This book was really not for me.

Firstly, it felt like it had too much of a YA voice for an adult romance. I kept forgetting the FMC was an adult. It comes off really juvenile sounding, and it didn't match the book's intended tone.

Secondly, I didn't like or care about the FMC or MMC and wasn't invested in their stories or relationship at ALL. The FMC is incredibly privileged and of course "petite." *insert eye roll* This is an exact quote: "Jia had never had to worry about money, savings, and finances." I can enjoy a well-written story about characters in a vastly different tax bracket than me, but in this case, it was entirely off-putting and unrelatable.

MATCH ME IF YOU CAN is an Emma retelling with some weird You've Got Mail elements and I really just don't think it worked. It didn't seem to have too much of a plot and it was slow moving most of the book. And I'm not buying that her blog had a large following and that she'd be able to successfully run a match-making business. I'm not buying what this book is selling!

And this is just a me problem, but I could not get over how many characters "licked their lips" in seemingly unrelated situations. FIFTEEN TIMES. It started to grate on me. And the in-text hashtags? Odd.

So bummed because I had high expectations for this book (I mean, how cute is that cover?!), but unfortunately, this book was a total miss for me.

Thank you to Dell and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

Match Me If You Can is a BIPOC retelling of Austen's Emma in which a young magazine writer in Mumbai must prove her matchmaking skills and contend with her growing feelings for her close family friend. I found the FMC incredibly unlikable which ultimately led me to DNF. There are too many books out there to read ones that I am not enjoying!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader. All thoughts are my own.

This was a cute story. Jia wants to be a professional matchmaker and she successfully set up her sister with the man who became her husband and her widowed aunt with her second husband. However, she is not ready to start her own business yet. She is currently the love and relationship writer for a popular magazine in Mumbai. She also has an anonymous blog on which she posts her thoughts about love and relationships, which often disagree with the articles she has to write for the magazine. Yet, for all her supposed expertise, Jia has never had a serious relationship or been in love. She is also oblivious to what her family and friends long ago figured out — Jaiman, a longtime friend and almost family member, whom Jia spends time with practically daily, is in love with her. But for a variety of reasons, he has not made his feelings known. Their stubbornness, along with various stressors and some misunderstandings, will almost tear apart their friendship permanently but they both wise up and realize what they risk losing.

While the basic plot could be set anywhere, having the story set in Mumbai was a good choice. The author discusses traditional Indian matchmaking arranged through the parents of the bride and groom and compares and contrasts that with more modern methods of finding a spouse, including combining some of the traditional methods with a modern approach where the singletons looking for lasting love have a greater say in prospective partners. Also, the author incorporates Indian customs and foods and other aspects of Indian life, which adds a uniqueness to the story for me, as the books I run across and read in this genre tend to be set in America or Europe, even if the characters (or their parents or grandparents) are originally from other parts of the world.

This was a cute friends to lovers slow burn story, but for me personally the romance moved a little too slowly and ended up getting slow burnt. Jaiman and Jia have known one another their whole lives since their fathers are best friends, and Jaiman has had a crush on Jia since he was a teenager. But Jia has been blind to these feelings and their friendship has been on the rocks since a failed kiss at a friends wedding last year. There was a lot of miscommunications between the pair in this book which isn't my favorite thing. Jia's character was also not my favorite as she has a sense of superiority over relationships and her opinions on matchmaking and dating yet never being in a relationship.

If you like reading about Indian culture and very slow slow burns you may enjoy this book since I think I just had too many personal dislikes for me to enjoy it but can see where there's points for others to enjoy reading.

Match Me if You Can was a slow burn romance. I loved the premise and was excited to be approved to read this story. A writer/matchmaker working to earn a column. Two family friends who have unspoken feelings for each other. The characters were likable, especially the love interest and the main characters friends. I thought the Indian cultural references and the Mumbai setting were interesting. The recurring miscommunication, and pure stubbornness of Jia interfered with my overall enjoyment. The conclusion was sweet and satisfying.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read an early copy.

