Save the Date by Morgan Matson

     So far, everyone that I’ve seen that has read and reviewed this has said the same thing: this is their favorite Morgan Matson book. And I have to say, it’s definitely my favorite now too. I’ve said for a long time, Matson is the Queen of Realistic Fiction, but this one by far shows it. Her attention to detail and her imagination just completes the picture for me.

“Is everyone there? […] The whole circus in town?“

pg. 29

     Charlie’s older sister is getting married and all her siblings have come into town to watch the event. Or disaster, based on everything that’s going wrong. Like the nosey neighbor, the terrible sound the alarm is making, and so much more. Just when she thought everything good, several other things changed. Over the weekend, Charlie learns a little more about the family she thought she knew all about.

“It didn’t say anything about that on the STD. […] When you and Rodney gave me the STD […] Dude. Acronymons aren’t always a good idea..“

pg. 54

     And again after reading this, I still say Morgan Matson is the Queen of Realistic Fiction. Her attention to detail makes her stories for me. They always feel more like movies than books. She makes it extremely easy to see the story play out in my head. As a reader that’s what normally happens when I read books, but for the most part, the background is never in full detail like it is when I read a Matson book. That’s the best way I can describe it. Matson always creates an entire world for her readers. And in a world of things going wrong with the wedding, the humor in this one MAKES the story. It wasn’t something that we should be laughing at (since those things were important details about the wedding) but laughing was inevitable.

“Did you know 98 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot?“

pg. 89

   I also loved the characters. I mean who wouldn’t love them?! To make it even better, I fell for both sets of the Grants. It was so fun to get to know both sets of the family along with Charlie, because everything she thought she knew about them, well she didn’t know everything. It was a really fun way to get to know all of them.

“You’re wrong, I said to Bill. […] It shouldn’t go there.” “Says who? […] That’s absolutely the wrong place for a koala.“

pg. 122

    I also wanted to talk about the plot. I’ve never read anything about a family with a mom who had this profession. To me that shows a lot of her imagination; to go where no one else’s mind has been before. I can’t wait to read more by her.

“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.“

pg. 169

     Last but not least, I really loved the “visits” from the characters in her other books. I always love the Easter eggs of author’s previous books, and there is an egg from most of them. Makes me want to go back and re-read all her books again. I love being able to see what they’re up to now!