Super cute! I loved the family and all the funniness! An extremely fun, family oriented, wedding themed novel.

Another great one by Morgan Matson. Perfect for teens who like realistic fiction with romance and readers of Jenna Evans Welch and Katie West.

This was such a cute little contemporary book! I read it during finals weeks, and it was the perfect was to finish it off. I read it for something super fun I got to do for Justine Magazine, which I hope I'll get to share with you soon.

This book focuses on Charlie's sister's wedding. I don't know about you, but I love weddings. My favorite part of the entire party is the reception. It's when everyone is relaxed the most and unabashed. I feel like the worst that could happen during a wedding happened at Charlie's sister's wedding. From a power outage at the venue to mixed up decorations, Charlie manages to help fix it all.

I loved the Grant family to bits! They reminded me of my own family to be quite honest. I'm the youngest of five, and while it's no longer a full house here, we still see my siblings often. It's never a quiet moment with such large families! I love the Grants' traditions and their little quirks. I would have loved to be part of their fictional family.

Charlie herself was a fun character. She was an overachiever, but someone who is also afraid of change. I can't say that I blame her, there's a lot of change senior year not to mention moving from her childhood home. It's a crazy time, and I can see Charlie struggle when she has to think about it. I love the way her character changes over the course of the novel.

There are also a lot of little Easter eggs from Matson's other books in here so be sure to keep an eye out for them!

Happy reading,

Sophie :)

One of my favorite reads ever! Morgan Matson's writing is always so enjoyable and this story, featuring a large family and a wedding full of disasters and laugh-out-loud moments, is the perfect blending of farce comedy, romance and the complex inner workings of a family—the sweet and the complicated all together in a completely realistic way. It's hilarious and heart-warming!

This was a fluffy YA that was quick to get through. It was very reminiscent of a Sarah Dessen book. It's nothing too complicated or deep. I did like how it focused on family and not so much a relationship. Nothing much about this book stood out but It was just a good "palate cleanser" between heavier books.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adore Morgan Matson’s writing style. She develops such fun and quirky characters that you can’t help but fall in love with them! High school readers will fall in love with this.

I've read every Morgan Matson book and consistently given them 4 stars (my favorite is still Amy & Roger's Epic Detour) so I'm just going to come right out and say it, Save the Date was my least favorite. Charlie Grant is the youngest of 5 siblings and she can't wait for all of them to be together under one roof for her older sister's upcoming wedding at their family home. It's an emotional weekend for Charlie because their childhood house is being sold and she sees this weekend as one last nostalgic hurrah. But then everything about the wedding weekend is a disaster. The book takes place over the course of three days and literally every little thing you can imagine going wrong, goes wrong in the most catastrophic of ways. Which is actually my first problem with the book. I can imagine a few things going awry. I can maybe even imagine 5. But when it's literally every possible thing, the story just started to feel like a slapstick comedy and unrealistic. I think that took away from the heart of the book which is this family. It was the siblings and the parents that drew me in the most, even when I didn't like some of them very much. But the complexity of their relationships rang true – even though family can drive you up the wall, you love them anyway and Matson certainly captured that. My other problem was with the main character, Charlie. I just didn't get her? I didn't understand where some of her actions and feelings were coming from, especially in terms of her family and the crush she's had for years on her brother's best friend. I know the story is meant to take place in a short period of time but I think the book would've benefited from showing more of Quinn and her family's past to get why this weekend was both a happy and heavy one.

Do I recommend? As always, Matson's writing is engaging and I certainly flew through the book in spite of everything I just said. I liked it enough but I didn't love it.

This is exactly the kind of book my high school students are looking for. Characters are relatable, and the plot is just cringeworthy enough to feel like it may just happen to them... well, hopefully not! Sweet, entertaining, and well paced this book would entice even the most reluctant reader!

In this book, Matson's characters are the subject of a famous comic strip. The comic strip is ending and with it, Charlotte (Charlie's) childhood. The youngest of five, Charlie is beyond upset that her parents have sold the house as her senior year is coming to an end. Her sister wants to be married there and this is the story of the weekend wedding. It's a bit of a disaster with lost tuxedos, vile neighbors, feuding family members, lack of a wedding officiant...and the announcement of her parents' impending divorce.

