The Matchmaker's Gift
By Lynda Cohen Loigman

This is the story of Sara, a young Jewish girl, fleeing warn-torn Europe with her impoverished family for the opportunities of the United States. Sara is ten years old on that trip, where she unknowingly makes her first match – she introduces her sister Hindel to Aaron, a fellow traveler. Sara is not really aware until time goes on that she has the gift for "seeing" who are soulmates destined for happy marriages. Because of her ability, she is bullied by the professional matchmakers – mostly men – who arrange matches for a living.

But this is more than just the story of Sara's life. It also is the story of her granddaughter, Abby, whose parents' divorce when she is twelve drives her decision to become a divorce lawyer. Sara greatly influences Abby's life, and she believes that her granddaughter may also share her gift.

This is an interesting take on early 20th century Jewish life in New York City, and also the Jewish belief that matchmakers exist who really CAN see the invisible ties that bind one human to another. I really enjoyed both women's stories, and the warmth of their love for each other. This book is an educational experience as well as a just plain good read.

I loved this book! Throughout there are two timelines, Sara and Abby. Sara learns at age ten that she has a gift, she can see when two people are matched to be together. Abby is Sara's granddaughter and works as a divorce lawyer. Abby's parents had a poor divorce and her Sara moved in when her dad moved out. Abby's timeline is in the mid 90's as she learns more about her grandmother's life through her journals. Sara's timeline start at age 10 and continues throughout her life.

When reading a book with two timelines, it's the rare book where I LOVED reading both parts. This book is a feel good story that I didn't want to end. If you are looking for a lovely story that's easy to get into and has a unique premise, this is a great one.

Oh this was such a fun and captivating read. I was lucky enough to get an ARC from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press and it was a delightful gift. The wonderful telling of traditions changed through two intertwined narratives of women from the same family line practicing their gift engage readers no matter which point of view the author is telling from. Through the journals of her grandmother, Abby is able to revisit some of her beliefs and values with new eyes and open herself to new ideas. Just enough mystical, magical feeling to be both fun and thought provoking.

The Matchmaker's Gift is a dual timeline novel set in NYC between Sara in the early 1900s and her granddaughter Abby in 1994. Abby has inherited her grandmother Sara"s gift for Jewish matchmaking. Steeped in family tradition and drama, friendship, and starting new paths in life, this book will not disappoint historical fiction fans. Thanks to author Lynda Cohen Loigman, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for providing a copy of this ebook for an honest review.

Name of Book: The Matchmaker’s Gift
Author: Linda Cohen Loigman
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pub Date: September 20, 2022
My Rating: 4 ‘Feel Good’ Stars!

In 1910 we find ten year old Sara Glikman and old her family moving to NYC and are traveling with many others by ship. Her eighteen year old sister, Hindel is terribly upset about leaving friends – especially her boyfriend and cannot stop crying. Their mother whispers to Sara to go find her father, and bring back his handkerchief as Hindel is crying so much she is ruing her dress. Sara can’t find her father but notices a man using his handkerchief to clean his eye glasses. Sara asks if she could borrow his handkerchief for her sister, he agrees and as he is handing her his handkerchief there is a beam of light connecting the two. Three months later, they were married.

Her rabbi called Sara a ‘shadchanteh’ ~ a matchmaker!

We follow Sara and her ‘beam of light’ matches throughout the years.
In the 1990’s Sara has died but she passed her magic gift to her granddaughter, Abby.

Abby is now a divorce lawyer in NYC and seems to have the same special matchmaking gift.

I am a big psychological thriller fan so this is definitely not my typical genre but did I enjoy it? ~ Yes!!!
Definitely a ‘feel good story’!

Want to thank NetGalley and Saint Martin’s Press for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for September 20, 2022

Lynda Cohen Loigman's The Matchmaker's Gift is a sensational book that will grab your heart. The story is refreshing and without violence. The Matchmaker's Gift is a delightful uplifting read that you should not miss.

Synopsis:
Abby is a successful divorce lawyer. Sadly, her grandmother Sara passed away. Sara left Abby her private journals, which surprised her. Sara was a matchmaker who was forced to keep secrets. What will the journals reveal about the truth?

The Matchmaker's Gift is a beautifully written novel told in alternating timelines. Loveable characters, Sara and Abby share a deep bond that is inspiring to read about. A joy to be swept up in, this book lifted my spirits.

