Matchmaking for Beginners
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Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Release Date: November 27, 2018
Pages: 380
ISBN13: 978-1503901209
Synopsis
Marnie MacGraw wants an ordinary life—a husband, kids, and a minivan parked in front of a suburban house. Now that she’s marrying the man of her dreams, she’s sure this is the life she’ll get. Then Marnie meets Blix Holliday, her fiance’s irascible matchmaking great aunt who is dying, and everything changes—just as Blix told her it would.
When her marriage ends after two miserable weeks, Marnie is understandably shocked. She’s even more astonished to find that she’s inherited Blix’s Brooklyn brownstone along with all of Blix’s unfinished “projects”: the heartbroken, oddball friends and neighbors running from happiness. Marnie doesn’t believe she’s anything special, but Blix somehow knew she was the perfect person to follow in her matchmaking footsteps.
And Blix was also right about some things Marnie must learn the hard way: love is hard to recognize, and the ones who push love away often are the ones who need it most.
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Praise
Matchmaking for Beginners debuted as a bestseller and hit #1 on Amazon in its fourth week out. It spent three weeks on the Washington Post bestseller list and a month on Amazon Charts bestseller list as Most Sold. It has been translated into fifteen languages.
“A charming read…For fans of Liane Moriarty’s What Alice Forgot or Aimee Bender’s The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.”
—Library Journal
“A delightful, light-as-air romance that successfully straddles the line between sweet and smart without ever being silly…The novel is simply captivating from beginning to end.”
—Associated Press
“Matchmaking for Beginners is lovely from the inside out.”
—HelloGiggles
“Infused with the kind of magic so frequently lost as we become adults, this one-of-a-kind novel pushes the boundaries of coincidence and connection by asking us to believe in fate and, possibly, magic once again. The characters jump off the page with their quirky habits and capture hearts with their meaningful development and interactions, leading to moments that will bring readers to tears one minute and having them laughing out loud the next.”
—RT Book Reviews (Top Rated)
“I can’t remember the last time I loved the characters of a novel as much I loved those in Matchmaking for Beginners. Maddie Dawson has spun a story as magical as her delightful protagonist, Blix, who can’t help but cause chaos as she brings the right people together in the most unconventional ways. Every page of this novel was a joy to read.”
—Camille Pagán, bestselling author of Life and Other Near-Death Experiences and Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties
“Matchmaking for Beginners walked straight into my heart, trailing a shower of golden sparkles. Dawson has created a magical world inhabited by characters so engaging and real it seems plausible they might drop by for a cup of coffee. By turns funny, wise, and poignant, this is a story about falling in love—with the painful, messy, joyful business of living.”
—Kerry Anne King, bestselling author of Closer Home and I Wish You Happy
“This is a story of love: both unrequited and reciprocated romantic love, and the sweet love of a friendship that forms between two women at opposite ends of their lives. It’s a gem of a book, written with warmth, humor, and suspense, a testament to the truth that love is everything.” —Nancy Star, bestselling author of Sisters One, Two, Three
“Matchmaking for Beginners is a flat-out delight! Maddie Dawson is a master at creating compulsively readable stories, full of heart and wit, and the kind of characters we wish were real. (Everyone should be blessed with a great-aunt Blix!) I loved every moment of this quirky, charming, feel-good novel!”
—Jen Lancaster, New York Times bestselling author of Bitter Is the New Black and The Tao of Martha
Excerpt
One
BLIX
I shouldn’t have come, and that’s the truth of it. It’s not even five o’clock in the afternoon, and I’m already fantasizing about a swift, painless coma. Something dramatic, involving a nice collapse to the floor, with my eyes rolling back in their sockets and my limbs shaking.
It’s my niece’s annual post-Christmas tea, you see, when people who are barely crawling out from underneath weeks of holiday shopping, parties, and hangovers find themselves required by Wendy Spinnaker to don their red sweaters and pleated slacks one more time and go stand for hours in her living room so they can admire her expensive Christmas decorations and her refurbished mansion and drink a ridiculous red cocktail that a high school student in a waitress uniform delivers on a tray.