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tbush238's review against another edition
1.0
Did not finish at 33%. This one was so rough. I encouraged myself to get a third of the way through, and if I still wasn’t feeling it until then, I’d quit. Jia is one of the most deeply unlikable characters I’ve read in a while. She’s incredibly selfish and just outright cruel to her supposed childhood best friend, Jaiman. I understand that this is a retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma, but Emma had more depth that made her decision making more understandable, at least to me. At no point did I understand why Jia was so casually cruel to Jaiman to the point where she’s saying he’s stealing her life and family and has no life outside of them. It was just weird? I should’ve stopped reading when we got to the scene at her sister’s where Jia and Jaiman kiss, but Jia thinks it’s all a bet based on an earlier conversation she heard between Jia and Jaiman. The conversation mentioned no bet regarding Jia and Jaiman very clearly shut down any talk of “landing” Jia. It was so completely frustrating reading this woman’s absurd thoughts. Jaiman was fine, but I don’t understand why he was cooking for his found family instead of working at his failing pub? Unfortunately, this book was just not for me at all.
alexa_i's review against another edition
5.0
This gave me major Emma and modern You've Got Mail vibes - two things I adore!
This was the slowest of slow burns, but a really sweet story over all! Were there times I wanted to shake the FMC and scream "LEARN TO COMMUNICATE, JIA" - sure. But I was still rooting for her the whole way. The MMC is completely swoon-worthy, the descriptions of Mumbai made me want to jump on a plane tomorrow, and the supporting characters were all so lovable! (Can I get a Damini book next?!) I'm also just a sucker for matchmaking stories, gimme all the (occasionally unsolicited) love advice and set-ups!
Overall a fun friends-to-lovers read (with some closed door romance), despite my least favorite of all tropes - miscommunication.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!
This was the slowest of slow burns, but a really sweet story over all! Were there times I wanted to shake the FMC and scream "LEARN TO COMMUNICATE, JIA" - sure. But I was still rooting for her the whole way. The MMC is completely swoon-worthy, the descriptions of Mumbai made me want to jump on a plane tomorrow, and the supporting characters were all so lovable! (Can I get a Damini book next?!) I'm also just a sucker for matchmaking stories, gimme all the (occasionally unsolicited) love advice and set-ups!
Overall a fun friends-to-lovers read (with some closed door romance), despite my least favorite of all tropes - miscommunication.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!
eatreadbreathe's review against another edition
3.0
CW: Mentions cancer death of a parent (prior to story)
LGBTQ+ rep: Demi & bisexual main character
LGBTQ+ rep: Demi & bisexual main character
emtabachuk's review against another edition
3.0
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
“Match Me if You Can” is a sweet debut romance! Jia is a secret blogger and relationship writer for a “woman’s” magazine, Mimosa. Her ambition is to open her own matchmaking business, so her boss tells her if she’s able to set up someone in the office, they’ll give her a matchmaking column. Jiaman, her childhood best friend, runs his own pub, which is struggling. The two have a bit of ~history~ they are trying to work around.
This book especially shines in its best friend characters: Charu, the horoscope writer Jia is setting up; Manoj, the musician that attracts a crowd to Jiaman’s pub; Jia’s sister Tanu.
Very Emma-inspired, but I’m here for all love letters to Jane Austen.
“Match Me if You Can” is a sweet debut romance! Jia is a secret blogger and relationship writer for a “woman’s” magazine, Mimosa. Her ambition is to open her own matchmaking business, so her boss tells her if she’s able to set up someone in the office, they’ll give her a matchmaking column. Jiaman, her childhood best friend, runs his own pub, which is struggling. The two have a bit of ~history~ they are trying to work around.
This book especially shines in its best friend characters: Charu, the horoscope writer Jia is setting up; Manoj, the musician that attracts a crowd to Jiaman’s pub; Jia’s sister Tanu.
Very Emma-inspired, but I’m here for all love letters to Jane Austen.
monsterslutsrus's review against another edition
3.0
Jia and Jaiman were both a bit bull headed and had abysmal communications skills. This friends to lovers romance could have progressed better with just, like, one meaningful conversation. A lot of the dialogue felt stilted and the main characters were a bit immature. Jia was overconfident in a way that rubbed me wrong, because she was making some decisions on the behalf of others without awareness of how she was hurting them. However, matchmaking is outside of my ken, so it’s possible that her foibles are just par for the course; part of the learning curve that any aspiring match maker would face.
I did like that Jia was unapologetically stereotypically girly and that she stayed far away from the “not like other girls” scene. She had her moments of being a genuine friend and person. Jaiman had his relatable moments, with a complex relationship with his parents and feelings of inferiority when he wasn’t super successful with his pub. The story dragged at times, but did have its good moments.
