Match Me If You Can is a wonderful debut novel! A slow burn that kept me engaged the entirety. I do love the childhood friends to lovers trope and I was rooting for Jia and Jaiman the entire time! I absolutely love them together!

I love learning about other cultures and reading romances that aren’t centered in the US - they always make me want to jump on a plane!

3.5 rounded up!
**Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for the ARC and the chance to read and review. All opinions are my own**

For a book that talks about communication, there is pretty much NONE until the end. The FMC is absolutely exasperating. I honestly felt bad for the MMC. I was so tempted to DNF because Jia was such a brat.

I think the idea of this book was great but it lacked a little of the execution.
I liked the characters and the match making is a fun twist that I haven’t read often yet but it also fell a little flat for me for some reason.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

This is a contemporary Emma adaptation set in Mumbai! Fun! Overall it was not bad but not amazing either. There’s some immaturity here that on the one hand feels like an Emma classic but on the other hand might just be an unrefined author getting her sea legs, and was a little hard for me to get past. There's also a focus on side characters at the beginning that, while true to the original novel, kept me from feeling very engaged.

But ultimately I do love friends-to-lovers and it was fun to see that longing and yearning play out here, with our hero being very aware of his love for the heroine and super dedicated to her for years, and her learning how she feels and coming to terms with it.

In this fun and modern friends to lovers romance novel, readers meet Jia Deshpande, a writer for Mumbai’s top women’s magazine and a stealth matchmaking blogger who tries to find The One for her friends, family, and coworkers, and Jaiman Patil, a pub owner and longtime friend of Jia and her family. When Jia’s new matchmaking column requires her to successfully set up a coworker to get the green light but ends up getting out of control, Jaiman’s pub is struggling to make a profit and he realizes that Jia will never see him the same way. Their friendship and chance at true love is struggling to survive, but time will tell if Jia and Jaiman can figure everything out before he leaves for America. With charming characters, several fun tropes, and alternating perspectives, readers will love diving into Jia and Jaiman’s lives and minds in this fun and chaotic romance novel. Jia and Jaiman’s dynamic is particularly interesting and rewarding, and their chemistry is absolutely fantastic to watch. The other characters in the secondary plot of the novel are also complex and interesting figures with interesting relationships to Jia and Jaiman. A fun and exciting new romance novel, fans of the genre and the classic tropes will love this book.

This review has been posted to Goodreads and Storygraph on September 17th, 2024. Links provided.

Although Jia spends her days working for Mimosa, a leading women’s magazine in Mumbai, her real passion is writing about the complexities of love on her anonymous blog. Her latest challenge is setting up a colleague with the perfect match to earn approval for her new matchmaking column - something she’s usually great at. Meanwhile, Jaiman, a pub owner and close family friend, is quietly in love with Jia. Life with her family has been his anchor since his own family moved abroad, but his deepening feelings for Jia and mounting pub troubles complicate things. As Jia’s matchmaking efforts go awry, threatening friendships and her bond with Jaiman, she must confront her own views on love, realizing it’s more intricate than she imagined.

This book was just an ok read for me. While I really liked Jaiman as the MMC, Jia was not someone I found myself wanting to root for. I also struggle with storylines that center around miscommunication (or in the case of this book, no communication at all) so unfortunately that always affects my reaction to a book. I felt Jia was a selfish FMC that only caused trouble in the lives of those around her, rather than owning up to her own feelings and actually communicating them, especially to Jaiman. While some her actions in the end show that she did care for him in her own way, it would have been nice to see her be less self-centered throughout the book. I am glad that it ended with a happily ever after but, although I thought it was cute, I don’t believe it is a book I would write home about. If you like sweet rom-com stories that are set in Mumbai, about matchmaking, focus on the best friends to lovers and miscommunication tropes, then it’s possible this book will be for you!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read to an ARC of Match Me If You Can in return for my honest review.

4.5⭐️

Absolutely adorable! I loved how this was reminiscent of my favorite Jane Austen… Emma! Friends to lovers is my favorite trope because it comes with so much angst and history and Hegde delivered all these feelings with a most delicious slow burn.

Jia and Jaiman were such sweet, imperfect characters with the best of intentions even though they don’t always get it right. I loved how thoughtful and generous they were with their hearts - always quick to bring others into their friend group, to encourage and hype each other up, and to provide a listening ear, shoulder to cry on, and breakfast every morning. They saw the best in each other and were playful, never mean, with their teasing.

I really enjoyed getting to know the entire cast of characters, watching Jia and Jaiman’s relationship blossom into something more, and absolutely squealed over the Emma quote and grand gesture! Looking forward to reading more from Hegde!

I'll admit that while I enjoy reading books set in India, or with Indian characters, I am hopeless when it comes to the fashion or food. This book definitely embraces the cuisine and fashion of India. The references were lost on me, but definitely made me curious! I'll have to look up clothes to see what I wasn't able to picture, and hunt down a restaurant to try some of the tasty recommendations!

That aside, I loved Jia and Jaiman. I loved Jia's family, and the friends she has at work. They're so supportive, even though Jia already has a healthy dose of confidence! It's only Jaiman who expresses any doubt in her match making ability.

Jia is strong willed and starts out very sure she has the answers. When a trial run opportunity comes up for the match making column she's hoping to start, Jia is sure she can match Charu easily. Especially when she seems to sense a budding interest that very day at work. But Jia becomes so wrapped up in making her own meet cute for her co-worker (soon to be friend), that she misses the actual meet cute happening. When Charu ends up being asked out by both men, Jia encourages her to turn down Manoj in favor of her choice for Charu, Eshaan. Unfortunately, things don't work out as well as expected.

