hhushaw's review against another edition
4.0
An honest review thanks to NetGalley. This book was so refreshing compared to all the other lesbian romances that I have read. The characters don't immediately fall in love, the courting, and dating that takes place as well as the uniqueness of the characters itself evolves on every page. This was a very good romance, and I will be reading it again as well as looking out for this author. Enjoy!
gloriamontagov's review against another edition
5.0
➥ 4.5 Stars *:･ﾟ✧
Listen, Fiona Riley does it every time. Her books are not slow burns or anything ok? But they're exceptional nonetheless. They always have smoking tension, fantastic female characters and an overall swoony characteristic in general. If someone wanted to, they could tear this book to shreds, sure, but I don't care because it was just that delightful. If you like the feel of office romances but feel that most out there are a little too cringey and dramatic, you should try this one.
Anyway *yawn* I've been a mess recently so here are my only complaints:
- Samantha's gbf was a little too stereotypical and annoying for me.
- The conflict will always be Fiona Riley's fatal flaw; way too overdone. (-0.5 stars)
- Don't love the character names
- Too much past drama, why would I want to read about a character going through grief in her past when reading a romance? Not something I'm personally interested in or enjoy.
- Ugly cover
"Lucy must really like you for her to bring you home." She smiled genially before a hand slid along her back, interrupting her.
"I do," Lucinda supplied from behind her ear, her eyes locked on Samantha's as she spoke softly. "I love her."
━━━━━━━━━━━ ♡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
Listen, Fiona Riley does it every time. Her books are not slow burns or anything ok? But they're exceptional nonetheless. They always have smoking tension, fantastic female characters and an overall swoony characteristic in general. If someone wanted to, they could tear this book to shreds, sure, but I don't care because it was just that delightful. If you like the feel of office romances but feel that most out there are a little too cringey and dramatic, you should try this one.
➥ Lucinda (h) is so?? SO?? She actually reminds me a lot of Charlotte from [b:Those Who Wait|52729298|Those Who Wait|Haley Cass|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585279898l/52729298._SY75_.jpg|78678347] but, ugh, she's so painfully charming and wonderful. She's poised and elegant and strong. Just be my wife at this point, please. She's had a rough time recently, suffering loss of her dance partner. On that note, she is a professional dancer and...when she dances with Samantha? I can't even tell you, I just love it that much. And when she can fully lift and man-handle Sam...like hellO???
Strong arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her into a bone-crushing hug before spinning her on the spot. She nearly dropped her glass as Lucinda lifted her up onto the counter and looked deeply into her eyes.
➥ Samantha was sweet too!! Very likable and definitely had her moments...ahem. Now, her job is to set people up basically (hence the name of the book being Miss Match). She is latina? Which I must say was a questionable decision on Riley's part. The country she was actually from was never specified and the family dynamic was quite stereotypically negative. Though, I really don't think Riley did this with any malicious intent. She usually always writes rough family relationships regardless of the character's background, but I found it a little unnecessary, idk.
"I've been thinking about watching you squirm and beg for me to touch you ever since you teased me in my kitchen." She kissed along Lucinda's jaw before biting her chin lightly. "Are we at that point yet?"
Lucinda moaned as Samantha pulled harder on her nipple while pressing her palm flat against her and thrusting up.
"Come on, Luce," Samantha growled with her lips just millimeters from Lucinda's mouth. "Are we there yet?"
A soft whimper spilled from Lucinda's lips as she finally submitted with a nod, unable to resist the game any longer.
"Good girl." Samantha kissed Lucinda hard on the lips and pressed her back against the desk as she stood.
Anyway *yawn* I've been a mess recently so here are my only complaints:
- Samantha's gbf was a little too stereotypical and annoying for me.
- The conflict will always be Fiona Riley's fatal flaw; way too overdone. (-0.5 stars)
- Don't love the character names
- Too much past drama, why would I want to read about a character going through grief in her past when reading a romance? Not something I'm personally interested in or enjoy.
- Ugly cover
━━━━━━━━━━━ ♡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
josb's review against another edition
3.0
Everything about this book was exactly what I enjoy but for some reason, there was a disconnect between me and the text. There was communication, characters moved forward in their development, both characters had various dimensions, and the big angst was based on the internal emotions of the characters instead of a miscommunication issue.
Some things that I noticed that may have caused the disconnect revolved around the strength of details added to the characters. The MC's had such a similar voice that I was not sure who we were following when the mains were in a scene together. Additionally, it just felt like some extra explanation was missing that really would have added to the experience and suspension of disbelief. For example, in one scenario a character is in a boxing ring, sparring with a coach/owner. It appears she is doing well and even "kicking his ass" however only a small rationale is offered as to why this character boxes let alone excels in it. My other irrational gripe was that both mains seemed to have defined abs but we only ever hear about the workout regimen for one character. Visible abs are not an easy feat!
Overall a decent novel that did a fine job challenging those frustrating romance tropes. While I felt disconnected from the novel, I would encourage anyone interested to give it a try for themselves.
Some things that I noticed that may have caused the disconnect revolved around the strength of details added to the characters. The MC's had such a similar voice that I was not sure who we were following when the mains were in a scene together. Additionally, it just felt like some extra explanation was missing that really would have added to the experience and suspension of disbelief. For example, in one scenario a character is in a boxing ring, sparring with a coach/owner. It appears she is doing well and even "kicking his ass" however only a small rationale is offered as to why this character boxes let alone excels in it. My other irrational gripe was that both mains seemed to have defined abs but we only ever hear about the workout regimen for one character. Visible abs are not an easy feat!
