An adorable, New Adult, contemporary, romantic comedy
An Unlikely Match by Barbara Dunlop
Reading Level: New Adult Romance
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Pages: 165 pages
Source: Author Request
Reviewed By:Kate McMurry
A group of 70-something friends who live in a Florida retirement community are determined to help their grandchildren, grandnephews and grandnieces find their ideal mates by using a matchmaking computer program designed by their most brilliant co-conspirator, a former NASA scientist named Sam.
The first match that the program produces consists of 27-year-old Morgan Holbrook, the grandson of JW, a retired general, and 22-year-old Amelia Camden, the grandniece of Hannah, a bubbly, charming woman who has been a beauty all her life.
Amelia has just graduated from an Arizona university with a BA in fine arts and a C average. Rather than plodding away at her studies, Amelia focused on her extracurricular activities, participating in theater, cheerleading and an active social life. Her post-graduation plans are to move to LA and try out for parts as an actress while working as a cocktail waitress to support herself. Much like her Aunt Hannah, Amelia is beautiful, upbeat and fun to be with.
Morgan has a genius IQ. He attended Berkeley and earned a PhD in astrophysics, making him the proverbial "rocket scientist." In spite of being a "nerd," he is quite athletic, regularly engaging in mountain biking and martial arts, in which he has a black belt.
In order to get the two of them together, the coterie of senior matchmakers arrange to have Amelia and Morgan living, each rent free, in condos in the same building in Pasadena, California, and Sam uses his influence to get Morgan a job as an assistant professor at Caltech to anchor him in the same geographic location as Amelia.
In spite of the fact that these two, on the surface, are polar opposites, from the moment they meet, a strong, mutual attraction flares between them and continues to grow as they get to know each other, though neither of them suspects how the other feels.
This is the first book in a cute, romantic-comedy series. The author has written many bestselling Harlequin contemporary romances, but this series is self-published. I would personally classify "An Unlikely Match" as "New Adult" (NA), though the author does not seem to be marketing this series as such, because the protagonists are in their twenties and just starting out in life.
Looking at the book in that light, it is a terrific, and much needed, addition to that recently created subgenre of contemporary romance. NA has been flooded with angsty, college-based romantic dramas overflowing (ad nauseum) with bacchanalian booze parties, detailed, frantic sex scenes, and endlessly tattooed protagonists. I adore "geek" heroes, and Morgan is one of the best I've encountered in any romance novel, whether, YA, NA or adult. He's mature, responsible, and an outstanding example of a "metrosexual" male who is quite sexy without being alpha-dog domineering, as so many NA and adult, contemporary-romance heroes are.
This is a very funny book, with many laugh-out-loud moments, but it is also deeply emotional where it counts, in the progression of the growing love between Morgan and Amelia. I was really impressed with the way that both the hero and heroine, over the course of the novel, transcend their external, socially generated personas to discover that, deep inside, they have far more in common than they could ever have initially imagined. They both share some of the most important qualities that make for success in a committed, romantic relationship, including responsibility, emotional sensitivity, being good listeners who are truly interested in each other, and a willingness to help each other achieve their most important life goals.
This book is written in the point of view of both the hero and heroine, and initially in the point of view of Morgan's grandfather as we get a peek into the benevolent and humorous motivation behind the merry band of matchmakers who are the linking premise of this series. I am not always a fan of that kind of setup for a romance series, which has been done by Harlequin many times over the years. However, I found this particular, quirky set of seniors extremely likeable and a great deal of fun.
I highly recommend this book to fans of romantic comedy, and if you enjoy this book, you might also want to try another wonderful NA romantic comedy, Isn't She Lovely by Lauren Layne
.I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5
Hero: 5
Subcharacters: 5
Romance Plot: 5
Writing: 5
Overall: 5
and 
), close-third, multiple POV gives an added depth and breadth that can't be offered by first person. It is also a long-standing tradition in the adult romance genre to offer the male POV as well as the heroine's, and I am always grateful to YA authors who are willing to draw on that tradition to enrich their romance plots.