Save the Date

Save the Date. Morgan Matson. Young adult/Contemporary. 2018. 432 pages. 3 stars.

It seemed like the second you tried to tell someone why you loved someone else, it took the luster off it, like pinning a butterfly down in a case—it never quite captured it.

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.

Unrelated content: I couldn’t stop thinking above the gif above whenever I looked at the cover of this book. I swear, it’s one of the funniest things ever.

I have always been a fan of Morgan Matson, especially with The Unexpected Everything. I was excited picking up this book because it was going to feature a wedding! I love weddings and I wanted to see how this story was going to unfold.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t even appreciate the wedding itself because of everything that happened prior to it. First off, I get anxious easily, so reading chaotic events happening one after another really took the excitement off of the book. Reading is supposed to be a source of joy for me, instead I got a bucket load of nerves and I had to put down the book several times because I could feel myself panicking alongside the characters as well.

Secondly, I personally think this book was too long. For a contemporary that takes place in 2 days, 432 pages was a bit much. A lot of parts were very dragging and felt like fillers. I wouldn’t have minded it if something actually happened, alas, it only gave me more nerves.

I’m not gonna lie and say that I didn’t enjoy reading this book because the first 200 pages were very enjoyable for me. It’s the latter half that I have an issue with. So, it was an okay read. I probably would not recommend this to a friend. I would have more confidence recommending Matson’s other works. 3 stars.