A review by meganpbennett
The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The Matzah Ball is an interesting, own-voices romance novel, and it has a diverse cast of characters who usually don't grace romance novels: Jewish people and those living with a chronic illness. It's a peak into the lives of people who aren't like me, and that's just plain wonderful. It's sparkly, it's bright, it's everything you could possibly want in a holiday romance novel. If you don't look behind the curtain.

I really didn't like Jacob. He's a walking collection of all of the tropes I don't like in romance novels and he doesn't have enough character development to make up for his behavior. Frankly, I don't know what Rachel sees in the man. He's a bully and a dick.

There are other aspects of the book that I didn't like, but I'm not able to articulate well. There's a remarkably over the top removal of agency that's passed off as a grand gesture; Rachel is pushed to "out herself" by writing an own-voices holiday romance novel, despite not being ready to do so; Rachel and Jacob are still acting like 12 year olds at camp and still holding grudges over what happened; the book is so littered with vocabulary words that a glossary would have helped the Gentile readership.  
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