Book Review: Marrying the Matchmaker by Jody Hedlund

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Warning: If you’re going to start Marrying the Matchmaker by Jody Hedlund, make time—because you won’t want to put this book down. :)

Zaira Shanahan is an aspiring writer. She’s submitted a story and received feedback that she was close. So close, but the editor said she needed more realistic emotion. The kind she hasn’t yet experienced in her nineteen years.

That’s where Bellamy McKenna comes in. He’s helped her older sisters and brother find love through his matchmaking, but Zaira isn’t interested in being matched, at least not yet. Even if she finds Bellamy charming and handsome, all she really wants is his help to experience emotions she can write about. A kiss or maybe just a hug, something to help her bring more feeling to her stories. But first, she has to convince him to help her.

Bellamy is still trying to prove himself to his father and the community. He’s had two successful matches, but with his latest job, the father has given him one week to find a suitable match for his daughter. Zaira offers to help, but she wants something in return. The problem is that what she’s asking for isn’t exactly proper. But it might be just a little too tempting to turn down.

I have to be honest, I’ve been waiting for Bellamy’s story since the beginning. To be a truly great matchmaker, Bellamy had to find his own match even though he fears that, like the McKennas who came before him, he’s doomed to fail. And boy, did he ever in Zaira.

Both Bellamy and Zaira have dreams that the world tells them they can’t accomplish, but in each other, they find encouragement, support, and the kind of connection that allows them to grow into their best selves. Their respect for one another builds as the story goes on, and watching them fall in love was such a joy. I highly recommend this book!

While you can read this book as a stand-alone book, it is most rewarding to read it after the first three.

Request Marrying the Matchmaker at your local library, preorder it at most retailers, or find it for sale on Amazon.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Jody Hedlund. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

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Official Book Blurb:

As the middle child of the Shanahan family, Zaira does her best to keep the peace. She doesn’t share her dream of becoming a published author with her family to spare herself their disapproval. When she’s caught in a scandal involving the local matchmaker, Bellamy McKenna, she must put her storytelling ability to good use and feign a match with him to avoid wagging tongues and her parents’ anger.

Feeling the growing pressure to marry as a well-known, yet single matchmaker to St. Louis’s Irish community, Bellamy reluctantly agrees to a temporary match with Zaira. But even though the matchmakers in his family might be able to find love for others, they have a history of disastrous relationships for themselves. When secrets and danger force Zaira and Bellamy to work together, is it finally the matchmaker’s turn to be lucky in love?

Hedlund delivers another captivating romance with sizzling chemistry in this romantic conclusion to her beloved matchmaking series.