Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Book Summary:
Marnie MacGraw wants an ordinary life—a husband, kids, and a minivan in the suburbs. Now that she’s marrying the man of her dreams, she’s sure this is the life she’ll get. Then Marnie meets Blix Holliday, her fiancé’s irascible matchmaking great-aunt who’s dying, and everything changes—just as Blix told her it would.
When her marriage ends after two miserable weeks, Marnie is understandably shocked. She’s even more astonished to find that she’s inherited Blix’s Brooklyn brownstone along with all of Blix’s unfinished “projects”: the heartbroken, oddball friends and neighbors running from happiness. Marnie doesn’t believe she’s anything special, but Blix somehow knew she was the perfect person to follow in her matchmaker footsteps.
And Blix was also right about some things Marnie must learn the hard way: love is hard to recognize, and the ones who push love away often are the ones who need it most.
Book Review:
This is a wonderfully written book that is completely different from what I expected when I picked it up based on the cover and title and blurb.
Now, this will probably lead to very polarizing opinions as some might love how the book turns out and some may be disappointed because they were promised a nice fun chick lit from the three things I mentioned above.
But a nice fun chick lit is not what you get.
You get a well written, poignant tale of life and love and magic. There are sentences in the book to be savored. There are sentences to go back and read. And highlight. And write it down on a piece of paper and stick it on your wall. I’m not saying I did that, but I did that.
The lead character are wonderful. Blix is an amazing character. She’s the great-aunt I want. Honestly. And Marnie had a good character arc but I would have liked to see the ending a little more natural. It felt slightly forced but it didn’t detract from the book all that much, to be honest. It was a lovely story arc after all.
I adore Blix. I liked her more than Marnie, which is saying something because Marnie gets much more time and many more pages. There’s something about hints of magic that immediately draw me into a book. I don’t know what it is but a mere suggestion of unknowable forces at play makes me feel all warm inside. They’re good forces. And good people like Blix harnessing them.
Blix’s house has a personality of its own and is as much a lead character of the book as Blix and Marnie. The descriptions of the house are delicious and I could imagine that splendid decaying house that was full of so much love and happiness and good times. And good magic.
Whatever happens, love that.
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