The Unexpected Everything

My favorite part of this book was Andie's relationship with her dad. So many YA and middle grade books stick their characters in boarding school or summer camp or a parentless dystopia (because parents ruin adventures). With parents, sometimes it seems there would be no plot, since nothing dangerous or life changing would ever be allowed to happen.

But in The Unexpected Everything, Andie's politician dad is suddenly at home, and so, unexpectedly, is Andie. She's never had a real parental figure or a curfew, and he hasn't been around to be a father in years. On the first night that conflict arises, there's a (typical YA) argument about this, but they actually have ongoing conversations about it and work out a compromise. And Morgan Matson didn't have to kill Andie's dad to do it!

I didn't love the relationship between Andie and Clark, but I did love that it wasn't the focus. Clark also had his writing to work on; Andie also had her dog-walking and friendships. This felt really real, like Morgan Matson had an understanding of the kind of balance in teenagers' lives. (Also, the texting didn't have text-speak in it, which only my mother uses. The idea that teenagers use text speak is so flawed and as a reader I can totally tell when a YA author has never met a teenager). I appreciate how seriously Matson took her audience and characters. She knows what she's doing.

I LOVED this book, not surprising because I love her author books. I enjoyed the father - daughter banter, the political side to the book, Andi's friendships, her letting go of her plans and letting loose, and of course Clark. Clark reminded me of the Christoper Paolini publishing story crossed with a little Game of Thrones - which was awesome. And that sweet dog. Bertie was charming. I love how Clark and Andi didn't know much about each other and their first date was priceless. I liked learning more about Andi's mother. I loved how this summer taught her to have deeper relationships. I didn't want this book to end!

Unexpected Everything Is unique and a very fast read. At the first chapter I was not sure if I was going to enjoy the book but after the first chapter it took off. The plot picked up and the characters started to develop. A very summery and Contemporary read. The book ended and I was okay with it because it had everything I needed to make it a good book. The only thing I wanted little more of was to like the main love interest. I wanted just little more from his character but saying that I still liked him and his character. I loved Andie's friends and the adventures they shared and there relationship.
It was a summer of new things and also very unexpected things.
4.5/5 Stars

Adorable! Such a great fluffy read--one I needed after Blood for Blood tore my heart out and danced on it. There's even a cathartic moment where the MC is mourning a fictional character.

Loved the writing, the friendship, the family, the romance, the dogs! Only thing was the length, which seemed to meander in the second half and have a slightly overdramatic fight. I felt like the characters were purposefully dumbed down and made regressions just to orchestrate said final fight (in both the romance and friendship spheres), but not enough to lessen the cuteness and nicely wrapped up story.

Andie and her father haven't been close since the death of her mother five years ago. Spending a summer in the same house as her father while he is not working is unthinkable.

Unfortunately, when Andie's internship opportunity disappears thanks to her father's political scandal, a summer with her father is also a harsh reality.

Andie has her best friends Bri, Toby, and Palmer (and even Palmer's long-time boyfriend) to keep her company during the summer. Which is great. But finding a way to her internship would be better.

Instead, through a series of mishaps and surprises, Andie becomes a reluctant dogwalker and starts scoping out a cute boy named Clark as her potential summer romance.

But with her first unplanned summer in a long time, Andie soon learns that you can't plan for the best things in life in The Unexpected Everything (2016) by Morgan Matson.

The Unexpected Everything is Matson's standalone follow-up to Since You've Been Gone. (Set in the same Connecticut town, readers of Matson's earlier novel will also recognize a few character cameos.)

Matson once again evokes the lazy and timeless feel of a summer adventure in her latest novel. Andie is a driven heroine with a singular focus on her future. Raised in her father's world of politics, it's hard for Andie to connect or foster genuine interactions--something that she has learned first-hand is quite simple to fake with the right cues. Over the course of this meandering novel, Matson explores Andie's character and her growth as she begins to understand that there is more to life than having a master plan.

Andie is a very different character in a lot of ways. She's savvy and jaded. She's unapologetic about chasing superficial romances that seem easy and safe. Andie spends a lot of The Unexpected Everything keeping people (and readers) at a remove while she tries to protect herself from loss or heartbreak. While it's understandable when the loss of her mother is a physical presence for much of the story, it also makes it difficult to connect with Andie. It makes it even harder to be invested in her story as the book nears five hundred pages.

A thin plot makes the novel feel even longer as do heavily broadcasted plot twists. Fans of Matson will be happy to return to her familiar and evocative writing. A sweet romance and solid female friendships make 'The Unexpected Everything a lengthy but mostly enjoyable read filled with summer fun and thoughtful characters.

