This is my sixth time reading Kelly Siskind. Out of the five previous books I’ve read, I was never able to say I had a favourite book by her. That’s no longer the case.

The Beat Match captured my entire soul and being. I can’t put into words to express my need for you to all read this book.

It has the most brilliant banter I’ve ever read. I made the mistake of drinking a cup of tea when I started reading. Needless to say there was a spit take mess that needed cleaning. I love Annie and Wes so much.

I’ve said it before when it comes to Siskind’s books; she writes more than a “romance” - she tells a story. She’s an incredibly clever writer who puts so many layers into the stories she’s crafting.

Her books are a gift.

And if you’ve read Don’t Go Stealing My Heart, have some tissues handy when reading that epilogue. I was ugly crying.

Weston Aldrich and Annie Ward seem to be at odds, in so many ways. Weston is destined to take over the family business and is known for wearing designer cloths and never stepping out of line. Annie is the complete opposite to Wes, driving her crazy with her careless nature. Whilst Wes promised Annie’s brother, Leo, as he was dying, that he would always care for Annie, his feelings are more than just sisterly. Wes fantasizes about Annie, yet can’t bring himself to follow his feelings, as it will mean that he has to confess his part in Leo’s death. Yet when Annie’s plans to become a DJ are revealed, Wes finds that he has to confess to Annie of the other life that he is leading. Wes is the infamous ‘Falcon’, the DJ that Annie has been following in the hope that he can mentor her.
The Beat Match is the perfect combination of sweet romance, between two great characters, who are repressing their true feelings. The chemistry between them, leapt from the pages, yet their banter and arguments were also so entertaining to read. Both Annie and Wes’ family stories add to this storyline, providing the complexity that had me thoroughly engrossed from the very first page. This is definitely an author that I will be following.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book is for you if you enjoy slow burn friends to lovers romance. Wes and Annie have known each other for years and are bound together by a tragedy. Annie is a free spirit while Wes is a buttoned up corporate deal maker with an artistic secret. Can they make their relationship work and save his company’s merger? Will they make beautiful music together?

I received an ARC for my honest review.

While I mostly enjoyed this story, I did have some problems with it.

I really had a hard time caring about the characters. It's not unusual for me to read an entire book in a single day, and this one took me four or five days to finish. The pacing is so slow at the beginning, that it was too easy for me to set down after a few chapters and go do something else. Part of the problem, I think, was that the handling of the tropes of brother's best friend/friends to lovers was nothing new. It felt like a lot of other stories dealing with this dynamic.

Another issue I had was that we're told about their relationship, as opposed to being shown it. Not all the time, but as the characters grow closer, we get a passionate scene and then it's "a week later and we're closer than ever" or something similar. A lot of the relationship seems to happen off page. It's very frustrating because, as a reader, if I've sat through the angst, I want to see the payoff.

And finally, why did we need the intrigue thrown in towards the end? Simply to add the requisite misunderstanding? If this aspect had been revealed earlier, I might have accepted it more readily. Plus, we hear so much about this big bad competing company, their list of devious machinations added to throughout the story, yet nothing ever happens. All this build-up with no payoff.

Still, the writing itself is well done. It was fascinating to learn about the work that disc jockey's perform behind the scenes of a show and in preparation. The explanation of the title's meaning was simple and clear enough that I could understand. I'll definitely give this author another chance in order to figure out if my issues are centered on this book, or if this author's just not for me.

Weston is a big shot executive at his fathers pharmaceutical company. All he does is work- except when he’s verbally sparring with Annie, his late best friend’s little sister, or when he’s moonlighting as a masked DJ. Annie has had a HARD life, but has an indomitable spirit. She is a bit absentminded and flighty-moving from job to job as the whim comes, but she wishes Wes had a little more confidence in her. I love Wes and Annie. Their banter is PERFECTION. Their relationship is deep and complicated. In all the ways that count, they ONLY have each other to rely on. They know each other in the way you can only know someone after spending years and years side-by-side, but they have a serious communication problem. Plenty of assumptions and misconceptions keep them at arms length. I was full of eager anticipation reading along as they found their way toward the inevitable next step for their relationship.

