Can science find the person of your dreams?

Synopsis

Meet Patrick Cooper – desperately down on his luck, and head-over-heels in unrequited love with his best friend Bridget.

Meet Bridget’s sister, Emma Donovan –  eternally single maker-of-cakes for many a happy couple, whilst never making it down the aisle herself.

Emma has four younger sisters, all of whom are married or getting married, and an Italian mother who can’t understand what is ‘wrong’ with her eldest daughter, who seems to be stranded on the shelf.  Despairing of her own ability to find a suitable husband, Emma agrees to be part of a compatibility project to get married at first sight. 

Meanwhile Cooper is struggling to get over his crush on Bridget and seems destined to stay firmly on the shelf too. Perhaps it’s time his fate was taken out of his hands…

Is happily-ever-after just about daring to take a chance, or do you need some extra magic to make love last?

Join Beth Moran, Cooper and the Donovan sisters on this life-affirming and uplifting tale of love, family, friendship, and risking it all for happiness. 

My review

Emma Donovan is loving her job as a wedding cake – maker. But the longer she is staying single, the more it bothers her that everyone seems to find their better halves except her…
And of course it doesn’t help that her four younger sisters are all married or in the process of getting married. And on top of it all, having a real Italian mother who wants to see her oldest daughter settled.
So when her sister Bridget is working together with Patrick Cooper on a compatibility project to get married at first sight, Emma as despaired as she is, agrees on taking part.
But when Patrick is also taking part on the project as a guinea pig, to get over his unrequited love for Bridget, could it be that science truly can match people?

This story gave me mixed feelings…

On one hand we have Emma, struggling with her single – status and having younger sisters all happily married or nearly walking down the aisle.
And having a job creating wedding cakes surely isn’t helping her depressed feelings.
So when she decides to let science take over and help her sister Bridget to get married at first sight, I understood her reasons.

And we have Patrick, being in love with Bridget, but knowing it would never be requited…  So when he is also part in the project, I thought I knew where the story would go.

But from that very point, the story took a turn I didn’t expect. The matching didn’t was how I imagined, but all is fair in books, so here also I understood the reason behind it.

I enjoyed reading how both Emma and Patrick have to adjust to be part of a married couple, both having no idea what adventure they started.
Slowly they are growing closer together, they get to know each other and a friendship is being built.
But also personally they are making an evolution, because of their situation they have to figure out what they truly want. They have to do some inner searching and have to find the courage to speak out.

Feelings are not something that can be denied, and no matter how much you work on them, you cannot just pretend they exist (or don’t exist).
Both Emma and Patrick have to figure out what they actual feel, not only for each other. And is staying married just to prove a point the right course to take?

This story shows us that a marriage is something that needs to be worked on, not only for complete strangers matched by a project, but also for people who know each other.
I liked reading how both Emma and Patrick are trying to make things work. They truly give their best and don’t give up easily.

The ending of this story somehow made sense, because a lot of pieces of the puzzle fell together. But there was this tiny piece that left me bit longing for more, because I felt there was one unfinished business that I would have loved to see it also finished. Yet even if it did not end like I wished, it somehow was perfect in line with the whole story.