Match This! by MJ Fields Review

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4 Smooches!

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Synopsis

Kat’s a take no sh*t kind of girl, but when her mother forces her to start online dating with her, she’s taken off guard. The tables turn and now Kat has the opportunity to dish out unsolicited advice of her own. The ever-unsociable Kat, puts herself out there knowing no man in their right mind will ask her out.

Little does she know the world has changed. The constant connection has caused a disconnect, and while hiding behind a screen most men hold nothing back.

Will Kat be able to get her mother to stop being a behind the scenes text whore, or will she get dragged into the craze that is sweeping the nation?

REVIEW

 

Kat is an unapologetically filter-less, supremely snarky, tell-it-like-it-is chick. She knows who she is and, frankly, she could care less if you like her or not. Most of what comes out of her mouth is pretty judgmental commentary, but her rapid-fire delivery was uproariously funny most of the time—well except when she crossed over the line from sarcasm to honesty that can be almost too brutal. Most of the time, though, Kat’s the kind of girl you’d definitely love to hang with at happy hour, well as long as YOU aren’t the butt of her jokes. She makes no bones about any of this, though. Oh no, she’ll tell you straight up: “I don’t like…people.”  And she really doesn’t.

One of the things I loved about Kat was her professional-level bantering skills. The back-and-forth between her and the Momster, her and her friends and her and her coworkers was hilarious. Don’t even get me started on some of those text messages with the online dating suitors! Without a doubt, some of those exchanges were Buzzfeed blog post worthy material. A complete master of the verbal volley, her’s was the kind of dry wit that had me audibly snort-laughing. However, there were times, though, where it felt like it went on too long or went too far. Those snarky comments occasionally came off more abrasive than amusing, and it was in those moments that I had a hard time connecting and identifying with Kat. I liked the humor some (ok, most) of the time, but when it went over that line and became too much, and I found myself actually feeling sorry for Kat. Truthfully, Kat wasn’t easy to like sometimes, and while it was her choice to remain unattached, it also wasn’t a surprise that she was either.

I must admit that I sort of vacillated between absolutely loving Kat’s brand of brash but harsh humor and being somewhat put off by it. The more I read about her, the more I got the feeling that perhaps this core of sarcasm came from a place of bitterness and anger. This is, after all, a woman whose views on love and relationships have been shaped by the loss of her father, her mother’s two marriages and the ONE time she allowed herself to wade into the love pool and instead of a refreshing dip in that water, she nearly drowned.

With just the slightest hint of a potential future romance and given Match This! was heavy on the humor, it ultimately felt more like chick-lit to me than the rom-com it’s being billed as. So know that if you go into Match This! expecting a full-on romance, you’re not going to be getting one. But, if you’re up for reading well-written, comedic portrayal of a feisty and spirited young woman’s experiences (and her mother’s!) with online dating then you’ll be quite entertained by MJ Fields’ Match This!. 4 smooches from me.

~ Danielle Palumbo

 

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