And OH that wedding! 😍 So so so swoony. Wes was NOT my idea of a perfect man, but in that moment, he was EVERYTHING.

I had been looking forward to reading a Kelly Siskind book for a while, especially the Showman series--I loved the blurbs for the first two books--so when I had the opportunity to read an ARC of her third book I was so excited. However, the novel fell a bit short for me.

This book had so many layers, and I think it could have cut back a little. There's a fun premise of a popular club DJ with a secret identity, and an up-and-coming DJ trying to meet her hero, without realizing he's actually a close friend. That would have been a great book, if the plot thread had stopped there. But on top of the secret identity trope, we thrown in "He's a billionaire!" "And she's his best friend's sister!" "But the best friend is actually dead!" "And the male MC blames himself for his death!" "And, oh wait, did I mention there's forced fake dating to secure a business deal?" Yeah... there's a lot. Unfortunately, all these additions cheapened the story to the point it felt completely unoriginal and a parody. Secret identities, forbidden romance, billionaires, and fake dating all in one book feels like the author just tried to cram as many tropes in as she could until she met the page requirements for a novel.

It's a shame, because I really like the DJ idea. I'm not much for the club scene and know nothing about DJing, but it was such a unique element for the story that really shown through. When the characters talked about matching beats and the club life was really when the writing came alive and I wish the story would have focused on that instead of trying to be something else. Siskand is an excellent writer, and her words have a lovely voice (and she does a great job with intimacy), the story just wasn't there for me on this one.Love the idea, love the cover, but it ultimately wasn't my cup of tea.

A good easy read that can be funny and punchy at times. Wes is a strange character and I wish he was more likeable but I couldn’t warm to him!

I liked the music elements and how it was such a focus in the story and the relationships of Wes and Alice. I like them but also find the trope quite used

It’s a nice easy read!

This was such an easygoing read! It really flows very well and you just want to read more. It wasn’t anything innovating but I’ve never read a book with a character who is a DJ before, so it was very pleasant!
There was a touch of Cinderella that I absolutely loved.

At first I thought the premise was very weird, but they were so good for each other. They were both deeply affected by Leo's death and still haven't recovered. The talk about how grief can affect your life in so many different ways was super necessary and touched a bit more serious topic still in a light-hearted way.

The characters were so stereotypical when we only got to see their point of view on each other in third-person narrative, and it ended up being surprising. The narrative grew with them and their relationship. Annie is actually really smart and has a very sad and dark past and doesn’t do what she truly wants because she’s afraid to fail at something she loves, and I connect with that deeply.

And Wes is not a snob rich guy, he actually cares about people. He doesn’t want to commit to anyone because of his fear of losing people he loves. But he is so dramatic, it gets comical at some points.

I love how they tease each other and love to annoy each other to mask their feelings, and how Annie was so straightforward! Their relationship was well built, the way they knew each other before and had such care and knowledge about one another. I was really into this, there’s communication, what a great couple. It felt very organic the way they fell for each other, I was totally invested.

I do wish that the side characters had been more present in the story and more developed. Their relationships with the main characters are barely there. She has very diverse side characters who are there just to comfort the main characters and I’m not a big fan of that. And there was too much going on at the ending, so I feel like it got a bit hard to get situated, it all wrapped up pretty quickly.

Overall, I do recommend this! Had a great time reading it.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours for providing me a review copy of this book* I honestly don’t even know where to begin with this book. I actually couldn’t put it down and I finished it in one day- which doesn’t usually happen with me. I started this book past midnight on Monday, and by 10pm on Tuesday I’d finished it. This book is written from two characters POVs. Which I absolutely love because you get to see both of Annie and Wes’ feelings throughout the book not just one of them. Also I think this is great because with Wes’ business proposition in the book being able to see it from his point of view shows it as just that a proposition rather than a relationship. My only downfall with this book is I wish the ending was a little bit longer so we could read more about it. This was the first book of Kelly Siskind that I have read, and I will definitely be adding her other books to my to read list.

