Member Reviews

I was so excited to read this book. I loved Promchanted, I did not love this book quite as much. However, I did love that Cass was able to find a way to use her time in a manner that not only allowed herself to grow as an individual, but also to figure out not only who she truly was but who she wanted to be. I know it can be hard to be an individual in a family, especially one that moves around so much. How she handled leaving people behind while not ideal was honestly realistic, and I am glad that she was able to deal a little bit with how not only leaving made her feel, but how it made those she left behind feel as well.
Thank you so much to Disney Publishing Worldwide and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

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I love this series and it’s Disney-ness. However I was frustrated for the first half of this book. It was cute but I was truly like ugh. I mean who just up and leaves people like this? And I’m sorry but in today’s time so easy to keep in touch with those you move away from. Stop using that and your dad’s as an excuse. Anyway once she got it together all good. Loved it!


But was I the only one who cast these characters as Daphne and Oliver from What a Girl Wants?!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for a chance to read and review.

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Gradchanted* by Morgan Matson was such a fun and nostalgic read! The characters were so lively and engaging that it never felt repetitive or boring even with the time loop. Each loop brought new surprises, and the friendships and emotions felt so real that I couldn’t help but get swept up in the excitement. It completely transported me back to that thrilling, bittersweet feeling of high school graduation night—the possibilities, the what-ifs, and the magic of one unforgettable evening. Matson perfectly captured that mix of nostalgia and anticipation, making this book both heartfelt and fun. If you love stories with a touch of magic and a lot of heart, this one is a must-read!

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A grad night at Disneyland? I'm so jealous already!

I have to say, I loved the premise of the book. A mysterious night where everything goes wrong, meeting a cute guy, drama with besties and seeing how your actions affect everyone around you? Very cool. Really shows the butterfly effect in action.
My main issue with this book is how immature Cass (our main character) is at some points. I got soooo angry at her in the early loops because even though I know she's young HOW COULD SHE NOT SEE SHE WAS THE PROBLEM. Her immaturity in the begining really did take me out of it.

But her growth was amazing to see. I did think the "solution" was reached rather quickly, but I guessed based on how many loops passed, it wasn't fast at all for her LOL. I did really enjoy the ending though! Really well done.

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Gradchanted is a PERFECT starter book for younger readers wanting to dip their toes into Y.A. content. While our main character, Cass, is a soon to be college student, the content of this story reads EXTREMELY young, inclusive and pure.

Stuck in a time loop at California Adventure, Cass is faced with uncovering her own complicated feelings towards her fathers, and the nomadic lifestyle their family has led throughout her formative years. During her Disneyland grad night outing, Cass is forced to repeatedly face the many old friends that she’s unceremoniously left behind through her many moves. She’s quietly gone along with her dads from house to house and school to school without complaining, but also fails to mention to her friends that she’d be leaving. Only now is she confronted with the hurt that this has caused herself and others.

The story serves as a wonderful, if zany, representation of the surprising feelings that surface around graduation and the transitions out of senior year. Up until her time loop, Cass had managed to compartmentalize and avoid the pain she’d both experienced and caused due to her unwillingness to face difficult goodbyes. Add in the Disney of it all, and this is an incredibly exciting environment to share the message of self awareness and being gentle and generous with those around us.

With the backdrop of cute boys, best friends, amusement park rides, and college on the horizon, Matson weaves in various life lessons in our time spent with Cass, as well as including representation of Queer & gender non-binary characters. This story is a theme park enthusiast’s dream! It’s equally goofy and introspective. At the very end Matson also manages to weave in an interesting discussion of power dynamics and the fan / performer relationship, yet this was done through the lens of a time-loop related power divide.

While the beginning of this did start out a bit clunky and ad-like managing to shove in a bit much Disney branding right away, it’s an ultimately useful and totally safe recommendation for transitioning readers. It reads exactly in the format of a Disney Channel original show: the characters may be in high school, but it is written for children with outlandish adventures galore. Likely won’t be a favorite read for non Disney fans.

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I love a time loop and I love Disney so when I saw the premise for Gradchanted I knew I needed to read it immediately. I love the journey we see Cass take where she runs into people she’d ghosted from other schools she attended as she’s trying to make sure her unintentional bestie has the best grad night ever. I felt like all the characters, including the side characters we have brief interactions with, are so relatable. Despite not being able to truly understand where Cass was coming from because I have never moved, I kind of get it because there were definitely people I lost contact with over the years who either moved unexpectedly or went to a different school or we just drifted apart due to college. I cannot wait to recommend it to people at work!

