Review | The Miss Match Series by Laurelin McGee

Posted April 22, 2017 by Asheley in review / 0 Comments

Review | The Miss Match Series by Laurelin McGeeMiss Match (Miss Match, #1) by Laurelin McGee
Series: Miss Match
Published by St. Martin's Paperbacks on June 30th 2015
Pages: 336
Source: the publisher
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Goodreads
three-stars

Welcome to the sexy, crazy, wildly unpredictable world of modern matchmaking, where fixing up strangers is part of the job—but falling in love is an occupational hazard…

He's The Perfect Catch.

Blake Donovan is tall, handsome, rich, and successful—so why would a guy like him need a matchmaker? Andrea Dawson has no idea, but a job is a job. After being blackballed from a career in marketing, Andrea agreed to use her unique profiling skills to play matchmaker out of pure desperation. But when she meets her highly eligible—and particular—first client face to face, she wonders what she’s gotten herself into…

Is She His Perfect Match?

Blake knows exactly the kind of woman he’s looking for—and it’s the total opposite of Andrea. Though smart and undeniably sexy, she is simply too headstrong for a man who’s used to being in charge. Still, Blake’s blood pressure rises whenever she’s near him. How can he explain the smoldering attraction that sizzles between them? And how can Andrea deny she’s feeling it, too? Maybe, just maybe, they’ve finally met their match…

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

why i read it:

I chose to read Miss Match by Laurelin McGee because I was in the middle of another book with heavier themes at the time and while I was enjoying it, I witnessed a tragic car accident and it made a pretty big impact on me. I was stuck in the traffic, watching this tragedy unfold, listening to the audiobook of this great literary novel…and there was so much death inside of that book. Later that night, I just didn’t want to return to such a heavy story, so I flipped through my Kindle and looked for something lighter and more fun. And this is what I settled on.

Review:

I love the premise for this story: a matchmaker that falls in love with her client? Sign me up! Right away, it is obvious that Blake and Andy have chemistry and I love that the authors wrote in some humor as well – these things are always a plus for me in fun contemporary romances. But hear me when I say that Blake begins the story as a misogynistic jerk. Now — he does develop as a character and change for the better, but it takes a little while. I know that some readers enjoy alpha-male romance characters, but Blake’s personality just does not come across as sexy to me; he. is. a. complete. ass. Or at least he is in the first part of the story. The bright side of this is that since he has wonderful character development over the course of the story, Blake ends up being pretty great. Andy, the female lead, is more likable from the beginning, but she isn’t perfect either (although I’m pretty sure that she felt the same way about Blake that I do).

This story itself was cute. But I think I could have loved it just a little bit more. I would have loved to know more about Blake, like why on earth he felt and acted the way he did at the beginning of the book? I know I’m picking on him quite a bit here, but his personality in the beginning of the story prevented me from really falling for him like I could have.

Ultimately, Blake and Andy made me roll my eyes a lot and they made me a little crazy, but this really was a fun story to read and it was exactly what I needed when I chose it from my Kindle library. I’m really glad that the two got their happily ever after. I’m also excited that this seems to be a completed series that isn’t long or tedious; the Miss Match series is a duet plus a novella. The second book features Lacy, Andy’s sister. I liked Lacy so much in this story and I’m excited to read her installment after I read the novella.

Review | The Miss Match Series by Laurelin McGeeMistaken (Miss Match #1.5) by Laurelin McGee
Series: Miss Match
Published by St. Martin's Paperbacks on February 2nd 2016
Pages: 104
Source: Library
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four-stars

Jaylene Kim is an independent woman who's never had a man tell her what to do. But when her smolderingly hot and mysterious neighbor introduces her to a few new rules in the bedroom, Jaylene must learn to relinquish control...if she is to run wild with passion...

Why I Read It:

After reading Miss Match and enjoying it, I wanted to continue with the series.

Review:

Jaylene makes her first appearance in the series when Andy sets her up for a date with Blake in Miss Match – to put it lightly, it doesn’t work out very well at all. Jaylene lives in the same apartment complex with sisters Andy (from Miss Match) and Lacy (from Love Struck).

Jay notices Noah when he is moving into one of the apartments near her and there is instant mutual attraction. Jay is an activist and a feminist and as she gets to know Noah, she loves that he respects and encourages those parts of her. She is perplexed that he seems overly-guarded when he talks about certain parts of himself, like what his job is.

It turns out that Noah works in what is a very female-dominated field (no spoilers here!) and he is really successful at what he does. He is afraid that if Jay finds out what he does for a living, she will judge him or possibly even not want to see him anymore, with her feminist views and all.

