This quaint dual timeline story was such a cozy book that I sat down and the next thing I knew the day was gone and I was done with the book. It’s love of tradition and the relationships were presented so perfectly I fell in love with it all. This is my first by this author and I really enjoyed the way she managed to merge two completely different timelines between chapters without feeling like it was a weird broken story. I also couldn’t fulfill this review without mentioning the absolutely stunning cover of this book.

Thank you ti NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Sara Glikman and her family are Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York City in 1910 and settled on the Lower East Side. Sara discovers at an early age that she has a magical talent for matchmaking. She can determine which people are meant for one another - who is their bashert. Matchmaking was a male-only profession during this time and as she gets older, Sara must keep her making of these perfect matches a secret. This sweet book also takes place in 1994. In the second timeline, Sara has passed away and Abby, a divorce lawyer, is mourning the loss of her beloved grandmother. While reading Sara's journals left to her, Abby learns more about all the things her grandmother had accomplished. She also realizes that she may also have the same gift. And this might not be compatible with her career and her cutthroat boss.

I enjoyed Lynda Cohen Loigman's first two novels (The Two-Family House and The Wartime Sisters) and now The Matchmaker's Gift is my new favorite. There is so much about this book that I loved. The two main characters are smart, independent and strong. Both timelines are equally enjoyable. And based on my personal family ties to the Lower East Side, I felt as if Loigman looked into my ancestral history while writing this. One of Sara's first matches was for the daughter of "The Pickle King of New York" who owned Raskins Pickles. Well, my late Uncle Izzy owned the famous Guss' Pickles, which grew from a pushcart to a storefront, and we all felt we were part of pickle royalty. The street names read like a familiar road map of my childhood and the book included Lewis Street where my father grew up (it's a street that was mostly eliminated by the building of a housing project.) I appreciated the Yiddish sprinkled throughout and the many endearing words of wisdom. You don't have to be Jewish to appreciate this heartwarming story. The pursuit of love is universal, and the bonds of family timeless. Don't miss this lovely book dusted with a little magic.

Thank you St. Martins Press for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This novel focuses on Sara Glikman, a young Jewish girl who has recently arrived in New York and has a remarkable gift. The ability to find people’s soulmates. Unfortunately, not everyone sees Sara’s talents for what they are and instead see her as a threat to their traditions and way of life.

With a dual timeline, the story jumps to Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, a successful lawyer who has to grapple with her grandmothers death. After Abby receives Sara’s notebooks she learns her grandmother spent years secretly matchmaking and pushing the envelope of the Jewish traditions set in front of her. Yearning to understand more about her grandmother and why she left her the notebooks, Abby sets out on a path that leads her to discover much more.

This is a beautiful story filled with so much warmth and love! Etched deep with traditions and values it is a wonderful ode to Jewish culture. Powerful, charming and a little bit magical, this book will leave you captivated!

The Matchmaker’s Gift by Linda Cohen Loigman

Jewish Grandma Sara is much loved and revered. Has she passed down the gift of matchmaking to her granddaughter Abby? This saccharine story is all about Sara and Abby, their mutual love and individual plights to deal with this gift.

Young immigrant Sara must handle rabbinical egos as a female matchmaker. The rabbis’ livelihoods are threatened. And Abby, a New York City attorney, faces the dilemma between work and accepting her gift. As the decades pass, each one still feels the need to hide this gift.

Various characters without much development come and go as matches are made. Fast forward to engagements being broken or saved due to these ladies.

A wordy tale, this is a gentle, sweet story reminiscent of the Mitford series. With no bad language and only a kiss or two, I’ll rate it three stars and thank#StMartinsPress and #NetGalley for this ARC.

I love this author and I was so excited to read “The Matchmaker’s Gift”. I did not disappoint!

The book is told in 2 time periods. First, we meet Sara. In 1910, as a little girl she discovers she is a matchmaker who perfectly pairs people. The men in her community are not happy about her job and she must hide her gift for years, before eventually fighting for the right to make matches. In the present Sara’s granddaughter Abby is a divorce lawyer at a big NYC firm. Sara passes away and leaves her matchmaking journals to Abby who must figure out why they were meant for her.

Loignan is a master of historical fiction and this book was another example of that. I loved the cast of characters in both the past and the present. New York City in the 1900s comes alive and so does the Jewish community and traditions.

