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A review by temporary_escaper
Save the Date by Morgan Matson
3.0
3.5 ⭐️
I’ve read a few other Morgan Matson books and I honestly think she has a cute writing style. All of them are very “coming of age” novels, where they learn something about themselves and the world.
Save The Date was a good book, but that’s the most accurate description I can give. It’s not great.
I’ll start with the cons so that i can finish the review on a good note. (It’s going to be a long one, which means I have a good amount of complaints)
First of all, Charlie has a crush on her Brother’s best friend, which you learn she knows nothing about. It’s all just a fantasy she builds in her head, which she similarly does with her “perfect” family. It is somewhat realistic with girls that age, but it does irritate me with how naïve she made her until the very end even though it’s shown to her so many times.
Which brings me to why I find Charlie annoying!!! Who tf doesn’t know how to use a blow dryer, she freaks out over sending a “thanks you’re the best text message, and for some reason she feels the need to be doing the wedding planners job the whole book? There’s more that irritated me, but these ones i just couldn’t get over.
Second of all, the entire family doesn’t understand simple social cues. There were times that the family wasted every ones time by acting immaturely with each other despite their ages...? Every time someone is trying to talk to them they completely ignore them and just goof off. It could be from the wedding planner to the alarm guy. Like who does that at 28 years old? Sometimes they sounded more like teenagers than anything. The family makes you annoyed but you love them all the same. It makes you go through the same emotions you feel with your own fam and makes you want to be apart of theirs.
Lastly, the amount of detail she put into the book needs to be written as a con. Every reader loves when something is fully detailed, but if I get to the point of needing to skim the majority of the time it’s too much. Just for her too get into the shower it took 4 pages. She should have put more detail into other things than that type of unnecessary stuff. It’s the same issue with how many things were going wrong with the wedding. Stick with the big things and that would have been enough. The amount there actually was made the book feel messy and crammed.
ON A SIDE NOTE, this bothered me so much!!!! No bridesmaid would’ve been able to LEAVE the wedding to go pick up a cake; it would’ve never happened in real life! Plus that’s the planner’s job, so let them do it!
Alright! On to the pros....
All of the characters are really funny and can hold your interest. She really makes you want to get to know each and every one of them. The family reminded me of my own with how close everyone was. It’s definitely a family oriented book and less of a romantic one.
When you get past how Charlie is being annoying, you start to realize she’s just trying to avoid seeing how it really is because she wants everything to be the same. I honestly connected with that feeling of being terrified of change.
Also, I do love the ending, wrapped up nicely without it feeling too cliche. She’s finally learning she can’t live with her head in the sand. The 4 short chapters after the novel ended were really cute and a nice touch to explain a few more things throughout the story.
So to wrap it all up, what I took away from this book is that it’s a story about a girl who learns to grow up and stop being naive. Her fantasies cloud her judgement and stop her from seeing what’s going on in the real world. And who people truly are. Her parents, her brothers Danny and Mike, the comic strip vs her true memories, and Jesse. She accepts the change as it comes to her and realizes this new life will be ok and they will always have each other.
I’ve read a few other Morgan Matson books and I honestly think she has a cute writing style. All of them are very “coming of age” novels, where they learn something about themselves and the world.
Save The Date was a good book, but that’s the most accurate description I can give. It’s not great.
I’ll start with the cons so that i can finish the review on a good note. (It’s going to be a long one, which means I have a good amount of complaints)
First of all, Charlie has a crush on her Brother’s best friend, which you learn she knows nothing about. It’s all just a fantasy she builds in her head, which she similarly does with her “perfect” family. It is somewhat realistic with girls that age, but it does irritate me with how naïve she made her until the very end even though it’s shown to her so many times.
Which brings me to why I find Charlie annoying!!! Who tf doesn’t know how to use a blow dryer, she freaks out over sending a “thanks you’re the best text message, and for some reason she feels the need to be doing the wedding planners job the whole book? There’s more that irritated me, but these ones i just couldn’t get over.
Second of all, the entire family doesn’t understand simple social cues. There were times that the family wasted every ones time by acting immaturely with each other despite their ages...? Every time someone is trying to talk to them they completely ignore them and just goof off. It could be from the wedding planner to the alarm guy. Like who does that at 28 years old? Sometimes they sounded more like teenagers than anything. The family makes you annoyed but you love them all the same. It makes you go through the same emotions you feel with your own fam and makes you want to be apart of theirs.
Lastly, the amount of detail she put into the book needs to be written as a con. Every reader loves when something is fully detailed, but if I get to the point of needing to skim the majority of the time it’s too much. Just for her too get into the shower it took 4 pages. She should have put more detail into other things than that type of unnecessary stuff. It’s the same issue with how many things were going wrong with the wedding. Stick with the big things and that would have been enough. The amount there actually was made the book feel messy and crammed.
ON A SIDE NOTE, this bothered me so much!!!! No bridesmaid would’ve been able to LEAVE the wedding to go pick up a cake; it would’ve never happened in real life! Plus that’s the planner’s job, so let them do it!
Alright! On to the pros....
All of the characters are really funny and can hold your interest. She really makes you want to get to know each and every one of them. The family reminded me of my own with how close everyone was. It’s definitely a family oriented book and less of a romantic one.
When you get past how Charlie is being annoying, you start to realize she’s just trying to avoid seeing how it really is because she wants everything to be the same. I honestly connected with that feeling of being terrified of change.
Also, I do love the ending, wrapped up nicely without it feeling too cliche. She’s finally learning she can’t live with her head in the sand. The 4 short chapters after the novel ended were really cute and a nice touch to explain a few more things throughout the story.
So to wrap it all up, what I took away from this book is that it’s a story about a girl who learns to grow up and stop being naive. Her fantasies cloud her judgement and stop her from seeing what’s going on in the real world. And who people truly are. Her parents, her brothers Danny and Mike, the comic strip vs her true memories, and Jesse. She accepts the change as it comes to her and realizes this new life will be ok and they will always have each other.