There's a bit of a romance, Or two. The major story though is that family is family. Charlie comes to realize that through tears and tantrums and does rather a lot of growing up on the eventful weekend.

Being a mom to three beagles . I was excited to see a beagle on the cover of this book cover. I only wish Waffles the beagle was in more of the story. I feel like Waffles was in the story to act out one major scene. That being said, I enjoyed another laugh-out-loud Matson book.

Morgan Matson does it again with a wonderful and heartfelt novel about friendships, family, and wedding shenanigans. It is a solid addition to any YA library. I predict that this novel will be a fan favorite in the library.

Charlie’s older sister is getting married and her siblings are coming to town for the big day. She is so excited to see them and is looking forward to a weekend in which things will be exactly as they were when they all lived under one roof; only it’s not. Everyone has grown up and is living their respective lives, and little sister Charlie isn’t quite prepared for it. From a new girl her brother brings home, to fighting family members and the wedding looming soon, things can easily go from bad to worse … and they do. An outlandish, heartwarming, heartfelt story told with hilarity, “Save the Date” is a delightful comedy of errors and a touching story about the crazy, unconditional love a family can share.

Morgan Matson has been one of my favorite YA contemporary writers since I began my book blog back in 2010. Reading one of her stories is like coming home again — familiar and comforting.

The Grant family is who stole the show for me in this particular novel. I loved their family dynamic, even when things weren’t so charming, yet they still came across genuine and honest. I didn’t completely connect with Charlie, the MC, until the very end of the novel. I don’t want to spoil, but I will say it’s the last scene that truly resonated with me and brought the whole story full circle.

If you’re a Matson fan, you’ll definitely be onboard with this one. If you’re new to her stories, I think this is a great starting point.

This was just the cutest book I have read in quite some time. Its like the family circus come to life. I love how it shows a behind the scenes take on the family versus what happened in the comic strip that the mom wrote. Charlie is a character that I can stand behind. She is determined to have one last great weekend in the house with her family and she will do anything to make it happen.

Charlie is the last of the Grant siblings who will be going to college and the house they all grew up in is going up for sale. Charlie's older sister wants to get married in the house before that happens. Everyone knows the Grant kids because of their moms comic strip, which took a very liberal take on real life events. Many of their embarrassing moments have been immortalized in the newspaper with just enough of a twist on what really happened that Charlie sometimes forgets how things really happened. With the wedding happening and the end of the comic strip making national headlines, the whole family is descending on the house. Hilarity and mayhem will surely ensue.

Morgan Matson is such an incredible storyteller. I absolutely devour every book I read of hers and for good reason. The family dynamic of this book made it unique; being able to see how Charlie’s relationships with her older siblings were somewhat crumbling at the beginning of the book to how they progressed throughout the book was so interesting. Morgan Matson has done it again!

Realistic fiction filled with the strength of family!
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review Save the Date by Morgan Matson!
Reminiscent of Cheaper By The Dozen and Sixteen Candles since chaos seems to surround the Grant family and a family member is getting married during this story. The mother created a comic strip depicting the lives and happenings of the family members and it’s now coming to an end. Charlie, the main character, has a crush on her older brother’s best friend, Jesse and he knows it. Everything that can go wrong with the wedding seems to happen and the Grant family is past their elbows in stress. Their family is literally falling apart and breaking up while they are featured on tv as being the perfect family. The story comes around in a complete circle with the family members airing their grievances and struggling to work them out. Consequences seem to bring everything into the open in this realistic fiction drama filled with chaos and contention and also the strength of family, 4 stars!

2.5 stars?

I had only heard gushing reviews of how great this book was, so I was pretty excited for it when I finally got around to it. Sadly, I was bored.

I guess Charlie was an okay MC. The family was huge and because there were so many people to keep track of, no one felt fleshed out. And I legit couldn’t keep track of the brothers.

Plot wise it was bland. I mean, there are so many things happening that it was a bit too convoluted. Several of the plot lines seemed unnecessary and there for no purpose other than to fill a page.

Overall, it was a cute idea and there was a lot of potential, but the family dynamic just didn’t click.