The Matchmaker's Gift is available on September 20th. (5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for sharing this heartwarming book with me. Your kindness is appreciated. I love every page of it!

I picked up this book at night - what a mistake! I had to force myself to put it down so I could get a little sleep! From the first chapter on, it had me engrossed in the story. What I really loved was the background of traditions and the evolution of thinking of these traditions in a new land. The characters were so wonderful and fun to get to know. I just loved this book!.

I really enjoyed this book with historical and current perspectives. I love reading about this culture, and how it’s past influences our present relationships. The characters are all likable, some even loveable. Either way it’s a nice way to get away and live in others’ shoes for awhile. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved this book! The Matchmaker’s Gift is a delightful read written in dual timelines consisting of the story of a young divorce attorney, Abby, in 1994 and her matchmaking grandmother, Sara, starting in 1910 until the timelines converge in 1994. I adored both timelines. The story is filled with hope, loss, a bit of conflict, and a lot of love!

To top it off, the cover is absolutely beautiful and the author’s note (which I typically skim) was informative and interesting. This book will give you the warm fuzzies and keep you thinking about it long after the last line!

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed above are my own.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting intergenerational novel about the gift of matchmaking and the experiences of the women in the family who shared the gift.

After enjoying The Two-Family House and loving The Wartime Sisters, I was more than eager to check out Lynda Cohen Loigman's upcoming novel, The Matchmaker's Gift. This fabulous story is now one of my 2022 favorites for Chick Lit Central!

The novel was so sweet and inspiring throughout. I loved both Sara and Abby and how their lives intersected. I even got teary-eyed at times. I never knew that men used to be the primary shadchens. I love how Sara stood up to them and made a name for herself. I also love how Abby started taking on her grandmother's matchmaking skills, even as it caused chaos for her career and love life. New York City played a big part in the story and it was fun to see it from an early 1900s lens, as well as in the nineties. There were even some elements of magical realism, which reminded me of Roselle Lim's novels. (Perhaps a partnership is in order, especially since they both write about matchmaking so beautifully!)

Fun fact: Abby's last name is the same as my maiden name. I'd be honored to have her in my family.

I can't wait for The Matchmaker's Gift to be officially out in the world this fall so that everyone has a chance to read it!

Movie casting suggestions:
Sara (early 1900s): Shira Haas
Gabe (early 1900s): Austin Abrams
Abby: Chloë Levine
Will: Ben Rosenfeld
Jessica: Hannah Ware
Victor: William Abadie
Nicole: Lucy Boynton
Diane: Jennifer Westfeldt

The Matchmaker’s Gift is the story of Sara and Abby, a grandmother and her granddaughter who both have a gift of making matches. Told in dual POVs in alternating chapters, we learn how Sara came to the US as a small girl and made her first match as soon as she got off the boat. I especially liked hearing about the Jewish traditions among immigrant families in the early 1900s. Abby, the granddaughter, is a successful divorce attorney. While Abby is still mourning Sara, a series of peculiar requests from several clients makes her question her occupation. This was part historical fiction and part romance. It was a thoughtful tale which I thoroughly enjoyed. I highly recommend it. I thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This novel is about two women in different generations who both had a gift of matching couples who will love each other. Sara is the older generation. She is 10 years old, when she arrives to the Lower East Side of New York City in 1910. She has already matched her sister with her future husband at age 10. She sees a “light” over the couple and she knows this will be the right match. Her match making efforts do not go unnoticed by those traditional male match makers who arrange matches for a living, not based on love,but family status, the size of the dowry, etc. Sara stands up for herself and continues with her matches based on what “ she sees and what she knows “ as she says repeatedly and the “light” she sees shining over the couple. Her matches turn out to be long happy marriages.
Abby is Sara’s granddaughter, who works as a divorce attorney at a prestigious law firm in NY in 1994. Upon her beloved grandmother’s death,she inherits Sara’s journals detailing all her matches. Abby finds she has the same gift as Sara had arranging matches and she is willing to sacrifice her career to assure happy outcomes. This book for me was a quick, light read, enjoyable, predictable and had a fairy tale quality. I enjoyed this author’s previous books and glad I received an advance copy of this one. 4 stars for me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I meant to read a chapter over lunch, and the next thing I knew the sun was going down, no dinner had been prepared, the dog was pawing me for a walk, and the work I'd promised myself to dive into was still sitting on my desk. But I could not pull my head out of the Jewish section of early twentieth century New York.

Such a graceful, exuberant, lovely book, so much more than the sum of its parts. There are times when I, being someone who has been pretty much reading a book a day since I was eight, so that would be over sixty years, have enjoyed a book but thought it could have been somewhat shorter. Not here. If this author had added another hundred pages, I think the story would have been that much greater.

What we have are parallel stories, Abby, a somewhat hard-bitten (she has reason) divorce lawyer, and her grandmother, Sara, recently died. Sara has left her notebooks to Abby, who knew her grandmother had been a kind of matchmaker, but until she begins reading the notebooks, had not realized the extent of it.

We get tantalizing references to love stories in Abby's timeline, then we slide back to Sara's day, and learn how she made her first match at the tender age of ten, aided by a beautifully written touch of otherworldliness.

Abby, too, feels that strange touch, and doesn't trust it, or know what to do with it. She works very hard, for a boss she respects, who does not have time or patience for blather about soulmates or romance; she ends up having to hide her burgeoning empathy and her sense of how to navigate through the shoals of life toward happiness.

Not that Sara had it easy, either. She gets hauled before a religious court, which was a very serious matter, as the synagogue was the center of Jewish life for those desperately poor immigrants who were trying to make sense of a radical change in their lives.

The book is written with such grace, and sympathy, and warmth, with flashes of humor as well as pathos; when we get to more modern times, the stories diminish to summaries and I longed to have them fleshed out as were the early tales. It's one of those books I would have cheerfully kept reading and reading and reading. Impeccably researched, the book evokes the New York of a hundred years ago, then brings us to the present, and leaves us with a changed Abby, and the sense of earned peace that I get from reading a Jane Austen novel.

This is such a captivating , exhilarating, feelgood, heart warming and also magical historical fiction with loveliest characters.

This book starts at the beginning of 20th century and Sara Glikman could be considered as the first woman matchmaker of the history: because only men could practice this sacred and important mission and a woman’s attempt to matchmake has been considered as sacrilegious act at those times!

We luckily move back and forth between two timelines: early 1900’s and 1994: introducing us Sara’s granddaughter Abby, a successful divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients at young age.

I loved both of these powerful and brave women’s journeys and magic they created by listening to their hearts and doing the right thing!

This is a captivating dual timeline story; Sara had a gift for matchmaking, and she thinks her granddaughter Abby may have the same gift. The story follows both women as they see people that are right for each other and make the matches. Both face obstacles and overcome them. There is some interesting history as well. #bookstagram #thematchmakersgift #lyndacohenloigman

At first this book took me a bit to get into, but once I got into it I couldn't put it down. I loved learning about Sara and the many hardships she over came. She stood up to many men when women at that time didn’t have a say. Abby really grew during the book. She learned to stand up for herself to her boss, nudge her clients to take a look at their relationships. I really enjoyed this books and the two women’s stories.

This delightful story is about a young Jewish girl, Sara Glikman, who at the age of ten was able to see a perfect love match between two adults. This historical fiction story is based on true facts about Jewish culture and professional matchmakers. There are two time lines here. Sara grew up in Manhattan in the early 1900’s in poverty and under duress due to her unique abilities and also the infringement on the male matchmaker’s market. The other time line follows her granddaughter who seems to have inherited this unusual ability. The book is heartwarming and a lovely story.

Abby is an overworked, stressed out divorce attorney with a demanding boss. She chose her profession because of her parents’ nasty divorce. Abby wants to make certain her clients are treated fairly. Her boss only looks at the dollar signs of protracted litigation. Abby’s beloved grandmother,Sara, was a renowned Jewish matchmaker in their community. She always made certain she brought together couples who would fall in love. Abby starts to realize that divorces have a personal side,too. In helping her clients, she begins to understand the lessons Sara was teaching her through her matchmaking stories.

What a wonderfully written story weaving the past and the present.together like a beautiful sweater. Old country meets a more modern world. This is a story of matchmaking in the Jewish traditions and the discovery of one’s history. The story is so well written you cannot put this one down until the very end. Thank you so much to the publisher for my requested ARC in exchange for my own honest review.