I love love love the way gender stereotypes are challenged in this novella. Noah’s job is a fun and unexpected addition to this series and a great way to get Jay to loosen up a little bit. She made me tense at times just reading her scenes. She was borderline-unlikable in a few parts because of how she judged and stereotyped other people, but it was always awesome the way Noah was able to gently redirect her and make her see that what she was doing was exactly what she was fighting against. Also: the synopsis suggests that Noah “introduces Jay to a few new rules in the bedroom” which does indeed happen, but it is the way that all of this unfolds from start to finish that makes this novella charming.

This novella is such a fun little interlude from the other full-length novels in this series. I love the way the main players are still involved in the story, but the main plot-line is much more light-hearted and fun. This novella is my favorite of all of the installments of the series and went straight to my Kindle rereads shelf.

Review | The Miss Match Series by Laurelin McGeeLove Struck (Miss Match, #2) by Laurelin McGee
Series: Miss Match
Published by St. Martin's Paperbacks on February 2nd 2016
Pages: 336
Source: the publisher
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Goodreads
three-stars

Welcome to a seductive world where two solo artists combine their talents-and their hearts-to make beautiful music together...

SHE'S GETTING INTO THE GROOVE

Lacy Dawson is a young singer-songwriter with a record deal, a studio gig, and a serious case of writer's block. After looking for love songs in all the wrong places, she finds inspiration at an online support group called Song Writers Anonymous. Thanks to one mysterious member who motivates her and inspires her, Lacy's career is back on track. But is she ready to meet her sexy musical muse...face to face?

HE MAKES HER HEART SKIP A BEAT

Eli is definitely interested in hooking up with Lacy, aka "LoveCoda." But between writing her new album and his band's success, they can't find the time to face the music-or each other-about their burgeoning online romance. All that changes when Eli and Lucy get booked on tour together. In person, the attraction is all too real and explosive. They both should walk away, but once they are in each other's arms, there is no turning back...

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Why I Read It:

I’ve been waiting for Lacy’s story since I started the series. There was no way I wasn’t going to read this book, especially after liking Mistaken so much.

Review:

I couldn’t wait to get to this book because – truthfully – out of this entire series, this one sounded the best to me. And it was shaping up to be absolutely amazing until I got maybe about a third-ish into the story. That’s when things started to unravel just a little bit.

Listen, I adore the concept of this story: two people having an online relationship, with that relationship heading into friendship-to-love territory fast. I also love the idea behind two musicians falling in love while touring together. The interesting thing about this story is that Lacy and Eli are online friends with anonymous identities that have arranged to meet for the first time in the future, which works out to be after their tour is over. They fall in love while on tour, but they don’t realize that they are also falling in love online, anonymously, at the same time. Here is where the complications and confusion come into play.

Are they cheating on each other…with each other? I mean, is this a love triangle? (I wish I was reading this book along with someone else because this one is certainly discussable and I think this would have been tons of fun to break down and talk about.)

I love Lacy and Eli together. They’re both great characters. This book was shaping up to really be something that made me excited — until Lacy and Eli became sort-of like two different couples. I really could probably overlook this and enjoy the story since I know how everything ends up – but the thing is that it created drama and tension and confusion while I was reading. Everything worked out in the end, but there was a big chunk of the book where I selfishly wanted Lacy and Eli to figure out how to be one couple, in their real life and not online, and just get together already.

There is a marriage side plot in the story and it took up a surprising part of the page space. It was probably needed because it gave Lacy some time to grow into herself and think things through, plus it tied up some loose ends from earlier in the series. It also provided humor. But it really just distracted me from the romance which was the main plot point. I wanted more of Lacy and Eli.

Overall, I liked Love Struck more than Miss Match and less than Mistaken. It looks like this series may be complete, so I don’t think there will be any more pieces of the story to come in the future, which makes me a little sad. I could technically see where these authors could make future installments based on other characters, but I don’t see any indication of that happening. I think that’s probably just wishful thinking on my part.

Series Final Thoughts:

I liked the Miss Match series – I think it was a great choice for a quick, fun series to read that didn’t cause me any stress. This is the reason that I picked up the first book and the reason that I continued with the series to completion. And I think I would pick up these books for rereads just on their sheer readability. I really wish each there was an audiobook option for each installment, but as it stands at this moment, only the first book has an audiobook format available. I’d 100% take advantage of the audiobook formats if they were available for this series. Also, I think the covers are super cute and a great draw for readers; they’re one of the main reasons that I chose this series to binge-read when I was looking for something to lose myself in a few days ago. I want more easy-to-read series like these, please!

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Asheley

About Asheley

Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.

You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.

Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!

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