Author: Morgan Matson
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Simon & Schuster Australia
Goodreads
From Morgan Matson, the bestselling author of Since You’ve Been Gone comes a feel-good story of friendship, finding yourself, and all the joys in life that happen while you’re busy making other plans.Review by Nara
Andie has a plan. And she always sticks to her plan.
Future? A top-tier medical school.
Dad? Avoid him as much as possible (which isn’t that hard considering he’s a Congressman and he’s never around).
Friends? Palmer, Bri, and Toby—pretty much the most awesome people on the planet, who needs anyone else?
Relationships? No one’s worth more than three weeks.
So it’s no surprise that Andie’s got her summer all planned out too.
Until a political scandal costs Andie her summer pre-med internship, and lands both she and Dad back in the same house together for the first time in years. Suddenly she’s doing things that aren’t Andie at all—working as a dog walker, doing an epic scavenger hunt with her dad, and maybe, just maybe, letting the super cute Clark get closer than she expected. Palmer, Bri, and Toby tell her to embrace all the chaos, but can she really let go of her control?
Can we get a freaking round of applause for Ms Matson please?
Her books are magnificent.
Her protagonists, her love interests, her secondary characters- they're all so wonderfully well developed.
Her romances tend to be ones that have a foundation based on friendship, which we honestly need more of in young adult fiction.
There's always at least one facet of the issues that her protagonists have to deal with that is relateable, which means that her books make for compelling reads.
She's basically perfect.
On my ranking of Morgan Matson's books, I'm undecided as to whether The Unexpected Everything wins top or whether it ties for first with Since You've Been Gone, seeing as though they're both rather amazing. It is quite long for a contemporary romance, weighing in at just over 500 pages. But not one of these pages is wasted.
I have to admit, there are some unlikeable things about protagonist Andie, namely her view of relationships and the misguided way she tries to solve some of her problems. But this does leave her room to grow as a character, and she definitely has changed by the end of the novel.
On the other hand, a really great aspect of the novel was how Andie's relationship with her father evolved throughout the novel. Her dad is a congressman and doesn't have a lot of time for her, which Andie struggles with as her mother passed away when she was younger. It's wonderful to see how they actually talk to each other and try to solve the problems in their relationship. Also really fantastic are her interactions with her best friends and how they support each other. I actually laughed aloud in some of the text message threads that appear in the book- they really seemed like something a group of best friends would send to each other.
I'm basically going to say nothing about the romance except that the love interest Clark and both nice and kind of awkward, making for some adorable interactions. Other than that, read the book for yourselves, people!
After you finish the book it feels like you've just been given a hug by your best friend.
It feels like you've had a warm cup of tea on a cold winter's day.
It feels like you've just eaten a piece of birthday cake.
Not that it's necessarily all "happily ever after".
But because it's satisfied every curiosity you had about the characters, and you can see where things are likely to head in the future.
Honestly, I recommend this book to absolutely everyone.
Also, can I just be that cover model? It would actually be the best shooting that cover, so many adorable dogs!
Incredible
RatingsOverall: 9/10
Plot: 5/5
Romance: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 4/5
