I wanted to love this book so much based off the description, but it just took me too long to feel connected to these characters to actually get invested in the story. There's so much going on between Jia's job and her family and then Jaiman and the pub, it feels like whiplash before the storylines start really coming together. I think the story ended resolutely but I wish it hadn't been so frustrating along the way.

This was very cute! I loved the matchmaker aspect and how cute the narrator was. My favorite part of this story was her growth in confidence throughout the story.

Match Me if You Can had a fun premise and a unique (to me) setting but failed to really captivate me. Jia is an aspiring matchmaker despite never having had a match for herself. Jaiman is her family friend who has been hopelessly in love with her for years. I love a good friends to lovers and I was interested in reading a novel set in Mumbai India.

Though I did like the setting and getting a little glimpse at Mumbai culture, the actual story and characters weren’t great. Jia was naive and very diva-like. Jaiman was nice but had hardly any personality. Their main conflict stopping them from being together is based on an assumption and no follow up communication, though they talk nearly every day. I just wasn’t sold on either of them as characters or their relationships.

While this wasn’t ground breaking for me, it also was not totally awful or dnf-worthy. Just an average rom com. If you enjoy friends to lovers, workplace comedies, and lighthearted reads, give this a shot! 2.5 stars

This slow burn, childhood friends to lovers was cute!

The beginning did begin pretty slow but I guess they took slow from the slow burn! To not take away from the book it was still a sweet love story with alot of cultural elements.
Jaiman was such a sweet book boyfriend, with a HEA this book made me smile. Jia didnt totally keep me in control, she was a bit iffy but overall the HEA really made up for it.

I do think that i think this would have been better without some miscommunication.

This is such a sweet, charming romance!!

Thank you to Swati Hegde, Dell, and NetGalley for this eARC!

Jia Deshpande works at a fashionable women's magazine writing articles that she never agrees with but can stand thanks to the blog she anonymously writes in response to them. It's her dream to become a matchmaker and she hopes to get the magazine to run a column where she helps readers find their match, yet her boss won't even consider it unless she can prove she's a capable matchmaker. Meanwhile, Jia's longtime friend, Jaiman Patil, is struggling to keep his pub running despite the empty seats and red in the ledgers. He's also madly in love with Jia even though she ran away from him the one time he mustered up the courage to kiss her and then demanded that they never talk about it.

It's not bad but it's also something that I've read a ton of times before. I think a big part of what saved it from being completely forgettable is the unique setting of Mumbai instead of the typical New York or American city. I also appreciated all the little cultural details that Hegde includes because it really helps you dive into the story.
Jia is a strong and confident woman, but that strength comes out feeling a bit like bullying when she bulldozes people into doing what she wants because she's convinced she knows better. It makes her a bit unlikeable so it took me a while to really warm up to her as the lead, but Jaiman is such a sweetheart that he's the reason I kept waiting for Jia to show her more positive side.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Dell for the interesting read!

Match Me If You Can
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕚𝕤𝕥:
Jia Deshpande, a confident fashionista and writer for a Mumbai women's magazine, secretly blogs about real love while ignoring her feelings for her childhood friend, Jaiman Patil. To launch a new matchmaking column, she must successfully set up a coworker.

Jaiman, a pub owner with deep feelings for Jia, values his place in her chaotic but loving family. As his pub struggles and Jia's matchmaking attempts falter, risking friendships and their relationship, Jia must rethink her views on love. In Mumbai, however, happily-ever-afters are always possible.

𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕋𝕣𝕠𝕡𝕖𝕤:
🫶🏼 Matchmaking
🪷 Desi romance
🔥 Slowwwww burn
💞 Friends to lovers
🚪 Closed door romance

𝕊𝕚𝕞𝕚𝕝𝕒𝕣 𝕍𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕤:
📚 𝗟𝘂𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝗟𝗮𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗞𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗝𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻
📚 𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗮'𝘀 𝗟𝗮𝘄𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲

𝕄𝕪 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤:
Can we get a round of applause for this stunning cover? The colors are incredible and immediately caught my eye and made me want to pick up this story. 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗠𝗲 𝗜𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗖𝗮𝗻 is a culturally rich Desi romance set in Mumbai. I really enjoyed getting to experience Indian culture and references through the story. This was definitely one of my favorite aspects of the story.

The childhood friends to lovers trope can be pretty hit or miss for me. While the execution of the trope in this story was not my favorite, I do think many readers will be charmed by it. is a wealthy aspiring matchmaker and Jaiman is her chef/mixologist best friend with a fledgling pub. There are so many miscommunication issues that persist and keep Jia and Jaiman from proclaiming their love until almost the very end of the story. I found myself frustrated with Jia quite often 🙃

I still thought the book was cute and I think there are many readers who will fall in love with this story!

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆, 𝗦𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗶 𝗛𝗲𝗴𝗱𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗲𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄.

𝕄𝕪 ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘:
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (𝟯/𝟱)

𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕔𝕖 ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘:
🫑 (𝟬/𝟱)

I’m always going to enjoy a friends to lovers with a cinnamon roll protagonists. So glad i picked this one up!

This romance has wit, humor, a cinnamon roll hero, and determined heroine, it’s a cute friends-to-lovers story.

The storyline is cute, the heroine desires to be a matchmaker, yet she’s never been in love; and it’s full of angst with a family friend, the hero who has been pining for the heroine, forever…

An Indian romance that takes place in Mumbai following a writer and a business owner, Jia and Jaiman, Match Me If You Can by Swati Hedge has the perfect Desi plot that brings two people together.

