REVIEW: “The Matchmaker’s Lonely Heart” by Nancy Campbell Allen

 

About the book…

*Title: The Matchmaker’s Lonely Heart

*Author: Nancy Campbell Allen

*Genre: Historical fiction, Mystery, Romance

*Series: Book #1 of the Matchmaker’s Trilogy

*Recommend for: Ages 16 & up

My Personal Rating

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

📖Synopsis

A romance develops as a detective partners with a lonely-hearts columnist to solve a murder mystery.

London, 1885

Amelie Hampton is a hopeless romantic, which makes her the perfect columnist to answer lonely heart letters in The Marriage Gazette. When Amelie plays matchmaker with two anonymous lonely hearts, she also decides to secretly observe the couple's blind date. To her surprise, the man who appears for the rendezvous is Harold Radcliffe―a grieving widower and a member of Amelie's book club.

Police detective Michael Baker has been struggling ever since his best friend and brother-in-law died in the line of fire. Because he knows the dangers of his job, he has vowed never to marry and subject a wife and family to the uncertainty of his profession. But when he meets Miss Hampton, he is captured by her innocence, beauty, and her quick mind.

When a woman's body is pulled from the river, Michael suspects the woman's husband―Harold Radcliffe―of foul play. Amelie refuses to believe that Harold is capable of such violence but agrees to help, imagining it will be like one of her favorite mystery novels. Her social connections and clever observations prove an asset to the case, and Amelie is determined to prove Mr. Radcliffe's innocence. But the more time Amelie and Michael spend together, the more they trust each other, and the more they realize they are a good team, maybe the perfect match.

They also realize that Mr. Radcliffe is hiding more than one secret, and when his attention turns toward Amelie, Michael knows he must put an end to this case before the woman he loves comes to harm.

💭My Thoughts 

Overall, this was pretty enjoyable!

I don’t believe I’ve ever read a book with matchmaking as such a main theme, so it was interesting and I liked that element a lot. The various quotations at the beginning of each chapter were such a fun bonus, and I think the author did a good job writing the two POVs.

Admittedly, after having read so many Agatha Christie mysteries, I found myself expecting that a big, shocking plot twist would happen at some point in this book…and it never did. The murderer was basically known to the reader throughout the whole book, from the very beginning. There wasn’t really any “deducting”, guessing, or keeping an eye out for clues for me. Which is fine, I suppose, just not what I’m used to.

That being said, I feel that there was decidedly more romance than mystery. While it was sweet, the attraction was rather physical, with too much noticing, touching, staring, fluttering, etc. for my comfort. It was clean, of course, but as someone who already isn’t the biggest fan of reading a lot of romance, that part of this book just wasn’t for me. A couple of the kisses were *too much* for me. And, the couple’s relationship felt a little “love at first sight” in some ways, with them going from bickering and annoyed with each other, to suddenly realizing they’re madly in love! A few things that the ML did/said/thought seemed out of character for him as well, and his change of heart seemed rushed…Well, I suppose love will do that to you.

At several parts in the story, I wondered how realistic it really was that a young girl with no detective/police background whatsoever would be in the setting she was, assisting a professional detective, investigating and looking for clues, and putting herself in danger. Also, I would have liked if there was a little more excitement throughout the book, instead of most the excitement and suspense being in the final 50 or so pages.

All that aside, this book wasn’t bad altogether. I enjoyed a lot of aspects of it and didn’t have trouble reading it relatively quickly. I’ve heard the second book in this trilogy is supposed to be the best one, so I’m very excited to get to that one, and am glad I read this one first.

⚠️Content notes

Lots of noticing & touching; hand kisses, cheek kisses, forehead kisses, and a few (at least one semi-detailed) lip kisses; 2 dead bodies both described in some detail, one being a pregnant woman; “bastard” used once in its proper meaning; “idiot” used once; “give a fig” used once; 3 page long fight scene that was pretty intense and had a fair amount of description of attacking, injuries, pain, etc.

❤️ This book is for you if…

You are an older teenaged girl who likes reading Victorian books and are alright with more romance than suspense.

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Bookishly yours, 

Lottie M.