Loved all the fun layers in this book! Mystery, romance, and all the fun real life moments that it captured. I wish the book was longer though! Some of the parts were rushed but I still loved the pace of the book. Hope there is a second book!

I loved this book! The tension and dynamic between the characters was amazing and it truly kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat throughout the book. Saeed did an amazing job with this book and I can't wait to read future publications by her. 100% recommend and would read again!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this book!

The Matchmaker is the debut novel by Aisha Saeed, following Nur, a dedicated workaholic who runs a thriving matchmaking business with her aunt. She reminds me of Jennifer Lopez’s character in The Wedding Planner—someone deeply invested in love for others but reluctant to find it for herself. With a best friend who plays the role of her fake fiancé at weddings and a trusted team by her side, Nur is fully focused on her career.

However, things take a dark turn when she starts receiving an onslaught of hate mail, both online and in her inbox. At first, she brushes it off, but as the messages grow more aggressive, they begin to disrupt both her business and personal life.

I was drawn to the premise of this book, but at times, it felt a bit scattered. I would have preferred it as a straight mystery rather than a romantic mystery, as the romance felt somewhat forced and unresolved. I also wished for more development with Logan, who played a crucial role in resolving the conflict.

Although mystery isn’t my usual genre, this book was compelling, and I’m glad I gave it a chance. One of the highlights for me was how Nur acknowledges that South Asian culture isn’t just about the bright and festive exterior—it has depth, complexity, and unspoken challenges beneath the surface.

3.75 stars

Desi (someone from or the culture of India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh) matchmaker Nura Khan inherited her aunt's successful business as her aunt has experienced medical problems. This is an elite and careful operation - they do an incredibly thorough background check and exhaustive research to match candidates successfully.

But something strange is going on. Someone is sabotaging the business, trolling on social media, stalking clients, disrupting weddings, and publishing fabricated lies.

Nura is more than a workaholic. She has no time for a personal life and her family misses her. She is pining after a childhood friend who is her plus one for work related events, but he shows signs of wanting a life and relationship of his own too since she won't let him know how she feels.

The mysterious events escalate to where Nura and clients and family are in danger. Nura discovers some secrets from her own past which have shaped her business and her family's reaction to it. Suspenseful glimpse into an expensive world. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Matchmaker is a mystery, rom-com story. Nura has taken over the matchmaking agency that has previously been owned by her aunt, Khala, when bad reviews start to appear. Bad things start happening to Nura which accounts for the mystery part, while romance seems far off with her best friend, Azar.
The descriptions of the typical South Asian wedding weekends are amazing and very interesting in reading about the Indian culture. There are lots of twists and turns in this story which keeps you guessing as to who is the “bad” guy.
The story is well written and easy to follow. It's a very quick read.

I love mysteries and enjoy romances so a combination like this one is a perfect read. Nura’s life is going great as a matchmaker in Atlanta. Even though she’s not married, her best friend has agreed to attend weddings as her fiancé. She may have more feelings for him that she’s too scared to explore though. But when weddings start to go wrong, it quickly seems like sabotage that turns dangerous. The book is a combination of figuring out who is trying to ruin her business and dealing with her feelings for her best friend/fake fiancé. This book was so suspenseful that I read it in a matter of days. Definitely recommend! Thank you Bantam for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book is so wonderfully written. I was completely hooked. I enjoyed reading about the glitz and the glam surrounding the matchmaking company, yet I also appreciated the conversations on not having money. This book touched on some important and heavy topics that were effortlessly incorporated into the plot and did not make me feel like the story was being bogged down. I highly recommend this book to people who are looking for a mystery that isn’t just about detectives or police; there is also a romance subplot that was cute. And I loved that the main character was a Desi Muslim woman. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. 5/5 ⭐️

This book was funny and light hearted. I enjoyed this story very much, I loved the main character and I'm so glad I was able to read this book early. Thank you so much to Netgalley.

The Matchmaker is a cozy romance mystery which could have been a great read but falls short with its predictability and overly dramatic storyline.

Synopsis
“Business has never been better for Nura Khan, a third-generation matchmaker in Atlanta. Her exclusive clientele benefits from her impeccable track record. And while a single thirty-one-year-old matchmaker would normally raise some perfectly threaded eyebrows in the community, Nura’s childhood best friend, Azar, is willing to double as her pretend fiancé at her clients’ weddings—even though Nura’s feelings for him might not be so pretend.