Possible Pairings: Never, Always, Sometimes by Adi Alsaid, The Best Night of Your Pathetic Life by Tara Altebrando, Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley, Reunited by Hilary Weisman Graham, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan, Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales, Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith

The Unexpected Everything is the first book by Morgan Matson that I’ve read, but I’m sure it won’t be my last! Initially drawn in by the cover—I admit, I love anything with dogs on it—I loved the idea of a main character who is a dog-walker. Despite all of Andi’s reservations about her dubious dog-walking skills, she finds herself growing into the role, even if it wasn’t the perfectly planned summer job she wanted. Matson sets up Andi as a classic politician’s daughter, driven to be “picture-perfect,” and yet Andi’s character never falls into the trap of actually being too perfect. Her attitude towards her relationships is that boys might be fun, but keep them emotionally at arm’s length. When she stumbles upon the adorably dorky Clark, a famous writer who is struggling with MAJOR writer’s block, it’s both funny and enthralling to watch both Andi and Clark fall for each other.

What sets The Unexpected Everything apart from a typical girl-meets-boy plotline are all of the compelling relationships Andi has besides Clark. There’s her three best friends, Bri, Toby, and Palmer, and when Bri and Toby are in love with the same boy it creates unprecedented turmoil amongst the four friends which can only be mended by an unexpected road-trip. One of my favorite parts of this novel, though, was seeing Andi’s relationship with her father grow. A career politician, Andi’s father hasn’t been around much. At all, especially since her mother died. But when summer starts, he is embroiled in a political scandal that suddenly leaves him homeward-bound. Watching Mr. Palmer struggle to pick up the reins of fatherhood again, doing typical “dad” things like trying to set curfew and holing up to watch old basketball re-runs, I think Matson perfectly captures the sometimes-awkward moments between parents and teenagers.

While it might be a bit heftier than its other summer-read counterparts, The Unexpected Everything is unexpectedly deep and entertaining, with a perfect balance between romance, friendship, and family. Well worth the extra room in the suitcase or pool bag!

Andie is a child of privilege, though a motherless one. When her father's political scandal torpedoes her summer internship plan, Andie gets a dog sitting job instead. If I had bought more into the premise, I probably would have enjoyed this book more, but it seemed so surface, compared to the two other Matson books I've read (AMY & ROGER'S EPIC DETOUR and SECOND CHANCE SUMMER.) This one seemed to have more shallow characters, and little understanding of what dog walking/dog sitting is like (other than making for awkward and funny dog situations.) Also, Christopher Paolini called and he wants his "brilliant, socially awkward, homeschooled teen author with writer's block" storyline back.

What worked: I loved Andie's self-aware struggles to not text while driving, and her acknowledgement that putting her phone down could be hard.
What didn't work: Andie's friends were annoying, especially the girl who only used emojis. Call me old, but that was just annoying. Call me old again, but teen author Peter seemed uninteresting for all his quirks and niceness.

If you can get into the "fish out of water" premise that a girl who is a polished press-conference pro now has to pick up dog poop, and if you want to read texts strings and excerpts from an imagined fantasy novel, then give this a try.

I felt that the novel started with too much teenage drama but in the middle of it something shifted and I really enjoyed it.
It is fun, light read, probably mostly intended for teenage readers. I am not a teenager anymore, maybe that's why I couldn't give 5 stars. I didn't feel I can relate to all the teenage drama.
But I mostly liked the characters and the whole concept of unexpected summer.
It is a good read.

Andie thought she had her whole life planned out. Andie never has a boyfriend for more than three weeks, she has amazing friends and she scores an internship. Well, that's before the scandal that involves her father, who is a representative and member of Congress. This is Andie's wake up call that everything doesn't always go as planned.

As a teen, everything doesn't go as planned even when one thinks they have everything planned out. Andie is able to adjust and is able to move forward despite everything that has happened. Sometimes things happen for a reason. Andie wouldn't have taken the dog walking job and she wouldn't have met Clark if she didn't lose her internship. This is a good message for teens. Even though things don't go the way you want it to, every cloud has a silver lining.

Morgan Matson realistically portrays teens. They are not perfect and Matson shows that people have flaws. That is what makes people real. The friendships Andie has with Bri, Toby, and Palmer is genuine. Matson has a knack for writing fantastic characters and a variety relationships. However, I felt like the book could have been shorten and certain parts of the novel seemed drawn out longer than it should be. The beginning was a bit slow for me but it did pick up.

Overall, The Unexpected Everything is a solid contemporary novel perfect for the summer.

I’ve read several of Morgan Matson’s books, not to mention an alarming amount of YA summer-set fiction in the last two months. This is one of my favorite books, easily. Charming but honest, this is a great read.

Andie thought she had her whole life planned out. Andie never has a boyfriend for more than three weeks, she has amazing friends and she scores an internship. Well, that's before the scandal that involves her father, who is a representative and member of Congress. This is Andie's wake up call that everything doesn't always go as planned.

