After absolutely loving Holiday Romance by Walsh last year, I will happily read whatever she writes! Her characters are endearing, the story concepts are interesting, and the books are absolutely full of humor.

Katie is a small town girl, having lived in a small Irish town called Ennisbawn with her Granny her whole life. She loves her town, her friends and neighbors, and her job at the local bar and is content to keep things the same forever. When a large construction company purchases acres upon acres of land in the town and begins to tear down trees to build a golf resort, the town decides to fight back. Katie has the idea to bring back the Matchmaking Festival their town once held, and the books centers on the town trying to raise money and host the festival. When Katie storms down to the construction site one morning after being woken by all the noise, she meets Callum, and you can immediately tell he will be important to the story.

The chemistry between Katie and Callum is obvious, and I enjoyed all of their interactions. His interest in Katie is pretty much instant, as he is attracted to her fiery personality and the love she has for her town. Katie stays firm in telling Callum she is happy right where she is, and I loved that about her. She is a character who knows what makes her happy and doesn’t feel the need to move to a big city just because everyone else expects her to.

The greater story is one about community, about working together, about friendship. The townspeople are entertaining characters, especially Granny, who is a pretty hilarious Granny. Their town sounds idyllic and felt like another character in the story, setting a beautiful atmosphere. Different scenarios and conversations in the book made me laugh out loud several times, and I had fun reading this one!

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I think I was living under a rock because Catherine Walsh's books are amazing. I only wish I had found her books sooner because not only I loved this, I went and read 'One Night Only' and am currently breezing through 'The Rebound' and both of them are so so good.

Coming back to The Matchmaker, the setting and the plot was beautiful. The classic small-town girl saves the said small town from the big corporate honchos but finds herself along the way is done in a gripping manner and I couldn't keep the book down. Katie, Callum and Granny were absolute delights to read about. The supporting characters had depth too especially Gemma and Adam. I was happy when they got together (it was a long-time coming).

A perfect weekend read with a beautiful Irish countryside setting and characters that make you swoon. I don't know if this is in pipeline but I would definitely love to read Jack Doyle's story too and see him falling in love.

I enjoy reading Catherine Walsh's sweet romance novels, so I was excited to see that she has a new book out! In Walsh's newest book, Katie is desperately trying to save her tiny Irish village from the big city construction company that wants to come in, clear out the land, and build a fancy golf resort. Katie is used to a quiet, boring life spent living with her grandmother and working with her friends at the village pub. She is very resistant to change, but has a hard time resisting one of the main men on the construction site, Callum. When she marches over to the site one morning to complain about the noise and damage, sparks fly between Katie and Callum. What will she do when she has to decide whether to protect her village or her heart?

This story was very cute, and I enjoyed the sweet romance and sizzling chemistry between Katie and Callum. I'm also a big fun of stories in which the guy falls first and is the one to make the big, grand gestures rather than the women always having to do it! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

title: The Matchmaker

author: Catherine Walsh

publisher: Bookouture/Kindle

publication date: April 18, 2023

pages: 281

peppers: 2 (on this scale)

warnings: parents die in a car crash years before the book takes place

summary: Katie loves her tiny town in Ireland and her job as a bartender at the only pub in town, so she's furious when a big building corporation buys up most of the town's land, starts noisy construction on a hotel near her home, and threatens to raze the bar to put up a golf clubhouse. She keeps crossing paths with the building projects site manager, which is problematic because he seems like a good guy. To try to prevent the construction from demolishing her favorite places, Katie revives the town's famous matchmaking festival.

tropes:

enemies to lovers
small town v corporate greed
feuding brothers

dead parents
raised by granny
disobedient dog
matchmaking festival

what I liked:

good characters
slow burn
grand gestures and good speeches
good side characters

what I didn’t like:

not too many real obstacles in their path

overall rating: 4 (of 5 stars)

“You told me once that Kelly’s was your favorite place in the world. Well, you’re mine. You’re mine and I’ll go where you go. For as long as you want me to, I’ll be right there with you.”

-small town romance with a fun plot
-Callum Dempsey comes rolling into town with his crew on a hotel project just outside the village, Katie Collins will do whatever it takes to keep the peace
-in order to save the pub and beloved village from the clutches of a bulldozer, she needs to bring back the matchmaker business 🚜🧱👷
-this was a cute and enjoyable read! Callum is a total sweetie 🥰❤️
-thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

3.8⭐️

Received an ARC from Netgalley.*

The Matchmaker was an cute and refreshing read. Callum is the slightly grumpy love interest who is in town working a job that is destroying Katie's way of life. Bubbly and determined, Katie takes on Callum and his boss, Jack, in an attempt to save the pub where her parents met.

