Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.
Oh dang. I set out to rate this 5 stars, have the best time, and get to know this crazy family. And I didn’t hate it! Not at all. But I damn sure didn’t love it, which bums me out.
*stares at three unread Morgan Matson books on my shelf*
I can’t believe I even got this ARC, considering my NetGalley rating is so low. ANYWAYS. Let’s do this list style.
Pros
- Waffles the beagle
- J.J.
- the aLaRM lmao
- fun, light-hearted, family-centered plot
- the coMIC STRIP oh man I could’ve had a lot more of that pls and thanks
- the writing was fantastic. Morgan truly is talented
- the fact that the plot was about a weDDING I LOVE weddings !!
- Bill was funny and sweet
- The papergirl storyline omg that was hilarious
Cons
- this book was 432 fricken pages
- FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO
- 400+ pages for a contemporary is longgggg
- and I felt it. It felt incredibly drawn out and stretched to add things that weren’t really needed
- it just…it coulda been done up in 250 pages and I would’ve been completely satisfied
- I didn’t like our main character, Charlie Grant, very much at all. She was kind of flat and rather annoying at times
- WHY WAS CHARLIE SO RUDE TO BROOKE RIGHT OFF THE BAT ASHDLSHF I HATED IT
- I also didn’t like brooke tho lmao
- the rOmAnCE
- the beginning was so good like that jesse x Charlie scene was STEAMY and I wanted more of that but then jesse had a total character flip just so Bill could be eligible to Charlie and I didn’t like that at all
- honestly we could’ve done without a romance
- bill and Charlie would have been the cUTEST friends so I appreciated the open ending for that but meh
- charlie’s mom is the worst oh gosh
- danny is a wet towel lolol
I did enjoy the book though ! despite the cons list being longer than the pros. I almost gave it 4 stars but the last 100 pages were really boring that I found myself skimming, so down a star for that. But I did enjoy it, it just wasn’t as exciting as I was hoping it would be.
I also think it’s really hard to do what I call “bottle books” (or bottle episodes for tv shows). This is when the book (or movie or tv show) is set in one or a handful of locations, and that’s it. The setting for this book was primarily their house and backyard, with a couple of scenes splashed in at the tailor shop, Jesse’s house, and the street where the governor lived, over the course of three days. I think these can be done really well in movies or tv shows, but it can be difficult to execute in a book. I think that was part of the reason why I found it boring. Kasie West, for example, did a bottle book with By Your Side, and I thought it was fabulous.
The love triangle that was trying to happen but wasn’t really happening I felt was completely unnecessary. This was a family-focused book. We didn’t need to have a romance. Not to mention the brother/sister type of relationship we got with Bill and Charlie, and when they would have romantic moments, I couldn’t help cringe.
Also I’m sorry but Bill isn’t a name that is going to make me swoony and shipping them.
I LOVED the comic strip! I thought it was so cute and fun. I liked all of the things going wrong to an extent, but then we reached a point about halfway through where I was just too stressed.
Overall! I enjoyed this book and I’m glad I read it, but it didn’t change my life. Here’s hoping I like her other books more! *eyes books on shelf*
