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.

3.7 Stars
One Liner: Delightful and entertaining but slow

Katie Collins has lived in Ennisbawn, a tiny Irish village, all her life. She loves the local community, the pub she works at, her dear friends, her granny, and the surrounding hills and forests.
However, the peaceful village is being disturbed and revamped by Glenmill developers intent on building hotels, golf parks, and spas that will bring tourists but ruin the local culture and its authenticity.
When Kelly, the only remaining local pub, is next on the list, Katie has a faceoff with Callum, the site manager, and his boss, Jack. She is determined to revive the village’s annual matchmaking festival and help people find love. Except that she has a lot to do and not enough time, funds, or support.
However, Katie and her friends are determined to fight to the last second. Maybe they can pull it off. And what’s a matchmaking festival without some love? What does the future have in store for Katie & Callum and the little village?
The story comes in Katie’s first-person POV.

What I Like:
I have a special love for small-town settings, be it rom-com or cozy mysteries. The setting is spot on in the book. It also shows how bringing together a group of people feeling resigned and defeated is not easy.
Anushka, Gemma, and Adam are great supporting characters and friends. I’m not sure if it’s a fluke or well-researched, but I have to admit how Anushka goes by Nush (instead of Anu) and the secularism hardwired into her psyche made me read much like an immigrant she is. There isn’t much about her background (which isn’t necessary anyway, so no complaints).
Noah reads like a typical eleven-year-old until he shows maturity in the second half. That kid will grow up to be a good guy. And he loves cakes… ;)
The writing seamlessly has humor and funny moments woven into the plot. I enjoy this kind of writing, even if it reads a little dramatic and cheesy at times. It’s cute, in a way.
Granny Mauve has some spunk and has a beautiful relationship with Katie. Also, Katie has a relatively happy and safe childhood. It’s comforting to read.
Jack Dorsey’s character arc is realistic, possibly better than Callum’s, who goes from one to another real fast.

What Could Have Been Better for Me:
I won’t complain about insta-love as I was prepared for it. However, I do wish the characters are a little more developed, especially Callum. He is the MMC of the book and needs to be something more than an enemy-turned-lover of the FMC. Those itsy bitsy bits about his childhood aren’t enough.
The matchmaker event is crucial for the plot. While quite a lot happens, the core of it is supposed to be match-making. Here, the book falters a little. We see Katie learning how things that look good on paper don’t always work in real life. However, this could have been elaborated on a little more. Maybe continue the conversation with her Granny and show how Katie grows as a person. It feels like a lost opportunity when multiple hints refer to this aspect.
The side characters are sometimes more interesting than the lead couple. I love strong supporting characters, but they shouldn’t shadow the main characters. A bit more character development for Katie and Callum would have prevented this. Also, Granny needs more space. She is a darling.

To summarize, The Matchmaker is a delightful entertainer if you want something lighthearted and sweet. You’ll enjoy it more if you go prepared for insta-love and Hallmark-ish plot.
Needless to say, I like how the author has a natural flair for incorporating funny elements into her writing, and look forward to reading her future works.
Thank you, NetGalley and Bookouture, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I read The Matchmaker in one sitting - such a fun read! It was charming, funny, and sweet. It had me tearing up more than once, but also had me smiling and left me feeling lighthearted. Best of all it's set in Ireland, with great banter, delightful secondary characters, and the best found family!
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

This was a surprisingly funny and heartwarming read, and I will definitely be adding more Catherine Walsh books to my TBR.

This book is a small town romance between a local bartender and the man working on the project to knock down her beloved pub. Whilst the story is somewhat basic, the author manages to add so much depth and love that I ended up loving the book anyway!

The writing style was so easy and enjoyable, and I found myself flying through this book. I even stayed up until 12:30am to finish it (and on a work night!). She manages to write such complex main characters, while also doing the same for her side characters. Her side characters were so well-written that I found myself crying on and off for the last 20% of the book!

If you're a fan of Ali Hazelwood, Amy Lea or Chloe Liese, I can see you enjoying this book.

🔹 My take: 4.25/5

🔸Katie Collins lives in small town of Ennisbawn and works in Kelly’s pub. This town is her life & soul; after she lost her parents and started living with her granny. Katie is fiesty, bold and dependable when it comes to handling any matter. Glenmill Properties have come to their town and purchased phenomenal area to build a swanky hotel. While there is not much the townspeople can do to stop them but Jack & Callum from Glenmill, cross their lines when they start encroaching more & more space and privacy of the town. Katie takes up the charge to draw boundaries when Glenmill plans to usurp their only pub & livelihood of Katie. What makes it harder is Katie is falling for Callum & from the looks of it; so is vice versa.