You can really feel the love everyone has for this place as they come together to host a matchmaking event that may, or may not, save their town.

This book is perfect for lovers of small-town romances with lots of meddling neighbors and family! This was my first Catherine Walsh book and I was hooked by the first chapter. Though the plot line is easy to guess you really enjoy the characters, I was really interested in getting to know more about the side characters. Gemma and Nush in particular. I was so invested in the side characters I was hoping they would each get their own book, unfortutnley that is not the case but still get to see them have their happy ever after!

Catherine Walsh writes exceptional romance, and The Matchmaker was no different. Her characters are so charming, endearing, and witty, I wish I could drop myself into the book and become friends with them!

Katie, the main character, is such a quirky sweetheart. She absolutely adores living in her little Irish village of Ennisbawn, where she has lived her whole life and now is taking care of her feisty grandmother. The village is peaceful and quiet, until a big development company buys up a ton of land and starts building a mega hotel with the hopes of putting Ennisbawn "on the map", much to the chagrin of the locals. To make matters worse, the construction is close to Katie's house and she can barely sleep from the noise after her late night shifts as a bartender. One morning she is fed up and marches over to the site in her pajamas, and reams out Callum, the project manager.

When the development company starts trying to take over even more of the village, Katie decides to revitalize the town's old Matchmaking Festival in the hopes of getting enough attention that there will be bigger backlash about the development company taking over and squashing the local culture. Katie ropes in her two best friends and the rest of the town to do the festival up big, all the while trying to maintain her grudge against the developers and their leader Jack, although she can't seem to stop running into Callum and he isn't nearly as bad as she would have thought...

I loved how fiery Katie and her friends were, and how Katie had absolutely no qualms about being a "small town girl". She loved her village and was so happy to stay there and fight for it - she didn't have big dreams of moving to a city and felt stuck there by necessity, she truly was content with her life and her place in the town. The festival was a super fun storyline and really had me rooting for Katie and the rest of Ennisbawn.

Callum was a great character too - there was great chemistry between him and Katie, and I like how they decide to start dating partway through the book rather than at the very end. And that after they start dating, things aren't just sunshine and roses. There isn't some huge drama or miscommunication, they just have some growing pains and are still trying to get to know each other and figure out their relationship. It felt very real and was so cute, and I felt like it made their relationship seem so much stronger. There was one steamy scene and other implied scenes as well.

The supporting characters were also so well built out and had their own storylines going that I was invested in. Overall this book felt like a warm hug, I absolutely loved it.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Bookouture for the ARC!

The Matchmaker was light, fun, and romantic, a triple threat! I really enjoyed this quick read. The characters were relatable and enjoyable. Callum and Katie were fun to read about, but mainly I loved reading about Ennisburg. The small town was completely charming and led for the perfect place for a story around St. Patrick's Day. This review is entirely my own opinions and thoughts but the advanced copy was provided to me at no cost from the publisher.

Walsh has done it again: “The Matchmaker” is an entertaining read with just the right amount of tension. I was immediately drawn into the rural setting and the character of Katie grabbed my attention from the pyjama-clad beginning.
The burgeoning relationship between Katie and Callum works well, with the right amount of issues and trouble on the path to happiness – their obvious chemistry and witty one-liners make for great reading! Not only are the two main characters entertaining, but I also enjoyed spending time with the secondary characters – especially Granny Maeve!
Walsh can do no wrong in my eyes – her Irish characters are on the ball without being caricatures, the wit is always on point and she manages to make me feel emotional towards these fictional characters and locations. A thoroughly enjoyable read!

This was a cute and fun read! I love a good rom com and this is the perfect book to read around St. Patrick’s Day. I loved seeing Katie’s passion and determination throughout the entire storyline. I also couldn’t get enough of Callum and all the sweet things he would say to her. I do think my favorite character of all is Katie’s grandmother since she’s absolutely hilarious! I did think that the beginning of the book had a slower buildup which made it harder for me to get into. Overall this was a quick and easy read!

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰/5

I knew when I read Holiday Romance that I’d love everything she publishes and, like always, I was right.

This was so hilarious it made me cry, so cute it made me cry, so sad it made me cry. I was reading this book through blurry vision literally the entire time.

Each character is uniquely their own and Catherine does such a good job at making them so lovable I found myself rooting for several relationships besides the main characters.

