Rowena’s review of Match Me If You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
Hero: Heath Champion
Heroine: Annabelle Granger
Grade: 4.5 out of 5
In This Heart of Mine, you met Kevin Tucker. Now meet Kevin’s shark of an agent … and Annabelle Granger, the girl least likely to succeed.
Annabelle is tired of being the lone failure in a family of overachievers. She’s endured dead-end jobs and a broken engagement. But that’s going to change now that she’s taken over her late grandmother’s matchmaking business. All Annabelle has to do is land the Windy City’s hottest bachelor as her client, and she’ll be the most sought-after matchmaker in town.
With his money-green eyes and calculated charm, Heath Champion is the best sports agent in the country. He’s wealthy, driven, and gorgeous, so why does he need a matchmaker, especially a red-haired screw-up like Annabelle Granger? True, she’s entertaining, and she does have a certain quirky appeal. But Heath is searching for the ultimate symbol of his success—the perfect wife. And to make an extraordinary match, he needs an extraordinary matchmaker, right?
If Annabelle isn’t careful, she just might find herself going heart-to-heart with the toughest negotiator in town — a man who’s beginning to ask himself … exactly how perfect does perfect have to be?
The first time I read this book, I loved it and I’m glad to say that after my first re-read of this book, I still love the book almost as much as the first time I read it. There were quite a few things that I had forgotten while reading this book but after picking it up again and skimming through it at first and then going back and just reading it all over again, I’m happy to say that I loved this book all over again.
It starts out with us meeting Annabelle Granger, a firecracker of a woman who is frowned upon in her family. She’s the “black cat” of her family. She’s got 2 successful brothers and a mother who nags the ever living daylights out of her because she’s 31 and hasn’t settled down into a career. Annabelle’s had a few businesses that have gone under and she’s trying to turn her grandmother’s matchmaking business around and make something of herself. She’s very passionate about life and just reading about her attacking the venture of making a success out of her grandmother’s business, modernizing it and everything was just a crack up.
She was a very quirky heroine and she kept me laughing and just feeling for her. I loved her sense of humor, I loved all of her little gripes against Heath and what I most liked about her was the way she handled being handled by him.
The chemistry between Heath and Annabelle is unmistakable to the reader, even if it was farthest from Heath’s mind. I loved the way SEP wrote these two’s relationship. I loved how at the very beginning they were so at ease with each other, the scene where Heath makes her ride with him somewhere and she thinks he’s gonna leave her and she’s running through traffic hollering for him to wait and she’s got her Mocha frap and how he just kept taking it from her and drinking it, the SECOND time he met with her…I loved that kind of business.
I liked seeing the old characters from the previous books actually having reasons to be in the story and not just talked about. Those are some of my favorite characters and to see them back in action right along with Heath and Annabelle scored major points with me.
I loved revisiting the campground from This Heart of Mine. I loved seeing Kevin (my favorite SEP hero) and Molly again and more over, I loved seeing little Hannah again. Goodness, that little girl is just about my favorite kid character ever, she’s so great! You know, a couple of weeks ago, Casee put up a post about your favorite SEP secondary character and I should have remembered to put down Hannah because Hannah is such a great character and I absolutely love her. I wonder if SEP has anything in the works for her..in the future. That would be nice.
Heath Champion, there were times when I wanted to take him by the shoulders and just hold him still for a minute, he so reminded me of Jerry Maguire in that, I move faster than my feet can take me and I’m eager to please all of my clients to the point where I am in dire need of therapy way. The transformation from first class jerk to the insecure manly sexy man at the end was great. I loved seeing him grow attached to Annabelle, it was a treat to see him all wanting to make things right Annabelle.
I even loved little Pippy…she was so cute with her phone fettish…with her Heath’s phone fettish. haha.
Annabelle’s family got on my hot damn nerves so I was really happy that Heath came into her life and became her Champion…even if he didn’t see her family the same way she did. I loved that finally, Annabelle was one up on Candace that conniving little bitch.
The way the story was told had me reading early into the morning, I didn’t get to sleep until 3:00am on the dot and I can’t say that I’m mad about it. The only thing that I didn’t care for was that I felt the end was sort of rushed and kinda fell flat with Heath’s realization of his love for Annabelle, I wanted more from that but as a whole, this book was a really great read for me.
This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Another winner from SEP. I really enjoyed reading about Annabelle and Heath, and since Kevin and Molly are my favorite SEP couple, I loved having them in the story. Pippy was a riot. The princess party was so much fun to read about, and Hannah–I’ve loved that girl since This Heart of Mine. I really hope she gets her own story one day. She’s one special character.
Diana
This one was such a fun read. 🙂
Agree about Annabelle’s family. Danm, I just wanted them to leave her alone.
Loved Heath and Annabelle together even when she was setting him up on dates. LOL
This was my first SEP and the one that got me hooked to SEP and romance. I went back and read all the other books then got back and reread this one because I loved it that most couples reappeared in it.
I have to say, that while I enjoyed “Match Me If You Can,” I was really turned off by Heath’s reaction to Annabelle’s family. There’s one scene where they’re walking all over her and constantly insulting her and he’s just standing there with a smirk on his face going, “They’re right. What a great family.” I thought SEP’s portrayal of the family was hypocritical and the fact that Heath let them continue to heap crap on Annabelle kept this book from an A grade, for me.
I tend to agree with AnimeJune. I think SEP was trying to show us that Annabelle’s perception of her family was off, but it didn’t work.
I expected Heath to be her champion with them. When he basically smirked and laughed at Annabelle’s fears and insecurities about her family instead of standing up for her I lost massive amounts of respect for him. That definitely brought my grade down.