A journey through Vietnam provides the perfect setting for this charming romance. With a delightful grumpy-sunshine dynamic and a wonderful supporting cast, the story blends humor and love while exploring deeper themes of grief, family traditions, and the pressures of rigid expectations. It's a captivating read that balances lighthearted moments with more meaningful, emotional depth.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars. 🌶️🌶️

Evie is spontaneous, creative, but a lot lost. She feels disconnected from her Vietnamese heritage, isolated from her mom, and still depressed about the loss of her amazing Auntie Hao. She’s a poet who had a little success, but is now in a rut. She’s teaching, but in a position she doesn’t love. And then to make things worse, she gets fired and dumped on the same day by the same person. It really can’t get any worse. But when Evienis at her all time low, she finds out that she’s inherited her Auntie Hao’s San Francisco home that could be that windfall she so dearly needs. Auntie Hao had some strings attached and wants Evie to go to Vietnam and travel the country with a matchmaking start-up tour. Do that and the house is hers. What does she have to lose?

Her heart, that’s what. She meets Adam, the broody, chief marketing office of the tour. Adam’s still reeling from his proposal disaster and has familial obligation hang ups. They’re hot and they’re cold, but they can’t seem to stay away from each other.

Go on this grand adventure with Adam and Evie!

My thoughts: A little slow to start, but with a sweet ending. Visit the waterfalls, caved, and beaches of Vietnam with Adam and Evie. TBH, my favorite character from beyond the grave is Auntie Hao who seems like her own spark of joy. Love bravely folks!

Fun fact: @noranguyenwrites also writes under the name @thao_writes and is best known for her fiction Banyan Tree!

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC! Released September 24! Go get your copy today!

On the surface, this is a fairly standard enemies-to-lovers tropey romance. What elevates it, though, is the setting. Vietnam sounds AMAZING, and this book really does a great job making that case. It's certainly a little heavy on the wish fulfillment aspect of things, and I couldn't help wonder how this would have played out had our protagonists not been wealthy - its much easier to make international love work when you don't have to worry about things like a day job! But overall, a very solid, very fun read, with some enjoyable and intriguing characters.

4 stars!

"Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour" by Nora Nguyen is an excellent read! I thoroughly enjoyed this vibrant story teeming with culture, meddling families, unexpected loves, and newfound longings. Adam and Evie are good (though flawed) characters. Evie is going through life sort of aimlessly. Her life is a mess and she is a bit of a wanderer, unsure of what she "wants to be when she grows up." After the death of her aunt, to whom she was very close, Evie is required to go on a matchmaking tour within three months so she can inherit her sprawling San Francisco home. This trip is not just for matchmaking, but to give Evie the chance to experience her native homeland, heritage, and culture. When she arrives in Việt Nam, she meets Adam, who is the CMO of his sister's matchmaking tour business. This is his first time attending the tour. Adam is a rigid man who grew up in a strict household with certain expectations set upon him. Because of this, he has become a workaholic grump. Though they are both Vietnamese, Adam and Evie were raised in two totally different manners. Evie's carefree, flighty demeanor is off-putting to Adam, and Adam's strict dedication to his work and often unapproachable manner make Evie seek out comfort elsewhere. Still, they are drawn to one another like magnets. Throughout the tour, they get closer to one another in a deeper way than just a surface-level attraction, exploring Việt Nam on and off the tour path together. I loved the intricate, beautiful descriptions of Việt Nam, the country, the food, the people, the streets, the mountains, everything sounded absolutely breathtaking. As I mentioned, Evie and Adam both have their flaws, but remained charming and engaging enough for me to want to read about. This is an enemies-to-lovers story, so the banter between the two of them before they start to fall in love is great. I liked seeing their relationship get explored in a more in-depth way as the story evolves. I have a hunch that both of these characters might be off-putting to some readers because of their demeanors, but I found them to be compelling. I also loved (really, hated!) the explorations of Adam's family dynamics. Oh my god, talk about toxic! I loved him finally standing up for himself and sticking it to his patriarchal father against all cultural expectations. I wanted to slap his sister. Just because she was going through her own issues didn't give her the right to do what she did! My main complaint is the miscommunication and lack of communication, especially at the end of the book. I needed more reassurance that, if Adam and Evie took the plunge to be together, they wouldn't have one fight and blow up their whole relationship. I have a feeling some readers may dislike the amount of characters in this story (there are a lot and it is a lot to keep track of!), but it didn't bother me. All in all, some wonderful stuff here!