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Morgan Matson returns to Disneyland in "Gradchanted", which follows Cass, on her senior Grad Night, when she is stuck in a time loop, after years of running away from all her problems. This is a standalone spinoff to "Promchanted", and Matson once again captures the magic of experiencing Disneyland, but this time at DCA. While time loop stories can become repetitive, Matson did a good job of crafting Cass' story in a way where each storyline had different qualities and showing off her character growth.

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I know it's a time loop book, but there were parts that felt too repetitive. There were things I felt like Cass should've figured out sooner. It was still a fun book though.

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I’m going to be honest- time loop books sometimes are just not for me. I wanted to read this book despite that little tidbit though, because Morgan Matson has been one of my favorite authors for years, and Disneyland is also one of my favorite things.
I was so so happily surprised by this book! 📕 it was practically perfect in every way.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC that I received in exchange for my honest review.

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If you have to be stuck in a Time Loop, Grad Nite at Disneyland doesn't seem like such a bad place. Which is what happens to Cass, as she runs into people from previous times in her life throughout the park. She spends a lot less time going on the rides than one would expect. Instead, she tries to avoid making the same mistakes over and over, in the hopes of changing the course of the night and breaking out of the loop. It is only when she takes a good hard look at what landed her in the loop in the first place that she has any hope of making it to the next day. I am a huge fan of Time Loop books and this was a great one. Highly recommended for grades 7 & up.

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This was a nice light and fun read! I love having the magic of Disney along with the magic of a time loop. I thought the story was so cute and Cass really grew a lot throughout the book.

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"Gradchanted" is the second book of Matson's set in a Disney Park. This time it's Disney's California Adventure (DCA). We follow Cass Issac and her best friend Bryony at their "Grad Night" event. As Cass goes about her night, she winds up on a ride she had no intention of riding, comes across many people she thought she successfully ghosted, and a really hot bassist spills orange soda all over her dress! Fed up she goes to leave the even early only to find the night starting over again and again. Faced with trying to figure out how to get out of this time loop, Cass also goes on an adventure of self-discovery.

It pains me very deeply to say this, but this Matson book did not hit for me. I usually love her books. Every one of her books are on my favorites list. Even "Promchanted" is on the list. Matson is an auto-buy for me. It's not that this is a "bad:" book. Nor was this plot a bad idea. It just didn't seem to me to have that special Morgan Matson spark to it that the other ones have.

I LOVED the DCA environment, as I am a big Disney Parks fan. For me, the time loop seemed to go on for a long while before Cass found her way and her plan. I do understand that that was the vehicle used to show Cass's despair and her feeling lost, and it worked.

The character arc for Cass was very good. She was absolutely a changed person by the end of the book because of what she went through. I am glad she found herself and stood up for herself and her future. It takes a lot of guts to realize when you are in the wrong and then right it. So that was impressive of her.

I personally am older than the target audience for YA books now unfortunately--that is very weird to me to say--so it could just be me.

I still LOVE Morgan Matson and am looking forward to her next book.

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Thank you to #NetGalley, Morgan Matson, and the publisher of the book for the eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Cass Isaac has gotten really good at moving...... and ghosting. She's had to move a lot due to her dads' house-flipping business—always a different school, a new friend group. She’s learned that there’s no need for drawn-out-goodbyes. Especially with people you'll never talk to again. Which is why Cass wants to make Grad Nite at Disneyland the perfect way to finish up high school since she'll be moving again..

The night soon turns into one big disaster. When she meets cute British bassist Freddie, she accidentally ruins his big break, but that's not the worse part. Cass gets in a major fight with best friend Bryony. When she tries to leave Disneyland and this place for good, she’s thrown for a literal time loop. Forced to relive the most dramatic night of her life over and over, Cass will have to find a way to make set things right . . . or be stuck at Grad Nite forever.

A fun and adventure filled YA novel! It took awhile for Cass to grow on me. It seemed like she was always making excuses to her old classmates on why she left and didn't say goodbye. As time went on though, I think she realized what a mistake this was and each time she tried to genuinely apologize and make things better. I loved this book and will recommend it to others.

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After reading Promchanted last year, which was Morgan Matson’s first novel for Disney, I was a bit worried that I would have the same reaction to Gradchanted. Promchanted had a great premise, but the writing fell rather flat for me (it wasn’t in the same style as Matson’s other YA novels) and the protagonist was too flawless and not endearing enough to capture my interest in the long run. Gradchanted, however, feels more in line with Matson’s traditional style, though there are still several points that need to be addressed if a third collaboration is to follow.

