“My Dear Miss Franklin, I can only imagine the despondency you must feel at your mother’s insistence that you entertain Mr. B’s suit.”
Before the days of Tinder and Bumble and whatever other dating apps there are nowadays (I’ve lost count), people had to meet their partners in-person or be match-made with the help of friends and family. Admittedly, I’m only 22 and therefore born into the generation of people who use online dating apps as their main source of meeting new people, but I was lucky enough to meet my partner in person. But I’ve also known others who met their partners through dating apps and there are members of my family who met their partners through mutual friends.
Despite being a highly successful matchmaker, Amelie Hampton has yet to be blessed by Cupid himself. Instead, her efforts are focused on helping her clients find their own one true love. But when Amelie is recruited by the police to help in solving a gruesome murder, things seem to be turning around for her love life. That is, if she can keep her feelings straight for her new “boss”, Michael Baker.
The Matchmaker’s Lonely Heart is sickeningly sweet; Nancy Campbell Allen managed to marry (heh, get it?) romance and mystery into a lighthearted and easy read for anyone who likes their fluff with a little bit of teeth to it.
It would be easy to fall into certain romance tropes with the setting that the novel is in: toxic relationships, damsels in distress, overbearing men, but Allen manages to avoid these tropes while weaving in others that turn this love story into something a lot more wholesome and modern. Amelie is never really shamed for her job or her lack of experience in dealing with crime (past the times , she never once loses her independence even as she begins to fall in love. She has her own ways of solving her problems, even if her methods are unorthodox by the police’s standards.
The title is a bit of a misnomer—although that is not really something that I consider a flaw—I don’t particularly feel that it is Amelie who is lonely, but rather her counterpart, Michael. I also do wish that considering Amelie’s job is featured rather prominently in the title that we explore her job a little more, I did find her interactions with her clients rather amusing, but once the murder happens, we moved away from her job rather quickly in order to focus on Michael’s.
Nevertheless, Amelie and Michael’s relationship had me smiling over the two days that it took me to finish this book and I genuinely squealed when they managed to get their shit together and confess their feelings for each other. I really do recommend this book for anyone who needs something light on their TBR as we go into the colder seasons.
Rating: 4/5
The Matchmaker’s Lonely Heart by Nancy Campbell Allen will be released on 7 September.
August’s Round-up
And we have come to the end of yet another month! Here are the books—both new and old—that I’ve read this month.
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Following the events of Magpie Murders, Susan Ryeland has moved to Greece now that her old life in England has quite literally gone up in flames. But someone has just asked her to find their missing daughter and they believe Alan Conway—the now-deceased writer she used to work for—has something to do with it.
4.5/5
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Peter Grant can see ghosts. He doesn’t know how but he can. And now he’s being recruited to join a top secret branch of the London police that is responsible for keeping the peace between creatures that shouldn’t exist. So when someone starts gruesomely killing others by literally blowing up their heads and your key witness is a ghost, who else are you going to call?
4/5
Od and Ed by Shanti Leonard
In a moment of panic, Od has accidentally exorcised her own twin brother’s soul from his body. And now his soul won’t go back in. She needs to put her brother back into his body before the sun comes up, and her only help is the creepy kid who lives down the block with his crazy family.
Read the review here!
3.5/5
The Mad Women’s Ball by Victoria Mas
Eugénie can see ghosts and in 1800s France, the only place that she can belong to is the asylum. She knows she’s not crazy but every other patient says that and the nurses have heard it all before. The only way for her to escape is with the help of senior nurse Geneviève and the whisperings of her long dead sister.
Read the review here!
4/5
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
Ten years ago, Oliver Marks was one of the seven most promising actors in Dellecher Classical Conservator. He and his classmates lived and breathed Shakespeare, both on and off the stage. Now he’s a newly-released prisoner, fresh from serving ten years for the murder of a classmate and a former friend.
5/5
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Barely-human android Murderbot (not its real name) spends its days watching reruns of old television shows and defending real humans from the dangers of space exploration, separated and hidden in the safety of its armour. It’s fine living its life with the clear line in the sand, until the team chances upon another exploration group whose been murdered by their own android.
3.5/5
The Last Line of Their Lines by Andrew D. Doan
Review to come soon 👀
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
The stories of gods and magic, of Ragnarok and life, as told by author, Neil Gaiman.