only came up with that one when I heard the Kelly Clarkson song playing and was like, Wait just a minute… But we went down to the wire with The Unexpected Everything.  Now, though, I can’t imagine it being  called anything else.

2) Bertie, the main dog in the book, is a Great Pyrenees.  He was originally a goldendoodle, but we found when we started looking at dog models (a real thing!) for the US cover, the goldendoodles didn’t photograph as well. We wanted  something…fluffier.  So Bertie became a big white fluffy dog instead.

3) It’s my longest book so far! It was just really important to me that the three sides of Andie’s life – friendship, family, and romance – all be equally balanced, with none more important than the other. I wanted them all to drive the story equally.  My editor and I kept looking at places where it could be cut, but while we trimmed a little, the way the subplots wove together made it resistant to cutting. So it’s long! But I’m so happy that nothing got shortchanged – because life isn’t just one main plot with a tidy subplot.  It’s usually everything, all at once.

4) From the beginning, I wanted to write a relationship book.  I’d been getting a lot of emails and tweets from readers who were mad my characters finally got together on the last page.  And so I wanted to show a real relationship between Andie and Clark through this book – the falling for each other and occasional fights, and bringing someone into your group of friends.  I’d never really done that before, and I was really happy to finally get to do it.

5) Andie’s friends – Bri, Toby, and Palmer – were so important to the story, for me.  I was part of a group of girls in high school (there were six of us) and I realized I hadn’t told that story in any of my books yet.  A lot of what happens with the friends is based on, or inspired by, my own friendships.  When I was in high school my friends and I spent tons of time at our local diner, talking for hours, just hanging out.  I wanted to try and capture that feeling in a book.

Other stops on the tour coming up!

Hope you all get to reading The Unexpected Everything - I know I will be! 

Review: Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
Released: 4th May 2010
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Genre: YA Contemporary
Source: Publisher
Pages: 344
My Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Goodreads | Bookworld | Book Depository

Amy Curry is not looking forward to her summer. Her mother decided to move across the country and now it's Amy's responsibility to get their car from California to Connecticut. The only problem is, since her father died in a car accident, she isn't ready to get behind the wheel. Enter Roger. An old family friend, he also has to make the cross-country trip - and has plenty of baggage of his own. The road home may be unfamiliar - especially with their friendship venturing into uncharted territory - but together, Amy and Roger will figure out how to map their way.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Australia for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Knowing it had a good reputation, I had bought the audio version of this book for one of my best friends as a birthday present. After hearing that she loved it, I couldn't wait to start it myself, and definitely wasn't disappointed. Amy and Roger's Epic Detour is a road-trip novel at its best, and Morgan Matson has created realistic characters who are going on a personal journey as much as a physical one. Travelling across America on what was meant to be a simple errand, Amy and Roger's story spans much further than that - and it's on their epic detour that all the fun happens. 

"So I think we have to be open to what happens", he said. "We can't know exactly what's coming."

I loved Morgan Matson's Since You've Been Gone, so I definitely knew that she could write an awesome YA contemporary, and this book really impressed me as well. After the death of her father, Amy's mother who has moved to Connecticut in their new house is someone she barely talks to anymore, and her brother Charlie is in rehab. There's a lot about family dynamics that come through in the book at certain points, especially during the flashbacks. These small glimpses into the past when her father was still alive gave the necessary background into how the members of the family had developed as a whole. This has more depth than a fluffy-contemporary, but at the end of the day - it was a heartwarming story.

What gave this book an edge over others in its genre was the scrapbook element where Amy and Roger both put photos of where they've been, the music playlists they've listened to, and other interesting facts about the states they passed through. All of the receipts from the diners they visited and hotel rooms made everything seem more realistic and road-trip-like. It was refreshing to have these sections that break up the text and add to the experience. What I did enjoy about Matson's writing style was that it wasn't too heavy on long-winded descriptions, but instead focused on the dialogue. Amy and Roger had a few awkwardly funny moments, and their own bond inevitably strengthened as the drive went on. Aside from the two main characters, the secondary ones were also given some time, and had their own quirks. What makes this story multifaceted are the sub-plots that weave together with the goal of the road-trip itself to create a novel that I didn't want to end.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour is a YA contemporary that I wholeheartedly recommend. It's cute without being overly 'fluffy', and serious enough with an ending that will warm your heart. If you want a feel-good story to lighten your day, then this is for you!

Genie's Weekly News (13)

Hi everyone and welcome to my weekly blog feature to recap the week with bookish news and what to expect coming up! So without further ado...