Katie is hilarious and relatable, the type to start rambling when she gets too nervous and doesn’t stop for half a page but its somehow so interesting and funny you cling to every word.

Callum’s passionate and kind ~ the kind to help your granny without expecting anything in return. My heart aches in the best ways thinking of them.

Kenny is here like always and I can proudly say that this book has been cat approved 🐈‍⬛

If you are looking for a little escapism then this book is for you.

The Matchmaker is a romcom set in Ireland that follows Katie who loves her little town and will defend it at all costs against the big corporation who threatens to come in and change it completely. Enter Callum who works for said corporation and already causing drama for our protagonist.

This isn't my favourite Walsh novel, Katie was a little unbearable at times and the writing felt a little more rushed than others. As always with Walsh's work I find the use of US English quite jarring and very out of character for a novel set in Ireland (with no Americans present). However, it was a good way to get lost in a story for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

“I’ve spent my life trying to figure out what made me happy, what I wanted to do with my days if I was brave enough to try. I never found it. Not until I came here.”
Catherine Walsh has firmly established herself as an excellent romance writer - her relationships are always swoony and fizzing with chemistry, her heroines delightful, and her happy endings always full of warm fuzzies.

The Matchmaker, Walsh’s fourth book, is no different, and made fireworks go off in my heart just as her previous novels have done. It’s less focused on romance than her previous novel, Holiday Romance, but’s just as compelling, sweet and swoony.

Katie Collins,has lived her whole life in Ennisbawn, a sleepy Irish town that’s currently being low-key terrorised by a building company, Glenmill Industries, who are intent on destroying Ennisbawn for profit, and Katie is intent on stopping them. The town has one pub left - Katie’s home away from home and place of employment - Kelly’s. And when it’s threatened, Katie pulls out all the stops to save her hometown.

Her big idea? To revive a Matchmaking festival the town used to put on to drum up some notice and sympathy for her little town, and push Glenmill out. This is complicated, of course, by Glenmill’s handsome head of security, Callum, and Katie’s instant attraction to him. Their meet-cute on the building site was genuinely hilarious as well as quite sweet, and Walsh’s decision to fit a romance into this narrative of small-town destruction works so well - it’s not quite enemies-to-lovers but there’s a frisson between Katie and Callum that adds to their chemistry.

And such chemistry! This is, to date, Walsh’s sexiest book. Callum and Katie have an instant attraction that builds over the course of the novel, and there are a couple of slightly steamy scenes in this one that are compelling, fun and add to the narrative. Traditionally a “closed door” author, this is a departure for the author, and a welcome one.

Other stalwarts of Walsh’s writing are present and welcome, too, including loveable side characters (Nush and Monica spin-off pls!), whip-smart, genuinely funny writing, and a sensitive and nuanced look at sadder themes that add richness while never dragging down the plot. In this novel, Katie’s parents have sadly passed away, and Katie still feels the effects of that in her life - but it’s well-handled and even moves the plot forward so it never feels shoe-horned in.

A lovely depiction of the more positive sides of small town life - the sense of community, of working together, and of being one big family.

Overall, The Matchmaker is a big, warm hug of a book that I was absolutely charmed by. Another banger from Catherine Walsh!

Katie who lives in a small Irish town loved the peacefulness until an unexpected character Callum turns up and Katie is thrown into chaos. Trying to fit everyone together Katie seems to forget about herself because on the outside a person doesn’t fit her but little does she realise that someone’s deep inside she does fit! She is everything you want and more in a person

A sweet rom com story set in Ireland, Katie defends her village and pub when developers try to build a golf course and hotel there. Callum is site Forman/developer and sparks fly in this book, until they discover the romance and band together to fight Jack and save the pub.

THE MATCHMAKER: when a dating festival in Ireland brings together the unlikeliest of couples.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Catherine Walsh for this ARC!

Katie Collins works as a bartender at the only pub in tiny Ennisbawn, Ireland. When construction begins on a hotel on the village's premises and her beloved pub is threatened, Katie decides to fight tooth and nail to keep her job, even if she has to clash with Callum Dempsey, a handsome guy who works on the hotel's construction. To prevent the pub from being sold and demolished, she decides to revive an old dating festival that took place every year in the city. But while she's preoccupied with forming couples, she might not realize that she's already falling in love herself... and with the unlikeliest of guys.

Since her debut with One Night Only, I've been following Catherine Walsh's wonderful work, I love her writing and the characters are always incredibly captivating and funny, impossible not to fall in love!

