3.5 stars rounded up

This book took me a while to get through and I have a lot of conflicting feelings about it.

Jia is a writer who works for a magazine and doesn’t necessarily believe in what she writes for them. The place that she can give her true feelings is on her anonymous blog where she focuses on disputing the articles her work publishes. She has dreams of starting a millennial matchmaking business in Mumbai because she feels like matchmakers are very important but that many of them are outdated and struggle matchmaking millennials. The majority of this book focuses on her dreams and attempting to matchmake two of her coworkers.

This book had so much in it that I loved! The imagery of Mumbai was so well done and this book just gave off such vibrant Desi vibes. I loved that feeling of being thrown into Mumbai. The vibes of this book were so good. I also loved all of the side characters and the matchmaking plot. I enjoyed watching Jia grow over the course of this novel, and really come into herself. I loved the relationships she had with her friends and family.

I feel like this book would have benefited from removing the romance plotline. I know this is strange coming from me because I primarily read romance and this is a romance book. My issue is that the romance plot is on the back burner for the majority of this book. I loved Jaiman and he was the most patient man on this earth. I struggled with Jia. Jia is a matchmaker, but she struggles to see things that are right in front of her. The relationship felt like an after thought and was slightly forced. It was also such a minor part of this story that I feel like it could have been removed and this book would have been just as good if not better.

This book was also very slow to start. I really struggled to get into it, but overall I did enjoy this book.

The premise of this book spoke to me, but the execution was not there. I felt zero chemistry between the MC’s, and the plot just had way too much going on.

I don’t mind a bit of miscommunication, but this was rife with it and I just could not get past the fact that these two people needed to have one truthful conversation and everything would be fine.

4 Stars If you enjoy modern takes on romantic classics and/or desi romance, you are going to love Swati Hegde's debut novel, Match Me If You Can!

Aspiring matchmaker Jia Deshpande spends her days writing cliche articles about love for Mumbai's top women's magazine, Mimosa. On her anonymous blog, Jia shares her real thoughts on love and her dreams a future matchmaking business. In order to get a green light on a new matchmaking column at work, Jia must set up a new co-worker with her perfect match. Jaiman Patil, a local pub owner and Jia's close family friend since they were in diapers, has been in love with Jia for as long as he remembers, with no sign of reciprocated feelings on her part. As an honorary member of her family, Jaiman won't risk losing what he has by admitting his feelings to Jia. When her matchmaking schemes don't go as planned, Jia must reexamine her own thoughts on love and how her own perfect match may have been right in front of her all along.

From the beginning, Match Me If You Can gave me Emma/Clueless vibes and I love a modern take on classic romances, especially Jane Austen. This was such a fun and fresh take, especially with the characters and the setting. There was definitely more angst in this than I was expecting, but it makes sense since Jaiman has been pining for Jia for so long and there's some miscommunication along the way. It wouldn't be a desi romance without some fun meddling and mouth-watering descriptions of food. For me, the only thing I didn't like was that we didn't get to see more of Jaiman and Jia when they are finally together! Truly a fun novel and what I'm sure is going to be one of the best reads this summer!

Thank you NetGalley and Dell/Random House for the ARC!

If you love Emma, this may be for you! This sadly was not for me this time around. The miscommunication was too hard to get through!

Starting off with what I liked: I enjoyed the setting of the book and the culture. I’m not very familiar with it and this made it easy to follow! The attention to detail made for a full experience as well.

The FMC was a bit insufferable though. The amount of miscommunication was next level and the fact that it lasted so long really put me off the book. I’d like to try another book by this author that maybe isn’t a miscommunication/slow burn?

3 stars. Maybe I am the only one to have not known this going in, but I believe this book is based off of Jane Austen’s “Emma”. I did not realize this until 95% into the book when the MMC quoted “if I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more” and my jaw dropped. This book makes so much more sense when thinking about it as a reinvented “Emma”. This also explains why I did not like Jia, and found her to be selfish, out of touch, and a bit spoiled. However, this is the Emma archetype to a T so it really did keep to the original story. With all of that being said, this is not my first time reading “Emma” or books based off of it and I can say that this one in particular was not my favorite. I really did appreciate Jaiman as a character because he was so loyal and a good friend to Jia even when she was not to him. Other than that however, I did not love this book. I think the Indian culture showed throughout was a highlight to this otherwise somewhat slow book. The festivals, Indian dress, etc made this book unique. This book was not the best book I have read this year, but for fans of “Emma” I would definitely recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley, Dell Publishing, and Swati Hegde for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Bummed I didn't enjoy Match Me If You Can more. I was bothered by the FMC, Jia, so much that I couldn't root for her at all. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been told from Charu's perspective. I liked the Mumbai setting a lot. I found myself wanting to DNF the book often but pushed through hoping there would be something that "made" the plot. It got better in the latter half, but there wasn't anything that pushed me to improve my rating.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Random House and Dell for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.25 🌟

I'm not sure the main romance in this book could have gone any slower

Listen, after about 200 pages, I was ready to jump in this book and insert myself between the 2 main love interests. I mean, come on - we are adults. PLEASE.JUST.TALK.TO.EACHOTHER! The beginning and middle felt slow and the ending felt rushed.

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

This was hard for me to get into as it seemed to drag for me, so I ended up deciding to not finish it.

Sloooooow burn, almost too slow for me. But it was a well-written story and I loved getting a touch of Mumbai in a modern-day Emma-style story. Would recommend.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House, for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A young magazine writer in Mumbai must prove her matchmaking skills—and contend with growing feelings for her close family friend. She is unhappy in her job and blogs anonymously but she has already set up 2 couples and really wants to be a matchmaker.

