Happy Release Day!
Congrats Lynda
on the release today of
The Matchmaker's Gift!
The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Jewish Historical Fiction, 320 pages
Published September 20th 2022 by St. Martin's Press
From Lynda Cohen Loigman, the bestselling author of The Two-Family House and The Wartime Sisters, comes a heartwarming story of two extraordinary women from two different eras who defy expectations to utilize their unique gift of seeing soulmates in the most unexpected places in The Matchmaker's Gift.
Is finding true love a calling or a curse?
Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.
Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?
My thoughts about The Matchmaker's Gift ~~
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)
First line—"Sara was ten years old when she made her first match."
First of all, isn't this cover just amazing!? I absolutely love it!
I had not read any of Ms. Loigman's books before this one, although I do have one on by TBR shelf. This story has given me a taste of her beautiful and heartfelt writing so I'm excited to take that book off of the shelf and dive into it.
The Matchmaker's Gift is dramatic, while at the same time, magical and full of love. And I adored every second of it. The story takes place in two different time periods, covering the life of Sara who discovered her matchmaking abilities at a very young age and Abby, her granddaughter, who seems to have inherited the matchmaking gift but is struggling to understand it.
The two stories are intricately woven together as we learn how both women suffered and fought for the lives they wanted. Both were amazing women. I absolutely loved this story and will be recommending The Matchmaker's Gift to all.
I received a copy of The Matchmaker's Gift from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion of the book.
About the author
Lynda Cohen Loigman grew up in Longmeadow, MA. She received a B.A. in English and American Literature from Harvard College and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.
Her debut novel, The Two-Family House, was a USA Today bestseller and a nominee for the Goodreads 2016 Choice Awards in Historical Fiction. Her second novel, The Wartime Sisters, was selected as a Woman's World Book Club pick and a Best Book of 2019 by Real Simple Magazine. The Matchmaker’s Gift, her third novel, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in September of 2022.
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