By Aisha Saeed
ISBN: 9780593871157
The Matchmaker is a cozy romance mystery which could have been a great read but falls short with its predictability and overly dramatic storyline.
Synopsis
“Business has never been better for Nura Khan, a third-generation matchmaker in Atlanta. Her exclusive clientele benefits from her impeccable track record. And while a single thirty-one-year-old matchmaker would normally raise some perfectly threaded eyebrows in the community, Nura’s childhood best friend, Azar, is willing to double as her pretend fiancé at her clients’ weddings—even though Nura’s feelings for him might not be so pretend.
But all that glitters isn’t gold. While it’s not uncommon to get the occasional hate mail from rejected prospective clients, Nura is blindsided after a couple’s carefully constructed wedding implodes, the first in a cascading chain of suspicious and increasingly terrifying events. Someone is taking things too far, and with Azar and her matchmaking team by her side, Nura embarks on a dangerous cat-and-mouse game that threatens not only her safety but everything she’s worked so hard to build.”
What’s to like
This is Aisha Saeed’s first foray into adult fiction, being an author of children’s and young adult stories previously. The prose is simple and well written. The descriptions of the fancy weddings for Nura’s clients were fun to read and I wish that there were more of these in the story. Overall, it is a decent ‘Feel Good’ category novel.
What’s not to like
There are many things that a reader would wish were different about this book. For starters, everything is a tad bit over dramatic and over-hyped. Whether it’s the suspense or the romance aspect, it seems lacking. There are many parts of the plot that are surface level only and the story and its characters need greater depth. Along the same line, there are parts of the book where the narrative seems to be repetitive or dragged on such as the part about Nura and Azar’s relationship or the dissatisfaction of rejected clients. I found myself skimming this part of the story to get it to move along.
Moreover, for a mystery novel the worst critique can be predictability of storyline and unfortunately, it is true for The Matchmaker. Readers will most likely be able to guess or predict three-fourths of the story. I was able to anticipate most of the plot about Darcy and Azar.
Perhaps the main thing I did not like about the novel was my own expectation about what its multi-cultural storyline will offer. Nura Khan belongs to a family of Pakistani immigrants and is in the match making business, while there are parts about her Indian clients and their desi weddings which bring in South Asian culture, we do not get anything else from the story about Nura’s Muslim and Pakistani American character that would speak about this part of her identity. Even in her interactions with her family, something was missing.
Book Review Rating: 2.5/5
Content Rating: Medium
Content Warnings: Domestic violence, pre-marital relations and violence. Age advisory: 16+
