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.

Wow this was the most selfish, entitled, spoiled, bratty main character I’ve come across in a long time. Jia is constantly bragging about her fancy house, housekeeper, cook, donating expensive silly designer clothes and accessories etc. Seemingly paid a low salary at her minimal magazine job I guess she’s constantly out spending her father’s money on unnecessary things while her best friend struggles to pay his bills. But no worries guys because she’s going shopping twice in one day to buy silly stuff she doesn’t need all in the name of making herself feel better. Jia really needed a therapist and it was laughable how she thinks she can fix other peoples lives while living like a spoiled teenager. In the end I just felt bad for Jaiman. Giving two stars because the story itself wasn’t bad and the writing was fine but Jia was the worst.

This book was sooo cute. I’m always a fan of friends-to-lovers and this book hit the mark for me. The slow burn was buuuurning… 🔥 So much so that I was on the edge of my seat just waiting for SOMETHING to happen—but in the best way. 🤗 I loved the dual POV and getting to be inside both Jia’s and Jaiman’s heads. (Especially Jaiman’s because I’m a sucker for a lovesick man. 😌) They were the sweetest friends and I was DYING waiting for them to admit their feelings for each other.

I also really enjoyed the side characters and their stories as well. Because this book is inspired by 𝘌𝘮𝘮𝘢, I already had a hunch on where the story would go plot-wise and with the side characters. But I loved it so much. It was so fun and I really enjoyed the banter and interactions between the characters and the found family aspect was so sweet.

Read if you love:
💕 Desi romance
🍸 Pub owner and matchmaker
🫶🏼 Found family
✉️ Secret penpals
☺️ Witty banter
🚪 Closed door romance
💜 Childhood friends-to-lovers

Thanks to NetGalley and a Random House Publishing House for this read. I found this book good but not great for me. I found the book was missing something. I think the pacing was good but the banter was a bit off. I think they didn’t communicate well but I pushed through and found the book to be okay.

This book was so enjoyable! Emma coded, friends to lovers, he falls first, matchmaking romance!

Jia is a writer and a matchmaker. Well, she wants to be. She loves love but doesn't exactly see it for herself. She's grown up with Jaiman, whose parents moved away and has always been close to her family. He owns a pub and is a great guy, but his pub is struggling. And he's struggling over his feelings for Jia.

Jia and Jaiman have some relationship issues that keep them apart. And a disastrous interaction awhile back that is definitely keeping them in the friend zone. Jia can be good about seeing the blossoming love around her but not what's right in front of her. Theres quite a few missteps that happen!

There's some lovely friends they both have. One of Jia’s matchmaking successes is her sister and BIL. She knows she can matchmake, and when the opportunity comes along to matchmake again, she doesn't let anything (or anyone) get in her way.

Jia is trying to get her matchmaking side off the ground. Jaiman is trying not to lose his business. Will they get what they want?

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC. All opinions are my own.
Match Me If You Can is a romance story of Jia and Jaiman, a friendship to lover story, with friendship that spans over their lifetimes. Jia is a magazine writer of romance, however she has a hard time believing in romance for herself and she believes people have to find love in different ways, and she would love to be a matchmaker. Jia is from a well off family, with many opportunities open to her, and she keeps her mind in one direction, taking a long time to see what other people see or to find the good in others. Jia shows slow self growth, while Jaiman spends the book showing how much love he has to spread, while working hard on his own in his pub.
For me, I found the main character (Jia) hard to relate to and closed minded, but enjoyed Jaiman’s take and thoughts on things throughout the story. Overall, I thought this was a cute story with a quick ending to find a happily ever after.

4.25/5 stars

Match Me If You Can by Swati Hedge is a slow burn childhood friends to lovers romance between writer/aspiring matchmaker Jia Deshpende and local pub owner and cocktail connoisseur Jaiman Patil. Jia writes for Mumbai’s top magazine for women, Mimosa, but is creatively fulfilled via her secret anonymous blog about love “Love Better with J.” She hopes to one day open her own matchmaking business, and she intends to use her experience (and hopefully promotion!!) at her job as steps towards her future matchmaker goal. While Jaiman’s parents (and their hopes of his joining the family business) are in San Francisco, Jaiman’s whole life is in Mumbai, where he intends to bring his restuarant, J’s Pub, to fame and success as he builds home within his pub for himself, his found family, and the Mumbai community. As Jia feels her career is on the come up, she finds that the truth about love is chaotic and messy, so she finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about love. Meanwhile, Jaiman is doing everything in his power to make sure his dreams don’t crash and burn, all while grappling with his love hidden, yet deepening love for Jia.

Slow burn is admittedly not my cup of tea, and for whatever reason (namely trapped in Bridgerton brain rot), I’ve been slumped and have had a hard time getting myself focused to finish reading really any book at the moment. However, Match Me If You Can had me hooked. I absolutely love reading dual POV, and in particular, Jaiman’s pining!! is my reason!!!

