Reviews for The Matchmaker

by Elin Hilderbrand

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Looking for a summer read to get immersed in and transport you to beautiful Nantucket? Grab Hilderbrand's (Beautiful Day; Summerland) latest and some sunglasses for a captivating and charming novel to devour. Dabney Kimball Beech has lived on Nantucket her whole life and prides herself on many things: her love and knowledge of all things Nantucket, her family, her work with the chamber of commerce, her cooking, and her successful matchmaking skills. Though some find her abilities intrusive, Dabney knows a destined match when she sees one-and when she does not. However, for herself, she believes she was wrong about her first love, until he comes back to Nantucket after 27 years in another country. Clendenin Hughes's presence dares Dabney to start truly to live and enjoy all the moments of life that she can as both she and her daughter, Agnes, learn that life is messy and complicated-especially when matters of the heart are involved. Verdict Here's a must-read to reignite the beauty and gift of life, love, and family.-Anne M. Miskewitch, Chicago P.L. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Dabney Kimball Beech has lived on Nantucket all her life. Aside from attending college nearby, she's never left the island, owing to her trauma-induced agoraphobia. Dabney's successful matchmaking and career at the chamber of commerce made her the island's most popular resident, but she never recovered from losing her first love, Clendenin, who moved overseas 27 years earlier. Dabney's phobias prevented her from following him, and her heart still longs for her "perfect match," despite a pleasant marriage to another man. It's no wonder that Dabney cannot resist rekindling her relationship with Clendenin when he suddenly resurfaces on the island. But just as Dabney is happiest, she receives news that threatens the future in which she's just starting to believe. Narrative perspectives rotate between Dabney and the other major characters. Stories about happy couples Dabney matched are interspersed throughout the main story, amping up the romantic atmosphere. Erin Bennett provides excellent, well-acted narration and switches among accents and perspectives with ease. This meandering, light story is perfect for summer listening, but be aware that it's a tearjerker. -VERDICT Recommended for hopeless romantics with a love of tragedy. ["Here's a must read to reignite the beauty and gift of life, love, and family": LJ Xpress Reviews 6/6/14 review of the Little, Brown hc.]-Julie Judkins, Univ. of North Texas, Denton © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Dabney Kimball Beech is Nantucket's biggest booster. As director of the island's chamber of commerce, she is a constant presence at, and an enthusiastic booster of, the island's many celebrations, whether it's Daffodil Weekend or the Cranberry Festival. But this year, things are different. She's just learned that her high-school boyfriend, Clendenin Hughes, the love of her life and the father of her child, is set to return home after a decades-long stint as a foreign correspondent. Despite the fact that she has been married for many years to a Harvard economist and is well known as a matchmaker, with 43 happy couples to her credit, her own love life has proved problematic. She's afraid to see Clen again, and with good reason; almost as soon as they meet up, their love affair reignites. Hilderbrand has crafted another of her delectable beach reads, complete with a fairy-tale romance. And her depiction of a perfect Nantucket summer day will have readers inhaling a plate of Kumomoto oysters and downing a cold glass of good white Bordeaux right along with Dabney. Delicious.--Wilkinson, Joanne Copyright 2010 Booklist


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Hilderbrand's latest Nantucket heroine has a very particular kind of clairvoyance: She can always tell whether a couple is compatible or not.Dabney Kimball Beech, 49, who heads up Nantucket's Chamber of Commerce, is known for her headband, pearls, penny loafers and other preppy accoutrements, as well as her fabulous menus for tailgates and picnics. Then there's her track record of spotting perfect matches: If a couple is suited, she sees pink around them; if not, green. So far, her unerring intuition, augmented by artful introductions, has resulted in more than 40 long-term Nantucket marriages. As the wife of John Boxmiller Beech, aka Box, a Harvard economics professor who's frequently summoned to the Oval Office and whose benchmark textbook nets about $3 million a year, Dabney's domestic life is sereneexcept that she's never gotten over her high school sweetheart, Clendenin "Clen" Hughes, a Pulitzer-winning journalist whose beat has been, until recently, Southeast Asia. Due to a childhood trauma involving a runaway mother, Dabney has been too phobic to leave Nantucket (except for four years at Harvard). Nearly three decades before, unable to follow in Clen's globe-trotting footsteps, Dabney banished him from her life and from the life of their daughter, Agnes, who's never met her father, though she knows who he is. Now Clen is back on Nantucketminus an arm. Agnes is engaged to the uber-rich, controlling and decidedly unclassy sports agent CJ. (This couple is definitely swathed in a green cloud.) Since Box is teaching in Cambridge during the week, the opportunity to resume an affair with Clen proves irresistible to Dabney. The complications mount until, suddenly, Hilderbrand's essentially sunny setup, bolstered by many summer parties and picnics (and lavishly described meals, particularly seafood), takes a sudden, somber turn. Hilderbrand has a way of transcending the formulaic and tapping directly into the emotional jugular. Class is often an undercurrent in her work, but in this comedy of manners-turned-cautionary tale, luck establishes its own dubious meritocracy.Beach reading with an unsettling edge. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.