I normally love Alexander McCall Smith's books, especially the Edinburgh ones, but this one just wasn't for me. I really enjoyed the first one in this series, and although this was a gentle read, there just wasn't much happening. It may be that I wasn't in the right mood for it-the writing is certainly up to his usual standard.

Katie matches the lonely hearts of Edinburgh in LOOKING FOR YOU, the latest installment of Alexander McCall's Smith's Perfect Passion Company series. With his trademark wit and incredible storytelling chops, McCall Smith offers a view into the twists and turns and chimerical beauty of love between well-drawn, relatable characters. I can't say that any one particular match or event stands out for me -- the entire story is so well done, I like and believe in them all, feeling relieved and inspired and warmed as always by McCall Smith's portrayal of perfectly imperfect individuals finding their ways to connection. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

I hadn't realized I was picking up the second in a series, but the book was still enjoyable and made sense! I think readers at my store will enjoy this thoughtful yet lighthearted book. It's not a trope-y romance, which is a nice change of pace to have something different on the shelves.

Another pleasing installment in the Perfect Passion Company series. McCall Smith is such a cozy storyteller. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Matchmaker Katie Donald is ready to take over her cousin’s business, The Perfect Passion Company, while Ness goes on a gap year in Canada. Katie is ready to jump in and help people find love, along with the help of William, an artist who lives next door.

Clea is wanting to find love again. She is ready to start dating, but she can’t get one particular man out of her mind. She had met him about a year ago at the grocery store, and they’d had a coffee together along with a wonderful conversation. But she hadn’t seen him since and figures she missed her chance. So she’s going to take a chance on someone new.

Horatio comes from a family with a long Scottish heritage. He’s looking for someone who also comes from a significant family. Katie is reluctant to help him, as he comes across as a bit of a snob. But she realizes it’s not her place to judge her clients. So she just puts her head down and tries to find someone he could be happy with.

And while working with clients like these, Katie finds herself facing a bigger problem. She’s become close to Will. He comes to her place every morning and makes coffee, and she enjoys starting her morning by talking to him. But she can’t be falling for him. He’s told her that he’s not looking for a relationship. He’d been engaged, and it had ended badly. He’s wanting more time before jumping into something new. But Katie can’t deny her growing feelings much longer. She may be falling in love with him.

Alexander McCall Smith is known for writing stories that are gentle but compelling. His characters are smart but imperfect, and there is a sweetness that permeates the pages. Looking for You is a lovely look at modern love and friendship, told with grace and compassion and a bit of humor.

I am a big fan of Smith and his heart-warming stories. This is my first dip into the Perfect Passion Company series, but it won’t be my last. With hand-written letters between Katie and Ness, honest conversations, and references to popular culture, this love story brought joy and peace into my day, like a warm cup of tea that can be savored slowly. And there was a shoutout to one of my favorite novels, Cold Comfort Farm, so he gets bonus points from me for that one.

Egalleys for Looking for You were provided by Vintage Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I’ve always enjoyed the author’s books but hadn’t picked up any of his newer novels. Looking For You was a quiet and cozy read with a matchmaker for a lead character. Therefore it’s not surprising that there was a lot of musing on love and the underpinnings of attraction between two people.

I enjoyed the somewhat philosophical musings, but I felt like the story was a bit slow in places and there was a bit too much focus on Katie and William and not enough on the matches she was working on. The book also ended a bit abruptly. I think I may have missed a bit of the main plot line by starting with the third book instead of at the beginning of the series.

If you are looking some kindness, and for an escape from the madness and frenetic pace of real life, though, this book would definitely fit the bill. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

The writing is phenomenal in the book, but the story plot just couldn’t keep my attention. The story is very easy to follow and I hope this book has a lot of success! The characters are very relatable especially in today’s time when it feels almost impossible to date over apps.

This next installment in the series is cozy and smart. Setting up clients for the Perfect Passion Company, Katie shares insight into the qualities people look for in a partner and what gives relationships sparkling chemistry. At the same time she is match-making, Katie is secretly pining for her friend and neighbor, William, which hopefully turns into a slow-burn romance further into the series.

Katie is back to match a few more couples in this story. This is complicated by the fact that William is no longer engaged, so she can no longer deny her crush on him. The book begins with Katie attending a lecture about how people select their spouses. The lecturer posits a couple of ideas, and the rest of the book puts those ideas to the test. What makes a good match? What is the most important thing about a partner? What about their flaws? There are lots of good questions to chew on and lots of the author's style of humor.

I missed the first book but that didn't much matter. This is a gentle slice of life in Edinburgh novel that sees Katie, who is running an introductions agency for her aunt Ness make some matches and find a friend in William the Australian who has the next door shop. The humor is dry, the characters engaging and really, while nothing much happens, that's okay. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a good one to read after a long day.

For me a title by Alexander McCall Smith is a comfort read. Currently, that is the kind of read that I really need so I was delighted to pick up Looking for You.

This title is another in the Perfect Passion Company series about a matchmaker in Edinburgh. For those who don't know (though there are probably not many), McCall Smith has written several other series. I especially love the Scotland set Dalhousie ones but another favorite is The Number One Ladies Detective Agency. These are worth searching out.

This book speaks to the common wish to find the right relationship, the one where a person feels understood and loved for exactly who they are. Follow Katie Donald as she tries to help any number of people.

With Valentine's Day upcoming, this book that reminds us of the wonder of love, would make a perfect gift for yourself or a person in your life. McCall Smith writes in a lovely style that displays warmth, understanding and humor.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Vintage for this title. All opinions are my own.

