Summer Romance and Ice Cream // The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson!

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (3rd May 2016)

Blurb:
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?

---

Finally, I’ve finally read my first Morgan Matson book and I really enjoyed it! I have friends telling me to read her books for an absolute age and I am shameful to admit that it took me so long to read her books. I still have Since You’ve Been Gone on my TBR pile. From last year. Yep, here’s the revolver. Do your thang.

The Unexpected Everything follows the story of Andie, who is the daughter of a Congressman and everything she does has to go through her father’s political campaigner – which is not fun at all. Andie is used to living with control over everything, especially over her organized life. But then a political mishap happens and things begin to unravel for her. What was initially a carefully, perfectly solid plan for the summer, has suddenly been reduced to dust and for once, Andie is left in a limbo until she starts learning how to let her hair down. *starts playing Hair by Little Mix*

“I could do this. If whole galaxies could change, so could I.”

Well, well, well. I have to say, before reading The Unexpected Everything, I did check out what my friends said about it and I went in with high hopes (which is completely risky because you never ride the hype boat – unless you’re me) and I’ve got to say, I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it more than I thought, despite some niggling issues I had with the book, which trust me, aren’t very negative.

“Because believing you’re not alone is the cruelest trick of all.”

I have been a sucker for summer reads since I started reading YA, heck. Even before I ventured into YA. I loved the romance I could swoon over, the escape they could provide and the book boyfriends – plenty. The Unexpected Everything was a book that I could relate to closely because it’s a story that is embedded with the sweetest friendships and a romance that you would root for. And there are dogs, lots of adorable, rambunctious dogs so yay for that!

So what can you expect from Morgan Matson’s latest summertime read? Strong friendship, undeniable chemistry between the protagonist and the love interest who is all kinds of cute and a journey of self-discovery. The romance is cute, swoon-worthy and I can add Clark to my list of book boyfriends, I mean, come on. He has a dog and he’s like a geeky Clark Kent, need I say more?

“It was like someone had turned off the sun. The center of everything was suddenly gone.”

I could have loved The Unexpected Everything but I didn’t because there was a slight niggling feeling I got when I was reading it due to the lack of the chapter breaks. It was quite difficult to digest the story in huge chunks. Each chapter was about 30 or so pages and it was hard work. I like books with enough chapter breaks so I don’t get too overwhelmed by the story and unfortunately, I had a hard time recapping what happened in The Unexpected Everything after every chapter because.. they were too long. 519 pages. 20 chapters. You do the math. Other than that, I did enjoy the book very much!

The pace of the story was all right for me but it could have sped up more because 519 pages for a summer read is quite hard-hitting. But then again, there were quite a few subplots so that’s excusable.

I really liked that Morgan Matson put some focus on Andie’s relationship with her Dad which was severed due to his campaign. It isn’t very often you get to read about paternal relationships in books and I liked that Andie and her Dad got to mend their relationship through movies and ice cream.

“I knew that this couldn't last- that there were people waiting and he had things to do and this couldn't go on forever. But in that moment it was like everything fades away and there was only me and Clark and the possibility of us- whatever we might become- stretching forward in a hundred different directions, all of them unexpected, each one better than the last, the ending not yet written.”

Another highlight of the book is the scavenger hunt which was probably the most fun I had while reading The Unexpected Everything because who doesn’t love a fun scavenger hunt which involves pizza?

The Unexpected Everything may seem like a light-hearted summer read but it has a deeper undertone to it. It deals with self-discovery, learning to cope with loss and it's got strong family relationships and friendships in it. Heartwarming with buckets of cuteness and an adorable love story to boot.

I'd like to thank Pansing Singapore for sending me a copy for review.