Book Review: The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Title: The Unexpected Everything

Author: Morgan Matson
Series:  standalone
Pages:  518
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Date of Publication: 5th May, 2016
Source: Spare review copy passed on*
Synopsis from Goodreads: 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?

My Thoughts:
I have been a huge fan of Morgan Matson ever since I read Amy & Roger's Epic Detour several years ago. So, understandably I was super excited to get The Unexpected Everything from Sophie (you're literally the best Sophie!) when she got an extra copy. I decided to control myself and save it until revision week, so that I would have something I was really looking forward to to save me from revision hell. While I still think that Since You've Been Gone is my favourite of Morgan's books, I read this in just a few sittings despite its pretty large page count and I absolutely loved it.

The thing that makes Morgan's books so great are definitely her characters. I quickly fell for Andie and her group of friends, Toby, Palmer, and Bri. Their friendship felt so genuine and they reminded me of some of my own friends too which was great. I particularly loved Toby because I felt like I could relate to her the most, and her emoji-only texts cracked me up. I also thought that the portrayal of their friendship was very realistic, and not sugar-coated which was refreshing. I don't think that a lot of other books would have ended like this did, shall we say (I hope if you've read it you can guess what I'm talking about!).  Morgan's books also always have a great emphasis on building family relationships which is also great to see, and this was no exception. I really loved watching Andie rebuild her relationship with her father and getting to know her mother through that too. And it goes without saying that Andie's relationship with Clark is a lot of fun too. Adorable!

The plot is very simple, and it's so easy to read and get lost in. It's just about a group of friends going about their lives, doing fun things like scavenger hunts and having pool parties, and navigating difficult relationships . I wanna do a big scavenger hunt like they do, just need a Palmer to organise it for me, haha! Andie's a dog walker so there are also a lot of fun doggie scenes which always made me smile. I normally avoid books about animals for some reason, so it was something I've never really read about before but it was very enjoyable haha. Also the pups on the cover are very cute too, which definitely doesn't hurt!

Overall The Unexpected Everything was everything that I wanted it to be. It was the perfect read to start off my summer, and has got me really excited for kicking off my summer reading. I definitely recommend this and all of Morgan's other books if you're looking for something fun and summery to take on holiday, or let's be honest just if you're looking for something really good to dig into. You won't be disappointed!


*Huge thanks to Sophie Waters from So Many Books, So Little Time, for sending me this! I owe you one!