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Having fallen in love with the characters in Matchmaking for Beginners, when I saw there was another book about Marnie, the matchmaker and believer in “the universe” arranging things for everyone, who just needed to be shown the way by her ex-husband’s quirky great-aunt, Blix, there was no question I would read more.
Four years have gone by, and Patrick and Marnie are living together in the Brooklyn brownstone Blix left to Marnie. While Patrick still really prefers to stay home and keep to himself, he is a good complement to Marnie, who runs a floral shop (mostly just as a gathering place) and continues to see “sparkles” around people, mostly strangers, indicating to her that they belong together. But now, Marnie knows she has to break it to Patrick that she really needs a baby. And it doesn’t go well. He is perfectly content with what they have, which is frankly a lot of progress on his part, after the huge tragedy that he experienced eight years before and that left him literally scarred. He thinks he can go no further.
And then the universe sends a surprise, as it tends to do: in the form of an 8-year-old daughter Patrick didn’t know he had. And rather than being a nudge forward, as weeks go by, this delightful and energetic little person ends up being one reason Patrick starts pulling back, away from Marnie and toward the grief and guilt that had so consumed him before. Even Marnie, who has learned that the universe can always be trusted, eventually starts to lose her faith in magic, in love, in all that Blix taught her.
A Happy Catastrophe brought these characters back to life for me, a year after reading the first book, and I felt so strongly the desires and hope Marnie had for an even better life for her and Patrick, even while I could appreciate the struggles he was facing. Since Blix died in the first book, she doesn’t have the focus here, but her presence is still very much felt by the characters (particularly Marnie) and by the reader. This is the kind of story that could be mawkish or overdone in many lesser writers’ hands, but Dawson is a talented writer and storyteller who knows and loves her characters and is skilled at letting them shine on the page so they’re believable, and the bits of “magic” feel organic, the nuggets of wisdom not platitudes or clichés. I was perfectly happy to get immersed in this little neighborhood for a few days again.
(Bonus: this book had a lot less profanity than the first, with this only being rated moderate.)
Rated: Moderate. Profanity is mostly limited to 5 instances of strong language, 10 or so uses of moderate language, and some occasional milder language. Sexual content is mild, with only talk about characters having sex but no details other than removing clothes or kissing.
* I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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