Review | The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
Published On: May 3, 2016
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 519
Format: Paperback
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★★

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Andie had it all planned out. When you are a politician’s daughter who’s pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future. Important internship? Check. Amazing friends? Check. Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks). 
But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life. Because here’s the thing—if everything’s planned out, you can never find the unexpected. And where’s the fun in that?

Oh my days, this book took me forever! It took me over a week and I can usually fly through contemporaries, even if they are 500+ pages like this one. I don't know what it was but I couldn't read more than one chapter at a time. I don't know what my problem was because I ended up really enjoying it. It took me a little bit of time to get into but after about 100 pages I was really liking the story. It wasn't my favourite Morgan Matson book but it was definitely good.

There isn't a lot to this book, no huge dramas or major tragedy, it's a slice of life kind of story. I thought that might be a bit boring for me but actually I really enjoyed that not a whole lot happened. It is basically just the story of a girl enjoying her summer that didn't end up being what she expected it to be and that was exactly what I wanted to read. It was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be.

The one 'major event' that we have in this book is this scandal surrounding Andie's father, which is obviously the reason her summer doesn't go to plan. In itself, this played a very minor part in the book as a whole but what happened as a result of this scandal really made the book for me. My favourite thing about this book was Andie's relationship with her father. It is pretty non-existent at the beginning but due to this scandal that has resulted in her father being around more over the summer we get to see it develop. I loved every moment that Andie was with her dad and was really rooting for them to have this great relationship that they both really needed.

As well as family, friendship plays a big part in this book. I wanted to be part of this friendship group so badly while reading this. Andie and her friends had so much fun and were all there for each other and, honestly, it made me quite jealous. I've never really had that group of girlfriends like this and they made me want friends like that. It was a very realistic portrayal of friendship, especially as they had their disagreements and fights like all friends do, but also how they dealt with their issues.

As can be seen from the cover, dogs are another major aspect of this book and I freaking loved it. I want every main character in every book I read from now on to be a dog walker. I found it so interesting and some of my favourite scenes in the book are just Andie walking dogs. She made me want to go out and walk my dogs. Bertie, who Andie walks regularly throughout the book, was my favourite character. I absolutely loved him, I think because he was basically a combination of my two dogs so I just fell in love.

The one thing I didn't really love was the romance. I liked Andie and Clark, they were a cute together, but I felt indifferent to the relationship. I was happy they were together but I would still have been happy if she stayed single for the summer or even got with someone else. Clark and Tom's bromance, on the other hand, that I loved.

Clark being a writer was an interesting aspect to the story. I liked that he was a writer and enjoyed the discussion about him not being able to write anymore and why that was. I didn't really like the excerpts from the books that he was meant to have written. I didn't really see the point in them, I didn't think they really related to the main story in any way but maybe I was missing something.

The great thing about reading Morgan Matson's books in order is that familiar faces make an appearance in subsequent books. I really loved the little cameos from other Morgan Matson characters. We got to see Taylor and her family from Second Chance Summer as well as Emily from Since You've Been Gone. Emily is probably my favourite of her characters so I especially loved getting to see her again in this book.

Overall, this is another great summer read from Morgan Matson. Her books always make me want to go to the beach or go and do some summertime activities with my friends and this one was no different. Though the relationship wasn't my favourite, the family and friendship aspects as well as some great characters made this a really enjoyable story.