As a teen, everything doesn't go as planned even when one thinks they have everything planned out. Andie is able to adjust and is able to move forward despite everything that has happened. Sometimes things happen for a reason. Andie wouldn't have taken the dog walking job and she wouldn't have met Clark if she didn't lose her internship. This is a good message for teens. Even though things don't go the way you want it to, every cloud has a silver lining.

Morgan Matson realistically portrays teens. They are not perfect and Matson shows that people have flaws. That is what makes people real. The friendships Andie has with Bri, Toby, and Palmer is genuine. Matson has a knack for writing fantastic characters and a variety relationships. However, I felt like the book could have been shorten and certain parts of the novel seemed drawn out longer than it should be. The beginning was a bit slow for me but it did pick up.

Overall, The Unexpected Everything is a solid contemporary novel perfect for the summer.

I’ve read several of Morgan Matson’s books, not to mention an alarming amount of YA summer-set fiction in the last two months. This is one of my favorite books, easily. Charming but honest, this is a great read.

Oh my God...The Unexpected Everything might have been the most boring YA book that I've ever read. It's not the worst one, but even the bad YA books I've read have been relatively engaging. This one was just not. Add that to the fact that the main character was insufferable and you have a book that I just did not like.

I could not stand Andie. She was bratty, immature, and extremely judgmental. Case in point: someone she works for used the word "former". Andie was surprised that that person used that word because she has tattoos. And as everyone knows, there's a direct correlation between number of tattoos you have and intelligence...except there's not. I don't even have tattoos and I was still so offended by that reasoning. Especially when you consider that I'm-so-smart-Andie doesn't read...at all. But she doesn't have tattoos. Therefore, only she can know about hard words like "former". After that, I just stopped caring about her...cause she was stupid and snobby.

Despite my dislike of Andie, I was still hoping that there would be something about The Unexpected Everything that I could cling to. I mean, this book had so many characters. Surely, there must be ONE whose life I would be interested in...FYI: There wasn't. Andie's friends were all so thinly developed that they ended up being interchangeable. And these interchangeable female friends were fighting...over a boy. I hate stereotypes like that. Teenage chicks do more than weep and moan about not having a boyfriend or about having a crush on a guy who's not crushing on them. In fact, that might've been the biggest disappointment in The Unexpected Everything...it had so very little depth.

So, what did I like about this book? Nothing, really. It was not engaging and had aggravating characters. To add insult to injury, this book was loooong. It felt like every single one of its 500+ (in my ARC) pages. At one point, I started to wonder if the author got paid by the word because there was so much detail in here that had nothing to do with anything. I just did not like it. Not even a little bit. I'm hoping that I'll like Amy and Roger's Epic Detour (the only other book of this author's that I own) a bit more, but it's officially moved down about 50 books in Mt. TBR.

Morgan Matson does it again! If you love contemporary reads that put a heavy emphasis on self growth, friendship, and self worth - Matson is YOUR PERSON.

While it is a massive book (496 pages!), you will fall head over heels for Andie's story and want to immerse yourself in her personal journey on the daily.

THIS is what YA Contemporary is supposed to be.

Honestly, this is one of those books that you could take or leave. There isn't anything that really called to me to pick it up, but it wasn't something that I actively avoided reading either. Since it almost took me the entire month to review it, that also says something. I read three other books inbetween starting this one and finishing it.

Basically, we follow Andie through a summer that isn't going according to her plan. She thoughts it would be wonderful, but a political scandal has left her father home with her. There relationship is strained to say the least. He's barely ever around, so she doesn't exactly know what to do with him. On top of this, he has cost her the pre-med internship that she was looking forward to. Now she has taken a job as a dog walker and her summer is basically ruined. Some self-growth is in order to make everything a bit better. It becomes more of a summer of growth than what she had planned and she ends up learning more about her father, herself, and the things that she is terribly wrong about.

Andie is not really a likeable person. She has preconceived notions about pretty much everything that are very offensive. She is a "mean girl". Even though she grows throughout the novel, she doesn't end as a person that I would like to know. The only saving grace for this novel is that it has some pretty funny parts. The humor is mixed in with day-to-day life and isn't absurd. On top of that, you don't necessarily have to like Andie in order to like other characters around her.

Like others here, I loved all the other books. This one however; for me; did not make it to any of my lists on any level. I could not relate to anyone in the story and it dragged on forever, finally I just gave up. Wait for the next one.

The cover does look promising, but actually, this young adult novel that occupies more than 500 pages is nothing to write home about. Andie isn't a very interesting character. A teen with nothing to do might enjoy ploughing through these pages, but it's really nothing but a timekiller and not that pleasurable a one.

Probably more for the younger YA reader, this is a fairly lightweight and somewhat predictable read. It's perfect for that fluff type of read, when you need something that doesn't require much concentration or attention to detail. Average at best.