Thank you to NetGalley, Nora Nguyen, Avon, and Harper Voyager for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

3.75 stars

I really enjoyed all the scenery and descriptions in this book. I felt like I got a really good sense of what the characters were experiencing on their trip around Việt Nam and I liked how distinct all the locations were and they didn’t really blend into one. There were some fun side characters and I liked how we got to see some of them fall in love as well.
Adam and Evie’s relationship unfortunately fell a little flat for me. I didn’t really feel the connection between them and there wasn’t really a buildup of their relationship. It felt very sudden and forced. There backstories/character arcs were also a little one dimensional. You get a bit of a sense of their hangups and past issues but not much. They were also resolved too easily. I wanted to see the characters work a little more towards growing so that it felt like their ending was earned. Instead I just wasn’t super invested by the end of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC!

This book moved Vietnam to the top of my travel list! This book was light, dreamy and spicy but not overwhelmingly so. I really liked the other characters on their group tour as well, especially Fen. The ending felt a bit rushed and too much like it was trying to put a bow on everything, but the story is still sweet and worth reading.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

ɴᴇᴛɢᴀʟʟᴇʏ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ || TITLE [thank you to Avon and @netgalley for my #gifted copy!]

Title: Adam & Evie’s Matchmaking Tour
Author: Nora Nguyễn
Genre: Romance
Format: Digital
Star Rating: ★★★★★
Would I Recommend: 👍🏻

ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ:
Evie’s inheritance hinges on a matchmaking tour in Việt Nam, where a grumpy matchmaker with his own point to prove might just be her perfect match—if they can stop arguing long enough to see it.

ᴍʏ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ:
I really wish I’d written this review closer to when I read the book, because I really loved it! I loved the characters, and the emotional depth, and the travel!

I especially loved how Adam & Evie really tried to stay apart because they knew how different they were…and yet, they were draw together anyway. & how they were both even on this tour against their will…and yet it worked out for them.

This book is both a romance (obviously) and a beautiful story about families (siblings when it comes to Adam & Ruby, and other relatives when looking at Evie and Auntie Ho).

Honestly, pick this book up if you’ve got a travel bug, because the scenery (and the food) is described beautifully. Highly recommend!

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ:
Opposites Attract
Travel Romance
Dual POV
Foodie Romance
Looking into Other Cultures
Abby Jimenez

ᴅᴇᴛᴀɪʟꜱ:
GR: 3.45 ⭐️
# of Pages: 304
Pub Date: September 24, 2024

This was such a wonderful book! I loved all of the descriptions of Vietnam, and it made me want to plan a trip there immediately. Evie and Adam's chemistry was excellent, and I want more more more of them! The book, to me, straddled the line between litfic and romance, and it was a nice break from the genre romance I usually read.

Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour is reminiscent of the glamour of Crazy Rich Asians, and the makings of a great romance novel. I really enjoyed this title, and the fun that ensues in this light hearted story. As a Vietnamese American, it feels nice to read stories similar to mine and seeing Vietnam romanticized for an American audience.

This is a fun, romance about Evie, a poet who has lost her teaching job, and Adam, an uptight CMO helping out on his sister’s matchmaking tour through Vietnam.

Naturally this leads to an enemies to lovers situation while Evie is on the tour in order to meet a requirement to for an inheritance from her aunt.

This is a charming romance with good characters.

thank you to netgalley for the e-arc. what i liked most about this book was the location, it was a really nice change instead of the typical "vacation" setting. the dialogue between evie and any other character seemed dry and forced, as if they have never spoken to another human before.

This was a sweet romance with just the right amount of depth. Not too far in, but just enough that we get to see the growth for both Evie and Adam.

