The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Unexpected Everything. I adored Morgan Matson's debut, Amy & Roger's Epic Roadtrip, but I was less keen on her next two novels, so although I couldn't resist grabbing her newest release, I was readying myself for disappointment.

And I almost got it. About 150 pages into the book, I was close to abandoning it. The Unexpected Everything is a sprawling summer read -- over 500 pages long -- and nothing really hooked me in those first pages. I'd reached the halfway point of most contemporary YA, and I still hadn't really connected with the book.

But I kept going for "just a little bit longer," and somehow ended up reading the last 300 pages all in one go. The book took its time to get going, but once it did, I absolutely fell in love with the characters and the story.

At its heart, The Unexpected Everything is about friendship, family, and cute cute dogs. Perfectionist overachiever Andie ends up without any summer plans after her prestigious internship is revoked at the last minute, and after scrambling for another resume-filler, she stumbles into a not-so-prestigious job as a dogwalker.  This brings her to Clark, the cute, awkward and nerdy prodigy novelist struggling with writer's block and dog-sitting for his editor for the summer. Meanwhile, Andie's congressman father is also forced home for the summer after being caught in a scandal, making his usually non-existent presence suddenly very present indeed.

Perhaps one of the problems at the beginning of the novel is that the book juggles a lot of elements. There's Andie's dad, and Clark, and the dog walking, and her overachieving, and her grief for her mom... it's enough to make a summer read 500 pages long, but it mean it's not easy to get immersed in the novel's world. By the time we meet Andie's foursome of best friends, I was so busy balancing other plotpoints and characters in my brain that I didn't have the energy left to connect with them immediately.

But once everything clicks into place, the book becomes fantastic. Once we connect with Andie's lively friends, her own insecurities, her potential relationship with Clark, it's an absolute page-turner. It's a true summer book, about friendship and self-discovery, lazy days and unexpected drama. Matson has an incredibly readable writing style, and her character relationships (and character flaws) are spot on. If you want a contemporary novel that you can really snuggle down with and dig into, that will pull you into a world and give you a sizeable chunk of wonderful reading time with real-seeming characters, then this is definitely one to try.

Also, the cover is irresistibly cute.