62 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Smart and sassy but takes awhile to find its heart!, August 12, 2005
"Match Me If You Can" is a delightful book by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, full of memorable characters and bright, witty dialogue. It is the latest entry in her "Chicago Stars" football team series of books and features characters from the other books in the series (such as the Somerville sisters and their husbands) as secondary characters.
The heroine of the story, Annabelle Granger, is a charming but rather hapless redhead--a chronic underachiever born into a family of super-achievers. When Annabelle inherits her grandmother's matchmatching business ("Matches by Myrna") she changes the name to "Perfect for You" and sets out to make her new business a success. The key its success, she believes, is to land gorgeous Heath Champion, bachelor extraordinaire and wealthy sports agent, as a client. Heath is looking for a wife and has engaged a rival matchmaking service ("Power Matches" run by the ruthlessly perfect Portia Powers) to introduce him to likely candidates since he is just *too busy* with his work to look for a wife on his own. Annabelle goes after Heath's business with a vengeance, but cannot help taking a few jabs at his over-inflated ego. Heath is looking to the "perfect" woman to complement his "perfect" life. (Annabelle sums up his requirements for a wife: "Athletic, domestic, gorgeous, brilliant, socially connected, and pathologically submissive.") Heath is only willing to meet the "candidates" initially for a 20 minute interview and insists that Annabelle be present for all the first meetings. Of course none of the candidates is ever as perfect for Heath as Annabelle herself, but it takes him absolutely *forever* to figure this out.
Annabelle is a charming heroine--smart, warm-hearted, vulnerable and fun-loving. Heath is much harder to warm up to as a hero. His nickname is "The Python" since he squeezes money out of the team owners and sponsors for his clients, and he is suitably cold-blooded for that name to be appropriate. He is gorgeous, intelligent, driven and rich, but also a double cell-phoned workaholic full of smarmy charm and shallow emotions. I found it surprising that more of the "candidates" did not reject *him* after the first 20 minute meeting. Heath realizes that he is attracted to Annabelle but dismisses her as potential wife material since she does not fit his preconceived ideal of the beautiful, polished, perfect spouse. He has absolutely *tons* of emotional baggage to come to terms with before he is able to recognize his true feelings for Annabelle.
The dialogue is sharp and witty and it is a delight to revisit characters like Phoebe Somerville Calebow (heroine of "It Had to Be You"), the owner of the Chicago Stars and Heath's arch-enemy since she was forced to cave in to his hardball negotiating tactics early in his career as a sports agent. (Heath says at one point: "It's been seven years, Phoebe. Don't you think it's time we bury the hatchet?" To which Phoebe replies: "As long as the blade ends up in the back of your neck, I'm game.") The plot moves along fairly well, but it takes a long time (I mean, a *long* time!) for Heath to realize that Annabelle is the right woman for him and his epiphany when it does occur seems startlingly abrupt.
In summary, "Match Me If You Can" is a fun and fast read with the type of memorable characters and sparkling dialogue typical of Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
Highly recommended.
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28 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sassy heroine + sexy hero = a great romantic comedy, August 22, 2005
Annabelle Granger inherited a matchmaking business from her grandmother and sets out to land Chicago's most eligible bachelor, Heath Champion. Heath has already signed with powerhouse matchmaker, Portia Powers, but meets with Annabelle as a courtesy to his client, Chicago Stars quarterback, Kevin Turner. He gives Annabelle one chance to knock him off his feet - set him up with one date, and if he likes the woman, he'll sign with her. She talks a friend into posing as his date, and he's instantly attracted to Gwen, only to be informed that Gwen just wants to be friends. As she searches for the perfect woman for him, and sits in on all the dates (as well as those set up by Portia at Heath's request), she realizes that she's falling for him, despite his brash personality. But her trump card is the relationship she has with Phoebe Calebow, owner of the Stars, and nemesis of Heath. If he can get into Phoebe's good graces, one of his biggest obstacles can be overcome. When Annabelle and Heath give in to their growing feelings for each other while on a weekend retreat, Annabelle realizes that the rules have changed, and finding his perfect match will cause her heartbreak.
Loaded with SEP's signature crisp and witty dialogue, "Match Me if You Can" is a charming entry into the Stars/Bonner Brothers series. A bonus is the funny secondary romance between Portia and Bodie, who fashions himself as Heath's "bodyguard." He's a former football player and she's a former socialite. When their worlds collide, it makes for a raucous romance. This one is highly recommended!
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19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
not her best, October 2, 2006
Compared to all SEP's other work, Match Me was a let down. I love all her football series starting w/ it had to be You - and she has great characters but the story lacked the depth that she usually works into her characters. It was too pat that Bodie was rich and connected. And at the end, Heath has one session with her family and loves them to bits and we are supposed to buy into his idea of the family dynamics. In SEP's other stories like Nobody's Baby...the family felt real. Here- throughout the story SEP has them set up as some kind of irritant who always put her down and belittle her and so when they finally "root" for her, I just didnt buy it and I didn't even like them. So the end - where the hero grovels to the heroine - also didnt work- which is a shame because it worked really well in every other book of hers. Of SEP's work,my favorites have been Heaven Texas and Nobody's Baby.... Can anyone tell me why it doesn't work? Please, please let Dean Robillard's story have all the weight and humor of her older work.
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