But wait, I thought this book was about Jaiman and Jia? It is, though they have a lot of miscommunication to overcome to reach their own happily ever after. Jaiman considers Jia's dad as his stand in father, especially after his own family moved to America. He's grown up with the Despandes, and has been in love with Jia for as long as he can remember. Unfortunately, the one time he tried to make a move, Jia ended up in tears and made him promise to never speak of it again.

Jia sees Jaiman as someone who doesn't take anything seriously, especially relationships. He's never dated seriously, and she won't accept anything less than forever for herself. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe love is possible for herself. The only person she's ever been physically attracted to is... Jaiman, and they would never stand a chance. So why does she find herself thinking about him so often?

While I did love Jaiman and Jia, I was extremely frustrated with them at times. They did get upset, and lash out at each other, which was a little hard to handle. At times they seemed like they were going to get to a point of no return and ruin any chance they had of being together. There were moments of comfort, comedy, true friendships, and a mountain of misunderstandings. Despite it all, I think I'll definitely be looking forward to the next book Swati Hedge comes out with!

This book was lovely! Jia and Jaiman's story was adorable and this book gave me all the YA vibes I was looking for! Cute, easy read. This was my first book I've read by Swati Hedge, and I cannot wait to read more!

Match Me if you Can is a cute rom-com, set in Mumbai. Jia is a wealthy writer, who has never had much interest in romance, aside from her childhood friend, and she has suppressed those feelings. Jia wants to learn the art of matchmaking, and tries to set up 2 of her coworkers, with little success. The descriptions of Indian food and fashion are lovely, and the characters are likable, the ending is fairly predictable, in a good way.

Thank you Netgalley and Swati Hegde, for the e-arc. All opinions are my own, and are being left voluntarily.

You'd enjoy this book if you like:
- an all-BIPOC cast⁣
- childhood frenemies to lovers⁣
- he's loved her this whole time⁣ trope
- found family

This was such a sweet friends to lovers, with a touch of slow burn!

Thank you for the opportunity to early this early. It's a cute premise to start, but there really wasn't any chemistry between the lead characters even though they both have crushes on each other and kissed once in the past. Didn't like her because she thought having written a relationship blog for a year with no relationship history to speak of qualified her to be a matchmaker and to open her own business. He is an idealist who can't get out of his own way, and seems to have no regard for the FMC feelings. Do they even like each other as people?

I was entertained reading it but I don’t know if it’s a favorite. Some parts seemed a little bit too cliche especially with modern tech. Also, the slow burn was way too slow. They didn’t get together until the very very end even though they had always liked each other. I did love all of the Hindu culture and how matchmaking is an important part of their lives.

I wanted to love this book so much based off the description, but it just took me too long to feel connected to these characters to actually get invested in the story. There's so much going on between Jia's job and her family and then Jaiman and the pub, it feels like whiplash before the storylines start really coming together. I think the story ended resolutely but I wish it hadn't been so frustrating along the way.

This was very cute! I loved the matchmaker aspect and how cute the narrator was. My favorite part of this story was her growth in confidence throughout the story.

Match Me if You Can had a fun premise and a unique (to me) setting but failed to really captivate me. Jia is an aspiring matchmaker despite never having had a match for herself. Jaiman is her family friend who has been hopelessly in love with her for years. I love a good friends to lovers and I was interested in reading a novel set in Mumbai India.

Though I did like the setting and getting a little glimpse at Mumbai culture, the actual story and characters weren’t great. Jia was naive and very diva-like. Jaiman was nice but had hardly any personality. Their main conflict stopping them from being together is based on an assumption and no follow up communication, though they talk nearly every day. I just wasn’t sold on either of them as characters or their relationships.

While this wasn’t ground breaking for me, it also was not totally awful or dnf-worthy. Just an average rom com. If you enjoy friends to lovers, workplace comedies, and lighthearted reads, give this a shot! 2.5 stars

This slow burn, childhood friends to lovers was cute!

The beginning did begin pretty slow but I guess they took slow from the slow burn! To not take away from the book it was still a sweet love story with alot of cultural elements.
Jaiman was such a sweet book boyfriend, with a HEA this book made me smile. Jia didnt totally keep me in control, she was a bit iffy but overall the HEA really made up for it.

I do think that i think this would have been better without some miscommunication.

This is such a sweet, charming romance!!

Thank you to Swati Hegde, Dell, and NetGalley for this eARC!

Jia Deshpande works at a fashionable women's magazine writing articles that she never agrees with but can stand thanks to the blog she anonymously writes in response to them. It's her dream to become a matchmaker and she hopes to get the magazine to run a column where she helps readers find their match, yet her boss won't even consider it unless she can prove she's a capable matchmaker. Meanwhile, Jia's longtime friend, Jaiman Patil, is struggling to keep his pub running despite the empty seats and red in the ledgers. He's also madly in love with Jia even though she ran away from him the one time he mustered up the courage to kiss her and then demanded that they never talk about it.

It's not bad but it's also something that I've read a ton of times before. I think a big part of what saved it from being completely forgettable is the unique setting of Mumbai instead of the typical New York or American city. I also appreciated all the little cultural details that Hegde includes because it really helps you dive into the story.
Jia is a strong and confident woman, but that strength comes out feeling a bit like bullying when she bulldozes people into doing what she wants because she's convinced she knows better. It makes her a bit unlikeable so it took me a while to really warm up to her as the lead, but Jaiman is such a sweetheart that he's the reason I kept waiting for Jia to show her more positive side.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Dell for the interesting read!