I really wanted to love this book, but it ended up being just okay.

I enjoyed bits of the book, namely Jaiman and Charu. I honestly would’ve rather read about Charu and her moving to the big city to find love with Jia and Jaiman as side characters. I also really enjoyed the setting and learning more about Indian culture through this book.

However, the FMC, Jia, wasn’t very likable. And there was so much background noise - Jia’s blog, her career issues, setting up Charu (and failing, repeatedly), her tension with Jaiman, Monica’s engagement, the secret emails, Jaiman’s own career issues….. I could keep going. There was so much and the main relationship almost took a back seat and we ended up being told a lot about Jia’s and Jaiman’s attraction instead of shown. I’m glad we got Jaiman’s POV because those were my favorite sections.

This was a fun read! I think the biggest issue I had with it is just that blogs are a little outdated. I would have liked to see a more modern version where she does TikTok videos or vlogs her experience more so than the blogging side (although I understand the anonymity of it). I just know it's insanely had for blogs to go viral these days.

What an adorable romance! I really really enjoyed this rom-com between two desi leads, set in the bustling city of Mumbai. This was an incredible desi romance between two very personable and fun characters. I've read quite a few books about matchmakers and destiny, and I feel that this book executed that storyline very well. I really enjoyed the setting and the fun quirks of the characters. I would highly recommend this to romcom lovers and desi romance readers alike.

The way I absolutely adored this book. I am squealing and itching for people to get their hands on this and I will personally make sure it gets the hype it deserves. Major Emma vibes and a found family aspect which I live for. The way this book oozes with intrigue in setting in Mumbai and the food, it just reads so rich and original. If you for some inexplicable reason aren't sold yet just know HE LOVED HER THE WHOLE TIME!

The perfect friends to lovers slow burn. I gobble up a he falls first story line 🤭 the family and friendships made the book though for me, chefs kiss

Match Me If You Can is a modern Mumbai re-flavoring of Emma by Jane Austen—I just wish it was apparent in any of the marketing materials or even in the acknowledgements. The plot loosely follows that of Emma, though in this retelling our protagonist Jia is a writer for a magazine and incapable of any thought deeper than surface level. Characters seem to cry or tear up at the drop of a hat and we are often told instead of shown how characters feel about one another—specifically in the case of our Emma and Harriet stand-in relationship of Jia and Charu, it doesn't seem like these two are friends, let alone talk about anything with each other that we don't see in writing. She has made two successful matches prior to the start of this novel (one of which being her sister), her love interest is a man she’s known her whole life (though in this version he is fairly incompetent and also has been in love with her since they were twelve which is a frustrating choice), and her father is a hypochondriac—the plot follows Emma in more instances as well that I will leave out so as not to spoil it if you haven’t read it before. Overall this book was fine and I’m sure other readers might enjoy it. For me it was frustrating to read because it heavily relies on miscommunication as a plot device and it is so clearly a re-skin of a famous classic—there is at least one direct quote used without attribution but there may be more that I didn’t catch.

I love "Emma" so I was very excited for this take -- and the cover was so beautiful! I was so glad that this modernization focused on Jia and Jaiman's careers instead of maintaining only the marriage-centric plot line; I especially enjoyed the culinary talk. What I would gave been glad to see more is a subtler development of Jia and Jaiman's feelings for each other. I also think one fewer subplot may have offered more opportunities to really flesh out some core ones, such as Charu's attempts to find a partner and Jaiman's business rivalry. Overall, the author did keep me interested, but I wish she had approached Jia and Jaiman's love story with more nuance!

This is such a sweet and clean friends-to-lovers romance! I love the Mumbai setting and all of the cultural aspects included in the MC's path to their happy ending. Jia is such an ambitious FMC and has a take-no-failures attitude that I would love to possess myself. The author includes dealing with loss and the pain that can still be present years later, but also how someone may do little things to honor them year after year. I love the found family trope and the outlook that no matter what background you come from, rich or poor, you can all struggle with family, work, and love. The dual POV was beautifully done within the same chapter, rather than making each POV a new chapter. I enjoyed this!

Match Me If You Can by Swati Hedge was a fun read. I enjoyed the dual perspectives and definitely liked the family and friends aspect of the story. I felt it was a little too long or slow to start. I found the chemistry between the two love interests to be a little lacking. It just seemed like Jia was indifferent until all of a sudden she was into him. Match Me If You Can was a fun read.

Match Me If You Can

3.25 ⭐️

This beautiful bright cover caught my eye, and I couldn’t resist picking up a book set in Mumbai to add India to my list of read in countries for the year!

Jia and Jaiman are family friends who are very close after years of their dads being friends. Both are struggling to find success professionally, and turn to each other through an anonymous blog.

I enjoyed the close family and friends in this books as well as the dual perspectives! While the back and forth was kind of long, the ending was sweet.

Format: 📱
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

As a Brown Girl, you don't always get to see yourself represented within the characters you read about in contemporary romance novels, so you can imagine how excited I was to read about Jia and Jaiman's story in Swati Hedge's "Match Me If You Can." I loved the setting of Mumbai (hoping this city is on my 2025 bingo card) and the South Asian representation from drinks and food to the Diwali celebrations. Swati did an awesome job of setting the backdrop as we followed the v e r y slow burn that is this childhood friends to lovers romance.