Spice: 2/5 closed door
Triggers: parent death from cancer (off page), unwanted kiss
I did like that Jia was unapologetically stereotypically girly and that she stayed far away from the “not like other girls” scene. She had her moments of being a genuine friend and person. Jaiman had his relatable moments, with a complex relationship with his parents and feelings of inferiority when he wasn’t super successful with his pub. The story dragged at times, but did have its good moments.
Spice: 2/5 closed door
Triggers: parent death from cancer (off page), unwanted kiss
christinemomo's review
3.0
I had a great time, but the flaws stood out more as I had time to think about it. I wish I had gone harder with the premise she doesn’t do as much matching as the original Emma and it lacks some of the fun chaos of it.
The changes made to adapt and modernize “Emma” into a 2024 Desi romance set in Mumbai really worked for me.
There’s no age gap, and Jaiman (our Knightley) and his family have been best friends with Jia (our Emma) and her family for their whole lives, so his role as practically family works well, and he’s there often since his parents moved away.
Jia is a romance magazine writer with a secret side hustle writing an anonymous relationship advice blog.
This is Emma-lite; she does 1 match making attempt (the first from the OG book) and trying to help that mentee/friend to the end of her romance journey is the main element of matchmaking, beyond Jai having a blog she keeps giving love advice on throughout. So very much in the spirit of Emma with advice and interfering with best intentions despite never having dated, but not the number of match making blunders.
Jai (our modern Desi Emma) isn’t really involved in other matches the way the OG Emma does, but similar characters and couplings happen and it was fun to recognize and put together who they were a nod to, as a big fan of Emma.
I really enjoyed Jia’s friends had a lot of fun. I think as an Emma fan I knew to expect a slow-burn (our MCs don’t get together quickly) which frankly I prefer to a random late book break up, but I do think it would’ve been nice to see more of them together even as friends. They have many interactions, but they are always pretty short.
It would’ve been nice to see a big chunk of a game night or a dinner or whatever else and see them really spend time together. I think the super short chapters with perspective switches mid chapter worked well for a light romance read, but it limited opportunities for this. But nothing would’ve stopped the author from doing 1-2 chapters all of the same scene or just have a chapter be longer to really let us see them talk for a long time interrupted.
Jiaman also could’ve used some more personality, he just pined politely and brooded over his financial woes in heroic silence mostly. But I still had a good time!
I still hope for a truly chaotic mess of some sort of queer Emma adaptation to be made someday that I’ll 5 star and reread obsessively, but this was a fun modern take I enjoyed.
The changes made to adapt and modernize “Emma” into a 2024 Desi romance set in Mumbai really worked for me.
There’s no age gap, and Jaiman (our Knightley) and his family have been best friends with Jia (our Emma) and her family for their whole lives, so his role as practically family works well, and he’s there often since his parents moved away.
Jia is a romance magazine writer with a secret side hustle writing an anonymous relationship advice blog.
This is Emma-lite; she does 1 match making attempt (the first from the OG book) and trying to help that mentee/friend to the end of her romance journey is the main element of matchmaking, beyond Jai having a blog she keeps giving love advice on throughout. So very much in the spirit of Emma with advice and interfering with best intentions despite never having dated, but not the number of match making blunders.
Jai (our modern Desi Emma) isn’t really involved in other matches the way the OG Emma does, but similar characters and couplings happen and it was fun to recognize and put together who they were a nod to, as a big fan of Emma.
I really enjoyed Jia’s friends had a lot of fun. I think as an Emma fan I knew to expect a slow-burn (our MCs don’t get together quickly) which frankly I prefer to a random late book break up, but I do think it would’ve been nice to see more of them together even as friends. They have many interactions, but they are always pretty short.
It would’ve been nice to see a big chunk of a game night or a dinner or whatever else and see them really spend time together. I think the super short chapters with perspective switches mid chapter worked well for a light romance read, but it limited opportunities for this. But nothing would’ve stopped the author from doing 1-2 chapters all of the same scene or just have a chapter be longer to really let us see them talk for a long time interrupted.
Jiaman also could’ve used some more personality, he just pined politely and brooded over his financial woes in heroic silence mostly. But I still had a good time!
I still hope for a truly chaotic mess of some sort of queer Emma adaptation to be made someday that I’ll 5 star and reread obsessively, but this was a fun modern take I enjoyed.
daydreamingreviews's review against another edition
3.0
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC copy. The cover is what initially drew me in and the blurb sounded super promising. I found the family aspects of this book to be great, the found family for Jamien was done very well and I was invested in him being able to keep them around in his life. I think the idea of the FMC's job was super intriguing as well and I liked how her journey into finding and finally taking what she wanted from life was portrayed. However, as a romance, the burn was so slow with not enough romantic payoff for me to be fully behind them as a couple. To me their friendship was tested and developed more than their romantic prospect together was really looked at outside of a pining point of view. Had good aspects but I also felt like I needed more once I was done with it.
kayimreading's review against another edition
3.0
3 stars!
