I thought Matchmaker was cute. I always love Irish romances. ⁣
“So I made a decision. And my decision is you. I chose you.”⁣
⁣
Katie has lived in her small town her entire life. She takes care of her granny and loves her job at their local pub, surrounded by her friends and community. When a company comes in and buys the land and builds a huge hotel/resort and her and her friends try everything to keep them from taking over their town.⁣
⁣
Katie is fierce when it comes to protecting her community. When she runs into Callum at the work site after not getting sleep for a few days. From that point on Callum is everywhere. ⁣
These two go from a kind of frenemies to friends back to frenemies to lovers over the course of this sweet story, filled with Irish culture and a wonderful group of friends.⁣
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There’s also a super cute dog.⁣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Matchmaker makes four of Catherine Walsh’s romance books I’ve read. She is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. Katie is a likeable main character and Callum is the ideal match for her. But this book is really about Katie’s love affair with her village and her cozy lifestyle.

Would I have enjoyed more actual romance between the two MCs? Sure, but I still really liked the story as it was. I enjoyed reading as Katie rallied the troops to reinvent the local matchmaking festival. I would love to hear more about the book’s other budding romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this complimentary ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I LOVED this book. Like I was giddy reading it. This is my first Catherine Walsh book and I immediately added her backlist to my TBR. I had the biggest smile on my face the entire read and laughed out loud a few times.
The cast of characters is so memorable and lovable. They form an incredible found family that feels so real. Their interactions and conversations feel like they could have been happening in the world around me. The funniest character is Granny, though Katie's friends and her godson are all unique and funny in their own ways. I would love a series focused on Anushka or Gemma, I am not a series reader but I loved these characters so much I wanted to stay with them.
Callum, the love interest, is an incredible leading gentleman. He is the suave, handsome man that any small-town girl needs. There is some spicy material with a certain action I had only seen in fanfictions, so needless to say I was surprised and excited to see it. The spice was definitely Katie-focused, and I would have loved to see Callum get more "action" and talk a bit more. I'd love to see a novella of an extended version of one of these scenes. :)
There is a content warning at the beginning, which I love the inclusion of. However, be aware there is light anxiety/panic disorder that may be stressful for some readers.
I received this copy for free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I give it 4.75 stars!

The Matchmaker by Catherine Walsh
Publication date: April 18th

This was such a refreshing read. I really adored the story & the characters & the small town & the love story(ies).

I was enamored with the endearing and awkward but cute FMC who felt like a real person and made me fall in love with her people and her little village in Ireland. This is a story of how she leads her found family into a competition against the big-name businessmen who are trying to take over their small village, the realizations she (they) have along the way and how she falls in love, too. It gives women’s fiction + save our village with a dash of romance.

I was refreshed by the change in pace when compared to your typical romance outline - how it didn’t follow the expected plot points and regular % intervals, and kept me engaged throughout. The romance had a bit of an odd tempo to me, but I adored the MMC, so, overall it worked.

Perfect for you if you like:
Irish small village who become your found family
Tattooed MMC who “will always choose you”
Strangers to “enemies” to lovers

Thank you for the advanced reader copy!

The Matchmaker is the 3rd Catherine Walsh book I've read and it is a dream! It's literally a hug in a book. Its full of charm and humour, alot of laugh out loud moments and I love the way Catherine writes her characters dialogue. I loved the setting and seeing the matchmaking festival come back to life. I enjoyed Katie and Callum's romance but found they didn't have as much of a tension build up as the other books. I did find myself rooting for another couple and think there should be a separate book about them 🤣🤞 Overall, this was thoroughly enjoyable and a lovely bit of escapism. Catherine is the Queen of rom coms and I'd love to see her books on the screen one day 💕

I'm rounding up from 4.5, but this book was just delightful. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the advance copy.

The Matchmaker is what I want when I pick up a rom-com. I laughed out loud from beginning to end, the love stories were believable, and there was no unnecessary conflict. Callum was a dream from the beginning. He was sweet, caring, interested, and never hid his feelings. He was so open with Katie from the beginning.

Katie was a mess, but in a fun way. She's the tornado to Callum's calm, but she was so genuine in her messy life and still put all her loved ones before herself. The way she cares about her home, her job, and her friends was amazing.

