The Unexpected Everything

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Blurb:

Andie had it all planned out. When you are a politician's daughter who's pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future. Important internship? Check. Amazing friends? Check. Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks).
But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life. Because here’s the thing—if everything’s planned out, you can never find the unexpected. And where’s the fun in that?

Review:

"No," Toby said firmly. "You're fired from ever being my wingwoman again. Last time you tried, everyone asked you out, and Tom got really mad at me."

I've been planning to read my first Morgan Matson book this summer and it was supposed to be The Unexpected Everything but, unexpectedly (haha), I stumbled across Since You've Been Gone before I got round to reading this and my plans were thrown. Naturally, I didn't want to abandon this book but I changed my plans to make this (the last truly summer-y read on my physical tbr-pile) one of the last books I read before the semester starts and I'll have to get back into serious mode. A light-hearted, easy read about friendship and romance that could pick up my mood and give me an opportunity to close this summer satisfied. At least I hoped this would be the case before I had actually read the book. Having read The Unexpected Everything I'm happy to say that that's pretty much how it worked out.

First and foremost I want to mention how glad I am that I liked this book much better than Since You've Been Gone, mainly because the aspects of friendship and the relationship between Andie and her dad were so important. The story wasn't reliant on Clark, he was simply part of it – which is how I like my romance-y books to be. 

Moreover, I really liked pretty much everyone I was supposed to like. (I never quite got the hang of Wyatt but I don't know whether I should have?) Palmer, Bri, Toby, and Andie (and Tom, I guess) have a wonderful friendship I was really rooting for, Andie's dad is adorably dorky, and Clark seems like a genuinely nice guy (also, how could I resist an author-boyfriend?). Maya and Dave, although they weren't terribly important, had an interesting impact with the perfect friendly vibe I felt like really fitted their status and gave them the authority to justify Andie's change of heart concerning her (summer) plans.

Luckily, I liked most tangible things that happen (as in friends-and-family activities). I wished the scavenger hunt would have gone on for longer and I enjoyed the scenes that encompassed all of the friend group. More importantly, I thought there were some actually funny moments. It isn't a funny book in a way where I was constantly giggling but it was entertaining and I giggled enough for it to qualify as "fun".

However, I did have a couple of problems with the story. Especially with the ending. I'm not going to go into any details but I was really bummed out that some things didn't go back, if not to the way they were before, to a level where I'd know that "not the way it was before" doesn't mean it has to be any less significant. (I'm being really vague but I really don't want to spoil anything. Also, I'm really sorry should you feel slightly spoiled anyway.)

But honestly, my biggest problem with Morgan Matson's books are that I have a hard time loosing myself between the pages. Usually, with these rather light-hearted books, I like to just shut off my head, forget time and where I am  and drift through the story but that hasn't happened to me with Morgan Matson so far. I've been invested in Andie's arc but I haven't lost myself in her process of taking control of her summer.

"You need to dial it back," Palmer said as she pulled out her phone. "Like this afternoon, you texted me 'I'm so whale, dancing girl, dancing girl, blushing smiley, nervous-teeth smiley, star, star, pizza." She looked up from her phone. "What was that supposed to mean?"

Rating:

As I've said I liked this one a lot better than Since You've Been Gone but it also had its downsides, hence, I'm going to give it 3.5/5 stars.

Details:

Name: The Unexpected Everything

Deutscher Titel: Ein Sommer auf gut Glück

Author: Morgan Matson

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 519