Thank you Netgalley & Dell Romance for this eARC, and thank you to penguin random house audio for the audiobook for this one.
I loved getting to explore Mumbai with our FMC Jia who is working at a local internet magazine, Mimosa, and MMC Jaiman, who is running an unsuccessful pub. While I enjoyed the first half of this book as we are introduced to the food, fashion, festivals, and learning the dynamics of our characters, I could NOT get over the miscommunication between Jia and Jaiman.
Jia has successfully matched 2 couples previously and thinks she is qualified to be a match maker for her internet magazine job. While this is crazy to me to think one can do this on such a large scale, her boss agrees to let her prove her abilities by connecting the new girl at work with someone else in the office. Jia takes on the challenge and befriends the new woman with hopes of finding her a husband.
I felt like it was kind of rude to thrust jia on to this poor woman but I’m glad the two found a friendship out of it. At first it felt like jia was very judgmental and shutting down her new friends love interests with 23 year old grad school student and comedian/guitarist in favor for her office match of upper management guy. I just didn’t see the fit happening and Jia was pushing too hard!
Our MMC Jaiman has been in love with Jia forever and they shared one passionate kiss a year ago, never to be spoken of again. But Jia sent Jaiman mixed signals all the time. She wouldn’t date him but she brings him breakfast every day. She won’t date him, but she comes to his pub after work every day? They’re family friends and he has a key to their home, best friends with her brother in law (who she hooked her sister up with) and her father treats him like a son, but she won’t date him. It was confusing and I felt so bad for Jaiman.
It was so obvious to me how perfect these two were for one another and while Jia claims to be a matchmaker, she was so caught up in herself with trying to make an office match happen that she couldn’t see her own right in front of her face. I feel like she was so quick to judge and caused more harm than good with her office Match but thankfully it came together in the end.
I was honestly over the whole thing around 60% as it kept dragging on and on and I knew how it would end. I feel like Jia caused so much more damage than good until she figured herself out. This would be great for any one who loves slow burn, workplace environment, friends to lovers, and mutual pining.
Thank you Netgalley & Dell Romance for this eARC, and thank you to penguin random house audio for the audiobook for this one.
I loved getting to explore Mumbai with our FMC Jia who is working at a local internet magazine, Mimosa, and MMC Jaiman, who is running an unsuccessful pub. While I enjoyed the first half of this book as we are introduced to the food, fashion, festivals, and learning the dynamics of our characters, I could NOT get over the miscommunication between Jia and Jaiman.
Jia has successfully matched 2 couples previously and thinks she is qualified to be a match maker for her internet magazine job. While this is crazy to me to think one can do this on such a large scale, her boss agrees to let her prove her abilities by connecting the new girl at work with someone else in the office. Jia takes on the challenge and befriends the new woman with hopes of finding her a husband.
I felt like it was kind of rude to thrust jia on to this poor woman but I’m glad the two found a friendship out of it. At first it felt like jia was very judgmental and shutting down her new friends love interests with 23 year old grad school student and comedian/guitarist in favor for her office match of upper management guy. I just didn’t see the fit happening and Jia was pushing too hard!
Our MMC Jaiman has been in love with Jia forever and they shared one passionate kiss a year ago, never to be spoken of again. But Jia sent Jaiman mixed signals all the time. She wouldn’t date him but she brings him breakfast every day. She won’t date him, but she comes to his pub after work every day? They’re family friends and he has a key to their home, best friends with her brother in law (who she hooked her sister up with) and her father treats him like a son, but she won’t date him. It was confusing and I felt so bad for Jaiman.
It was so obvious to me how perfect these two were for one another and while Jia claims to be a matchmaker, she was so caught up in herself with trying to make an office match happen that she couldn’t see her own right in front of her face. I feel like she was so quick to judge and caused more harm than good with her office Match but thankfully it came together in the end.
I was honestly over the whole thing around 60% as it kept dragging on and on and I knew how it would end. I feel like Jia caused so much more damage than good until she figured herself out. This would be great for any one who loves slow burn, workplace environment, friends to lovers, and mutual pining.
kat005's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. From Jia's meddling to Jaiman's heart. I like everything about it. The childhood friends to lovers, found family, Mumbai setting, chaotic matchmaking. Swati did a great job with this book. My favorite part was when Jia met the matchmaker and finally came to a realization. I also loved Damini! Her character was so funny, and I loved her wittiness
lenina's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25