Overall a decent novel that did a fine job challenging those frustrating romance tropes. While I felt disconnected from the novel, I would encourage anyone interested to give it a try for themselves.
patricia71's review against another edition
5.0
What a great book!! The sensual chemistry between the MC’s was of the charts. The banter between them and between Samantha and her best friend Andrew was funny. Both women were in my eyes beautiful. The sex was hot
sherpawhale's review against another edition
3.0
Good for a debut, but a few issues that kept me from rating it a 4. First of all, while Fiona Riley stayed away from peppering in a bunch of Spanish words to give emphasis that Samantha is Hispanic/Latina (a classic blunder), I felt like it was a bit tacked on.
Samantha also really frustrated me with her actions towards Lucinda. She treated Lucinda so horribly, yet I never really felt like she was written to deserve the empathy because she'd been cheated on. It never really felt like the horrendous, life-altering work blunder that would ruin her business, yet it was treated like the most stupendous bomb dropping.
More sympathy for Lucinda, please.
The chemistry was very good, though, off the charts and full of sizzle.
Samantha also really frustrated me with her actions towards Lucinda. She treated Lucinda so horribly, yet I never really felt like she was written to deserve the empathy because she'd been cheated on. It never really felt like the horrendous, life-altering work blunder that would ruin her business, yet it was treated like the most stupendous bomb dropping.
More sympathy for Lucinda, please.
The chemistry was very good, though, off the charts and full of sizzle.
rougeang13's review against another edition
4.0
This was such a sweet romance. Such a great way to start off 2021. I really enjoyed the intimacy between the 2 MCs! Would be a 5 star but I’ll agree with some of the others, it was a little confusing at times whose perspective you were reading. All in all, solid debut novel!
elvang's review against another edition
4.0
Impressive debut novel. Miss Match is a sweet romance starring two beautiful women who meet and fall in love. The author strikes a nice balance between their work lives and the more intimate moments between Lucinda and Samantha. The conversations shared feel natural and unforced, their histories point to the strong and confident women they are in the present. These two women deserve to find their HEA. And yes, there are lots of sex scenes to keep the hungriest romantics happy.
I was concerned that that this couple peaked too early and that little would follow the rounds after rounds of lovemaking. Happily there were conflicts to resolve, minor ones but enough to get the women out of bed and talking again. The cliches we have seen before include the gay best friend/business associate Andrew and Samantha's overbearing mother but they were offset by Lucinda's story and her dance studio charity work.
A sweet and simple love story that was a pleasure to read. Looking forward to whatever Ms. Riley publishes next.
ARC received with thanks from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley for review.
I was concerned that that this couple peaked too early and that little would follow the rounds after rounds of lovemaking. Happily there were conflicts to resolve, minor ones but enough to get the women out of bed and talking again. The cliches we have seen before include the gay best friend/business associate Andrew and Samantha's overbearing mother but they were offset by Lucinda's story and her dance studio charity work.
A sweet and simple love story that was a pleasure to read. Looking forward to whatever Ms. Riley publishes next.
ARC received with thanks from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley for review.
mjsam's review against another edition
4.0
Nice debut novel
I got this to read because I received the second story in the series from NetGalley and even though I'm sure I could read it as a standalone, I prefer to read books in order.
This is a nice, sweet romance. There not too much drama, and what there is is handled fairly well, without tedious repetition or overblown dramatics.
I liked both characters, but even though they spent a lot of time together, I felt like my knowledge of them and their motivations was somewhat superficial. We're told things about Luce's past, but Samantha's backstory and family are more or less glossed over, even with her mother visiting, and the way Sam reveals her relationship with Luce to her mother seemed like a throw-away, when it could have added depth to the story if handled while her mother was there.
Even so, the interactions between the characters are pretty charming, and for those who love sex scenes, there more than enough in here to keep you occupied (I actually though there were too many, but YMMV). I was pleased by the fact that there were multiple points where I thought the author would go the tried and true route but she deviated, which I appreciated.
As the start of a series I found it interesting enough, and the hook of the dating agency lends itself to further books. It's a nice solid debut novel, and I look forward to reading more in the series.
I got this to read because I received the second story in the series from NetGalley and even though I'm sure I could read it as a standalone, I prefer to read books in order.
This is a nice, sweet romance. There not too much drama, and what there is is handled fairly well, without tedious repetition or overblown dramatics.
I liked both characters, but even though they spent a lot of time together, I felt like my knowledge of them and their motivations was somewhat superficial. We're told things about Luce's past, but Samantha's backstory and family are more or less glossed over, even with her mother visiting, and the way Sam reveals her relationship with Luce to her mother seemed like a throw-away, when it could have added depth to the story if handled while her mother was there.
Even so, the interactions between the characters are pretty charming, and for those who love sex scenes, there more than enough in here to keep you occupied (I actually though there were too many, but YMMV). I was pleased by the fact that there were multiple points where I thought the author would go the tried and true route but she deviated, which I appreciated.
As the start of a series I found it interesting enough, and the hook of the dating agency lends itself to further books. It's a nice solid debut novel, and I look forward to reading more in the series.