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?

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
Published May 3, 2016 by Simon & Schuster
Format: e-book; 519 pages
Young Adult/Romance
Also By This Author: Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, Second Chance Summer, Since You’ve Been Gone
Goodreads | Amazon
My Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

I know I’ve mentioned this before on my blog, but Morgan Matson is one of my favorite contemporary Young Adult authors. So I was stoked when I found out that Tiff at Mostly YA Lit was hosting a Morgan Matson event to celebrate the release of The Unexpected Everything! She’s already posted some pretty rad interviews, quizzes, and giveaways, so hop over to her blog to check them out! But first, here’s my own review of The Unexpected Everything as well as a fun little dare I was challenged to this week.

Thoughts:

Another heartwarming book by Morgan Matson! I just love how she writes coming-of-age stories and makes you laugh, cry, and feel every awkward situation along with her characters. I never have a hard time connecting with the characters in Morgan Matson’s books; they’re quirky, goofy, loyal, and fittingly enough they’re always trying to deal with the unexpected.

Andie Walker has everything planned. She’s going to be pre-med, she’s attending an esteemed college program the summer before her senior year, and her father is a well-known politician so even all of her social media posts are planned ahead of time. But suddenly all of her plans have fallen through and Andie finds herself hired as a dog walker, spending a lot of unexpected (and meaningful) time with her father after his campaign is marred by scandal, and crushing on a socially-awkward fantasy-nerd who challenges all of her preconceived notions of her typical summer fling.

Clark and Andie’s relationship was great! Morgan Matson sure knows how to create cute nerds (there’s one in each of her books). But my favorite part of this book was the relationships between Andie and her three best friends. During the entire book, this tight-knit group of BFFs is the only constant in Andie’s life, until suddenly it’s not. For me that was the best part of Andie’s journey. It made me reflect on my own relationships with former and current friends of mine. Besides unexpected circumstances, reconciliation is always a theme in Morgan Matson’s books and there’s something so powerful and deep about how it resonates with me.

Read This Book If…

…you love books that are centered on friendships.
…you appreciate characters who make mistakes and reconcile relationships.
…you enjoy contemporary YA romances.
…you’re looking for a fun, swoony, & touching book to read this summer!

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

The Unexpectedly Epic Dare Challenge!

This week I was challenged to an #UnexpectedlyEpic dare as part of the Morgan Matson event being held by Tiff at Mostly YA Lit.

Here was my dare:

Reply to 5 different people on any social media platform using only lyrics from Taylor Swift songs.

My initial reaction:

This is silly…
AND
I don’t know enough Taylor Swift songs!

Game plan:

Listen to every T-Swift song and read all of her lyrics, which means I analyzed* them and tried to be prepared for situations on social media where I could sneakily insert some Taylor Swift lyrics into the conversation. (*Yes, I’m aware that I’m a nerd. Can you tell that I was an English major in college who actually enjoyed research papers?)

Results:

1. 
   This was the easiest one to do. I actually think about my favorite web series Green Gables Fables whenever I hear Taylor Swift’s “Everything Has Changed,” but I couldn’t find a good post on tumblr to post those lyrics to. So instead I saw this gif set from one of my favorite episodes (when Gilbert is being a super encouraging friend to Anne) and reblogged it with lyrics from “Stay Beautiful.”
2. 
   Ok, I realized after I did this one that I was only supposed to use lyrics, but I wanted to be really encouraging to my friend Shakira so that’s why I added the last part after the lyrics from “Ours” :) This was probably my favorite part of the dare, realizing that doing something silly like quoting Taylor Swift lyrics could actually be uplifting to someone.
3. 
   Of course I had to find a way to quote Taylor Swift lyrics to Morgan Matson! She included “Stay Stay Stay” on this playlist for her Michigan book tour and when I looked up the lyrics I saw that they really fit with Andie and Clark’s relationship.
4. 
   Hahaha! This one was the hardest one to post. One of my guy friends was chaperoning Prom and I immediately knew that I could find some dance-related lyric to comment with. I was trying to avoid “Shake it Off” but hey, it fit pretty well.
5. 
   My best friend Jae actually really dislikes Taylor Swift, so I wanted to post lyrics to one of her posts just to be funny :) But in all honesty these lyrics from “Never Grow Up” made me want to cuddle with my baby and this is a great picture Jae took of him.

Reactions:

Originally I thought this was going to be a really silly dare, and it was silly, but it was also a bit eye-opening for me. While it was fun to make a fool of myself online, I also realized that there’s more to Taylor Swift songs than love at first sight and heartbreak. As I was listening to a playlist on YouTube I found this video of Taylor Swift sending Christmas presents to some of her biggest fans (and in one case she even surprise-visited a fan). I thought it was incredibly thoughtful and sweet and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me want to cry.

Thank you to whoever gave me this dare! I enjoyed listening to Taylor Swift on repeat & being challenged to do something silly :)