Mr. Perfect on Paper
by Jean MeltzerSetting: New Jersey
Published on August 9, 2022
Pages: 387
Format: Hardcover Source: Library
From the author of The Matzah Ball comes a pitch-perfect romcom following a third-generation Jewish matchmaker who unwittingly finds her own search for love thrust into the spotlight...
The perfect Jewish husband should be:* A doctor or lawyer (preferably a doctor)* Baggage-free (no previous marriages, no children)* And of course—he must be Jewish
As the creator and CEO of the popular Jewish dating app J-Mate, matchmaker Dara Rabinowitz knows the formula for lasting love—at least, for everyone else. When it comes to her own love life, she’s been idling indefinitely. Until her beloved bubbe shares Dara’s checklist for “The Perfect Jewish Husband” on national television and charming news anchor Chris Steadfast proposes they turn Dara’s search into must-see TV.
As a non-Jewish single dad, Chris doesn’t check any of Dara’s boxes. But her hunt for Mr. Perfect is the ratings boost his show desperately needs. If only Chris could ignore his own pesky attraction to Dara—a task much easier said than done when Dara starts questioning if “perfect on paper” can compete with how hard she’s falling for Chris…
Dara is the tech genius behind J-Mate, a successful Jewish dating site. She is a third generation matchmaker. Everything is going great with her work life. Her personal life is hard though. Her mother died ten years ago and now her beloved grandmother is dying. Dara has severe generalized anxiety. She manages it by being hyper-organized and relying on a few specific coping strategies. Her grandmother worries that she is shutting herself off from the world in her quest for control.
I enjoyed this book. The characters are all very well written. The plot is fun. The descriptions of life with anxiety is good. My main issue is that the whole story is about how important finding a Jewish husband is for Dara. However, you know because this is a romance novel that she is going to get together with the Christian guy at the end. The story highlights how deeply she feels about her religion. Dating a non-Jewish person is absolutely not an option for several very good reasons. Then it feels like at the end she just throws it all away. It doesn’t feel like something that would happen to a person who is that deeply religious.
