The Matchmaker's List

I’d seen this book all around, and with part of my new year’s reading resolution being to read more diverse books, I thought this would fit right into my February rom-com reads.  However, it fell a little flat for me.

Raina is almost thirty, her best friend is engaged, and she’s still secretly pining for her ex-boyfriend who’s been out of her life for years.  She reluctantly agrees to let her Indian grandma play matchmaker.  Hence, the matchmaker’s list of pre-approved eligible bachelors.  As Raina goes on one bad date after another, she finds out that her ex is moving back to town, her best friend is trying to push a groomsman at her, and Raina is at her wits end.  Even in Canada, her Indian culture of marrying to find fulfillment rubs her the wrong way, but how do you tell the ones who love you the most that they’re making you miserable?

I guess with the name like the Matchmaker’s List, I thought most of the story would be Raina going through her grandmother’s list, when in actuality that lasts the first fifty or so pages.  After that, it starts to get a little off track…like her grandmother signing her up for an IndianSingles.com profile without telling her or her not correcting her grandmother when she asks if she’s a lesbian (which leads to another whole drama in itself).  By the end, it does all come back together in a very predictable “I know that was going to happen” way, but some of the choices in the middle seemed a little off from the original story premise.

I did enjoy learning about another culture and their expectations around marriage.  I also liked how the problems Raina created in the story forced her traditional, close-knit community to shed some of its biased nature.  There were redeemable qualities about the book, however, it wasn’t a must-read, in my opinion.