Review | Matchmakers for Beginners

Title: Matchmakers for Beginners by Maddie Dawson

Date Published: June 1, 2018

Date Read: March 1, 2021

Current Goodreads Rating: 3.96/5

It's been several weeks since I've written a romance review and I am incredibly sorry for my lack of content. I started this book in the waiting room of my local Toyota dealership while waiting for them to finish servicing my car. Could I have brought my laptop to keep working? Yes. Did I want to? Absolutely not. Do I regret a thing? What do you think?

I devoured this book in a single afternoon and I regret nothing. Matchmaking for Beginners has such a distinctive Lifetime Movie feel that just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But first - let's get into the plot.

Ok, what's it about? Marnie is getting married. She's definitely very happy and not at all nervous about what married life will be like once she says 'I do' and she and her new husband, Noah ride off into the proverbial sunset. However, when her marriage ends after just two weeks, Marnie is lost, floating in a limbo with no idea of what to do or where to go.

Enter Blix, Noah's crazy great-aunt. She markets herself as a matchmaker and has several 'projects' to help introduce or reintroduce love into people's lives. Maggie is her newest unwilling customer. There's just something about Marnie's aura and the aura of the man, Patrick, who lives in the apartment below Blix. The only problem is Marnie lives in Florida and Patrick is in Brooklyn. How could this even work out?

Ok, what did I think? This is a romance novel of Lifetime Movie proportions. There were so many times where I wanted to smack Marnie upside the head, the first time being forcing her fiancé to go through with the wedding even though he shows up an hour late and not in his suit. Just cut your losses and get drunk. He's obviously not worth it. (Also, this is just personal bias, but in my experience any man named Noah is just not worth it).

Pictured: Every white guy who isn't The One in a romance novel. Sorry Ted.

This story definitely has its issues that I was willing to look past, but other reviewers could not. For example, after the disastrous marriage with Noah, Marnie almost immediately enters into another relationship with an old childhood acquaintance. He's sweet and is introduced formally into the story by helping Marnie's sister deliver her baby, but he's so cookie cutter vanilla ice cream that I can't even remember his name. The entire time I was reading the book I had this image of Ted from season one of Schitt's Creek in my mind. He's a sweet man, but just not right for Marnie.

Blix was probably the best character in the entirety of the book and she's really only in it for half of the story itself. I won't go into details to keep some of the mystery alive in case you all want to check out this book, but I'll just say this: Blix is the crazy great-aunt we all want to have in our families. She gives absolutely no fucks, openly berates her great-nephew in front of his future ex-wife, and does her best to do the exact opposite of her stuffy relatives. I want to have the mentality of Blix when I'm older. Who gives a shit, I'm going to be me.

Personally, I wish the book had ended without Marnie ending up with a man. As this is a romance novel, Marnie does meet a man and there is an ambiguous ending where the readers are left to assume they have fallen in love. Considering Marnie has a full on break down after her marriage crumbles it seems a little unhealthy to jump into another engagement and then another new relationship right after, but - as I said - it wasn't so concerning that I had to put the book down. Marnie's friendship with Patrick, the man who lives downstairs, is very sweet and I really enjoyed reading their scenes together, but I will admit I didn't feel much romance between the characters. I think if I were to rewrite this book I'd probably invest more time in developing the friendship between Marnie and Patrick so that their romantic relationship seemed more believable.

This book - on top of watching the last To All the Boys movie and re-watching the now classic film Someone Great - has further made me want to pack up and move to NYC. Maybe it's just the side effects of living in a pandemic for the last year, but New York City just seems like even more of a character in everything I've watched or read recently that it's hard not to get sucked in by the charm.

Long Story Short:

• Lifetime Movie Books are a good time, but not necessarily "classic" novels

• New York City is the best character in all forms of media

• We should all aspire to be like Blix

My Rating: 4/5