There was one point where Jack mentions a job in London, and I thought it was leading to the miscommunication trope, but it did not! Callum and Katie talked it through and made their intentions clear. I was obsessed with that part.

I loved everyone. I was invested in Adam and Jemma, I even liked Jack. Great book and I'll definitely recommend this to everyone.

I’m going to preface this review with I’ve had a hard time reading anything recently so I’m not sure if this book just didn’t capture my attention like I wish or I just wasn’t that interested in reading much of anything. I’ve read almost all of Walsh’s books (and loved them) but unfortunately this one was my least favorite. The first part seemed to be slow but it did pick up about halfway through. It’s about a girl named Katie who tries to save her hometown bar from being demolished by saying it’s a famous site for matchmaking and decides to throw a matchmaking festival to try and save the town. It had some cute moments but just didn’t captivate me.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a fun, easy read with good banter and lovely characters.

The main character Katie is living in her small Irish town — full of familial history — when a corporate builder comes to knock historical town sites down to build up a hotel. To prevent this, she has to revive a historical matchmaker festival to preserve a well at the bar they want to tear down, but chaos ensues when she starts to fall for the constructions coordinator, Callum.

As cute as Callum and Katie were, I did have a little trouble with their relationship development timeline. What stole the show for me was the side storyline of Adam and Gemma (I could’ve read a whole book on them easily). The side characters in this book were so fun, and the premise of the festival was a nice addition. It was a fast-paced book, which I appreciated, and I did enjoy that there wasn’t a third act breakup — the big conflict between the romance duo was earlier in the book, and then they worked together on the larger conflicts of the festival.

This was a fun read. Thanks to Net Galley and the author for the arc!

The best perfect light laugh out loud funny book I've read in awhile! After reading several heavy novels, this was a great much needed break to just enjoy reading and finding laughter and chick lit in every page. LOVED!

Thank you to net galley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

I thought that this book had a good storyline and it was a really enjoyable read for me

The book had some great characters and they were really well developed, I thought that the plot was great and it was well developed and I found it to be a really addictive read. The pace was a little slow at the start but it soon picked up and became one of those books that you want to carry on reading!

The story was romantic and sexy and a great read all around.

It is 4 stars from me for this one – highly recommended!

This was a super cute, funny and heartwarming read about a community, connection and love. I enjoyed reading this book immensely and can say almost certainly that Irish romances just hit different. Specifically those by Catherine Walsh.

I loved these characters so much and I was so invested in the storyline of not only the MCs but also all the amazing side characters.

Thank you to the publisher for kindly providing me with an ARC via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I really love Catherine Walsh's books but this one felt a little watered down to me.

I liked the small-town vibes, and the close knit friend group. I also liked the theme of preserving what makes a town unique rather than giving way to more capitalistic endeavours.

The premise was also interesting, but I just couldn't get invested in the characters or their relationships. I also didn't feel the pull to really keep going with the book.

I felt like the relationships between the leads went from a 0 to 100 really quick, with them claiming true love and deep commitment without any build up to the same. The dialogues were cheesy and the insta-love element just did not make that work.

This one was my least favorite of all of Catherine Walsh's books.

I likely wouldn’t have categorized this as a romance. There was a romance, but it felt more like a secondary plot rather than the main plot. I really enjoyed the interactions between the FMC and MMC but there were long stretches with nothing happening between them. This felt more like contemporary fiction about a woman’s love for her small town. If I had gone in with that in mind I may have rated it higher but as I was expecting a romance focused book, I was a little bummed.

This was a cute romance story, all centred around a matchmaking festival to save a small town. Very well written and the storyline surrounding the town was really well done. Unfortunately, I felt like the romance side of the story needed a little more depth for my taste, it would have been nice to have a little more development of Callum as a character, and some more development of the romance over time.

A cute story, perfect for those that love small town romance or Insta love tropes!

