Title: Matchmaking for Beginners
Author: Maddie Dawson
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Edition/Pages: E-book, 353 pages
Goodreads page

Synopsis

Marnie wants a normal life – a husband, a home in the suburbs, and kids. She meets her fiancé’s estranged aunt, Blix, at his family’s holiday part. Blix tells her she is bound for a big life, but Marnie tells her she doesn’t want it. On the day of her wedding, he fiancé tries to call of the marriage but in the end they begrudgingly go through with it. Weeks later they divorce. After a severe breakdown, her family takes her back to her childhood home in Florida where Marnie quickly rekindles a past flame.

Soon after, Blix passes away and leaves her Brooklyn Browstone to Marnie. Marnie must now move to New York and live there for 2 months to gain control of the house. In New York she meets all of Blix’s friends and “projects” and becomes swept away in this new world.

My Review

Overview

This story has minor magical elements to it – both Blix and Marnie can see people’s energy and know instinctually if people are supposed to be together (which is why they call themselves Matchmakers).

Things I Loved

1. I actually liked the slightly magical elements. It gave an otherwise standard romance a unique twist.
2. I actually liked the side characters more than our main character Marnie. All of the neighbors were really fun and had a lot of personality.

Things I Didn’t Love

1. I couldn’t stand Marnie. She was one of the most obnoxious and frustrating MC’s I’ve ever read. She treats everyone around her with such utter disregard for their feelings. She forces and man into marriage and then faults him for still not wanting her. She agrees to marry a man and then cheats and lies to him. And then blames the whole thing of him. She didn’t deserve Patrick or Jeremey.
2. I did not connect with the writing style of this at all. It felt really immature to me. For example this had the sentence: “I hate that so much that I can’t even.” It makes me cringe just thinking about it.
3. Poor Jeremy was the real underdog here. He just gets so shafted in this. I really feel for the guy.

I really wanted to love this story. The premise intrigued me and there were elements I enjoyed. But overall this a big disappointment.

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