After I read Holiday Romance - her third and first Christmas book - I missed that je ne sais quoi that only exists in Catherine's writing and The Matchmaker finally brought that delicious feeling back. Not to mention that this book reminds me a lot of The Rebound, one of her other books.

Katie and Callum are very interesting and captivating from the first moment. They have wonderful chemistry and never disappoint. The dialogues, as always, are well-constructed and humorous. The story basically reads itself, it happens so naturally and really there's not even a conflict here that separates the couple. What happens is a very sincere and mature conversation that helps to solidify the relationship between them (I love when that happens! No fighting, just love). Another thing I love are the secondary characters, who are just as charming and funny as the main ones. Gemma, Adam, Maeve and Nush stole the show and only enriched the story even more.

I think that out of the 4 books that Catherine has released, this one is my favorite (after The Rebound, of course). It's short, light, well written, cute, funny and delivers everything it promises. I always finish her books thinking "Is there more of this? I want more books like this!" And it's always a delight to follow her new releases. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

catherine walsh has done it again!! this book is absolutely amazing, i DEVOURED it.

the book is a romcom (a brilliant one at that) but also excellently depicts female friendships. the love story between katie and callum was so authentic and felt so real, something catherine walsh has accomplished in every one of her novels.

the characters were all so complex and loveable and i just loved all the little side stories each character had. the community feel of this book made it so loveable and you’ll find yourself feeling immersed in the town dynamic.

you’ll laugh, you’ll cry but most of all you will not regret reading this book. i am quite literally on my knees begging you to read it!

read this book. you will love it.

This was a hard one for me to review. The book started very slowly and I had a hard time investing into the characters. I was annoyed by Katie at times, but I did love Callum and how he seemed to have an endless amount of patience with Katie. The premise of the story was cute. Overall, not my favorite Catherine Walsh book.

4 wishing well stars

How do you feel about gentrification? Does it make the world better? Or sacrifice an existing way of life for those with wealth? And how about love at first sight? Does that work for you?

Our main character is Katie Collins, she lives with her grandmother in the small Irish village of Ennisbawn. A young adult, she bartends at the local pub and adores the beauty and charm of her town, lake, and surrounding forests that may or may not contain fairies.

She is beyond angry at all the early morning construction traffic, headed to the site of a new hotel and golf club. Short of sleep, she heads there one morning to complain. Adorably still garbed in her pajamas with ducks on them!

She runs into Callum (frustratingly handsome!) at the job site and tells him exactly what she wants. Things calm for a bit as Callum reroutes traffic.

When the developer sets his sights on tearing down the local pub which serves as the center of the community, Katie goes ballistic and launches a campaign to save the pub and the wishing well behind it. She exaggerates a bit about the Matchmaker Festival, vowing to revive it and save the pub and wishing well.

The local villagers and Katie’s friends round out a great cast of characters. I loved how they rallied together. I also loved Katie’s grandmother; she makes quite the matchmaker.

As things heat up between Katie and Callum, I worried about how they could be together with his job. There are a few other romances blooming in town and I hoped they would find their match as well. I hoped that Callum could work some magic to save the pub, but money is a powerful force.

I love Irish settings and romance so I’m eager to read more books by this author. I did love “Holiday Romance” more than this one, but still a fun read!

3.5⭐️ rounded up to 4 ⭐️
🌶🌶/5

There will be a massive development in the small peaceful town of Ennisbawn. Not only that they will build a new hideous hotel, but they are also planning to knock down "Kelly's", Ennisbawn's remaining pub. This will be the last straw for the villagers.

Katie Collins is a bartender at Kelly's. She has been and remains loyal to Ennisbawn. To save the pub, she will try to revive the old Matchmaking festival to gain a crowd and supporters against the prominent developer.

Callum Dempsey is the head constructor for the developer company; not only he's handsome, but he works for the devil.

I have to admit I have a soft spot for small-town settings; the tight community is heartwarming. How they help each other is what I expected from reading a small-town rom-com. Katie is lucky to be surrounded by good people, and most of all, Katie has the best Granny! I laugh so much reading their banters and Granny's dark humour.

"Why can't you be a normal grandmother who says normal things?"
"Because it's too much fun to watch you squirm," she says

what I find a bit lacking in this book is Katie and Callum's relationship; it lacks depth. I enjoy reading this book, and it's what I expect from a rom-com. But I can't shake the feeling of how unrealistic their insta love is. I find another couple that meets at the matchmaking festival more interesting than the main couple 😬.

Thank you for NetGalley, the Publisher and the author of the ARC, in exchange for my honest review