I wasn’t familiar with the author so I had not idea what to expect, but I really like this book, very delightful! It’s a perfect read for a good time, very fast paced and I really loved Michael and Amelie as a couple and as single characters too! Thank you to the publisher/author for sending me an e-arc!

What happens when a detective who has sworn off love ends up partnering with a young woman who does matchmaking for her aunt's paper in order to investigate a murder? Near death situations, interviewing witnesses, discussions of Romeo and Juliet, and many cups of tea. Along with all of that piecing together of clues and close proximity, certain feeling may just grow, True the case was never very mysterious as the villain was apparent from the get go but it was still fun watching Amelie and Michael work together and get to know each other.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Matchmaker's Lonely Heart is a romantic murder-mystery—an unusual premise for a Proper Romance book, but I enjoyed it! The mystery wasn't quite a mystery, with only a single suspect—a particularly ruthless and cunning villain—but there was plenty of tension and suspense ramping up slowly until the action-packed conclusion. Although the sudden and rapid acceleration of the romance felt a bit too abrupt to be plausible, it was quite satisfying anyway. I do hope that this is the beginning of a series involving the heroine's cousins and aunt, perhaps with the hero's colleagues mixed in; the secondary characters were intriguing. Anyone who enjoyed the television program Miss Scarlet and The Duke, about Victorian-era London detectives, will love this story set in the same time and place, with the added bonus of a swoon-worthy romance.

What a wonderful book and great start to this series. I loved Michael and Amelie right from the start; their chemistry was instantaneous. I really enjoyed how they grew together and admired each other as friends first. Their love snuck up on me, just like it did to them! And I love when an author can catch me off guard. The elements of mystery in this book were the perfect touch. We were also introduced to many wonderful secondary characters who I suspect will show up in the books to come. I loved Eva and Charlotte and I’m really looking forward to their stories!

From the publisher: London, 1885. A romance develops as a detective partners with a lonely-hearts columnist to solve a murder mystery.

The Matchmaker’s Lonely Heart is an entertaining clean historical romance. It has strong, interesting female characters and a sympathetic hero. The plot takes some unlikely twists, but nothing struck me as outlandish. The book pushes the edges of acceptable behavior for women in 1885 in a believable way and introduces societal issues like street urchins and the institutionalization of people with intellectual disabilities. The bad guy is stereotypical with no nuance, but I didn’t mind too much since the story flirts with being a gothic romance.

Although this book is not listed as the first in a series, there are a lot of side characters who could get their own stories. I look forward to future entries.

I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley. The Matchmaker’s Lonely Heart is scheduled to be published in September 2021, and it will be available for checkout at the Galesburg Public Library.

I loved this book and I am hoping this is the beginning of a series. Amelie Hampton is such a fun character. She is the perfect mix of innocence and wit. Detective Michael Baker is a wonderful mix of serious and tease. I loved when they came together to catch a murderer. I am sincerely hoping for follow up stories on Charlotte, Eva and Detective Winston.

If you love chaste historical romances with a little bit of mystery mixed in, you'll love The Matchmaker's Lonely Heart. Amelie wants to be an Independent Woman of Means, and works for her aunt at The Marriage Gazette, answering the lonely hearts letters. Her parents are deceased, so she is fortunate to have an aunt who loves her and is willing to help her get on her feet.

One night, she spies on one of the women she is helping through the paper, and sees her with a gentleman she greatly admires, Mr. Radcliffe. She is acquainted with Mr. Radcliffe through a book club, but has never had the courage to approach him.

While she is spying on their date, detective Michael Baker sees her, and concludes she is part of Radcliffe's con. Baker is convinced that Radcliffe killed his wife for insurance money and is looking for his next victim. Baker confronts Amelie and forces her to introduce him to Radcliffe at their next book club meeting.

Amelie finds herself torn, as she cannot believe the romantic and gentlemanly Mr. Radcliffe could have ever done something to warrant his arrest, but she also learns to like Mr. Baker and trust his opinion (as well as the opinion of her cousin, who has disliked him from the start). And Mr. Baker may be rougher around the edges, but he is also very handsome, and earnest, and treats her as his equal.

This is a fun read. It is a mix of a cozy mystery with a chaste romance, and there are good feelings all around. This would be a perfect book to read on vacation this summer.

Thanks to Netgalley for this advance copy!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It has twisty plots that kept you on your toes. Romance is always a plus for any book I read so while it may not be needed, it was still pleasant!

I loved it! Amelie is clever, funny, stubborn, and brave. I grew to love her as the story progressed. Michael is smart, funny, and very protective. I loved how protective he is of his sister and brother. I loved the murder mystery. You do know the murderer from the beginning. But the process of convicting him is very intriguing. I highly recommend this book! I hope there will be more about Amelie's cousins and Detective Winston and Director Ellis.

I loved this book! I love Ms Allen’s writing and enjoyed these characters and all the intrigue! Wow! I love these Victorian Era settings! Read this book! I am a matchmaker at heart, so I loved this premise! Amelie and Michael make a great team in all the ways!

This is probably one of my favorite books I have read in quite sometime. I am pretty easy to please, but this was full of adventure, sweet romance, mystery, and tiny details that made me look outside the book for historical timelines of forensic science. I truly loved this book. Can't wait to get a physical copy of it. Nancy Campbell Allen did such a phenomenal job with The Matchmaker's Lonely Heart. I hope there are stories for more of the characters we met in this book.

