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Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Blog Tour: Matchmaking For Beginners by Maddie Dawson

Author: Maddie Dawson
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Date of publication: June 2018

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 fiancĂ©’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.

Matchmaking For Beginners involves Marnie who gets divorced after two weeks. As she is putting her life back together and rekindles a relationship with an old flame, she finds out she has inherited a house from her ex-husband's kooky great aunt.  The only stipulation being she has to live there for three months before selling. 

I wish I could say that I enjoyed Matchmaking for Beginners, but I really didn't. I know I'm going to be in the minority on that one. It had the bare bones of a good story, it just didn't end up working for me.  The one thing I did like about the book was the time spent with Blix and her friends.  Those passages were really entertaining.

My biggest issue with the book was the main character.  Marnie was not a very likable person.  I couldn't get behind her decisions or reactions.  On her wedding day, her fiance shows up an hour late  and tells her he doesn't want to get married.  She talks him into going through with it.  Then proceeds to be really upset when, on their honeymoon, he tells her he is done and wants out.  The guy told her the week before he didn't want to do it, but she talked him into it.  Now she is going to be upset and angry with him? That baffled me. But the thing that really killed the book for me was the cheating.  She gets engaged to another man before she moves to New York to live in the house.  Once there, she proceeds to cheat on her fiance, Jeremy, with her ex-husband..multiple times.  She reasons that the betrayal was probably bad but necessary.  No, sorry.  Nothing justifies infidelity.  I lost all respect for the character at that point.

I ended up finishing the book.  However, I didn't care for the ending.  I felt most badly for Jeremy and I didn't think Marnie really changed all that much.  I know others have said this is  funny, cute chic-lit, but I disagree. If a cheating main character doesn't bother you, then you may enjoy the book.  It just wasn't for me.



Purchase Links


About Maddie Dawson

Maddie Dawson grew up in the South, born into a family of outrageous storytellers. Her various careers as a substitute English teacher, department-store clerk, medical-records typist, waitress, cat sitter, wedding-invitation-company receptionist, nanny, day care worker, electrocardiogram technician, and Taco Bell taco maker were made bearable by thinking up stories as she worked. Today she lives in Guilford, Connecticut, with her husband. She’s the bestselling author of five previous novels: The Survivor’s Guide to Family HappinessThe Opposite of MaybeThe Stuff That Never HappenedKissing Games of the World, and A Piece of Normal.

Connect with Maddie

Instagram tour stops:
Monday, May 28th: @girlsinbooks
Monday, May 28th: @booknerdingout
Tuesday, May 29th: @createexploreread
Thursday, May 31st: @spinatale
Friday, June 1st: @bribookishconfessions
Friday, June 1st: @beccasbookishlife
Saturday, June 2nd: @ladyofthelibrary
Saturday, June 2nd: @jessislibrary
Sunday, June 3rd: @chaptershoe

Review tour stops:

Monday, May 28th: A Bookish Way of Life
Tuesday, May 29th: Bewitched Bookworms
Tuesday, May 29th: BookNAround
Wednesday, May 30th: What is That Book About – guest post
Thursday, May 31st: Kahakai Kitchen
Friday, June 1st: Not in Jersey
Monday, June 4th: Snowdrop Dreams
Tuesday, June 5th: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
Wednesday, June 6th: From the TBR Pile
Thursday, June 7th: Books a la Mode – guest post
Friday, June 8th: Thoughts on This ‘n That
Monday, June 11th: A Bookish Affair
Monday, June 11th: Laura’s Reviews
Wednesday, June 13th: Books & Bindings
Thursday, June 14th: A Chick Who Reads
Monday, June 18th: bookchickdi
Tuesday, June 19th: Literary Quicksand
Thursday, June 21st: Chick Lit Central – author Q&A
Thursday, June 21st: Patricia’s Wisdom

Wednesday, June 27th: Midwest Ladies Who Lit

1 comment:

Heather J @ TLC Book Tours said...

Thanks for being a part of the tour.