The Beat Match has one of my very favorite tropes – brother’s best friend, but with a heartbreaking twist. One of the things I liked most about the book was the way the author talked about Leo and the resulting fall-out. It was tender and very respectful. Moving on to the leads, Annie and Weston were good. A few things stopped them short of being great: the stalking behavior from Annie to Falcon, and Weston’s really bossy ways. However, these were not deal breakers and by the halfway mark, I was invested in their story and rooting for their HEAs.

I wish the Falcon story had more legs. It was a lot of fun when it featured, and I wish it could have been talked just a little bit more. The twist was also not so much of a twist (referring to the mole 😊). Some of the secondary characters were also very great which is always appreciated.

Overall, this was a good romcom that wasn’t too angsty.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC

This book felt a bit slow moving at first but then I was hooked and couldn't put it down. It was interesting to see a glimpse into the life of a DJ as that is something I have no experience with! It had just the right amount of plot twists to keep you interested.

“I received a free, advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review”

‘The beat match’ is the third book in the ‘Showmen’ series but each book in the series can be read as a standalone, so it’s not necessary to read the previous two books first, to read this one. However, I have read them and I enjoyed the stories very much, so I would recommend that you read them too.

If you are in the mood for something fun, sweet, light but still emotional and a bit of a slow burn romance story than I would recommend this book. However, if you’re looking for a story with lots of drama, fights, suspense, real enemies then don’t read it because you won’t find that in this story. But I think in these ‘crazy’ times we all need something light and fun to distract us and this book is perfect for that.

‘The beat match’ is about Weston (Wes) Aldrich, who grew up rich but his mother made sure that he didn’t end up as a spoiled guy. She did this by making him do volunteering work (from a young age) in a shelter, she made sure that he knew that not everyone is rich. That some people struggle and need help to survive the hard world we live in. And it’s in the shelter that he met Leo and his sister Anthea (Annie). Leo became his best friend and through him, Wes discovered many things, one of them was making music (as a DJ). And when Leo died, it didn’t only break Wes’s heart but also Annie’s heart. Wes felt responsible for her and during the following years, he has taking that responsibility very seriously. But things are changing between him and Annie. Can they have more than friendship or is it better to not cross that line?

This is a friends (who love to bicker with each other) to lovers story. I loved the both main characters very much. On first sight, Wes and Annie were complete opposite of each other. Wes was intelligent, bossy, very neat and organised and he loved to plan things, he’s a real thinker with a great eye for details. Where Annie was very impulsive, chaotic, creative and funny, she followed her heart in everything. So these two couldn’t be more opposite of each other but in some way that just made them perfect for each other. And if you looked really close, you discovered that they did have things in common, they were both very attentive, had a soft heart and were loyal to the other. They also had both lost someone important and they reacted each in their own way on this trauma. It was wonderful to see how they both healed from that. And the banter between them was funny and entertaining.

Just like in her previous books, the writer also wrote about some serious and sensitive subjects in the story. But she did this in a drama free, light but still emotional way. I liked that very much.

The story was told in both POV’s. And the secondary characters also brought fun in the story. But the focus was mostly on Wes and Annie, both lived very solitary so they didn’t have many friends.

The writer Kelly Siskind created in her own writing style, a fun, sweet and entertaining series and I’m looking forward to reading future stories in it.

Initially, it took me a while to get into the book but past the halfway mark, it did pick up.
The characters:
Weston is an overprotective, control freak with his own demons dictating his life while Anthea is quirky and sassy but shuttered off. These two share an intense chemistry that evolved without them ever realising

The music and DJing bit of the book was quite captivating, and the last DJ bit with the video montage was written soo well, I might have shed a few tears.
All in all, a feel good read with an intense slow burn romance that can reel anyone in.

P.S: I also want more of Rosanna, she deserves her own story

Rating: 3.5

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought the idea of this story was cute! I thought the Dj spect of it was sort of weird. But I went along with it. It sort of felt like a YA story. It had me giggling when Annie and West would talk about beats. My overall thoughts are that this one is Super cute and fun!