When I read the description of Nora Nguyen’s story I expected a boy meets girl with conflicts and an eventual falling in love. What I did not expect was a story that was filled with humorous banter, beautiful descriptions of the scenery and culture of Vietnam and a whole cast of characters to love. Evie Lang was raised by her American mother after the death of her Vietnamese father. While her mother struggled t support them, her summers were spent in San Francisco with her Auntie Hao. When her aunt died she left her home to Evie. However, there were conditions that she had to meet to inherit. She was required to take a matchmaking tour in Vietnam that was arranged by the estate’s lawyer. Evie is a published poet and college professor. When her contract is not renewed and she is betrayed by her boyfriend she has nothing to lose by taking the tour. Adam Queyen worked in finance until his sister Ruby hired him to help with her matchmaking tour company. In order to effectively understand what Ruby needs from him, Ruby insists that he take the tour. He first encounters Evie in a market as she rescues an escaped chicken. She is the crazy American and he is the uptight businessman, but from day one he can not get her out of his mind. Cultural differences, a family built around tradition, a controlling father and a sister pushing him to choose a woman that the family would find acceptable are all roadblocks to their relationship. Evie is outspoken and spontaneous. Her Auntie Hao’s advice to live bravely allows her to make decisions that could change her life, but is she brave enough to find a way forward with Adam? This story had me laughing at times. There were also moments of grief and heartbreak, making this a story to live. I would like to thank NetGalley and Avon & Harper Voyager for providing this book.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for a review copy of Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour in exchange for my honest opinion. I can't believe it took me so long to get to this one, but I did a mix of listening via my library audiobook copy and reading my eARC.
This is such a fun book! The FMC unexpectedly loses her Aunt and then her job and her (secret) boyfriend, who happened to be her boss, aka the one who fired her. Evie is convinced to join a matchmaking tour in Vietnam, and in doing so she will earn the deed to her late Aunt's San Francisco house. Even though Evie isn't really looking for love, she figures it's a good "break" and the house will be worth the trip.
On the other hand, Adam is the CMO of the tour group company, a start-up that he runs with his sister. This matchmaking trip is a new venture, and his sister insists that Adam join so he can experience its impact. She thinks he is both single and surly, due to a proposal gone wrong from which he hasn't fully recovered. Adam and Evie start off on a rough note, making the story feel like an enemies-to-lovers trope.
I have always wanted to visit Vietnam, and reading this book made it rocket up even higher on my travel bucket list. The sights and food were so well described. I wasn't sure what to expect, but this story was fun and flirty (some of the scenes were quite steamy!), and I felt very strongly that the couple should end up together. Even the third act break-up made sense and I wasn't (too) mad at it.
A fellow bookstagrammer alerted me that this is written by the same author as last year's literary fiction novel Banyan Moon, a Read with Jenna pick that I absolutely loved. I think it's so interesting when authors can write very different genres - especially when they are as well done as these two books! I recommend this one, either in print or audio forms.

love and live, bravely

Embark on a descriptively lush tour through Vietnam. In your hardest moments, find strength in the future, friendship, love, and above all: Yourself.

| contemporary romance | love abroad | matchmaking tour | slow burn | vacation romance | gumpy x sunshine | enemies to lovers | Vietnam | loss of a loved one | dealing with grief | forgiveness | visceral | poetry | academics | familial pressure | dual POV | friendship | HEA |

Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen is a great read full of lush descriptions, exciting imagery, and a slow-burn romance. This story depicts the feelings of grief and loss so clearly. There is no on-page death, however, the feelings that someone is left with after the death of a loved one are ever-present.

Another theme that is represented and executed with finesse is that of diaspora and a need for the child of first-generation immigrants to understand, witness, and explore their ancestral homeland. I am a native Hawaiian and often feel the pull of my own homeland calling me. There is a feeling, a sensation of rightness when I am in my ancestral home that I can hardly explain to someone who doesn't understand it.

This book resonated on numerous levels with me as someone who is American but is not ethnically or culturally American. I mean, that is kind of what America is. It is a country affectionately called the melting pot. It has been a refuge and home for many cultures, ethnicities, and dispersed peoples through time since its establishment. It was lovely to see myself in the main female character and to feel the wonder and rightness she felt being among her people, even if she was "Americanized" in their eyes.

The love story was not the best part of this book for me. It was nice, but truly it was the journey of the female main character that made this story worth reading. To see her ancestral home through her own eyes and to see the character development that occurred at a time when she was lost and adrift in her own life. This book had amazing world-building in terms of seeing Vietnam through a visitor's eyes who has this inexplicable love for it because of what it means to her, and the historical context it provides to her father and her aunt concerning her current state of being. There was so much development and growth in this book for both of the main characters.