**Huge thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing a finished copy free of charge**

Totally cheesy and zero emotional depth or diversity. In this day and age it isn't a stand out in the contemporary young adult book market. Cinematic and would do well as a film- reminded me a lot of Cheaper by the Dozen. Video review can be found here: https://youtu.be/Adu0UcUhIgA?t=11m58s

This was an enjoyable, contemporary family drama that teens will enjoy.

At times I struggled with the plot. It seemed as though the author was asking me to stretch my disbelief too thin, however I think people who enjoy contemporary romantic comedies will have no such complaints.

Overall I did really enjoy this book and would say it’s a great summer read. It’s long but fast to fly through and you will fall in love with the Grant family & Waffles The dog of course!

For me, books about weddings are right up there with books about royalty or food- they’re indulgent, fun, and never get old no matter how many times I read about them. After recently reading and loving Matson’s The Unexpected Everything, I found that I fell back in love with her writing again and couldn’t wait to dive into Save the Date not just because of the wedding aspect, but because of the emphasis on family. Literally, the family is so large and so important that there’s a list of all of the family members’ names, ages, and role they play in the wedding at the beginning of the book, which was SO helpful and which I LOVED because it’s like instead of a map of a world, it’s a map of relationships, setting the stage for the important role of family in the novel.

The story’s protagonist is Charlie, a high school senior who’s thrilled to have all of her older siblings under one roof for a rare weekend as her sister is getting married at their family home. As the cover implies, what follows are a comedy of errors when basically everything that you think could go wrong at a wedding does (to the point where Matson was writing such chaotic scenes that I was getting stressed just reading them!) In addition to the seven family members, there is the groom’s family, the bridesmaids, the groomsmen, and a disgruntled beagle all staying under one room in the Grant’s charmingly eccentric house. Matson’s ability as a writer to make each character, especially all of the siblings, have their own distinct personalities amidst the chaos of the plot, was truly impressive, as is her ability to write fleshed out characters in memorable stories that readers will care about in a stand alone novel format.

Yet what really made this story of family stand out was the extremely creative element of Grant Central station, the comic strip that Charlie’s mother writes that heavily borrows on her family’s real life happenings. The strip has grown up alongside the characters, and it’s made them semi-celebrities, with the wedding also culminating in the comic’s last strip. Panels from the strip are incorporated here and there throughout the novel (and were super fun to read!) and Matson cleverly weaves together the drama and memories of the actual Grants into those that belong to the fictional, comic Grants, until it’s hard for Charlie to discern between the two. The novel touched on a lot of deeper, more profound issues about privacy, the elevated view we can have of our older siblings, how much we let ourselves be defined by those we’re related to, etc. The story had touches of depth among a LOT of humor and witty dialogue, and I caught myself laughing out loud more than once (especially when JJ was involved- seriously, can I please have a spinoff novel about his crazy antics? Or about any/all of the Grant siblings? OR a book full of Grant Central station comic strips?) However, given that there were SO many characters in this book, I do wish we had received more closure regarding some of them (especially Brooke).

There were also a lot of fun cameos by characters from The Unexpected Everything, including Andie, Clark, and Andie’s dad. It all felt very natural and Save the Date is clearly set a few years in the future, but it was really fun seeing some of Matson’s previous characters make appearances, especially in ways that were sort of related to the plot and not just casual run ins. It made me feel like Matson’s creating a contemporary universe without trying too hard and the two books just seem to flow together really well…fingers crossed that we’ll get cameos from some of the Grants in her next book!

A few bonus favorite things I have to mention:

-The alarm was one of the funniest running bits I’ve read in a contemporary in a long time

-WAFFLES

-Billiam is apparently a real name

-CAPTURE THE FLAG aka the BEST MIDDLE SCHOOL ERA OUTDOORS GAME EVER

-Walla-BYE (and giant blown up pictures of the Hemsworth brothers)

-Never trust anyone named after a fruit

-“scoff”

-Hilarious alternative chapter titles

-Feuds with neighbors over gardening competitions

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I realize how much I adored this book and getting to know the Grant family. My ONLY complaints are that I could have done completely without the romance element. Also, Charlie could be very stubborn and border on annoying, but I’m glad her BFF called her out on her behavior.

Overall: Save the Date is one of the best family-centered YA novels I’ve ever read. It’s hilarious with characters so realistic that you’ll feel like you just spent a weekend in the Grant household by the time you finish reading.