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.
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 fiancé’s irascible matchmaking great-aunt who’s dying, and everything changes—just as Blix told her it would.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.
Comment: I got interested in this book after reading some positive reviews about it. The story seemed to be something I might enjoy and I added it to my TBR, where it has been for practically two years but I finally got to it.In this story we find protagonist Marnie as she meets the family of her fiancé for the first time. It's clear the only family member to like her is weird aunt Blix, whom we learn has a little something about her, a special ability to match people. The interesting thing is that aunt Blix felt she had to attend the event even though not many would be bothered to want her there but as soon as she meets Marnie she realizes she is a matchmaker too and that she won't be happy with her nephew Noah. However, Blix knows she is ill and won't be alive for much longer...how to convince Marnie to go where her perfect match is?
Through the novel, we learn about these two women, Marnie mostly, and how she must deal with the fact happiness might not be as simply obtained as one would want. Added some magical realism flavor, this is a quirky but cute story on finding where we belong, with the right friends and the right person to share the life with... if only it were that easy to make things happen!
I liked reading this book. The writing style is fluid and easy, I was eager to turn the pages and the story always had something interesting going on. I'd put this in the "cute" category, with some magical realism in the mix but not to the point where it would feel exaggerated or too difficult to accept. The idea was well planned and I had a great time getting to meet the characters and understand them
I would say the biggest flaw, for me, was the way the end was put into motion. Until a certain point on, things are happening, some are inferred, but the steadily calm pace makes us appreciate so much more certain details. Then, of course, the end approaches, most situations are already in motion to be finished but that's where I think the process could have been done better. Between the moment where things reach the point of no return in terms of which path to go and the very last page, I felt something was a little rushed, a little hard to write because, unlike the rest of the book, it did feel slightly forced.
I'm specifically talking about how the main characters go from friends with a weird connection to everlasting love. I can believe it and I can accept it, considering what I had been reading, but I don't think the connection between the characters was as well done as it could. I don't really think enough time was dedicated to the romantic part of their relationship. That they are a good match, sure, but how can that translate into physical evidence? (I don't mean sexual)
The story is cute for certain. I liked the slight tone of romantic comedy here, in the sense that some situations just seem a bit too coincidental, a little too silly at times, a bit unlikely if one thinks about real life but in a romantic comedy is all acceptable. Like how easy it is for complete strangers to bond so well over a situation or an idea, as if things like what happens in the novel can be done so easily, at the precise moment they are required. Still, I was captivated by the characters and their personalities, the things they were interested in, the little things they accomplished... I was rooting for Marnie to succeed in a certain task ahead of her.
I think this was good escapism/entertainment story. I could focus on the plot and the characters but it wasn't hard to let go, as it was so easy too, to simply be immersed in the plot. I can't say exactly what kind of lesson one could surmise from this except for the obvious (things might happen when we don't expect, perhaps the most unlikely scenarios would end up the happiest, etc,) but I think anyone who likes to read romance or woman's fiction without too much drama or angst would like spending some time with this novel.
Grade: 8/10
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