💖 Wows - Catherine Walsh yet again impresses with a cute heartfelt Irish Romcom. I loved reading her ‘Holiday Romance’ last year. But the banter in ‘The Matchmaker’ is a notch higher. Ennisbawn is a place I want to visit now and I want to badly try 1 of Kelly’s famous mock tails. I loved the chatter between girl friends Katie, Gemma and Nush. The way they have each other’s back is endearing. Katie’s granny had a different level swag and loved the heartfelt dialog both of them have in those final chapters. Side characters like Adam, Noah, Jack get good space too in the storyline. Describing even the smallest feelings perfectly is what Walsh does the best.

💔 Ows - The bit that I found, could be better was the attraction building between Callum and Katie. The romance was nice but the way it was built up was too fast and a bit unbelievable. It would have been nicer to show how Callum started rooting for Katie slowly & steadily bcoz this felt straight like first sight love. And since it’s a romance; I do focus on the pent up chemistry a bit.

💫 I am following Catherine Walsh on all the platforms now 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️ and waiting for her next release. ‘Pick this up, pick this up’ is what I am shouting out loud….⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thanks to @netgalley and @bookouture for sharing eARC in exchange for honest review.

Katie loves her small Irish town. But the entire life she has ever known is being turned upside down when a huge developer moves in to turn her village into a resort destination. When she revives an old Matchmaker Festival as a last ditch effort to save the village she just might find a match of her own.
Is this light and cute? Yes. Does he fall first? Yes. Do I want to move to the Irish countryside? Also, yes. This is a quick little rom-com and an enjoyable one at that. Highly recommended for a pick me up when needed. Excuse me while I go pick up all of Cat Walsh’s other books.

Not my usual read but this was super cute! I was giggling all through this book and just loved Katie and Callum!

The spirit of the community was refreshing and loved how they all came together and work through the issues. Now I’d just love to live in a place like this!

This book is a very bubbly book, with a little bit of romance in it but not mainly focused on that. There is friendships, found families and community spirit. It is a beautiful read if you’d like to try something new, and if you like a bit of banter, this book will not disappoint!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with a copy.

This was a fun book. Katie is a fun character and the story is engaging. It’s a bit predictable in a Hallmark movie sort of way, though. I enjoyed the characters and the small town. I might read other books by Catherine Walsh.

This book is a cute, easy read! Definitely a great option to get you out of a reading slump. The main characters are like-able, and their ‘flaws’ are understandable and relatable.
I did get a little bored about halfway through, but I’m glad I pushed through because the ending is worth it and the resolutions are believable.

Wonderful! A very lighthearted and easy read! I enjoyed the characters and the story line! I found it very free-flowing and a nice quick read!

Catherine Walsh’s Holiday Romance was my favorite holiday romance of 2022, so I was excited to dive into another of her novels. The Matchmaker is set in a small Irish village called Ennisbawn where Katie Collins has grown up, raised by her grandmother after her parents died in a car accident when she was five.

Ennisbawn isn’t a fancy place, but its place in the hearts of its inhabitants is large. Katie works in a pub run by Adam, who acted as a sort of father figure for her. Outside the pub, there’s a wishing well where her parents met. Katie still lives with her granny and spends her days with her two best friends whose lives also center around the pub.

Change is coming, though. A wealthy real estate developer has bought up large swaths of land in Ennisbawn and is building a luxurious hotel. Led by a team manager named Josh and his contractor, Callum Dempsey, the builders have disrupted Katie’s every day, starting each morning when she’s awakened by the sound of construction vehicles. Katie is filled with resentment . . . and with interest. Callum is incredibly handsome, and he doesn’t seem to be quite as committed to the destruction of Ennisbawn as his boss.

Still, all things considered, Katie doesn’t love the plan, but she’s resigned to it . . . until she discovers that—through a series of legal machinations—they’ll be knocking down her beloved pub to make way for even more hotel-centered building.

So, Katie sets out to do the only thing she can think to do: revive the traditional match-making festival, emphasizing the tradition and culture that will be wiped out by the hotelier’s plans, bringing positive media attention to the village and negative media attention to the company’s project.

The only problem? The festival has dwindled—like the town—over the years, so it’s more of a recreation than a revival. But Katie is (or may be?) up to the challenge.