But all that glitters isn’t gold. While it’s not uncommon to get the occasional hate mail from rejected prospective clients, Nura is blindsided after a couple’s carefully constructed wedding implodes, the first in a cascading chain of suspicious and increasingly terrifying events. Someone is taking things too far, and with Azar and her matchmaking team by her side, Nura embarks on a dangerous cat-and-mouse game that threatens not only her safety but everything she’s worked so hard to build.”

What’s to like
This is Aisha Saeed’s first foray into adult fiction, being an author of children’s and young adult stories previously. The prose is simple and well written. The descriptions of the fancy weddings for Nura’s clients were fun to read and I wish that there were more of these in the story. Overall, it is a decent ‘Feel Good’ category novel.

What’s not to like
There are many things that a reader would wish were different about this book. For starters, everything is a tad bit over dramatic and over-hyped. Whether it’s the suspense or the romance aspect, it seems lacking. There are many parts of the plot that are surface level only and the story and its characters need greater depth. Along the same line, there are parts of the book where the narrative seems to be repetitive or dragged on such as the part about Nura and Azar’s relationship or the dissatisfaction of rejected clients. I found myself skimming this part of the story to get it to move along.

Moreover, for a mystery novel the worst critique can be predictability of storyline and unfortunately, it is true for The Matchmaker. Readers will most likely be able to guess or predict three-fourths of the story. I was able to anticipate most of the plot about Darcy and Azar.

Perhaps the main thing I did not like about the novel was my own expectation about what its multi-cultural storyline will offer. Nura Khan belongs to a family of Pakistani immigrants and is in the match making business, while there are parts about her Indian clients and their desi weddings which bring in South Asian culture, we do not get anything else from the story about Nura’s Muslim and Pakistani American character that would speak about this part of her identity. Even in her interactions with her family, something was missing.

Book Review Rating: 3/5 (rounded up from 2.5)

This was a fun read, if you didn't think too hard. I'm a sucker for matchmaking stories or tv shows, so this was an immediate request from NetGalley for me. I didn't entirely LOVE the MC, who seemed rather selfish when it came to how she treated her loved ones. Like making her best friend be her pretend date to weddings every single weekend? Even if he said he was okay with it, that is an incredibly selfish ask.

The mystery part was fun also, though I didn't think either genre of the book was particularlysuccessful

I think this book was the victim of poor advertising. What I thought would be a cute romance with a touch of mystery was really more of a mystery with a rather terrible romance. It also seemed to poorly sprinkle some family relationship topics in there too. Since none of the themes were done particularly well (nor paced properly) it was really hard to sink into this and care about the main character's journey. Probably won't read more from Aisha Saeed.

Nura is a well-respected and trusted matchmaker, specializing in helping people become their best selves before matching them with their perfect matches. She has a huge success rate, and has quite the following... until someone starts sabotaging the weddings of matches she's made. Suddenly, Nura needs protection, and her staff is scrambling to find the culprit.

First, I am the whitest white girl, so I will not be commenting on how well the South Asian community is represented because I'm not equipped. I will only say that everything with regard to their culture as a whole seems to be respectfully written.

That said, this was quite the ride. I've read a few books lately that deal with matchmaking, and this definitely takes a look at a different side to the whole idea. This one focuses on what might happen in a match went wrong. There's documents being faked, people being kidnapped and drugged... and when everything feels like it's pretty resolved, you still have a third of the book to go!

I really liked the storyline, and the twists of how and why. I think my one hesitation is that I didn't like the romance parts. It felt like they were shoe-horned in, making the "obvious" become the direction the plot went, instead of letting the eventual partner resolve things the way they were already going until the last 50 or so pages. It felt almost like a cop-out. If I could have taken off half a star, I would have because of this.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

Cover: Gives fun rom-com vibes. May pick up at a book store depending on my mood. Would for sure pick it up from a Little Free Library.

What I liked most about this book: This book was part mystery, part thriller, with a dash of romance. I thought this was the most unique book I have read in a while, it had me guessing, smiling and saying aweee all at the same time. I also loved the Indian culture and some of the wedding ceremonies

What I liked least about this book: The book was a little slower then I like.