I really felt for Jaiman and his <spoiler> absolute fall into feeling so utterly defeated. He had me crying!! I was not expecting to relate to Jaiman in the way I did— he is one of those lonely creatures who has buried himself into my heart, and his feelings of personal failures felt like my thought transferred onto his pages. </spoiler> Additionally, I know Jaiman tells himself that he should have built the courage to tell Jia how he really feels; however, I liked and understood that he was, in fact, taking (miscommunicated) cues from Jia and trying to respect her wishes. It also made all the sense in the world to me that, not only did he not want to lose Jia in his life, he especially didn’t want to lose the found family he built within her family.

Conversely, I understand why it took Jia took significantly longer to understand her feelings. I read her as demisexual (and I got excited to see Jia directly discuss her lack of romantic and sexual attraction within her blog)! I’m not sure if that was the author’s intention to have Jia on the asexual spectrum (surely it must be), and I know demisexuality is not an as commonly known label in cisheteronormative society, but it would have been really nice and /validating!!/ to have had explicit, on page representation for demisexuality if that was the case, especially given the inclusion of the casually queer representation of lesbian and a bisexual woman in this book.

I really enjoyed reading this Mumbai romance, and I look forward to reading more from Swati Hedge! Thank you, Netgalley and Random House Publishing/Dell, for the ARC!

I DNFd this one at 27%. The main character was just really not it for me. Her entire identity is wrapped around the fact that she’s an amazing match maker except she’s only ever matched two couples. She also absolutely refuses to believe that one of her coworkers isn’t a good guy even though multiple people have told her otherwise. Plus she absolutely cannot be wrong about the couple she pairs up even though it’s blatantly obvious it would never work. She forces them together to gain a promotion of sorts at work with complete disregard for how either of them actually feels about the other. Combining that nonsense with the fact that she has generational wealth and doesn’t even need the promotion she’s willing to ruin people’s lives for, I just really couldn’t push through. I really liked the love interest but he wasn’t enough to keep me interested. I did want to know how the story is resolved but I have made a promise to myself to not finish books that make me mad so here we are.

So….this book was not for me.

I was disgruntled by the FMC, Jia, from the beginning. I hated her meddling and uncompromising manner. And despite her meddling being a total failure…I didn’t get the vibe that she learned. Jia also seemed so entitled and petulant. She didn’t like that Jaiman used the term “dad” in reference to her dad. She knows about his relationship with his family and how her family made him feel safe and like a found family for him.
But she still complained about him coming to their family dinner…which from the sound of it…he’s always going.

Then we have the MMC, Jaiman, who is an emotionally constipated ghoster who can’t communicate. Yeah, he recognized that ghosting isn’t great, but he still did it. If I wanted to read about an emotionally unavailable guy…I could find one by swiping randomly on Tinder.

Charming Indian Emma retelling with match making, family, and cocktails, oh my!

I really loved the modern twist on this old, romantic tale. The food descriptions made me so hungry and the cocktail concoctions sounded sublime. The peek into Indian culture was sweet and refreshing and I loved the dynamic between the MCs!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.

I really liked the premise of this book and I thought the cover of it was just adorable. I loved the how it gives you a deep dive into Indian culture: mentions Bollywood, importance of family, matchmaking, etc. I really felt like I was in India when I read the book. However, I really do wish I had liked this book more because it was very well written, and I just love slow burn romances. My biggest hang up is that I could not find the FMC likable. I thought she was too selfish in regard to those around her. Even her attempts at being a matchmaker for her friend were frustratingly selfish. Another thing that I didn’t care about was the frequent use of hashtags for whatever “project” Jia was pushing through and thought that could have been left out.

As for the MMC, I really liked Jaiman. I thought he was a very sweet character who was a total simp for Jia, but I would have liked a little more background about his jealousy of this archrival Harish as well and Jia and Jaimans back story.

I wish the author could have delved a little more on the differences between modern matchmaking and the old school matchmaking for those not too familiar with the concept.

REVIEW:3/5
SPICE: 1/5

Some of the tropes that you will find in this story are:
- Found family
- Slow burn romance
- Friends to lovers
- Miscommunication galore

Overall, I really thought this book was very cute. I really liked the Indian culture it evoked and if you like really slow burns and miscommunication tropes then this book could be for you.

I want to thank #Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for providing my with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I wish this story was longer! I needed more of Jia and Jaiman. Although Jia is a dating/matchmaking expert, she doesn’t see what’s been right in front of her all this time. Jia was a bit frustrating at times, trying to ignore the obvious with both her matchmaking and feelings for her best friend. I would have loved to see more of them as a couple.

I have been following Swati Hegde for a while now and when this book was announced, trust me, I could not contain my excitement. Because oh my god, for me, this book was absolute perfection. I am a sucker for a good slow burn with some intense pining and this book had that and more. Though I am a born-and-raised Delhi girl, this book made me fall in love with Mumbai and I am looking forward to the day I get to visit the city. With sharp and succinct descriptions, you are fully immersed in the magnetic atmosphere of Mumbai.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this was a dual-POV book. Reading from both Jia and Jaiman’s perspectives made it easy to fall in love with both. These two are the perfect foils for each other; both are at a stage where they have similar, yet different goals to fulfil. Jia wants to start a successful matchmaking business; Jaiman wants to ensure that his pub becomes successful and famous among the many pubs that Mumbai is filled with. Things happen and don’t exactly work out the way both want, but the character development that both have as we come towards the end was a delight to read.