A lovely dual time line story. It's 1994 and Abby is devastated when her much loved grandmother Sara dies. Sara, who came to the US as a child, was a matchmaker and Abby is a divorce attorney. A divorce attorney who doesn't think all of her clients really want to split or for that matter, marry. A chance encounter with an ophthalmologist at Sara's funeral proves life changing for many but there's more to Sara's story than Abby knew. This moves back and forth between Sara as a teen and young woman on the Lower East Side as she helped couples and her family and the present as Abby uncovers the extent of Sara's influence. Unusually for a dual time line, both are compelling and interesting. No spoilers from me but know that this has a few twists (good ones) and it's got a big heart. Yes it's a tad implausible (the streak of light and so on) but give up and give in to it- it's charming and will make you smile. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

What a great story and history of Jewish families. The history of the family was very intriguing and made reading it very enjoyable.

I loved this story. This is not your average love story and the way the author switches between characters really pulls in the modern reader.

What a delightful read that you will not be able to put down. Sara starts her matchmaking at a very young age. She runs afoul of the more traditional Jewish matchmakers, but sticks to her priorities of love between two people. Loigman mixes in real life matches based on her prodigious research. The novel flips between Sara's timeline to more present day with her granddaughter Abby. The plot explores Sara's novel path to matchmaking along with Abby's cyncism. Yet, while flipping between the different time fraames, Loigman presents a thoroughly entertaining, totally captivating read. While I did enjoy an advanced copy for review, all opinions are expressly my own.

Sara made her first love match at 10 years old and helped countless couples fall in love well into her 90s. When her granddaughter, Abby, is gifted her secret journals and records it makes the divorce attorney have second thoughts about the legitimacy of matchmaking and true love. Sometimes all it takes is a little nudge to set us in the right direction.

This book weaves together past and present (present in the book is 1994) and the stories of grandmother and granddaughter beautifully. I enjoyed Sara's chapters more than Abby's but both were easy to read. The story blended together well and it felt like the reader got to discover things right alongside Abby, with some added details thanks to Sara's POV. This was a good book but it felt a bit slow and lacked a big emotional pull that I think could have been woven in. The only time I felt emotional with the characters was during Sara's college years and that was still minimal.

ALL THE STARS!!! Seriously pick this book up and read it. Sara and Abby’s stories will warm your heart. I loved learning about the Jewish matchmaking history and traditions.

It also makes me wish my grandmother had journals, even if she wasn’t a matchmaker.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable novel based on real people who were matchmakers. Sara sees a golden thread between two people, and knows they are soulmates. She passes on her journals to her granddaughter.

This book has several one-line quotes that add sweet touches to the story.

Special family gifts of matchmaking in two different timelines.

What I liked was the bond that Abby and her grandmother Sara shared at bringing couples together. It happened in random circumstances as well which made the gift more intriguing.

Both ladies saw their own difficulties with their gift. Sara struggled being recognized as a matchmaker because she was a single woman. That job was for married Jewish men in that era. Abby being in the profession of a divorce lawyer made some of the "finding love" go against her job duties and mean boss.

This was a lovely book since it was about love, but was even better getting to hear multiple love stories.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

What a wonderful story. I could not put it down. With this historical fiction novel, there are two timelines: Sara Glikman’s, which begins on the ship to New York City in 1910, and her granddaughter Abby’s life in 1994 in that same city. Sara shows a gift for matchmaking, which is called a shadchanit in Jewish culture. But the old male counterparts spy on her and put pressure on her because she’s “taking business away from them.” Abby is a divorce attorney who enjoyed her grandmother’s stories about matchmaking but really didn’t believe them. Until the same gift reveals itself to her.

First off, let me say, and I wish more books would do this, when the Yiddish language is written, the author then gives a translation, which is very helpful. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read books where another language is used and the reader is left to guess what was said. So props to Cohen Loigman for doing that. And secondly, I enjoyed learning about the Jewish culture in New York City during the early part of the last century. I know very little about it and enjoyed learning about different experiences and beliefs.

Abby reads her grandmother’s journal entries for various matches through the years, and then the reader is taken back in time to find out more of the story from Sara’s point of view. Sara was a feminist because she didn’t believe only married men could be matchmakers. She knew she had the gift, and when she became old enough and brave enough, started making matches out in the open after years of doing it on the sly. The old men are up in arms and there’s sort of a trial in front of local rabbis, who decide that Sara can be a matchmaker after all.