Just like Holiday Romance, The Matchmaker shines because of its characters and because of the authentic way that Walsh builds their relationship. The premise of each of these novels may be just outside the bounds of reality, but the relationships develop without the normal false barriers and miscommunications that plague some romance novels. Katie is a refreshingly self-aware protagonist, and Callum is just great: sincere and down-to-earth in his developing feelings for Katie and for the town. I also absolutely loved the secondary characters—Katie’s friends and family—who bring such a richness to the novel. Catherine Walsh is an author whose backlist I must dive into soon!

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳 follows Katie Collins who has taken up the responsibility to save her village's only pub by re-establishing an old matchmaking festival all while wishing away her own match seeing as he's part of the corporation she's fighting against.

- ~ -

"𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜?"
"𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜."
"𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙖 𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧."
"𝙄'𝙫𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙜𝙤 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙜𝙤."

Yeah I'm a sucker for groveling, possesive men, especially Callum. He treats Katie like a queen but doesn't hesitate to take control of the reigns...dreamy stuff.

Anyway, like any other Cat Walsh book this too had my brand of humour and chaos with elderly matchmakers, flighty dogs and just an over enthusiastic Nush.

"...𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘌𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘱. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘶𝘴..."

I loved the small town support element and overall community development. Everyone's sticks up for everyone and to have that kind of a place to lean back on must feel amazing and freeing right!

- ~ -

4.02 / 5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

The Matchmaker by @catwalshwriter is exactly what I needed this week. This is my first ARC from @netgalley and I’m so pleased it was this one.

This book is a proper squealing while kicking your feet feel good romance. The characters are loveable and the plot of the matchmaking festival is brilliant. Katie and her Gran’s sarcasm is hilarious. I like the idea of a small world and a small life in real life so to see a book that promotes that is amazing. I love love love an Irish love story and I need to go to this match making festival.

I loved this book and cannot wait for its release for everyone else on the 18th of April!

Catherine Walsh continues to deliver amazing Irish rom-coms. I adored this story. Katie and Callum were so fun and the banter between them was everything. I love how much passion that Katie had for her town and community and she stood up for what she believed in.

The Matchmaker is a delightful read. It's super sweet, low-drama, and hilarious. The banter is amazing, the side characters bring so much life without being overwhelming, and the setting was perfect. I adore small towns and the characters who love them and a simpler life. Katie was perfection fighting for what and who she loves, getting in over her head but not giving up, I also loved the devotion of her friends. Callum was everything you could want in an mmc, slightly grumpy initially but wholly charming. Definitely recommend, it'll leave you with a warm, happy, fuzzy feeling.

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

Publication: April 18, 2023

This was my first book by Walsh and the synopsis drew me in. I went into this book blind and wasn't quite sure what I was going to get.

I loved the humor, banter and setting of Ennisbawn along with all the side characters. However, I couldn't feel the chemistry between Callum and Katie thus feeling too "insta-love" for me. Unfortunately, that is one trope that I have a hard time getting into personally.

Overall, a cute read and perfect for fans of small town romance, insta-love trope, singular point of view reading

Thank you Bookouture and Netgalley for my e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dressed in her pajamas, Katie Collins meets Callum Dempsey, at a construction site, in an attempt to solve the ongoing traffic noise which is disturbing her sleep patterns. Glenmill, currently led by Jack Doyle is building a hotel in charming Ennisbawn in an attempt to garner revenue and increase tourist attraction. When Jack demands more land for his project, Kelly's Pub, Katie's workplace, becomes collateral damage. Katie together with the residents of Enisbown hosts the historical matchmaking festival in an attempt to save Kelly's Pub.

This was an enjoyable read because of the small-town setting and likable characters. However, this is an insta-love story, which I am not a fan of and I did not feel the chemistry between Katie and Callum.

Overall, a cute read from Catherine Welsh and I shall definitely be on the lookout for her future novels.

Read if you enjoy:
💙 insta-love
💙 found family
💙 small town romance

Loved this very much! Well paced and the chemistry was soo good. Highly recommend this to anyone looking to pick up a new romance read.

A cute read. It’s not my very favorite book by this author but it’s enjoyable and fun. Katie, is a 28 year old with more than her share of responsibilities, including trying to save her favorite place, her pub. Along the way she meets hard nosed Jack who works for the developer and construction manager Collum. In an effort to boost publicity for the pub, Katie decides to restart the Matchmaker fair. Her antics along the way are predictably hilarious.

The Matchmaker was a cute, light story. The characters pulled me in, and although it was predictable, I still couldn’t wait to read and find out what happened. The author did a good job tying everything together, and it was a quick, fun read when I just didn’t want to read anything heavy.