Maddie Dawson - Matchmaking For Beginners

Maddie Dawson - Matchmaking For Beginners 

 3.5 ⭐

Genre: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Domestic Fiction

Pages: 378

Format:  Kindle Book 

Favourite Quote: 'You need to forget what society has told you about life and expectations, and don't let anybody make you pretend' (Page 37).

Book Blurb: 

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. 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.

My Review: 

This was my first Maddie Dawson book, although I heard about her other books, such as 'The Survivor's Guide to Family Happiness' and 'A Piece of Normal'. 

Not going to lie, the beginning of the book was really gripping and made me want to continue reading...For the first 5 or 6 chapters, I just couldn't put it down. I guess I was especially drawn into chapters from Blix's POV, as they were just brilliant! Her character was so well written and full of energy! Also, reading her chapters I wanted to know why Marnie was so special to Blix from the very first moment they met...

However, about halfway through the book the mood completely changed and I started to find the character and plot progression quite dull. I even started to question whether I am going to finish reading this book..but I persevered.  

I think I started to get annoyed with the plot because halfway through it was all over the place. Events that could've been skipped or weren't that important had quite long chapters and then situations that needed more explanation and chapter time happened very quickly. The end of the book felt particularly rushed. 

In terms of the characters, Noah was the one that I just could not stand as he somehow got away with being such a selfish and egocentric person throughout the whole book and no other character pointed it out to Marnie. 

At times I also found Marnie to be really whiny and annoying, as she was ready to give up every time a slight inconvenience occurred in her life. 

Although, I really wished there was more backstory to characters that I fell in love with, like Blix and Patrick. These characters were so well written that they were the ones who hold me down to keep reading this book, as I really wanted to find out about their 'happy endings'. 

To my surprise, I accidentally found out that there is a sequel to this book...and guess what...Yes, the Bookish me have to read it. I mean I don't have too high hopes but I do hope it's better and will answer some questions about characters that this book didn't. 

Overall: It is one of those books where I have quite mixed feelings about, as there were characters that I loved and chapters that I adored and vice versa. I do, however, recommend it for someone who likes a light romance and easy read with some YA/ teen inspired drama vibes.