Rating: 4 Stars

Neither a good romance nor a good mystery. An over the top villain and a cartoonish final confrontation.

Nura Khan is the best matchmaker in town, and everyone knows it. She's taken the family business and made it bloom. She doesn't just help her clients find love, she helps them become the type of people who can sustain love, then matches them with their perfect partners. It's not a service for everyone, and she turns down a lot of clients. Sometimes, they're not so happy about it.

When strange and dangerous things begin to happen surrounding her and her business, and disgruntled potential clients begin coming out of the woodwork, Nura and her closest friends must work to piece together who could be behind the attacks.

Did I mention she's also in love with her fake fiancé slash best friend in the world?

The Matchmaker is a fast-paced thriller surrounded by and fueled by the darker side of romance, the part where things don't always work out the way you plan. Sometimes the pursuit of love brings out the worst in people instead of the best.

The stakes rise quickly in this book. It is one incident after another and is immediately clear that someone is out to get Nura and her company. It gets quite intense and follows a thriller arc closely. I was personally hoping for a little more romance because that's what I'm the biggest sucker for, but it is a pretty solid storyline. True feelings are always revealed when one, or both parties are in mortal peril.

Overall I enjoyed the book, but it didn't draw me in as much as I like to be. While I was interested in the story, I wasn't held in a grip with emotion for these characters. For me it was a solid three stars.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

In THE MATCHMAKER, written by Aisha Saeed, Nura Kahn runs Piyar’s Matchmaking Agency, not to be confused with promoting arranged marriages. The agency offers a matchmaking app and a more expensive personalized matchmaking experience. The complaints made by dissatisfied customers is causing problems for the agency. I read on to see what happens.

This is a cozy with the addition of romance. I think the premise is good, and I like the inclusion of client testimonials at the beginning of the book. As I read on, however, I quickly lose interest in the plot. Thank you, Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine and NetGalley, for the chance to read and review an advance reader copy of THE MATCHMAKER.

This book is full of drama: family drama, wedding drama, romance, mystery, sabotage... yet I still though it was just okay.

I think I might have enjoyed this more if it was a Netflix movie where I can just watch in the background while I did something else. This probably is because I used to watch Millionaire Matchmaker many years ago on Bravo tv...

I did have a problem with:
1. Nura brushing off Azar when he made a comment about Darcy possibly cultural appropriating.
2. Nura never allowing Azar to speak when he tries to explain himself. Which was what led to their fallout in college. It was frustrating that if she just let him speak then a lot of problems could have been avoided. I do understand that she was scared and was trying to avoid any pain.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy for review.

Nura Khan is a matchmaker in Atlanta. Some people try to demean her as someone who does arranged marriages, but her VIP program is much more than that. She also has an app that can be used by less affluent folks. Her rich clientele, however, are used to getting what they want when they want it, so she’s used to having disgruntled folks she turns away for various reasons. But when weddings start imploding, and the comments online get increasingly angry in nature, it seems Nura’s very life might be on the line.

Even though there are a lot of twists in this novel, which also has a background romance in addition to the mystery, for some reason I found this boring. Maybe because even though it’s written in first person, I never really felt pulled into the story and there really isn’t a character arc. Too much telling instead of showing maybe? I’m having a hard time putting my finger on why this didn’t work for me.

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this novel, which RELEASES APRIL 8, 2025.

The Matchmaker is a fun, cozy mystery. I enjoyed the characters and while the plot was fairly predictable, it was well-written and kept me hooked. If you are looking for a palate cleanser between darker thrillers or want a little romance (no spice) in your mysteries, this book is a great option.

What I Liked: No plot holes, fully developed characters, and a fast-paced story.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy!

Despite what the media says, Nura does not do arranged marriages. Her highly modern matchmaking service helps her clients become their best selves before pairing them off. The time- and labor-intensive process does lead to a high number of rejected applicants, one of whom seems intent on destroying Nura's life. That the only explanation for the sudden spurt of ruined engagements and creepy online and in-person attacks on Nura herself. Luckily, she has a loyal staff on her side, not to mention Azar, the best friend she pines for. Wavers between romance, suspense, and family drama. Thanks, Netgalley.