Mr. Perfect on Paper

Mr. Perfect on Paper by Jean Meltzer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dara Rabinowitz has made a fortune turning her family's matchmaking legacy into the Jewish dating app J-Mate, but she hasn't used those skills to find her own perfect match, so her grandmother forces her hand by announcing Dara's "perfect husband requirements" on live television. Dara is humiliated, but it turns out to be a ratings boon for both J-Mate and the daytime TV show when the producers turn her search into a series of segments on the show.

Widowed single father Chris Steadfast is the exact opposite of Dara's criteria, but they gradually get to know one another through the string of hilariously disastrous dates his show's camera crew films and broadcasts. Unfortunately, Dara's insistence on only marrying a Jewish man blinds her to the perfect match right in front of her and has her clinging to one that's only perfect on paper.

What I loved about this book was the way mental illnesses, grief, and Judaism are addressed. I learned so much about all three! Dara struggles with all sorts of mental health challenges, particularly anxiety, and she has developed strategies and coping mechanisms to handle them. I thought those aspects of her character were so well done. Plus having the dates all relate to various Jewish holidays and traditions gave the opportunity to tell readers about the history and meanings of each, which was interesting.

Unfortunately, the secondary characters in this book are pretty one-dimensional. Even Dara's beloved Bubbe doesn't feel like a fleshed-out character. Frankly, it was difficult to believe that an expert matchmaker wouldn't notice how unhappy Dara was. Dr. Daniel was a perfectly nice person, just completely wrong for Dara. She let her prejudice get in the way of her happiness. I suspect this book would work much better as a movie, where a good set of actors could use nonverbal communication to develop into 3D people both figuratively and literally. And that climactic scene at Bubbe's party would make a very dramatic, cinematic movie ending.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary. The New York/New Jersey setting might also appeal to some readers. No sex or violence, and if there was any swearing, it was so mild I can't remember it. It's a pretty fast-paced read. 

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy in exchange for my honest review!

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The No-Show

The No-Show by Beth O'Leary
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is, hands-down, my favorite adult fiction book so far this year, and I've read some excellent ones. I requested the eGalley copy from NetGalley thinking I was getting a rom-com, and while there definitely is romance as well as some humor, this book took me on an emotional journey I was not expecting, and I could not bear to put it down.

The first half of the book is character-driven, focusing on the three women Joseph Carter stands up on Valentine's Day: Siobhan, Miranda, and Jane. We get to know Siobhan's over-scheduled world as a life coach with past relationship grief. We learn about Miranda's life as the only woman on a tree surgeon crew (a.k.a. arborist). And we wonder exactly what trauma caused Jane to flee corporate London for a volunteer job as the youngest member on staff at a charity shop in Winchester. Their lives intersect in only one way: their relationship with the same man.

The second half of the book (or maybe the last 3rd? eGalleys have wonky formatting) is hard to talk about without giving anything away. The pace intensifies, the story taking unexpected twists and turns. I anticipated loathing Joseph, yet he defied all my expectations, and I honestly couldn't decide what outcome I wanted...none of which mattered in the end because O'Leary is a genius.

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways are both VERY strong. The setting is England and Ireland. Some profanity and mild sexual content. One scene with accidental violence. Discussion or mention of grief, death of loved one, depression, dementia, stalking, sexual harassment, self harm, miscarriage, and panic attacks. LGBTQIA+ secondary characters.

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The Bookshop on the Shore

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Single mother Zoe can barely make ends meet. She works hard at a daycare taking care of wealthy people's children but can't afford to send her own 4-year-old there. Her ex, Jaz, rarely helps out and is gone most of the time, trying to make it as a DJ. Her son, Hari, is mute, and no one can figure out why. The last straw comes when her landlord hikes the rent on her lousy, run-down apartment higher than she can afford. Relief comes in the form of a job offer from Scotland. Well, two, actually. Jaz has finally told his sister he has a son, and when Surinder discovers that Zoe loves to read, she connects Zoe with Nina, from The Bookshop on the Corner. Nina needs someone to run her book van while she's on maternity leave. That's job #1.

Job #2 is as a nanny on evenings and weekends for the 3 children of the local Laird, Ramsay. This job comes with room and board in the form of a tiny attic bedroom in a Scottish castle and toast. A lot of toast. The three children have gone through six nannies in the past few years, and they are not excited about a seventh. If Zoe weren't so broke and desperate, she'd be happy to leave, too, but Hari loves Scotland and latches immediately onto the youngest of the three kids, Patrick. Eventually, with no good options remaining, Zoe straightens her metaphorical spine and begins to make changes, discovering that the siblings and their neglectful father aren't so much feral as traumatized, and though the locals don't want to buy books until Nina returns and tells them what to choose, the tourists are delighted with all the Scottish and Loch Ness-related volumes Zoe can lay her hands on.

The second book in this series conveys a tone of palpable grief, struggle, and emotional heaviness that slowly begins to lift as the characters grow and learn from each other. There is a slow-burn romance between Zoe and Ramsay, but it's not the focus of the story. Much of the book deals with mental illnesses and the effects those illnesses have on the family members who love them. Though the story begins with a weighted-down feeling, it ends with hope and strong family bonds.

For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways. No violence or sexual content, though sex is implied or mentioned as having occurred in a couple of places. Some swearing is sprinkled throughout, plus a great deal in one scene with Ramsay's drunk and angry girlfriend. "Found family" is a strong theme.

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