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A review by samstillreading
Playing with Matches by Hannah Orenstein
2.0
Playing with Matches had a good premise, but like main character Sasha’s boyfriend, it blew it. What starts out as a story about a young woman starting a new job as a matchmaker turns into a commentary about age differences, breakups and breaking the rules. It was fun until it wasn’t, making it hard to categorise – romance? New York City young woman story? Coming of age? There are a lot of parts to this story and not all of them meshed well.
Sasha hides a secret in her family – her mother was a mail order bride. I didn’t really feel the weight of this secret, as it only got dragged out when Sasha needed a job or to demonstrate the class differences between her and her boyfriend’s family. But it helps her get a job at dating agency Bliss and Sasha throws herself into the role, stalking a variety of dating apps to try to find her clients’ one true love. There are fun clients, there are awkward and demanding clients. There are good looking potential matches, and Sasha has a crush on Adam. Then Sasha’s life starts to get messy then her boyfriend cheats on her. She breaks her agency’s cardinal rule – don’t date the matches and throws herself into a relationship with Adam. Her best friend is telling her to slow down, but Sasha’s not ready to listen. A series of poor choices later and the inevitable eventually happens, Sasha’s back to square one. It’s an odd ending for what started out as a light, fun read.
I can’t say that I really warmed to Sasha’s character. (I didn’t even really remember her name for most of the book, perhaps because the book is told in the first person). She seems like a very young 22, and unwilling to stop and check the potential impacts of her actions. (Sure, it’s unfair that she has to be on date standby while she’s a bridesmaid, but couldn’t she have organised a colleague to help?) She ignores multiple warning signs from friends and family yet expects things to turn out okay with little to no intervention. With Adam, Sasha drops best friend Caroline to spend all her time with him but expects Caroline to be there when it turns pear shaped (in a very spectacular fashion). Caroline seemed much more quirky and individual (a budding screenwriter who works random jobs and finds the most random men). As for Adam, he was nice enough. He’s established and comfortable in his career and life, but I suspect that there was some ego stroking at landing a woman barely out of her twenties. It was just awkward at times.
Orenstein does have a good style of writing that’s easy to read and there are some unique parts to this story. Perhaps fewer subplots could have made this debut novel shine brighter for me.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
Sasha hides a secret in her family – her mother was a mail order bride. I didn’t really feel the weight of this secret, as it only got dragged out when Sasha needed a job or to demonstrate the class differences between her and her boyfriend’s family. But it helps her get a job at dating agency Bliss and Sasha throws herself into the role, stalking a variety of dating apps to try to find her clients’ one true love. There are fun clients, there are awkward and demanding clients. There are good looking potential matches, and Sasha has a crush on Adam. Then Sasha’s life starts to get messy then her boyfriend cheats on her. She breaks her agency’s cardinal rule – don’t date the matches and throws herself into a relationship with Adam. Her best friend is telling her to slow down, but Sasha’s not ready to listen. A series of poor choices later and the inevitable eventually happens, Sasha’s back to square one. It’s an odd ending for what started out as a light, fun read.
I can’t say that I really warmed to Sasha’s character. (I didn’t even really remember her name for most of the book, perhaps because the book is told in the first person). She seems like a very young 22, and unwilling to stop and check the potential impacts of her actions. (Sure, it’s unfair that she has to be on date standby while she’s a bridesmaid, but couldn’t she have organised a colleague to help?) She ignores multiple warning signs from friends and family yet expects things to turn out okay with little to no intervention. With Adam, Sasha drops best friend Caroline to spend all her time with him but expects Caroline to be there when it turns pear shaped (in a very spectacular fashion). Caroline seemed much more quirky and individual (a budding screenwriter who works random jobs and finds the most random men). As for Adam, he was nice enough. He’s established and comfortable in his career and life, but I suspect that there was some ego stroking at landing a woman barely out of her twenties. It was just awkward at times.
Orenstein does have a good style of writing that’s easy to read and there are some unique parts to this story. Perhaps fewer subplots could have made this debut novel shine brighter for me.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com