FICTION

Matchmaking for Beginners

Lake Union: Amazon. Jun. 2018. 370p. ISBN 9781503900684. $24.95. F
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If there's anything worse than being left at the altar, Marnie MacGraw experiences it firsthand after she talks her panicky groom into marrying her, only to have him leave her two weeks later. The only one who isn't surprised is Blix, her fiancé's eccentric aunt, who feels a kinship with Marnie. They are both matchmakers with an otherworldly gift, but Blix is dying. Marnie moves on, gets engaged to her former high school boyfriend in Georgia, then gets the shocking news that Blix has died, leaving Marnie her Brooklyn brownstone and causing family grief on both sides. Off to Brooklyn she goes, where she meets Blix's friends and tenants, including the man with whom Blix thinks she belongs. Dawson (The Survivor's Guide to Family Happiness) creates a lovely small-town Brooklyn feel, but it's the sweetness of the characters and the sprinkling of magical realism throughout that makes this a charming read.
VERDICT For fans of Liane Moriarty's What Alice Forgot or Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.
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