Sadly, it’s that time of the year again. I’m in the middle of exam period, and have been since the beginning of June, so I basically haven’t allowed myself to read anything new. I’ve mentioned this before, but I have absolutely no self-control when it comes to putting a book down and starting to study when I don’t know how the story ends. That means that exam time is pretty much a rereads only period.
However, I did read one new book this June. My mom had actually preordered it for me, since it was on my amazon wish list before Christmas and my mom never checks if the books she orders are actually out yet when she buys presents… So anyway, the book was here, just waiting to be read. And although it meant pulling an almost all-nighter afterwards to finish a presentation I had to prepare, I decided I needed to read this. Thus, here is the one book I read in June:
Save the Date by Morgan Matson (4/5 Stars)
This was actually the perfect book to read during exam time. It was cute, fluffy, summery, but still had a bit of depth to it – all in all, the perfect read to take my mind off stress, although, to be honest, the events in this book were pretty stressful.
Like all of Morgan Matson’s books (okay, except the majority of Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour), Save the Date takes place in Stanwich, Connecticut, and we get several cameos of characters from other books along the way.
This story, however, follows Charlie Grant, the youngest of five siblings, whose older sister Linnie is getting married. The wedding is the first time the Grant family will be reunited in over a year, and Charlie is beyond excited at their chance to finally be the perfect family again. However, the wedding plans go anything but smoothly. The wedding planner takes off, unexpected guests show up, the neighbors complain, and on top of all that, there’s some unresolved family drama that may or may not have something to do with the comic strip Charlie’s mom has been drawing for years now. As the wedding draws closer and closer, Charlie begins to realize that it may be impossible to hold on to the past completely – but she still has a wonderful family to support her in the face of what is to come.
Like I said, I really enjoyed this book overall. I loved seeing how Charlie grew as a character and I loved the family relationships. I do think that some things that went wrong were a little far-fetched – like the whole wedding-suit drama – but for the sake of comedy, I’m willing to forgive that.
However, the romance was a bit sudden for my liking. After all, the book only spans a couple of days. Even though we didn’t get the hardcore “I’d-die-for-you-and-let’s-only-have-sex-from-now-on” instalove, I did think that Charlie and her love interest developed feelings for one another a bit quickly.
My one other complaint is the family dynamic. I did love most of it, but I didn’t find it completely believable that all Grant siblings would cut Mike off like that for the given reason. Maybe I’m just judging from my own experience, but while I might be furious with my siblings sometimes, I’d still care about them too much to not talk to them in over a year for a petty reason even though I’d been super tight with them before. Here, I would have needed a bit more conflict in the backstory for this to seem believable.
However, other than that, this book was a fun and cute summer read. If anyone else is struggling with exams and staying motivated, I can only recommend this one (or any other Morgan Matson book).
And that was already it for this meagre wrap-up! Have you read Save the Date? If so, what did you think of it? Which book is your favorite Morgan Matson novel? Mine is most definitely The Unexpected Everything 😊
A Book Owl's Corner 