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I had such a great time reading this book. Small-town romances have a charm that makes you want to pack up your things and move to a tiny village in Ireland, where everyone is on a first-name basis and the local community is your family. I loved Katie's character, a woman full of kindness and bravery, who has her strengths and weaknesses and is content with what she has and ready to fight for what she loves. Callum is such a sweet and charming love interest. I loved his support but also the struggle he goes through, leaving what is familiar behind to finally take a step toward what he really wants. And the two of them together are the cutest. This is a story about bravery and the power of love and group effort. And maybe even a little bit of a self-discovery journey. There was enough drama to keep the reader engaged and interested without making one feel anxious. A feel-good novel with an amazing set of side characters (I need more of Adam and Gemma!!). (AND there is no third-act break-up!)

The only thing I did not like was that we got little insight into the development of the relationship. It all felt a little rushed as if I had missed a few chapters in between in which they got to know each other more. It got from strangers to crush to "I'd follow you around the world." a bit too quickly in my opinion and I would have loved to see more of them together, these two are one of those couples you simply can't get enough of.

4 well deserved stars overall!

AVAILABLE April 18, 2023
Big thank you to Bookouture for the ARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

(A more detailed review with a short book summary and my favorite quotes can be found on my goodreads!)

Fun, easy to read romance that i truly enjoyed, i read this in one sitting and i would read 100 more books just like this! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me access to this title.

Do you love Rom-Coms?

What about:
-Small town Romance
-Enemies to Lovers
-Funny & witty side characters
-Friendships

If you answered yes to any of those then I recommend you read Catherine Walsh’s new book!
This story is set in a small quiet town in Ireland that is until a developer decides to buy some land and build a major Resort. There goes the neighborhood.

Enter Katie Collins, the town’s sweet bartender who has never dreamed of leaving and is perfectly happy living the small town life. She cares for her grandma, has loving friends what else could a girl want?

Apparently Callum Dempsey, the guy that is managing the resort site where she showed up in none other than her pajamas! Talk about a meet cute. He is handsome but is now her arch enemy depriving her from the only thing she needs SLEEP.

When Callum shows up with his boss at her job things go from bad to worse. Now Katie must do everything she can to help save her friends pub. She sets a plan in motion but the one thing she didn’t plan for was to start catching feelings for her enemy especially one who’s just here for a job.

One of my favorite things in the book is the friendship between Katie, Gemma and Nush they had me cracking up. Then there was Callum a sweet, swoon worthy hero who gets caught up in a battle of wills and has to choose a side. Katie must confront her own fears and stop feeling like she is not enough.

I loved this book so much it made me laugh, cry and pulled on my heart strings. Definitely add this one to your TBR.

The Matchmaker
by Catherine Walsh
Pub Date 18 Apr 2023
Bookouture
Humor & Satire | Romance | Women's Fiction

Having read and loved Holiday Romance, I was thrilled to review The Matchmaker by Catherine Walsh. Taking place in a tiny Irish village of Ennisbawn, Katie and Callum face off over the last remaining pub. Callum's employer plans to knock down the pub to make way for an upgraded golf course. Katie plans to stop the renovation, but will she succeed?

The Matchmaker is a cozy romance. The plot is enhanced by cute banter and delightful side characters. I enjoyed the wishing well and festival activities featuring the charming townspeople. This feel-good book warmed my heart and I look forward to reading more from Catherine Walsh.

Thank you NetGalley, and Bookouture, for sharing this fantastic arc with me.

ahh this book was so cute! It's set in a small town (small town romance lovers listen up???!!) in ireland where a construction crew is building a hotel and all these other major changes to that is distrusting the integrity of the town and Katie takes it upon herself to save her hometown. that is, until she starts to fall for one of the construction guys, Callum. There was amazing banter between Katie, Callum, and the rest of the town. there's honestly nothing bad I can say about this, i thought it was really cute and funny. the only thing is i felt like it was a little but insta-lovey between Katie and Callum. It started off grumpy-sunshine but i mean i don't see anything wrong with that however i know insta-love isn't for everyone! overall, really cute book and a solid one for my first Catherine Walsh book but i would definitely read more from her!

I’ve read all of this authors previous books and I was intrigued by this one as well. While I didn’t love it, it was an easy read. It’s a small town story, with predictable romances and a hat tip to the Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival that we actually have over here. Romance fans will love this one I’m sure, it just wasn’t for me.