I enjoyed the new matchmaking concept the book introduced us to that had more to do with the couple than the family. Jia is an ambitious confident woman who knows what she wants from her career.

Jaiman, has dreams and passion but he struggles with keeping his love for his career alive.

Our MCs are completely opposite of each other and yet they fit together but I believe that was the case only because they had known each other since they were kids. Therefore, I am not sure where this love story would have gone if they didn't grow up together.

The major reason for my rating going down was Jia. She is barely tolerable for most of the book. And the reason for that was she was so pampered by all the luxuries in her life, no one wanted to call her out on her shit. She would hold grudges and give silent treatment refusing to communicate. So especially for a woman who wanted to be a professional matchmaker I am not sure what to think about it.

Coming to Jaiman, he definitely had a better personality than Jia but his professional steps sucked. He was whining about the pub's failure but wasn't really trying to get the business better. Also I found it weird that his family wasn't mentioned properly considering they were family friends.

Match Me If You Can is a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma set in contemporary India. I thought this was a fun concept! I've read a whole lot of modern Jane Austen retellings with various success. I think Emma is probably one of the harder ones to translate to modern day, but I looked forward to giving this a try.

This book was a big miss for me. Jia, like Emma, is handsome, clever, and rich. She's also super annoying. Emma is also annoying, but not nearly as much as Jia. I kept wracking my brains about why Jia was more annoying to me than Emma. I think it's because this book is dual POV with Jia and Jaiman, the Mr. Knightley character. Emma works because you're seeing everything from her perspective, and then Mr. Knightley rightfully calls her out when she's being selfish or particularly meddlesome. He obviously likes her, but we don't really see it because Emma hasn't noticed HOW much he likes her until much later. In this book, Jaiman is constantly telling us how funny, smart, pretty, cute, etc. Jia is, and that doesn't really work because she's being horrible! I'm still not sure if having this book only in Jia's perspective would have saved it, but I think it would have helped. As it was, I just couldn't stand Jia's character and was kind of annoyed when she found success at the end of the book.

I didn't enjoy reading this and I don't think that it's a satisfying reimagining of Emma. However, if this piqued your interest, I'd say give it a try. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC of this book, my thoughts are my own!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

This was a DNF for me. I didn't like the main character at all. I couldn't get into the novel at all, so I just stopped reading.

I thought this was a cute modern twist on Indian matchmaking and how it is (or I assume it is) in the modern era. The main character was a little frustrating and stuck in her ways, but I think it all boiled down to obliviousness as that changed once she realized our MMCs feelings.
Our MMC was really struggling and I felt for him, but once he changed his thinking a little he got it. Both our MCs just needed a little help and less pride and they got there. I also enjoyed the sub plots with the side characters and I felt it really added to the story as well— especially the rivalry between the two bars.

This friends-to-lovers romance was charming, but it ultimately wasn't for me. While the writing was solid, the pacing felt uneven, making connecting with the characters difficult. However, I appreciated the vivid depictions of food and the rich cultural representations woven throughout the story.

I wish there was better communication in this book. it made it very uncomfortable and frustrating to read. overall not my favorite.

DNF: 25%

At first, things were slow and weren't catching my interest. I wasn't immediately drawn into the story. As I read more and saw more of Jia, she really started to frustrate me. I quit because I could see where the story was going and knew it'd be an annoying, unenjoyable ride to get there.

This reads like a modern version of <i>Emma</i> set in India. That could be fantastic if done well! Unfortunately, this story focuses and highlights all of Emma's worst qualities. When you combine that with a predictable plot and "best friends" who come off more as indifferent or annoyed forced friends, everything falls apart.

The synopsis promised a story that we didn't get. The cover is much cuter than any interaction between Jia and Jaiman. I'm incredibly disappointed -- I would've loved to read the story I thought this was.

I didn't see the point in continuing. I don't see myself recommending this one.

<i>Many thanks to NetGalley, Dell, and the author for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Match Me If You Can is a story set in Mumbai, which in itself was reason enough to make me read it, but add romance to the equation and Im sold.

Now I’m not sure if this is an official “Emma” retelling but it certainly felt like one when I first started reading, which in turn made it a little hard for me, since Jia was a little hard to swallow at first, she is this bubbly writer for a Women’s magazine that plans to become a matchmaker, and like one, she is always trying to set people up and is convinced she has a gift for it. She did not. Or I mean yeah, sometimes she got it right but other times it was painfully wrong, but of course we got a strong minded heroine who had to get her way.

Now the hero of our story is Jaiman, life-long friend of Jia and her family. While he really was super sweet, it felt like sometimes he just let Jia get away with everything and that kind of put me off a little.

But I persevered and I was rewarded qith personal growth from everyone, albeit a little too slow for my liking, but in the end, the story resolved itself pretty satisfactory, so I’m glad I gave it a chance.

Match Me If You Can is a cute story about two people who grew up together yet don't realize the other likes them. I enjoy learning about the Indian culture, especially the matchmaker industry in India. I always enjoy Aunties but there weren't any in this story. I did get a little tired of just how long it took for Jia and Jaiman to get together. Match Me If You Can was well written.

This was a cute, quick read; however, I admittedly felt a bit bored at times and took a fair number of breaks while reading (which is why it took me longer than I initially expected to finish). I enjoyed the writing but unfortunately didn't connect too deeply with any of the characters, so I felt like the stakes weren't as important/heightened.

I had to take a couple breaks through the book, and while the writing was strong, I didn’t feel connected to the plot or the characters. I wish there had been a bit more plot and faster paced