This is truly a beautiful read.

Happy Reading, Friends xx

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

After losing her beloved aunt and getting fired from her job, Evie Lang is at a crossroads. Bequeathed to her is her aunt’s San Francisco row home, a treasured place where Evie spent many memorable summers with her Aunt and her eclectic group of friends. In order to get the deed to the house, Evie must go on a matchmaking tour through Vietnam. She’s always dreamed of going and reconnecting with her father’s ancestry, and this seems like the perfect excuse.

Adam Quyên is living a stifled life. Under the immense pressure of his wealthy parents, he feels he’s living life according to their terms and not fully living. He’s unsure of what he wants, and when his sister ropes him into taking the matchmaking tour of their company he agrees. It’s there he meets maddening, adventurous, and beautiful Evie. She knocks down all of his walls and it terrifies him. But can this bundle of chaos fit into his rigid world?

It was lovely to see Vietnam through Evie’s eyes. You feel the same wonder at the vivid detail in which Ms. Nguyen describes the places she visits along the way. This novel is a real celebration of the Vietnamese culture and I appreciate Ms. Nguyen’s earnestness in capturing the culture.

There was a lot to like about this book. I really liked Evie as a character, and I admired that she embraced the adventure set before her. Even when she was afraid, she took the plunge anyway. The banter between her and Adam was fun. There was a lot of push and pull on Adam’s part, and I think that made their getting to know each other more challenging. While I found both characters to be likable there was something missing for me. There were opportunities to take the relationship deeper, and I feel like in some ways the mark was missed. I wanted more heart to heart conversations between the characters.

There were some things in the novel I found curious. I didn’t understand why Evie maintained communication with her ex. He fired her and lied to her about the state of her position at the college. I think that that plot line was unnecessary. It didn’t really add much.

I also didn’t understand why she wouldn’t have a conversation with Adam and just left. He told her he loved her and she loves him. It didn’t make any sense that these two grown adults wouldn’t have a conversation about their future together.

I hate when authors add third act break ups in stories that really don’t need one. Also to be apart without communication for two months seemed a bit extreme and again just didn’t make any sense if you’re in love with someone who loves you back. It just didn’t ring true to me.

Overall, I think this was a good debut, and I look forward to reading more from this author.

I loved everything about the backdrop of this love story! The idea of the matchmaking tour itself, the motley crew of side characters, then all the beautiful descriptions of these iconic locations in Vietnam - love love love! However the love story itself was a little lacklustre to me. I liked both Adam and Evie, and I bought them together to some extent, but something was missing to make me buy that they were in deep, life-changing, throw your plans away for this person love. Still an enjoyable read!

I felt swept away in the incredible setting of Vietnam which made this book really stand out from other contemporary romances. However, I didn't buy into this "enemies to lovers" connection, and Evie seemed like she made uncharacteristic decisions while changing many times throughout the book.

*books ticket to Vietnam*

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books and Harper Collins Publishers for the ARC of this book. I had a lot of fun reading it!

I loved the premise of this book. It felt like part romance, part travel guide which really set it apart from other romances for me. I loved the characters and the story (that meet-cute!) and was constantly Googling images of the places the characters were visiting on their match-making tour and learning things about Vietnam. This would be a great book to read while you're travelling.

My only reason for the 4 star rating is that I found myself getting very impatient waiting for that happy ending but overall, I really enjoyed it!

Evie is a bit of a hot mess and has no idea where her life is going. Her aunt, who just passed away left Evie her house, but with on caveat: before getting the house she has to go on a matchmaking tour in Vietnam. Evie has no desire to go, but she does anyway. There she meets Adam, the CMO for the matchmaking business. They could not be more opposite, but as they travel together they realize there might be something there.
This book made me want to travel to Vietnam! The descriptions of the places and the culture were the highlight of this book and reading it felt like a beautiful love letter to Vietnam. Also the food descriptions sounded incredible. To me the romance wasn’t the highlight of this story, it was the culture and the journey of each of the characters in their personal growth and finding their identity. Each of them had evolved beautifully throughout the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the advance copy.