*Reading Right Now*




I am FINALLY reading this and prepared for all the feels. 

*Previous Posts*

• Blog Tour: You and Everything After by Ginger Scott + GIVEAWAY
• Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-me Authors from 2014  
• Waiting on Wednesday: The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things  
• Reader's Choice (1): All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
• Loony Blurbs (4) 

*Recommendation of the Week*

Gabrielle Tozer has done it again with this hilarious, enjoyable and perfect piece of YA contemporary which is just as good, if not better than its predecessor. If you haven't read The Intern yet, what are you waiting for!?


*From The Interwebs*

• Epic Reads via Buzzfeed posted about the Best YA Cover Designs of 2014
• Kelly @ Diva Booknerd recapped some of the worst covers of the year
• Kara @ Diary of a Teen Writer shared more of her photography
• Emily @ The Loony Teen Writer revealed creepy and crimey books coming out in 2015
• Bec @ Reader's Wonderland talked about the hardest decision you'll ever make in your life

*Haul*

Thank you to the lovely Simon and Schuster Australia for this review copy!

• Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson - I really enjoyed Since You've Been Gone and this one looks like a cute contemporary perfect for holiday reading. 

*Movie Reactions*

Confession: No I hadn't read the book before seeing the movie, but it did make for a good film to watch on a Friday night. In all, as expected it had an emotional storyline and at the end there was a twist that although I should have seen coming, I didn't. By the final scenes I was shedding a few tears, and while I'm not sure it's something I would take the time to re-watch, I still really enjoyed it.

*Sneak Peek at Next Week*

I'll be posting my review for Faking It by Gabrielle Tozer who's also sharing a confessional post, a review and giveaway for True Calling by Siobhan Davis and more!

Review: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
Released: 6th May 2014
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Genre: YA Contemporary
Source: Publisher
Pages: 449
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Goodreads | Bookworld | Book Depository

Emily is about to take some risks and have the most unexpected summer ever in this new novel from the bestselling author of Second Chance Summer and Amy and Roger's Epic Detour.

 Before Sloane, Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, and she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—someone who yanks you out of your shell. But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list with thirteen bizarre tasks that Emily would never try. But what if they can lead her to Sloane? Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough. Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a stranger? Wait…what? Getting through Sloane’s list will mean a lot of firsts, and with a whole summer ahead of her—and with the unexpected help of the handsome Frank Porter—who knows what she’ll find.

Go Skinny Dipping? Um…

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Australia for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Morgan Matson's Since You've Been Gone is definitely a YA contemporary read that takes you on a journey. Tackling a list left by her best friend that simply disappears, Emily Hughes who had long been in Sloane's shadow finally stepped out of the dark and into her own as she becomes braver, bolder and more of an individual with each of the thirteen challenges. It was enjoyable to read about her story and how she changed as a person with every new experience. Existing fans of this author are sure to love this new release, and I'm sure it will attract some new attention as well.

One of my favourite aspects of the novel was Emily's overall character development. You could tell that in the beginning her identity was tied up with Sloane's and the two came as a 'package deal' per se. By the end it was evident that she had truly become her own person and was confident enough within herself and the new friends she had made to be happy. Of course, the list left by Sloane in the mysterious envelope was what spurred this change on, and with most of the chapters being based on Emily attempting to tick off the items, the story flowed really well. I feel like by the time I finished the book I had gotten a good sense of the essence of Emily's character who was complex and interesting. Sloane, although not a major part of the book for the most part, also had her time to shine in some of the flashbacks and seeing how her and Emily's friendship developed added further depth and background to the story. What the author revealed about her true nature accounted for a lot of her seemingly confident and flamboyant behaviour, showing that even the most perfect-seeming people are not without their own issues.

This story wasn't just about these two though, and in fact the secondary characters were similarly well thought-out and had their own role to play. Emily's family for a start with her two playwright parents and a quirky brother had a presence, and her friends Collins, Dawn and Frank were great to read about. The dynamics of their bonds shifted and changed throughout the course of the novel, and although Frank and Emily's developing relationship was a tad predictable, the dramatic irony of it all made the whole thing quite sweet. The inclusion of the music playlists not only offer some song suggestions to the reader, but were a reflection of both Frank and Emily's characters when they went on their running sprees. There were some funny moments here and there, but when it came to facing the issues at hand those were dealt with realistically as well.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In all, I would certainly recommend Since You've Been Gone to anyone looking for a fun contemporary read that has well developed characters and a fun storyline. It's a story about stepping out of your comfort zone, being an individual and the effort involved in keeping true friends who you wish to keep for as long as you can.