Match Me If You Can (Chicago Stars #6)

She may be the black sheep of her uber-successful family, but Annabelle Granger marches to the beat of her own drum. She\’s taken over her grandmother\’s matchmaking business, renamed it Perfect for You, and is determined to make it successful. As part of the quest to do so, she\’s gotten one of her best friends to set up a meeting with one of the most eligible bachelors in town, rich, gorgeous sports agent, Heath Champion. Annabelle may not have the first clue why Heath would need to go to a matchmaker to find a wife, but he\’s contracted with a rival agency and Annabelle is convinced she can get him to become a client of hers if she just meets him. And things go exactly as planned…sorta. Well, okay, not really. Champion is an arrogant, overly entitled workaholic jerk and his demands are ridiculously unreasonable. Still, he\’s made a small concession and Annabelle sets her sights on making the most of the opportunity he\’s granted. He\’s also sexy as hell…not that she\’s given that any thought. Heath Champion has risen from poverty and survived an abusive father to become a self-made and highly educated man. He\’s an excellent agent and he dedicates his life to his clients. Now that he\’s approaching thirty-five he figures it\’s time he finds a suitable wife, but with his schedule he hardly has time. So he does the most practical thing he can think of; he hires a matchmaking firm to do it for him. Limiting his introductory meetings to twenty minutes, the ladies of Chicago are brought to him one by one between phone calls and business dealings, and it\’s going moderately well, he thinks. Until Annabelle walks into his office, late, looking bedraggled, and spouting off about her own matchmaking abilities. Two working to find him a wife has to be – at least marginally – better than one, no matter how little faith he has in Annabelle\’s dubious skills. Something about her, though, challenges him, and her absolute lack of suitable subservience to him is appealing in its own right. And she\’s sexy as hell…not that he\’s given that any thought. Susan Elizabeth Phillips has a fantastic romp in Match Me If You Can . Heath and Annabelle are great lead characters, and their dialogue is sassy, sarcastic, and so very much fun. The chemistry between them, first as friends, then as lovers, is some of the best in the genre, and Phillips is particularly good at the slow but realistic development of the relationship between them. Each character has personal issues and a few inner demons that add some depth and angst to the story and provides opportunity for personal development, and the arc of the story is fleshed out nicely with a strong supporting case of secondary and ancillary characters. While it could be said that the concept of the story borders on the silly, and the actions of both Annabelle and Heath sometimes tread the line between fantastic and farce, for a light read that\’s pure humorous enjoyment, this book has made it to the big game and delivered more than just nifty commercials. I wish I\’d been as pleased with the minor plot thread of the relationship between Bodie and Portia, but I had a hard time with that one. It just didn\’t work for me. Maybe if it had been given a bit more room to grow and the characters afforded more development I would have been able to buy into it more than I did. Instead, I found Portia to be largely irredeemable until close to the very end and there wasn\’t enough provided for me to find her sympathetic through most of the book. I liked Bodie well enough, but again, would have preferred to have seen a bit more of him to get a better handle on him as a character. There were some deep issues motivating Portia, and some juicy details about Bodie\’s past. I think they could have supported their own story much better in a longer format. I wasn\’t totally sold on the conclusion of Match Me If You Can , either. The story was moving right along and getting to the meat of the central conflict between Heath and Annabelle, and things just went a little wonky. The inevitable blow up occurred a little abruptly and was resolved a little quickly for my taste given the depth of the issues each character has at the time. I appreciated the epilogue quite a bit, though, and the nifty way the book was wrapped up. From strictly a story perspective, I wouldn\’t say Match Me If You Can is perfect, but it was solidly good and a lot of pure, fun entertainment. I know it\’s the sixth book of the Chicago Stars series, but it worked well as a stand alone. I haven\’t read the first five books, so I can speak with authority (albeit a subjective one) on that. I can also say I enjoyed this one so much that I purchased the series opener, It Had to Be You so I could start the Chicago Stars series from the beginning. Phillips has a smooth, pleasant writing style and creates likable characters, putting them into sizzling situations (though sometimes that sizzle comes from the hotheadedness of her characters), much to a reader\’s supreme enjoyment. I\’m looking forward to spending much more time in the Chicago Stars world. Similarities exist between this series and Kate Angell\’s Richmond Rogues series – though that one is centered around baseball. I\’ll be interested in seeing how those similarities – and differences, too – evidence themselves as I progress with this series. I\’ve enjoyed the Rogues series so far, and things are looking just as good, if not better, in Phillips\’ Chicago Stars series. Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

I bought the book new and the spine was ripped. I returned it and then read it from the library. This did not impact my rating of the book. I appreciated it that returning it was easy. SPOILERS INCLUDED IN THE REVIEW The story was ok. It had a HEA ending with epilogue. There was no cheating and no sex with OW after meeting. However there were things that impacted my enjoyment of the book. The hero was a jerk and full of himself. He wanted a perfect woman but could not meet or even come close to that standard himself. The heroine had low self esteem and let everyone walk all over her including her family and the hero. The hero has smex with the heroine and then continues to date OW, continuing to look for his perfect mate. Then towards the end of the story he tells himself that he will be with the heroine because she loves him, he is attracted to her and likes spending time with her. How big of him. At the end of the story he claims to love her but I never felt it. Also there was no chemistry. The smex scenes were brief and passionless.

This was my third book by this author and after reading To Kiss an Angel and First Star I See I was SO excited for this book. I\’d thought Heath was great in First Star but this Heath was shallow and annoying. Annabelle\’s character was immature and I got zero chemistry from them. As much as I disliked Portia and found her side story an annoying distraction at least there was chemistry between her and Bodie. I\’m hoping some of the newest books by this author are more like her other two, this was a struggle to get through for me. So disappointed.

I absolutely adore this book by Phillips! I had read her earlier books and they are more standard romance. This book has really good characters some of whom you will remember from earlier books but it is not necessary to go back as they are fully explained in this story. I loved the heroine who is feisty, not a bombshell but with an edge of humour. The hero is the usual self made millionaire but has more depth and angles. The main characters are supported by a cast of interesting secondary characters who make the plot believable. In Phillips novels change happens to people as a result of action and life choices. But this is not a \’mushy\’ romance. The dialogue is witty and refreshing. This is a book that I worth the money ad time. I re-read this one every few months because it is a REALLY GOOD READ!

MATCH ME IF YOU CAN is the sixth novel in Phillips\’ Chicago Stars series. It is the story of Heath Champion, the high powered agent to athletes and Annabelle Granger, a matchmaker. Annabelle has just taken over her grandmother\’s agency and wants to land Heath as a client. Heath is looking for a elegant, sophisticated wife that will help him with his career and demonstrate how far he has come from the trailer park he grew up in. Although Heath is attracted to Annabelle, she does not fit his image of his wife. Of course, ultimately the two end up together. I enjoyed this book although I think that this one is better for fans of the series than reading as a stand-alone. It was wonderful catching up on all the other characters from the previous books, but someone who was unfamiliar with the series might struggle to keep up with everyone. Also I was not as engaged in the secondary romance as much as I have been with those in past novels. Despite this, however, I absolutely adored Heath. I just love having these high powered alpha types be completely undone by love. I also enjoyed how Annabelle and Heath change each other\’s lives as they journey together. I recommend this book and recommend it highly to fans of the series.

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