The MMC, Jaiman, has my heart. I loved that there was mention of his wish to define his own success, outside of the shadow of his parents' wealth, as it was nice to read and relate to a lesser-spoken struggle of South Asian millennials. I also enjoyed following Jia and seeing her growth throughout the novel regarding her relationship with Jaiman, her friends, and of course, her ambition to be the Millennial Matchmaker of Mumbai.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing the ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to Swati Hedge for sharing her debut romance novel with us all and creating the space for Brown Girls who love romance to read about women who look like them.

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this new, diverse book while on vacation. I adored it! I loved learning about different cultures and customs. The modern take on match making was fantastic. Every detail was wonderful, and I look forward to more books by this author. Thank you for this wonderful read, and I hope more people enjoy it as much as I did!

📖📖 Book Review 📖📖 I wish I had the opportunity to drop everything and go to Mumbai but that is just not my life but this book was such a wonderful escape! Kudos to Jia, a young lady with her own realistic perspective that there are no universal rules to love or perfect relationships. And while her job as a columnist might be counter to this, she knows that she must balance her ideals with paying the bills and that is something we can all relate to! The universe always sends us funny little signs and although her life has always been intertwined with Jaiman , she has the opportunity to challenge her own beliefs as their relationship takes a new journey. Match Me If You Can is an absolutely amazing read- from the setting to the characters! Love love love!!!!

Review is posted on Goodreads and will be on Instagram ahead of publication!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I give this book a 3.25⭐️

Going into this book I was very excited to dive into a fun matchmaking and Indian culture world. It was a cute story full of found family, yummy foods, beverages and celebration with a very very slow burn.

I was very invested at the beginning and then felt really frustrated with Jia as she seemed very selfish and the rest of the characters were trying to reach in and she was not breaking. Around 60-70% into the book it picked up and after that it was easy to feel the connection and fast pace of the story.

Things I loved about this book:
- The connection Jaiman had with his found family and how they took him in and made him feel loved and valued.

- Loooved all the details of the Indian clothing pieces, the descriptions of Mumbai’s weather, environment, vibes and people. Made me feel like I was there.

-Also really enjoyed and really connected to Jaiman’s pub and how much it meant to him. The story made it a place of comfort to go to celebrate as well as chill when things weren’t go so well.

Things I didn’t really like:
- Although Jia was the main character, it was kinda hard to connect with her. She was very self-centered and selfish, and although it was because she was holding on to a lot of unresolved feelings, it still didn’t justify how she treated most, specifically Jaiman and Charu.

- I didn't really feel the connection/chemistry between Jia and Jaiman, and kinda felt like he was super in love and she didn’t really like him and then all of a sudden around 60% into the book she was into him.

Overall it was a cute story and loved learning more the Indian culture 💜

I love the cover and the title and was intrigued by the synopsis so was excited to read this set-in-Mumbai Romance by debut author Swati Hegde. I think it's a pretty big missed opportunity not to mention in the blurb that this book was heavily inspired by Emma, and to a significant extent You've Got Mail. A lot of readers would be drawn specifically because of that!

For me there were too many distinct threads happening, and sticking so closely to the storyline of Emma rarely works well in modern adaptations. Jia doesn't come off as a relatable sympathetic character, especially as she uses Charu to try to further her career.

I loved the setting, and mainly enjoyed the characters, but overall this book got bogged down with trying to do too much. Be inspired by Austen and 90s RomComs absolutely, but move away from them enough that your characters have their own identities and storyline.

*Review will be posted to Goodreads after the pub date.

Received an ARC of this book through Netgalley.

Read this book in a weekend! There's a lot I liked about this book -- the Desi cast of characters, the backdrop of Mumbai, the Jane Austen inspiration and the world of Indian matchmaking among others. I didn't always understand the motivations of the characters (i.e. Jia's initial dislike of Jaimun) but those are small gripes for a book that was ultimately light, fun and romantic.

I'd be excited to see what Swati Hegde does next!

This book was so delightful! It took me a few chapters to realize this was a reimagining of Emma, which is a fave of mine so that made me excited to keep reading.

Jia and Jaiman were wonderful. I really could see this as a movie and kept picturing different Indian actors as them. I liked that we got so much of Jaiman’s POV and his struggles throughout the book.

Thanks as always to NetGalley for the ARC.

DNF at 20%. Was excited to dive into this one but at 20% in, I found myself lost and uninterested.

4 stars because even though this isn’t for me, I can tell the target audience will absolutely love this.

Overall it was a very easy book to read and I really enjoyed it. I love the Indian culture you get in this book, and I think that most people would really enjoy it

Thank you to Random House/Dell Publishing and NetGalley for an advance reader copy of Match Me If You Can!

Emma fans assemble!!

Jia is a writer for Mimosa, a women’s magazine in Mumbai, while she also maintains her own online blog. Jaiman is working on increasing the customer base for his pub.

These two have been friends since childhood - yes, friends to lovers fans, this is one to check out!

Jia’s dream is to open a matchmaking business and at the beginning of the book has already had two successful matchmaking attempts. For her third, she looks to set up Charu with Eshaan. For those who are fans of Emma, if you love Robert and Harriet then you are going to LOVE love love Charu and Manoj.

If you love friends to lovers or stories where each character is unknowingly pining for the other, you’ll adore Jia and Jaiman’s story. These two are so cute. Jaiman makes dinner for Jia and her dad; Jai bringing Jaiman breakfast in the mornings before work.

Match Me If You Can weaves together elements of Emma and You’ve Got Mail in a really creative way. At the same time, this is a story that stands on its own. You’ll be rooting for Jia and Jaiman as a couple, and you'll be rooting for them as they both work to achieve their professional goals.