The Matchmaker's Lonely Heart was a book that was so different than I imagined it would be, and I am beyond glad. It exceeded my hopes. The setting was in the later years of the Victorian era, which was a treat. Although events were London based, the story wasn't in either the country or the city of London itself. In most books, especially the regency era, we see them in one of those two locations. But thanks to the railroad, people were able to live out of the city more and commute in for their jobs, as that became more and more acceptable in society. It really was a nice thing to experience in a book.

Amelie Hampton is trying her hardest to be an independent woman and make her way through life. She is a writer at her aunts magazine with her cousins. Detective Michael Baker is in the middle of investigating the murder of a woman. He can't shake the feeling she was murdered by her husband, instead of just her committing suicide. So he keeps investigating the man, although his director doesn't want him to. When his investigating leads him to meet Miss Hampton. Amelie knows the man being investigated. As she finds out more about Michael's investigation, she comes to help him, at first to disquiet his gut about the widowed man. But the facts just don't add up. Things come to a tipping point when Amelie and her cousins attend a house party with Michael and his partner. Amelie then can't help herself and jumps into more danger little by little.

Through the investigation Amelie and Michael find they are drawn to one another more and more. When Amelie's life is threatened, Michael has to race to protect her from the true murderer.

There were times I looked at my husband and gushed about this book. But my favorite moment was when I looked at him and excitedly stated, "I just entered Clue!"

*I would add a few trigger warnings to this book. There are talks about suicide, murder (which is a major plot point), and physical violence.* There are some moments that are honestly a little freaky and gave me a little bit of apprehension to wake in the middle of the night to use the restroom. But I am a jumpy person at night anyway, so take that into consideration. However, I would highly recommend this book. It was a true adventure with such touching moments between Amelie and Michael.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book.

This book was pretty near perfect. I loved everything about it, from the unique plot to the strong female characters to the nail-biting suspense to the adorable romance and dreamy detectives. It kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire book. Moreover, I love how sweetly and slowly Amelie and Michael’s relationship developed. So many good values and redeemable characters. Definitely will recommend to all my friends! So excited to hear Charlotte and Eva’s stories!

The Matchmaker's Lonely Heart was a quick, light read, and a great deal of fun. Recommended escapist reading!

The Matchmaker's Lonely Heart was about Amelie, who writes an advice column and Michael, a detective charged with investigating a murder.

Now, this wasn't my favorite read although it was a relatively quick one. I enjoyed the way that Amelie and Michael met and I thought that the women of independent means objective was quite admirable. My favorite parts were the funny moments of the girls sort of taking over the investigation and the multiple wonderfully delightful side characters! The story did have a comfortable ambience.

I do wish that Amelie and Michael's romance had been developed way more. I think that going from not liking someone to loving them requires scenes showing emotional connection and conversation, which, between Amelie and Michael, was lacking a tad bit. I wish that Amelie's job actually played a little bit more of a role in the story later on vs just being a way for her and Michael to meet.

I think the mystery was fun, but perhaps took a little bit of screen time away from the romance. And I, if I'm being honest, mostly showed up here for a good romance.

I think that this book is ideal for those who love a little bit of mystery and suspense with a side of very fun side characters and a sweet, if mild, romance!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had mystery, suspense, and a beautiful love story. I have this on my “to be read again” shelf. Awesome book!

While normally not a fan of Victorian literature which is usually too dark for me, I admit I was completely hooked by 'The Matchmaker's Lonely Heart'. This is the first book I have read by this author and I was engaged by the characters, mystery and descriptions of the era. The main characters are likeable and honorable which I thoroughly loved. Seeing Michael and Amelie's growth as the story progressed was a joy. I certainly will be looking for more from Nancy Campbell Allen.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I have mixed options about this book. Typically, a Victorian-era mystery would immediately grab my attention, but this one took some time to get into. There’s a slow start, and I feel the author had some difficulty finding a voice for her characters.

Amelie write for a newspaper and after playing matchmaker for a reader, she’s drawn into to orbit of Michael, a detective who has his own reasons to keep an eye on the couple. But as the story goes on, the mystery was decent but I just didn’t end up enjoying either of our main characters and the lead up to their declarations of love felt rushed.

I tend to enjoy historical mysteries that have a bit of romance and this was more of a romance with a dash of mystery, so I’m sure fans of historical romance will d joy this more than I did.

This was beautiful! I can always count on Shadow Mountain for a sweet and compelling historical romance. Nobody does it quite like them.

While the author generally writes well, this was not her genre. The mystery was solved within the first few chapters and moved so slowly that it could not hold my attention. Amelie was a boring character, but Michael could have carried the book on his own.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don't recall every reading this author before because I thought that she wrote historical fiction, but I was wrong. She writes amazing historical romance. I was so impressed with her writing style that it brought to mind M. Louisa Locke, and that for the first third of the story, I thought the story was set in San Francisco. I kept thinking 'Is there an EastEnd or Whitechapel in San Francisco? before I realized the story was set in London. Duh!
The heroine is a Strong Independent Woman who works at her aunt's newspaper and is in charge of the match-making section. While she was checking on a recent match-up, to determine if it was going well, she realizes that the man is a recent widower from her reading group and that a man is following her as she travels home. The man is a detective and he wants to know why she was spying. The detective is the hero and he is investigating the man that she knows for the possible murder of his wife.
Well.
This book had so many supporting characters and such descriptive setting, that I felt I was one of the heroine 's cousins and was living in the story. It was so well written that it just sweeps the reader along. The story is 5 stars from start to finish with exception spelling and grammar. The supporting characters were all an addition to the story and helped it along. This may be a book that is part of a series, but it read as a stand alone story. I recommend reading this story and give it 5 stars.