Save the Date
Save the Date by Morgan Matson
Blurb:
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.
Well, I continue to have a somewhat complicated, in an unexpected way, relationship with Morgan Matson. The thing is, I enjoy reading her books, generally, but I also find them somewhat tedious. Her humor is not aligned enough with mine to make her books feel like lots of fun to me (some fun, more or less depending on the book but never as much fun as I expect), nor is the plot interesting enough to make reading her stories really feel worthwhile for me (without the element of humor). In the end, I always feel somewhat ambivalent. On the one hand, I have enjoyed myself and I understand why other people love her books so much but, on the other hand, I don't really feel like I have experienced something truly valuable and worth the time it took to read this book.
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.
Review:
J.J. scoffed. But just as he’d done ever since he’d read this phrase when he was twelve, he said the word “scoff” instead of just making the sound, and none of us had been able to convince him this actually wasn’t correct.
Well, I continue to have a somewhat complicated, in an unexpected way, relationship with Morgan Matson. The thing is, I enjoy reading her books, generally, but I also find them somewhat tedious. Her humor is not aligned enough with mine to make her books feel like lots of fun to me (some fun, more or less depending on the book but never as much fun as I expect), nor is the plot interesting enough to make reading her stories really feel worthwhile for me (without the element of humor). In the end, I always feel somewhat ambivalent. On the one hand, I have enjoyed myself and I understand why other people love her books so much but, on the other hand, I don't really feel like I have experienced something truly valuable and worth the time it took to read this book.
Now, this sounds kinda bad but it mostly means that I don't have a lot of motivation to read her books unless I'm specifically in the mood for it fully aware that I probably will feel at least a little conflicted about it, which (surprise?) doesn't happen very often. But, eventually, it did happen with Save the Date and I have to admit: it was quite fun! Again, the book didn't feel outstanding to me but I think it might be my favorite Morgan Matson book to date (not that I've read that many of her books but still).
There actually were a couple of moments and interactions that had me chuckling. Plus, I really liked how the focus of the book was mainly on the family and friendship-stuff and, especially, on the aspect of self-growth. The love-story pretty much took a back-seat to everything else and was pretty much only a tool to highlight Charlie's journey of discovering more about herself, which I thought was very nice. Sure, I understood why, in the end, Charlie was looking to build up more of a relationship with (frankly, I forgot his name, I'm sorry, I know I'm terrible, but it's been a minute since I read the book) love-interest-that-isn't-a-douche but I never felt like their antics distracted anyone (not even Charlie) from the actual plot going on.
But I also want to add that there were a few things that I actually didn't like. The weird thing with her brother's best friend just was ... weird. The weird thing with her brother was seemingly unnecessary (?) and the weird thing with her other brother's girlfriend where everyone just treated her all carelessly and didn't even give her a chance was outright mean (sure, Charlie later tries to mend this a little but she really wasn't the only one treating her like she was just a nuisance).
Overall, I end up where I started: I enjoyed myself but not as much as everyone else seems to do and not as much as I continue to hope I will when reading Matson's books.
There actually were a couple of moments and interactions that had me chuckling. Plus, I really liked how the focus of the book was mainly on the family and friendship-stuff and, especially, on the aspect of self-growth. The love-story pretty much took a back-seat to everything else and was pretty much only a tool to highlight Charlie's journey of discovering more about herself, which I thought was very nice. Sure, I understood why, in the end, Charlie was looking to build up more of a relationship with (frankly, I forgot his name, I'm sorry, I know I'm terrible, but it's been a minute since I read the book) love-interest-that-isn't-a-douche but I never felt like their antics distracted anyone (not even Charlie) from the actual plot going on.
But I also want to add that there were a few things that I actually didn't like. The weird thing with her brother's best friend just was ... weird. The weird thing with her brother was seemingly unnecessary (?) and the weird thing with her other brother's girlfriend where everyone just treated her all carelessly and didn't even give her a chance was outright mean (sure, Charlie later tries to mend this a little but she really wasn't the only one treating her like she was just a nuisance).
Overall, I end up where I started: I enjoyed myself but not as much as everyone else seems to do and not as much as I continue to hope I will when reading Matson's books.
Rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars, the same amount of stars I gave to The Unexpected Everything but, as I said, I think I do like Save the Date one slightly better.
Details:
Name: Save the Date
Author: Morgan Matson
Publisher: Simon Schuster
Pages: 432
Where?: Amazon
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