Novel Review: Save the Date by Morgan Matson

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: June 2018

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

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, distractedly 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.

The Cover:

This cover is super cute. The image and even the font match with the wedding theme really well, while also showing the quirky nature of what's going to happen in the book. It's definitely eye-catching, and shows what kind of feel the book is going to give.

Review:

Charlie has lived in her own family bubble for all of her life. When her sister's wedding is coming up, and thus all of her family is again in the same house together for the summer, some of her history starts to unravel in her eyes.

There's wedding chaos happening, the brother Charlie has always idolized is home again, the boy she's always had a crush on is suddenly an option now. And then she's forced to start questioning the life she's lead, and what the “cute” family comics her mother writes has actually done to her and her siblings' lives.

I really like the idea of this story. The whole Grant Central Station comic strips is a really good plot to explore, and it's done really well here, too. Charlie has upheld her family in such a specific light all her life, and particularly one of her brothers, that it's a shock when some of those things are revealed to her differently. I really appreciated the way that she's given this information and how she takes it. The whole thing with her crush could have gone one way, and I really liked that it didn't; that's not the moment of revelation to her, at least not in a certain way, and instead a learning experience in a good way instead. That's just one thing she had to get a new perspective on. The rest of the stuff falls into place just right, with the timing it should.

Charlie needed a wake up call, and she gets it. Of course, there's also another boy, a better one.

I really appreciated how this story played out. It could have been done in one way, which I worried about at one point, and I'm glad it went in a different one. It went in a better direction, without using the romance/crush as a crutch and a be-all-end-all kind of thing. The family drama is given its own time, and it's done really well.

Matson has quickly become one of my favorite authors, and another author that I will very quickly pre-order, now.