MM7 is the shorthand for my new - seventh! - book.
MM7 is a love story.
About two years ago, I was batting ideas around - there’s always a couple warhorses on the bench, but then usually some bright new rookie suddenly shows up like a dazzling comet, and that’s the one I go with. (Wow could I have mixed my metaphors more there? Egad.) And that’s what happened with MM7. It came to me fast, all in a rush. Where before there had been nothing, there was suddenly the bright spark of the idea. I knew the story. I knew the characters, I knew the arc, I knew the beginning and middle and ending. I mulled it over and kicked the tires, but I knew - that this was the next book.
And I knew it was a love story.
Now, all of my books (besides Firefly1) have had a romance in them. Sometimes the romantic relationship is at the heart of the story, like in Unexpected Everything. Sometimes it’s bubbling along, but only gets started at the end. But one of the things I’ve always really tried for in my books is to show the whole of a life - love, yes, but also friends and family and grief and weddings and funerals and pizza and dogs. And it’s not that MM7 doesn’t have other issues and ideas in it.
But mostly, it’s the story of two characters, and their relationship. It’s what feels like my first true, full-stop, love story.
And I’m so excited to tell you more about it.
It’s called…
THE BALLAD OF DARCY & RUSSELL
From New York Times bestselling author Morgan Matson comes a sweeping romantic novel about love, fate...and that one night that can change everything.
Darcy believes in love at first sight.
Even though it’s never happened to her, she’s spent her whole life waiting for that perfect, magical moment. But right now, her life is anything but perfect. In the aftermath of a music festival, she’s stranded at a bus station until morning – the day before she leaves for college. Her phone is dead, she has no cash, and she’s convinced nothing good can come of this night…but then she meets Russell.
Russell. Cute and nice, funny and kind. She knows this is the moment – and the guy – she’s been waiting for. And they have until sunrise to walk, and talk, and connect.
Over the course of this one fateful night – filled with football field picnics, nightswimming, and escape-artist dogs – Darcy and Russell’s lives will change forever. They’ll discover things they never imagined about each other – and about themselves.
But can you really know someone after only a handful of hours? Is it possible to fall in love in just one day?
And is it worth saying hello…when you know you’re destined for a goodbye?
I’m so thrilled that I finally get to share that with you!! I love this book and these characters - and I’m so excited for them to be in the world soon. It’ll be out on May 7th, 2024 - and you can pre-order it now!!
Truly, after Save the Date2 and Take Me Home Tonight3 I thought I was going to write another full-summer book. I’d done that with Firefly, and it had been so fun to have that big a canvas again - and I fully expected to do it with my new YA. I truly didn’t think I would do ANOTHER one day book. And yet - when these characters showed up, with their story, that’s clearly what was going to happen.
This is also very much inspired by a weekend I had when I was 17 (less swoony romance, though, more stuck at a bus station in upstate NY) and on the cusp of college. I love turning points, and those rare wonderful moments when you can REALIZE you’re at a turning point. And both Darcy and Russell are - and they both know it.
I can’t wait to share the cover with you when it’s all done - it’s going to be SO GOOD.
But in the meantime, I’m just so happy to have this news out in the world!
More very soon!
xoxo
mm
Even though Firefly DOES have romance! It’s just on the margins. Archie and Ella have their love story. And there’s even a YA novel lurking in the past, with the teenage love triangle of Casey, Dave, and Rick.
Truly, I could have written the late 90s/ early 2000s love story of Casey, and her longtime (but now off again) romance with the boy across the lake. And the movie filming at her family’s summer camp. And the cute young screenwriter who showed up and changed her life…I thought a LOT about their story, even though we were just hearing about it in the past.
Which takes place, aside from the pro-and epi- logues, in three days.
One night, with an epilogue.
tell me why I just teared up reading this. your books have meant so much to me since I discovered them in middle school and they have been a constant comfort in high school. learning that a brand new, swoony, whirlwind of a MM YA romance about moving out and moving on to college is coming out two weeks before my high school graduation is more than enough to make this senior cry. thank you for creating characters I love to love. the ballad of Darcy and Russell will—without a doubt—become a quick favorite. 🥹❤️
Oh, the Before Sunrise vibes are REAL. You know how much I love a Matsonverse romance. I'm so so so excited. Also, I think this post might explain why The Unexpected Everything is my (current) fave Matson book - because the romance is central to the plot (even though the friendships are EVERYTHING). ANYWAY. I was going to say that this isn't even a one-day book - it's a one-night book, which is even shorter than Take Me Home Tonight and Save the Date, right? Clearly, MM8 is going to be a one-hour book. 😆