See my full review at http://michelleardillo.com/2025/02/02/book-review-looking-for-you-by-alexander-mccall-smith/

I'm glad to see the tale of the Perfect Passion Company continue in Looking for You. Katie Donald continues at the helm of her aunt's introductions company while her aunt, Ness, is away in Canada. In addition to helping others find love, both women learn about their own capability for love in this second installment of the series. My only qualm is that the book ends rather abruptly, and that I have to wait another year for the next installment to find out what happens! I am so glad that Alexander McCall Smith decided to add Katie and Ness to his cast of Edinburgh leads.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What you need is love (& a matchmaker?)💗

4.5🌟 stars
I love where this series is going and especially find the occasional glimpses of cousin Ness's Canadian adventure dryly amusing mixed with sincerity. The bones of the story are plain, simple narrative, steeped in the small routines of daily life in Edinburgh, with an occasional flight of philosophizing. There's (no surprise) some matchmaking going on, but the overarching romantic plot involves matchmaker Katie herself and her seemingly unrequited feelings for Australian Adonis William, her business neighbor and frequent matchmaking assistant.

Katie's quandaries remind me a bit of Isabel Dalhousie, another Edinburgh character of Alexander McCall Smith's who wants to do the right thing. Katie's charm for me is her kindness and constant striving to be non judgmental even with some of her most problematic clients. Two of her clients in this story have attitudes that rub Katie and William the wrong way but Katie is ready to convince William and herself that they deserve the same courtesy and help as any other client. All while Katie is dealing with the heartache of loving a man who's oblivious and says he's not interested in romance.

I originally found Ness, in the first book and early in Looking For You, a bit too full of herself and too ready to spout off rants of philosophizing. But she got me on her side after her health scare. The letter she writes to Katie about her experience really hit me in the right place.

Alexander McCall Smith has a unique writing style that appeals to me. When he introduces humor, it's dry wit and whimsy rather than LOL and he really digs into character psyche, good traits and bad. This is best read if you want a break from heavy drama and fast-spaced action to reflect on the foibles of the human character and heart. Looking forward to more of this series.

Thanks to Vintage and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

Review shared on Waterstones, Goodreads, Bookbub, and with Barnes & Noble on 1/28/25. To be shared on kobo and Google Play when published.

I will start this review by saying that this is my first McCall Smith read, and probably landing in book 2 of a series is maybe not the best way to get introduced to the author and their work. I felt that Looking for You could probably be read as a stand along, but it is really not set up that way or at least, I feel like reading the first book would have helped me to enjoy this one more.

The writing is excellent. The character development is solid for Katie - I feel like book one gave us more Ness and even more Katie - but there was just too much. There is really no story, and after talking to my dad who is a McCall Smith fan, I realize that this is not unusual for him. And it is definitely not for me. I didn't dislike the book, but I wanted something to happen. Anything really. The result of having this be focused mainly on developing Katie a bit more is that the story was disjointed and there were times when I was thinking that Katie or the author were rambling and not staying on purpose. If there had been one couple for Katie to match make, that could have driven things, or more couples and then less focus on Katie. Knowing that this was a book two also made me feel like I was in the book in every series that kind of takes place before the action. That quiet lull .... Just not sure that there will be more action.

I think that, if this is McCall Smith's style and you like that, then this will be a good book. If you are more interested in a story with, well, plot or more plot than character study, you may want to skip it and try something else.

Will I read more? Maybe. I am on the fence. I do want to see what happens with these characters and the ending left enough unresolved (most unresolved) to make me wonder. Will it be enough to bring me back? Only time and a book three will tell.

I received this sweet romance as an ARC from NetGalley. The author almost always includes ethical dilemmas in his books. The main character, Katie, is running an “Introductions Agency” in Edinburgh as a favor to her aunt who has taken a gap year in Canada. It happens that the shop next door is let to William, a temporary resident from Australia. The two have developed a friendship but it hasn’t gone any farther. William helps Katie with a couple of troublesome matches.

I thought this was a nice, soothing book. It would be the right choice for the end of a rough day. It has matchmaking, accidentally finding love, and wishing for love. But there is no smut at all.

The second installment in the Perfect Passion Company series is a gentle cozy read with a little bit of angst and a generous helping of kindness. As Katie grows into her role of introductions-maker and dispenser of relationship advice for other people, she has to face the reality that her own emotions are far from settled when it comes to her neighbor/assistant William. Meanwhile, they work together on some tricky match-making cases: a man obsessed with family heritage looking for a woman with "background", and a woman convinced that she met the love of her life a year ago at the supermarket but was too scared to give him her name or number, or to get his. Lots of meandering thoughts and conversations along the way. If you like that about Alexander McCall Smith (and I've grown to), then you'll enjoy this one.

DNF’d at 31%.

The writing isn’t bad, but it’s not holding my attention AT ALL. I’m only ⅓ of the way through, and NOTHING has happened yet. I’m not invested in the characters enough to even want to find out what happens.

It’s clear from other reviews that this is a wonderful book for the right audience. It is clear, though, I am not part of that audience.

•𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘧, 𝘗𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘯, 𝘝𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.•

I am new to this author although I know he is prolific. This book is not my typical read and I found it kind of twee for my taste. The style reminds me a bit of Barbara Pym. There are small actions in the day to day life of the characters that add up to a plot line. This is book 2 of a series and you are left to figure out who Ness is and why this guy William has so much time on his hands. You can get enough from context clues to motor along. The description of the region is very good and I found myself liking the characters. If you like homey cozy books with people finding love, this might be a good read for you. .