Abby’s life as a divorce attorney is complicated by the fact that one high-profile and high-paying client wants to divorce her husband, but Abby sees the two together and knows there’s still love there. So she goes behind her boss’ back and helps the woman. There’s also a second client, also high-profile and high-paying, who wants a pre-nuptial agreement put together. But Abby realizes that she’s found the man’s love match and sets about getting the two on the right path. Naturally, her boss finds out and fires her.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book is that while there was romance for the secondary characters, the “romances” of Sara and Abby aren’t a big deal and they aren’t treated with a heavy hand. Indeed, this a “clean” book with no sex scenes in it. I’m not saying I’m a prude, but too often I’ve read good historical fiction and there’s a random sex scene for no other reason I can figure other than titillation. The Matchmaker’s Gift focuses on the love matches of others rather than the principals. I think after reading this book that I’m a believer of matchmakers, as old-fashioned as it seems. We all have to believe in a little magic now and then.

4.5 love match stars

This book is a gift! I loved the two timelines equally and the main characters.

Sara Glikman has a special gift, from the time she was ten, she has been able to see a spark between two people who are soulmates and meant to be together. For years she hid her gift because the men in her community who are paid to be matchmakers were threatened by her success (and her gender and the fact that she was single).

Set in New York, this book seamlessly travels back and forth in time giving us the story of Sara and her granddaughter Abby. Sara thinks Abby has inherited her gift, but it takes a journey of discovery for Abby to value and appreciate her talent. It is especially challenging as Abby is a divorce attorney.

Sara did not have an easy time with things; she made her matches secretly until she needed the money for her family. The male matchmakers bullied her, especially when she made some high-powered matches. They even took her to a special Jewish court to get her to stop.

Abby has inherited Sara’s journals now that she has died, and she finally understands the full life that her grandmother lived and the amazing matchmaking work that she did. Abby finally reconciles her work life with the knowledge of her skills and finished this one feeling that all was well in her world!

I definitely recommend this one and I think it would be particularly good as a book club book.

I enjoyed this multigenerational Jewish family story soo soo much!! A dual timeline story, told from the perspective of two Jewish matchmakers who use their insights into people's love lives for good. Sarah put other people's love lives above her own and passed her gift on to her granddaughter Abby. Part family history/drama, part romance, this was a heartwarming, feel-good story I thoroughly enjoyed and didn't want to end! Great on audio and highly recommended for fans of Mr. Perfect on paper or Meant to be mine. Much thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and Libro.fm for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. The cover for this book is also gorgeous and it is definitely my new favorite by author Lynda Cohen Loigman!

Bravo Ms. Loimgan! Even though I rarely read romance, I found this book to be so heartwarming, even more so after discovering it was based on a real person. It was such a unique and magical story but not full of the usual overly sappy prose of the typical romance novel. This charming and delightful book has become one of my favorites I've read this year and I encourage everyone to read it!

This was a great heartwarming book that didn't ask too much of me, a perfect read for today when I wasn't feeling well. I liked the characters and I liked the premise. I really liked the bits of historical fiction woven into Sara's stories. I've never read a book set in the Jewish community of the early 1900s so that was a great setting to explore.

I really enjoyed the author‘s previous book The Wartime Sisters and eagerly awaited this one. I didn’t really read much of the blurb or maybe I did when I requested it from NetGalley but I pretty well went in blind.

Told from two points of view with the current story taking place in 1994, which I really appreciated the lack of electronics and the internet. As young lawyer Abby has a great career ahead of her, but grieving the loss of her grandmother, Sara, comes with distractions.

The past story begins back in 1910 for a young Sara as her gift of a matchmaker starts to develop. What follows through the years is her life where is avoids this gift and then embraces it to the chagrin of those deemed 'professional' matchmakers. Her gift is illustrated along with her relationship with family, friends and those obstacles in the way.

I enjoyed the story very much, though I wouldn’t call it a Rom/Com but rather a lighter womans fiction as these two women discover themselves on their individual journey that is not always easy.

Again I was treated to an enjoyable and entertaining read by this author, it was captivating, entertaining and a pleasure to read.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press for the digital arc and also to McMillan Audio for the audiobook. This was a wonderful combo read for me.

Totally enjoyed this feel-good book! Sara is a natural matchmaker in 1910 in NYC. Years later her granddaughter Abby is reading through her journals and discovers she has these abilities as well. This is a unique, clever story about strong women who are doing something insightful to help others.