3.25/5 stars
Closed door romance

Tropes:
Jan Austen retelling
Friends to lovers
Slow burn
Found family
Indian culture
Diverse characters
Miscommunication
Dual POV

I liked this book but had a hard time with all the miscommunication. I'm all for the slow burn, but not because the MCs can't TALK TO EACH OTHER. Anyways, aside from that frustration, I did enjoy the Emma retelling set in Mumbai with such a diverse cast of characters. I honestly forgot that this book was going to be a retelling and could easily see the connections within the first few chapters.

This story focused more on the relationships outside of the main romance, so it was entertaining enough to keep me interested. Everything was tied up nicely in the end, so overall, it was a fun book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and offered voluntarily.

This was a frustrating read for me unfortunately. I didn’t know until this book that I don’t particularly like match-making themes, which is the whole plot of this book. I struggled a lot with the main character, Jia, and her shortsightedness. I know it was a plot point, but it was rough for me. Her wealth also felt flaunted and weird in comparison to some of the other characters and their struggles. The end definitely tied things together nicely and overall it was good, but not for me.

this was cute! a nice retelling of emma without being too obvious and adding some flare. the matchmaking aspect of emma fits really nicely into the storyline. but honestly...the fmc (jia) was annoying at times, and the communication was totally lacking for both of them - which, i know, is half of a romance but for some reason this one just really irked me like just TALK already. not my favorite but a light, fun read.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

4 Stars for the plot
3 Stars for the romance

I'm giving it the higher rating though because I did genuinely enjoy the characters and the plot of the story but all the miscommunication between Jia and Jaiman KILLED ME. I literally wanted to reach through the book and strangle the both of them for being so dumb. What I really couldn't understand was that conversation Jia overheard at her sister Tanu's wedding where she said that Jaiman was talking about trying to "get with her"... literally that whole conversation she overheard with Jaiman and those other guys, Jaiman was telling the guys not to talk about her like that!! How did she get "oh he's talking about trying to get with me like I'm a prize" from him being mad that these guys were disrespecting her??? There were several other miscommunication topics throughout the rest of the novel too that honestly made me REALLY hate Jia. She refused to see other peoples POV's on love and relationships and was convinced she was the expert SHE, THE GIRL WHO HASN'T BEEN IN A SERIOUS RELATIONSHIP. Like, I get it, she set up two people successfully and she works on that relationship column but that doesn't make her an expert. I'm in the same boat as her and I wouldn't say I was an expert on love/relationships if I'd never been in a serious one myself.

Regardless, I managed to get to the end of the story to get that happy ending but it almost didn't feel worth it.

Contemporary Emma set in Mumbai?! Yes please.

This was cute.
Jia works as a columnist for Mimosa and has a matchmaking/love advice blog she’d like to bring to the company. She is hopeful setting up the new girls will impress her boss enough to let her matchmaker on the website. Jaiman has had feelings for Jia for a while but between some miscommunication and not wanting to mess up their friendship they haven’t dated. He is hopeful she will finally see him as her match.

I love a retelling and this was a fun one- with nods to you’ve got mail.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an eARC.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House, and Dell for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts <3

Match Me If You Can is friend to lovers gold! Jia and Jaiman have been friends forever, so they're not gonna let one little (meant: life changing) kiss get in the way. They want each other so bad! I freaking love it! I also like that their beliefs about matchmaking were completely different, but Jaiman still supported Jia's blog.

The whole story is set in Mumbai, and I really got a feel for the city because of Swati Hedge's writing. I want Jaiman to make me a special matchmaking drink! I loved the various settings throughout the story, especially the pub. I'm a sucker for descriptions and Hedge certainly delivered.

This is only her debut!!! Can't wait to see what comes next! If you like Jane Austen retellings, friends to lovers, and a good slow burn, I definitely recommend picking up Match Me If You Can. It's a quick, fun, romantic read!

This is a charming Emma retelling. It is a friends to lovers story and a really great debut novel. Both Jia and Jaiman are charming characters and I was delighted to watch them fall in love. I can't wait to see what else Swati Hedge writes!

Thank you netgalley and random house for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the idea and the concept of this book. I don’t know much about India’s culture but I loved learning and looking things up about it. That was a fun change for me and I hope to continue learning more.

Fmc Jia was extremely unlikeable. She was selfish, didn’t know how to communicate, and overly cocky about herself.

Mmc Jaiman also didn’t know how to communicate.

I really really don’t enjoy the miscommunication trope. It was hard to get through and I hated how selfish Jia was.
The supporting characters were more likable in my opinion.

I wish there was a bit more romance in this book between Jia and Jaiman I know it’s a slow burn but I felt like there could’ve been more..

Overall 3 stars.

thank you netgalley and dell romance for the earc in exchange for an honest review!

i absolutely ATE. THIS. UP. i read this in i think four and a half hours on a road trip because i couldn't stop reading. i love classic retellings and Emma is one of my favorite classics. if you don't like miscommunication or slow burn, then this definitely won't be for you, but even if it isn't and you wanted to give it a chance, i think the supporting cast really does a great job at keeping you at bay as you wait for the main characters to get their shit together.

i loved charu and anshuman. the female friendship that develops between damini, charu and jia is so integral and is as integral as the romantic relationship that develops between jia and jaiman.

the only problem i had with the book is i wish they would've delved more into jia and jaiman's friendship before the "Unfortunate Incident", to really drive home how close they were and why their friendship is worth more than the risk of admitting they're interested in each other. other than that, i think the relationship jaiman has with jia's dad and the rest of the family worked well in the aspect of him not wanting to risk his found family in the face of jia's rejection.

anyway, i love love loved this book and i can't wait for everything else swati hegde will write <3