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Title: Save the Date
Author: Morgan Matson
Publication: 2018
Sub-genre: Contemporary
I am a big Morgan Matson fan, so when I saw her latest release was finally available in paperback, I jumped on it. (Side note: I find the whole YA new releases must be in hardcover for at least a year trend to be super frustrating. Kids don’t have the money for that. I’m an adult and I don’t have the money for that.) As usual, Matson delivered a super fun, sweet, enjoyable read.
Save the Date is about Charlie (Charlotte), who is going to be graduating from high school soon and is facing some serious life decisions ahead of her (namely, where to go to college and when/to whom she should lose her virginity). Charlie is the youngest of five kids and her family is one of those perfect ones that everyone else envies. Her mom captures their family’s lives (some details exaggerated of course) in a weekly comic strip, which is going to be coming to a close. The entire family is going to be together for one final weekend for Charlie’s older sister’s wedding before her parents sell their house and everything changes for the close-knit family. Except everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. The wedding planner is fired two nights before the wedding because she was slacking on the job, and the results of said slacking mean lots of disasters. But the issues with the wedding don’t even come close to the issues with the family, and several tough situations come to a head over the course of the weekend.
One of the reasons why I love Morgan Matson is because she has such a great voice. If you’re a frequent reader, you know what I mean by that. You pick up a book and immediately know who the author is because their writing style is so unique. Matson’s voice definitely shines through in this book, just as strongly as it has in her others. I really loved the family dynamic shown in Save the Date most of all. I always wanted to have a big family when I was a kid, and it was fun to see the relationships between the siblings. I felt like their interactions with each other, and with their parents, were realistic and relatable.
One thing that was hard for me personally was the whole wedding planning aspect. I am a wedding planner and so thinking about some of these disasters happening the day before (or day of) gave me some serious anxiety. But I imagine that’s not going to be a problem for most teenagers.
This is the kind of book I could have easily finished in one sitting, had I not had to deal with my child, and my job, and you know, actual real adult life (boo). It’s just a fun little snack, while still dealing with some heartfelt and realistic teenage emotions. I don’t typically read a ton of contemporary YA because of that (I quit teaching so I don’t have to deal with realistic teenage emotions), but Matson is one of the few authors I trust to nail it every time. I’m definitely looking forward to whatever she has coming next!
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars