I read The Matchmaker with a big smile on my face and couldn't help but fall in love with all the characters and the small Irish town of Ennisbawn. But, then again, that is how it's been with every single book I've read by Catherine Walsh - she has such a witty and charming way of writing that I find myself happily sinking into her books and wish I could stay there forever. Luck of the Irish? I don't think so - this is pure talent and what a talented storyteller Catherine Walsh is!

What we have in The Matchmaker is the life and people of a small Irish town trying to make a stand against all the changes threatening their way of life and their beloved pub. In the center of it all is Katie Collins who has lived in Ennisbawn with her grandmother all her life and who - with some help from her wonderful friends and a newcomer, Callum - revives the town's matchmaking festival where her parents met years and years ago.

Thank you so much NetGalley, Bookouture and Catherine Walsh for the eARC of this cute, fun and emotional novel filled with Irish charm! ❤

The Matchmaker is the third book that I’ve read by Catherine Walsh so far and I cannot seem to tire of her stories. I’ve come to appreciate this author very much in so little time ever since I decided to try her debut novel when finding it on NetGalley. Her writing style is very easy to read and the dialogues are the thing that really sells her story and make the reader enjoy every character’s interaction.

Small-town-centered stories are always a gem to be honest, it’s one of the tropes that never seems to get old and can be enjoyed to the point that you’re rooting for everyone that comes along the way. I loved Katie from the very beginning when she was introduced and I liked that the author didn’t change her character to have this big dream of escaping the town. She wanted to stay and she fought in doing so for her, her family and friends. And it was very endearing to read about it, but also fun! When it comes to Callum… oh my, the fictional man that he is. I had my doubts at their very first interaction but I had to know to trust him in becoming such a great partner to Katie, not only in “crime” but also as a lover.

Apart from that, the secondary characters were such a great addition, like the author knew how to build them perfectly and introduce each one as a part that fit in everything else. I liked to get to know every single one of the people introduced, but I was especially rooting for Gemma and Adam. However, the key to such a success was the humor that every character added to their part of the story.

*ARC kindly provided by Bookouture via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to @netgalley and @bookouture for the digital ARC of Catherine Walsh’s The Matchmaker, which publishes 4/18/23. All opinions are my own.

If you like small town romances where the main character has pluck, this could be the book for you! It takes place in Ireland, and I have to say that I KNOW I would have preferred this on audiobook because… Irish accents.

Some developers have invaded the Irish village of Ennisbawn, where Katie Collins has spent her entire life. She loves “her” village, and has a particular soft spot for Kelly’s, the pub she has worked at for ten years. When she discovers they want to tear down Kelly’s, she decides to revive the village’s matchmaking festival, to bring attention to the village and ideally stop the builders in their tracks. Cue the hard work, town involvement, and meeting Callum, someone on the opposing team.

This book has so many side characters, and oftentimes in other books I have a hard time keeping them straight. With this book they were easy to distinguish, memorable and likeable. The romance felt too fast to me, but they were a fun couple.

The Matchmaker wasn’t my favorite Catherine Walsh book, but it was a pleasant read. What is my favorite, you ask? HOLIDAY ROMANCE, and run, don’t walk, to read that!

Open 🚪
4/5 ⭐️

#smalltownromance #momswhoread #enemiestolovers #arcreview #pubday #romancebooks

3.75 stars

The store really started picking up about 70% in and then I could not put the book down. This is a small town romance.
The main character, Katie, is a bartender in a small town and gets home late at night. Construction starts for a hotel in-front of her house very early in the morning. Katie decides she needs to talk to someone about it and storms down to the construction site in her pajamas and demands to talk to someone. The story takes off from there.

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @bookouture for an early copy of The Matchmaker by @catwalshwriter. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

The Matchmaker is a hilarious small-town romantic comedy about Katie and Callum. Set in the tiny Irish village Ennisbawn with a tight-knit community, breathtaking lakes, and mysterious forests, lives Katie, a bartender at the only remaining local pub in the area. She stands her ground to save the pub from being taken down by Callum’s development team, who’s not only building a hotel outside the village, but the company plans on taking down the pub. Katie hatches a plan to revive the matchmaking festival to save the pub with the help of her two best friends, but has the matchmaking already started with her and Callum?

This novel is a perfect weekend chill read – it’s light, funny, and fluffy and feels like a warm hug. I enjoyed Katie and Callum’s stranger-to-friends-to-enemies-to-lovers relationship progression; I especially found Callum’s big, romantic gestures so sweet and charming. It was no wonder Katie was not able to help herself fall for him.

Katie was a very relatable character. She’s headstrong and despite feeling insecure that she couldn’t save the pub, she does all that she can anyway for the community she loves and wants to protect. Callum, on the other hand, I found suspicious initially as he was working with the “enemy”, plus he was quite grumpy, but he was silently sweet as he chose Katie and did what he can to make it up to her and support her.

The Matchmaker is a very enjoyable light romantic read. I recommend this if you enjoy Hallmark films or are looking for a happily-ever-after romance. Rating this ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5. Releases tomorrow April 18th, 2023!

*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Overall a sweet, funny, and heart warming story. While at times I did find it a bit slow, it was overall quite fluffy and adorable!

I really enjoyed read The Matchmaker! I zipped right through it during one sitting. It was so nice to read a different storyline in a romance! Sometimes even if a book is well written, if it has the same old trope recipe, it definitely detracts from the story. I do wish we had just a bit more backstory on the main characters, but all in all, Catherine Walsh did a great job on this book. I will definitely look out for more books on her backlist!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book do I could provide my honest opinion.

This book was freaking cute, funny, and lighthearted

When Katie and Callum first meet the chemistry is there. I just wanted to keep reading so I could just get to the point where they interacted again (it was a slow burn and I loved it).
My favorite scene has got to be when they bump into each other at a cafe and it’s raining outside, Callum got stood up on a date while Katie was just seeking shelter. So when Katie finally steps out to leave him be, Callum is such a grump about seeing her out in the rain but offers to take her home, he just couldn’t resist her. It made me giggle.

I loved that he was such a simp for Katie, seeing something special in her, that she didn’t see in herself because of her own doubts. And I just love that in the end she had something to be proud of, her town, her job, and just where she’s at in life.

Katie’s grandma was freaking hilarious, I literally laughed anytime she came on page. And I became so invested in the other side characters and their endings (which I love because it’s like an extra treat). Like I was rooting for Katie’s friends, Gemma and Adam from the start!!! lol

Totally loved this book and definitely recommend.
4.5/5

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the e-ARC

I can't stand the romance novels set in some awful corner of the US that try to insist that everything is better in the small town, and that big city types are shysters. Or Hallmark movies where impossible feats are achieved in ways that don't make sense. Here we may have the Irish equivalent of that. I almost quit reading when the heroine's rant goes viral literally overnight. Why? What did she say that was so appealing? Why are people looking at a child's account? Doesn't it usually take days or weeks or more for something to catch on?

But anyway, I did finish. It kind of depressed me that the heroine chooses not to grow in any way. I won't spoil it more than that, but I was hoping for more for her. And I liked most of the supporting characters also--would have been nice to have more of them too.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun little read for me! I loved Holiday Romance so much, partly because of Catherine’s amazing ability to write funny banter. This book had great banter as well, I just wish there was more of it! I feel like there was a missed opportunity for a fun renovation scene with Callum and Katie. His Reno skills could have been the perfect play to get them hanging out and giving us less of the insta love vibes and more of the banter.
I still really enjoyed this book! Fun and quick read. Thanks Catherine Walsh, NetGalley, and Bookoutur for the ARC!!

A true gem for us lifetime movie super fans, who understand that a light, fluffy, lovey dovey grumpy/sunshine trope set in a small town is exactly what you need sometimes.

Katie is a likable character that cares deeply for her hometown and will stop at nothing to save her beloved Pub. Her friends were well written characters, their banter relatable and fun. Granny was a particularly memorable and lovable character.

The slow burn between Katie and Callum was just that…slow. But, I enjoyed their story, even if it did go slow to sudden love a little too abruptly for my liking. Callum was well written and likable as well.

This is a quick and easy light hearted read I would recommend to anyone!

The book is about Katie, who lives in a small Irish village named Ennisbown. A hotel is being construed just outside the town, which indirectly resulted in the destruction of many historical places, including the pub she works at. To save the business, Katie decides to revive and Organize the Matchmaker Festival, the same festival where her parents met and fell madly in love with each other.
Enters Callum, who is a construction worker on the same hotel project.

Overall I like the Author’s writing style. The small-town setting was done perfectly, with all the side characters adding a bit to the story narrative, and I enjoyed reading through their parts. Katie was a likable character, and there were so many times you could relate to her ( special mention to the circumstances that led to her first meeting with Callum). Callum, too, was nicely written as an individual character; however, I felt it was a little shot at the romance part, especially the way their relationship buildup I wanted a little more

3.5 ⭐️
Funny and heartwarming this book was entertaining and so was Katie. With endless gumption and bravery taking on the Corporation threatening her town, she was sassy and fun to watch. I also loved her relationship with her Granny.

There were a few parts that dragged a little in the middle. I liked Callum but he was such a grump at first and then, all of sudden, he was into Katie. I would love to have seen a few more instances of him slowly falling. I love the sunshine/grump trope but even Katie was surprised by his interest at first!

This is a cute rom com book.

It felt so much like the plot of a Hallmark movie: evil corporation is buying up all of the land in the tiny Irish village, and they discover that their local pub is in danger. Cue Katie Collins, bartender and lifelong resident of the village, who proposes they resurrect the Matchmaker festival to save the pub and the town. On the other side, working for the hotel is the oh-so-handsome Callum Dempsey. Sparks fly between the two, can they both achieve their purposes?

I've read one other book by this author ( One Night Only). The romance here is fun and this is a very quick, entertaining read, but I didn't really connect with it like I did with that other book. The Matchmaker was just a little too Hallmarky for me, and I don't love the evil corporation vs small town trope.

Overall though, if you're looking for a light, fun read, this one is delightful and worthy of the time it takes to read it.

Another incredible book by Catherine Walsh!

I demolished this book in 2 days and it was so heartwarming, fantastical and lovey-dovey!

I loved the premise of this romance, a construction worker, Callum, working on the new hotel project to completely uproot and change Katie’s magical, small hometown in Ireland, except I think instead of uprooting her hometown, he just about tipped her world upside down.

Filled with community, cheer, found family and a scorching romance, this book was such a pleasure to read and I loved every second of it. The passion and drive of Katie’s love for the town, its community and keeping her parent’s memories alive really had me invested and it’s another book to add to my favourites!

Congratulations to Catherine for another incredible book to add to the list!

Catherine has done it again! I’ve been lucky enough to read a number of Catherine’s books as arcs over the last couple of years and with every book, she knocks it out of the park! Catherine’s way of writing just lets the story flow so naturally. I read The Matchmaker in under 24 hours. The Irishness of some of the sayings made me laugh so hard- best line ever is “what crawled up your hole”- perfection! 😆

Katie is a feisty protagonist, not afraid to say what she’s thinking and at times overthinking things a bit too much with hilarious results! I love her loyalty to her grandmother, her friends and her little village. Her determination to save the pub she lives in and to keep the spirit of the village alive is really touching.

There’s slow-burn romance with Callum and I love the scenarios that Catherine puts Katie and Callum in. Some hilarious moments that you could easily see working on the big screen as well as in the book. There’s some spice too 😉

One of the standout characters for me is granny. She reminds me so much of my nanny in how she deals with life, being very opinionated and stubborn- I know she would have loved this book too.

The Matchmaker is the perfect Irish romantic comedy that will have you transfixed from start to finish. And if you learn nothing else from reading this book, never mess with a woman’s good night’s sleep!

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the arc. The Matchmaker is out tomorrow. 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Such a fun cute little rom com! Loved the Irish setting, the folklore and the drama. Will definitely be recommending this book to my friends!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

this book was such a light and fun read. the chapters were short, the characters were great, and i really like the concept itself. however, i did not feel any sparks between katie and callum. it was very cute and i enjoyed reading it, but i was expecting a bit more.

thank you netgalley for the arc!

I first discovered Catherine Walsh when I read Holiday Romance last year. Usually I'm not a romance lover, but Catherine had me hooked right from the beginning.
When I received The Matchmaker, I couldn't wait to start it. It had everything I enjoyed from her other books; likeable characters, funny moments and a great romance. I love Catherine's writing and how she develops her characters. She's also hilarious!
If you've read any of Catherine's previous books, or even if you haven't and just appreciate a good romance, I recommend picking this up.

This was so sweet and I loved the Irish elements throughout. The side characters really helped to flesh out the story and I loved how they added those extra layers to Katie and Callum’s character. It made me laugh and cry and was such a joy to read.