The Beat Match is super cute with a sigh/swoon-worthy HEA. This was my first book by the author and I am so excited to read more of her books!

Annie and Wes share a long, sad backstory connection that ended with Wes promising to take care of Annie when her older brother, Leo, passed away tragically. We meet our two MC's as Annie is finally taking steps out of her denial of music because it reminds her too much of her older brother. Wes is struggling to meet the demands of his daytime high profile corporate job and his super-secret nighttime persona the Falcon.

The Beat Match turned into a sweet and entertaining story of two people that have evolved and revolved around each other for so long trying to deny their untenable attraction while growing up and trying to survive the massive loss of their best friend, Leo. The attraction between Annie and Wes is really fun and seeing them work for so long and fighting it was quite equally frustrating and entertaining. I enjoyed the push/pull, how Annie just got Wes is ways most couldn't as well as the secondary storyline of the merger and the company mole. Plus, ya know, all the DJ fun! Gives me flashbacks of fun times from my wilder days. = )

I loved Annie's quirkiness and her hobby. I love how both Annie and Wes worked together and were able to create something positive from the tragic death of Leo.

All in all, Beat Match is fun and cute with a swoon-worthy HEA!

I'm off to stalk the author's backlog!

*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

(Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Brother’s Best Friend, Mistaken Identity, Love Triangle-ish)

I found this off putting. Wes/Falcon treats Annie like a child, as he has taken care of her since a young age. He orders, berates, scolds and judges. She is 27. Annie on the other hand admits to and behaves so self-serving it is very unlikable. But most importantly she is a creep! Had any guy chased after a woman and behaved in the way she does towards Falcon/Wes, most of us would highly object. I found all the characters disturbing and immature.

I love this type of book and The Beat Match did not disappoint! I couldn't put it down and finished it in a day!

Learning about, and experiencing the character developments of, Wes and Annie was a satisfying roller coaster. I really felt for, and with, the characters through all of the ups, downs, surprise.

I loved that Wes and Annie used a platform to support gun control. It is always great when celebrities, local or otherwise, use their platform for good.

As someone whose wedding included meny music references, I loved the way the author wrote about music and the full-body, immersive effect it can have on you. The way you can get lost in it for a short reprieve from life. This was amazingly represented! The other poignant plot element for me was that of loss. I lost my mother a few years ago, so I connected with Wes and Annie and truly understood what loss can drive within you.

The only criticism that I have for this book is that, in parts, it felt a little disjointed. There were a few places where the transitions or introductions of new information were a little rough or confusing. It did not detract from the book, though. Overall, it was a great read!

i liked this a lot more that i thought i would, not because it didn't sounded great, but because i was expecting a cheesy, light story. it is, in a way, but it's also a lot deeper. i love when characters connect trough shared trauma, i think it makes a very interesting dynamic, specially in a friends-to-lovers situation. i liked both mc equally, which is rare, and i truly felt like there was a lot of personal growth for both of them.

Wes works with his father at a pharmaceutical company, causing lots of stress. To relieve some of that stress he serves as a DJ calling himself Falcon. To maintain his anonymity, he wears a mask and allows no one to get close to him. Annie, sister of a dear friend who died when they were at a nightclub, works off her stress scrap booking. Wes takes care of Annie, trying his best to stay as friends. Music is what brought Annie’s brother and Wes together. It is what will ultimately bring Wes and Annie together. This is a great book. Interesting, dynamic characters that you care about. Romance, mystery, and humor to make you want to take the journey with Wes and Annie.

I really enjoyed this story! Annie and Weston made for a sweet friends to lovers trope and were the epitome of opposites attract. I loved their banter and playfulness together. I enjoyed Annie's independence, but how she also grew her friends group throughout the story and finally started to open up and let people in. Also her return to music after losing her brother was beautiful.
Weston's attention to detail for what Annie wanted and needed as well as the recognition of his own issues and flaws was great. I loved how he knew her love language and really leaned into them. When he gave her the dress she always wanted i was so excited for her.
Overall the book was a perfect mix of romantic and sexy with some really fantastic characters. I'm so glad I read this one!