At first, Cass’s personality comes across as cold and indifferent with respect to the way in which she has handled ghosting her friends after each move. Truly, Matson doesn’t really develop the backstory and hurt Cass claims as reasons for why she continuously chooses to cut off all contact. It’s all just provided as exposition for the reader. Therefore, when she encounters some of her former friends during Grad Night, Cass once again comes across as unlikeable. As someone who moved a lot as a child and teenager, I experienced the same scenarios, either accidentally cutting off all contact, or having relationships and communication slowly peter out. Cass’s deliberate choice to make a clean break just seems very unrealistic. Even as she starts to realize her flaws and attempts to make amends, the way in which Matson describes the process still makes it seem as though Cass hasn’t learned very much. There is no one moment in which Cass truly breaks and recognizes the errors of her ways, which is something each of Matson’s other YA protagonists always experience. That said, Freddie is well fleshed out and surprisingly, all of the supporting characters are too. The plot and the pacing are great, which is a vast improvement from Promchanted.

Therefore, after reading the Disney collaborations and Matson’s prior YA novels, I am now left wondering whether the differences and issues that plague both Promchanted and Gradchanted should be chalked up to something related to the editor and publisher.

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Sweet story about learning to face your problems set in Disneyland with a Groundhog Day redo plot. The MC grows tremendously through the book, and there are plenty of sweet and hopeful moments. Enjoyable read.

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I recieved a free eARC of this book. Thank you for the opportunity to read it!

Cass has moved a lot in high school. And I mean a LOT. Her dads flip houses, and move to a new one whenever finished. She’s attended 16 high schools. And she’s learned not to say goodbye, just to move on. But she’s finally graduated, and is going to grad night at Disneyland, with her best friend Bryony. It should be the best night ever.

Except…something is wrong. Cass keeps running into people from her past, and reliving mistakes. And she can’t get out. Grad night keeps repeating. Can she right the wrongs she’s made…and connect with a hunky British musician along the way?

This is a light, fun romantic read for anyone who enjoys the genre. It’s a fun book, although a predicable one, and would be a good beach read for anyone who enjoys a clean romance, The Disney setting helps to make it feel very familiar and comfortable—-and where else but Disney should magic happen?

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This was another fun Disney read. I loved Promchanted so I knew that I would love this book. So cute!🥰

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Morgan Matson’s Gradchanted is a captivating and heartwarming journey that perfectly encapsulates the bittersweet nature of growing up and the significance of relationships. Eighteen-year-old Cass Issac, who has mastered the art of leaving people behind, heads to Disneyland for what she thinks will be a magical Grad Nite with her best friend, Bryony. Morgan skillfully blends humor and heartfelt moments as Cass navigates a night filled with unexpected twists.

When a series of mishaps—especially involving the charming Freddie Sharma—plunges Cass into a time loop, she is forced to confront her fear of commitment and what true friendship means. The vivid descriptions of Disneyland bring the magic of the park to life, immersing readers in the vibrant atmosphere.

Cass’s transformation is both relatable and compelling, showcasing her struggle between the desire for freedom and the deep need for connection. The evolving dynamic with Bryony adds emotional depth, highlighting how misunderstandings can threaten even the strongest friendships.

Morgan’s writing is engaging and sharp, striking a perfect balance between humor and emotion. Gradchanted is not just a fun adventure; it’s a poignant exploration of the importance of making memories and the courage to embrace connections. This book will resonate with anyone who has faced the challenges of moving on while cherishing meaningful moments. Highly recommended for fans of contemporary YA, this story is sure to linger in your heart.

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Gradchanted by Morgan Matson is a fun, heartwarming adventure that blends the excitement of high school graduation with a magical twist. Cass Issac is no stranger to moving on—her dad's house-flipping business means she's always the new girl, never sticking around long enough for goodbyes. But when she attends Grad Nite at Disneyland with her best friend Bryony, Cass expects a fun, carefree night to wrap up her high school years. Instead, everything goes wrong: she ruins British bassist Freddie Sharma's big break, has a major falling-out with Bryony, and ends up stuck in a time loop, forced to relive the same chaotic night over and over. Now, Cass must figure out how to make things right before she’s trapped at Grad Nite forever.

The premise is creative, and I loved how Cass's journey is both emotional and hilarious as she navigates the fallout from her actions and tries to fix her relationships. Matson’s writing captures Cass’s growth beautifully, and the mix of humor, friendship, and romance makes for a delightful read. If you're into time loops, magical realism, and stories about finding closure, *Gradchanted* is a perfect pick for your next read!

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Ground hog day meets high school graduation. What's worse they having a fight with your best friend ruining someone's big back.? Having to relieve that day over and over. Unless you can find away to stop it. It was cute and read that teens would like more than I did.

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