“Charlie Grant’s older sister is getting married this weekend at their family home, and Charlie can’t wait—for the first time in years, all four of her older siblings will be under one roof. Charlie is desperate for one last perfect weekend, before the house is sold and everything changes. The house will be filled with jokes and games and laughs again. Making decisions about things like what college to attend and reuniting with longstanding crush Jesse Foster—all that can wait. She wants to focus on making the weekend perfect.
The only problem? The weekend is shaping up to be an absolute disaster.
There’s the unexpected dog with a penchant for howling, house alarm that won’t stop going off, and a papergirl with a grudge.
There are the relatives who aren’t speaking, the (awful) girl her favorite brother brought home unannounced, and a missing tuxedo.
Not to mention the neighbor who seems to be bent on sabotage and a storm that is bent on drenching everything. The justice of the peace is missing. The band will only play covers. The guests are all crazy. And the wedding planner’s nephew is unexpectedly, distractingly…cute.
Over the course of three ridiculously chaotic days, Charlie will learn more than she ever expected about the family she thought she knew by heart. And she’ll realize that sometimes, trying to keep everything like it was in the past means missing out on the future”
Morgan Matson is back at it again with her fifth contemporary book which is my favorite book of hers to date. The three days this book covers are bursting full of self discovery, the grant family, humor, interesting dynamics and a budding romance.
I was very interested with how Matson was going to pull off a large family dynamic, since in her past works family wasn’t a huge part of the story (for the most part) but I was pleasantly surprised. Actually, I’d say I was a lot more than pleasantly surprised. I loved the Grants. The dynamics between the different siblings made the family feel extraordinarily real. I thought Charlie’s idolization and relationship with her eldest brother Danny was so cute and I loved the tension between everyone and Mike that fueled the an entire subplot in the story (that is equal parts hilarious and awkward). The way Rodney (Linnie’s fiance) interacted with everyone was so well crafted. The entire Grant family was chaotic in the way that only family is, with all of the drama and sibling relationships. One of Charlie’s biggest wishes for the weekend is to spend time with all of her siblings while they’re around and in the little moments they do. At one point the Grant siblings (and Rodney) play capture the flag and they all put in a tremendous amount of effort to get Linnie’s wedding to not be a disaster. Morgan couldn’t have made a better big family.
Speaking of family… The Mother of all the Grants (Eleanor Grant) writes a comic strip for newspapers called “Grant Central Station” which was such a unique and creative career for a character that ran throughout the entire story. The comic itself fuels a lot of the story. It’s the reason there’s drama with Mike, it’s the reason the Grants have to take care of a dog the weekend of the wedding and the reason the Grants go on the news. The book even includes a few of the comic strips in it, which were an adorable touch. I loved the parallels between the Grant family and their characters along with the tenderness it’s ending caused in the family.
And still on the topic of characters… This book was filled with characters, to the point that the front of the book features a list of all the characters. One of the most underrated characters was the “the (awful) girl her favorite brother brought home unannounced” who was mentioned in the synopsis. At first Brooke seems to be incredibly conceited and rude but by the end of the story we get to see her other side, which explains her actions. Then besides that she also helps Charlie get ready in a desperate situation. Then there’s the teen wedding planner whose trying to get the wedding in check after a lot of errors; Bill. Bill was so sweet and I wish there had been more time to get to know him. Although I did ship him with Charlie I’m pretty glad Morgan didn’t focus too much on their relationship. HONORABLE MENTION: on page 139 Andie and Clark from The Unexpected Everything showed up for a minute and I was reminded again why I love Morgan Matson’s character cameos.
I loved this book, with it’s humor and dynamics that kept me intrigued during the wedding weekend where just about everything went wrong.
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