Book Review: The Matchmaker’s Charm by Jodi Jensen
Genre(s): Romance / Time-travel
Content warning: There are a number of fairly explicit sex scenes in this book, as well as an abduction/kidnapping.
Selina is a Romani with an unusual gift/curse. In order to secure her future with her people and marry the man in her life, she must facilitate two love matches between strangers—and those strangers aren’t always in the same time periods.
Let me preface this review with a bit of context: I wouldn’t have picked it up on my own, as this genre isn’t something I typically enjoy. I read it and agreed to leave a review as part of the book club I participate in.
After reading the opening scene, I was wondering just what I’d gotten myself into. It begins with a sex scene. I may not be well-versed in romance novels, but it’s my understanding from a few others that it was a bold choice on the author’s part. There were a few other scenes throughout the book, as well. I tend to skim passages of that nature, so my review is going to focus on the rest of the story.
Selina is forced to travel to 1901 to facilitate her first match, and coming from the modern day, there were definitely some challenges she was forced to overcome. She was met with prejudice on more than one occasion due to her heritage, 1901 Arizona wasn’t exactly a safe place for a woman traveling alone, and there were a couple characters that knew enough about her family’s curse to want to take her time-traveling charm.
While I liked the overall story, there were a couple threads left unresolved at the end. Since it’s part of a series, I hope those are addressed in the next book, as it left me wondering what exactly was going on with Nadia and where Lenora had disappeared to.
On the flip side, there were a couple pieces of Selina’s story that seemed to resolve themselves almost too quickly. There was the potential for a greater conflict between Selina and Lenora several times, and it might have been interesting to see more of that.
As far as romance novels go, I think this one was pretty good. It had a happy ending and was a relatively quick read. If you’re into time-travel romance, I’d encourage you to give this one a try. (As I said above, this was a book club pick for the month, and not my typical genre.)
Author website: jodijensenwrites.wordpress.com
Amazon link: The Matchmaker’s Charm
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