I think I’m in a romance slump so this is probably me and not the book but I decided to DNF at 15%. I’m finding myself annoyed by Jia instead of rooting for her to get what she wants at work. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free audiobook to review.

I enjoyed reading Match Me If You Can by Swati Hedge. You will fall in love with all the characters. I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely. Happy Reading!

This book was very slow to get started and had lots of characters to try to get to know but once I got to the middle part of the book it was easier going. Jia was a writer for Mimosa a women’s magazine but was secretly starting her own match making company. Jaiman had grew up with her and secretly crushing on her but she didn’t seem to notice. I did like the slow friendship to lovers. Jaiman owned a bar and was good at listening to Jia and her ideas. It took Jia forever to figure it out.

I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The author's team reached out to have me read this book and I am so thankful that they did! I truly loved getting to know more about a culture that is different than mine. I do struggle with a miscommunication trope, just because I am too bold in my normal life and consistently say "just say what needs to be said" to myself all of the time, so that is always a struggle. I do know it is a real part of life so I didn't hold it against the book or author in any way. A review will be posted to Instagram shortly.

Thank you, Dell, Random House, and NetGalley for an arc of Match Me If You Can in exchange for my honest review. This was such a sweet read!

Out now!

Jaiman is everything. He is the absolute sweetest ever, truly so patient, and overall, a wonderful person to everyone around him. He's going through it. Everything he has is in his parent's name, and his pub isn't doing as well as he'd hope, the girl he's loved for over a decade has constantly rejected him, and his archenemy is close by, too close. We see so much vulnerability in Jaiman, his raw feelings for a lot of different things throughout the book, and his thought process to things. Truly, I think he's a great mmc, other than his occasional con of ghosting some girls from dating apps.

Jia, unfortunately, on the other hand, irked me at times. The miscommunication trope in this book had me stressed, most of it was literally because of her. She calls herself a matchmaker, which I didn't feel was correct, as she only set up two couples and thought she could set everyone up. If matchmaking was her dream and we got to see her work towards that throughout the book, I'd love it a lot more than just basing it off of coupling up some people and that's it. Jia did redeem herself, but toward the last 10% of the book. This was a super slow burn, but thankfully, the characters had a small character development toward the very end.

- Desi Romance
- Slowwwwww burn
- He falls first, and harder
- Friends to Lovers
- Emma x You Got Mail
- A lot of denial

Truly, thank you NetGalley and Dell for the arc!

📚Book Review 📚

⭐️⭐️

Match Me If You Can by Swati Hegde

I made myself finish this one because I received an ARC for this book from NetGalley.

I really really wanted to like this book! The cover was gorgeous and it was a culture I don’t read a lot about!! But oh my god I didn’t think this book would ever end! I caught myself checking how many pages were left every time a flipped a page…

The MMC I felt nothing but pitty for him. Business falling apart, enemy sets up shop right next to you, and he’s been pinning for the same girl for 20 years.. that’s not attractive at all more like pathetic.

The FMC was selfish and mean. All she was worried about was her match making but didn’t actually listen to the person she was matching. And she just led the MMC on forever. She was just nice enough to him to keep him around.

I’m sad I didn’t like this one more. I feel like it had a lot of potential.

This was a really solid debut. It's a cute modern day Emma with a touch of You've Got Mail, and is filled with loveable characters. Even Jia was loveable from the beginning, which is new as the Emma character is usually a bit unlikeable to begin with.
I had a few minor issues with Jaiman's character, and how rushed the resolution felt. A big reveal (which was obvious to readers but not to the main character) felt a bit thrown away, when I would have expected a larger reaction from the characters.
One thing that really shined was the friendships. I love seeing realistic friendships in romance novels where the friends aren't largely forgotten partway through. Jia's friends and sister were given ample page time, and I believed that their friendships were deep and meaningful.
Match Me if You Can is a solid rom-com that left me interested in what Swati Hegde will come out with next.

✨Desi Romance
✨ Friends to Lovers
✨ He Falls First
✨ Closed Door
✨ Miscommunication
✨ Matchmaking
✨ Set in Mumbai

I loved being transported to Mumbai and a different culture. I read this as an ebook and listened to it on audiobook too which was helpful to hear the pronunciations of some names.