Together, Jia and Jaiman had an incredible dynamic. To be honest, I could see the chemistry between them from the start. The way their relationship developed was so well-written and only served to enhance the chemistry between them. There are some incredibly swoonworthy moments in this book and I could not keep a smile off my face when reading them.

A delightfully sweet and full-of-heart Desi rom-com, Match Me If You Can is the perfect book for you with tons of pining (I mean tons!), an awesome slow burn, a very adorable main couple and all-Desi cast with the main setting being the city of Mumbai. This is the desi book of my heart and I am going to be telling everyone in my life about it!!

So, I'm a little torn with this story, the plot seemed very compelling to me, and I had read some very enthusiastic reviews, so I had very high expectations. Unfortunately, however, I often risked abandoning this story. I found it a bit slow, then I found the slow burn too slow, even for my tastes. The characters didn't convince me, they didn't give me that vibe of interest that usually captures me and makes me passionate about reading. But I still want to give an average rating (3 stars), because it's not that bad. Thanks to the publishing house and Netgalley, for giving me the opportunity to preview this book.

i had high hopes for this because this was pretty much an emma retelling and i was intrigued by a romance set in mumbai! but tbh the tropes should’ve warned me

📚jia (amateur matchmaker and romance writer for a magazine in mumbai) needs to prove her skills to her boss. jaiman (honorary member of jia’s family and owner of a struggling local pub) needs to get over his feelings for jia. when one of her matchmaking schemes gets messy, jia is forced to face her simmering feelings and reevaluate her own idea of true love

i really liked the family dynamics and the deep friendship jia and jaiman share. that was the perfect formula for a sweet romance. i generally tend feel like the combo of slow burn + friends to lovers makes for a pretty boring story that drags on. i don’t think this book was the exception for me

the premise had so much potential, but the longer it went on the more stilted the story felt. the dialogue was forced, all the characters sounded the same, and i was dyyyying for some chemistry (any chemistry!!) whether between the love interests or any of the side characters

overall it was super low stakes and mostly predictable … which could be seen as cozy and charming, but to me it was just frustrating

if you like…
🫶lots and lots of pining
💁‍♀️an oblivious fmc
🍹creative cocktails
🎀emma / clueless vibes
📖a quick and easy read
…then read this!

thank you netgalley and dell for a copy of this arc!

-Friends To Lovers (Will They, Won't They)
-Slow Burn
-Matchmaking

"Match Me If You Can" was an enjoyable read.

I really liked reading Jia and Jaiman's story, their deep rooted friendship was sweet and heartwarming, I felt like they both showed good character growth throughout the book. Their romance definitely had the slow burn element to it, well worth the wait but it took a little bit to get to that point. I always expect to find the "will they or won't they" angst in a Friends to Lovers plot and that was a factor in this story also.

Overall this was definitely a good reading experience and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future!

Thank you Swati Hedge , Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group- Dell for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Match Me If You Can by Swati Hegde is a marvelous debut!
A fun and engaging friends-to-lovers romance that kept me glued to my Kindle.
The story is well-written, engaging and delightful on all levels. The characters are realistic, funny and so very awesome you'll wish they were real.
Right from the very beginning I found myself fully immersed in this tale.

Thank You NetGalley and Random House | Dell for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This was a sweet debut novel that was a cute and light contemporary romance featuring Jai and Jaiman, childhood friends in Mumbai. Jaiman runs a pub and Jia works at a magazine with aspirations of starting her own matchmaking service. If Emma was a modern-day rom com set in Mumbai, this is it! The modern twist on an Austen classic is a lot of fun.

*Read if you're looking for*
-closed door romance
-a diverse cast of characters
-childhood friends to lovers
-miscommunication trope
-pining

Where I struggled with this story was the insane amount of miscommunication between the characters, Jia's treatment of Jaiman, and a slow burn that the pace of the book felt off. I struggled to connect to the MCs because of the miscommunication. The burn was so slow, it was like at the last 10% that things finally got moving. I was relieved to find no third act break up, but it makes sense because there wasn't any room for it. The side cast felt easier to be invested in for most of the book. All in all, this was a solid debut. There were things I didn't enjoy because of personal taste in romance (hi miscommunication!) but the world building of Mumbai was beautiful, I just liked that writing to that about the MCs. Jai was just very unlikeable without the cause to explain her outlook.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dell Romance, and Random House for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Great rom book, perfect for fans of friends to lovers trope. Really enjoyed the different characters in the book & the friends who become family concept in the book. The chemistry between Jia & Jaimin is electric! Perfect summer beach read!

I can’t believe this was a debut novel! Match Me If You Ca was a delightful romcom with great character development. I love the international background. I didn’t love the miscommunication trope (just not a favor for mine). I love a dual POV and friends to lovers!

Thank you #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.