This was a really cute closed door romance between two long time family friends. Jaiman has been in love with Jia for what seems like forever and Jia who even though she writes about love has a hard time identifying her feelings.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for letting me read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

A lightweight, pleasant, PG romcom about a man and a woman, friends since childhood, stumbling through their efforts to live their dreams. Friends to lovers, but deeper than the blithe lightness usually found in romance novels. This is an enjoyable read about love and miscommunication haunted by yearning and the fear of pushing things which they fear may be unwelcome, only to realize that all may be lost if they don’t take the opportunity to declare how they feel.

Love the word play in the title, that is what drew me in! This was a sweet slow-burn, friends to lovers, desi romance! This was not a fast paced story and some might find it slow but I enjoyed the will they/won't they dynamic and I was rooting for Jaiman and Jia. Jia was a little frustrating to read at times, her meddling was too much for me but I understand that is one of the main plot points. Jaiman was a sweetie and I loved his pining after her and his POV chapters were the highlights of the book, and what made me bump my rating from 4 start to 5! I did really enjoy that this was set in Mumbai, I feel like all the Desi romances I read are set in the States or like London so it was a fun change of pace!

A 3 star experience for me. I think it's a solid read, but I was left feeling a little underwhelmed with their story and the characters. I enjoyed the general plot of this one and did find it interesting. You get a friends to lovers, romance writer columnist, lots of lifes' challenges and a closed door romance. The miscommunication in this one got to me a bit. I think it's still a solid book/story that many will enjoy. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Match Me If You Can is a friends to lovers, slow burn romance between magazine writer Jia and pub owner Jaiman.

I struggled with the pacing on this one. Although I love a slow burn romance, I found myself getting bored at times. And I didn't care for Jia's selfish behavior.

All in all, I thought it was a solid debut and I'm looking forward to the next book from Swati Hegde.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for receiving an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Match Me If You Can is the epitome of a sweet, slow-burn romance filled with tons of longing, pining, missed connections, flirty fun, and all the love.

Jia spends her days working as a writer for a magazine in Mumbai but is itching to work on projects she’s more passionate about, like her potential matchmaking business. When a new matchmaking opportunity arises, Jia is excited about the possibility of branching out at her job, but what happens when things don’t go according to plan, and her jumbled feelings for her childhood friend intertwine with her own conflicting thoughts on love?

This was such a charming, adorably cute read! I loved the matchmaking and found family aspects (my heart!!), as well as the super sweet friends-to-lovers romance.

3.5/5

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC of this novel.

Match Me If You Can is a fun, sweet, rom-com that has strong characters and a wonderful sense of place with humid, busy Mumbai. Jia and Jaiman have been lifelong friends, literally. Their fathers were friends before they were born. They were always part of each other's lives so it isn't hard to see why they struggled with their feelings when romance started to bloom, especially when Jia was supposed to be an expert in romantic relationships and a budding matchmaker.

Jia is a really fun character and it is clear from the start that she is her own woman with her own ideas and plans. But it's those same ideas and plans that seem to occasionally trip her up. Jaiman is clearly smitten from the word go, but is also still trying to find his own way in the high-paced world of Mumbai cuisine. It's a slow burn with a very rewarding moment of realization. Is this an Indian literary version of the movie Clueless (which, of course, was the movie version of the novel Emma)? Perhaps. But that doesn't make it any less fun.

Not sure I really appreciated the characters need for labels or her only coping mechanism was to shop. Also not sure I liked that she realized she had "feels" for Jaiman - I know it's a character choice but it still felt somewhat shallow in a very critical moment of self awareness. But, those are primarily personal preferences so I'm not holding that against this adorable story.

Meet Confident fashionista Jia Deshpande and Jaiman Patil. Jia needs a coworker to be set up with their match from a matchmaker in order to write the article that she wants to write. When the whole things goes awry, she must reevaluate her friendships and other relationships in order to figure out where she wants to go from here. This was a fun rom-com that I highly enjoyed.