On her twenty-eighth birthday, Raina promised her grandmother if she
isn't married by the age of thirty, she'd allow her grandmother to play
matchmaker. Now a year later, with Raina no closer to finding a
boyfriend let alone a husband, her grandmother gets an early start and
creates a list of potential boyfriends and begins setting Raina up. At
first, Raina is reluctant, but she agrees knowing how important it is to
her grandmother. After the first few dates go horribly wrong, Raina
begins to get discouraged. She's always enjoyed hanging out with her
grandmother, but now lately she's begun to feel pressure about dating.
Raina doesn't want to disappoint her grandmother, but she's not
interested.
In fact, Raina is still pining for the man who broke her heart while she
lived in London. She's stunned to learn that he's coming to the Toronto
office. He seems to believe they will pick up right where they left off.
For a while, Raina's happy again. She doesn't tell her grandmother or
her best friend because she knows they will disapprove. Instead, she
avoids them both until the lies start piling up and exploding around her.
THE MATCHMAKER'S LIST will
grab readers from the beginning with Raina's relationship with her
grandmother, the humorously terrible first dates, and her struggle to
find a balance in her life. Raina wants to marry for love, not because her
culture believes a woman needs to be married. She has a hard time
reconciling her life to the life her grandmother wishes for her. Her
grandmother believes that she works too hard and doesn't take time for
herself. She isn't wrong and their relationship suffers. After a few
dates, she's not interested in meeting any more men. When she
realizes that her grandmother's setting her up with men from a dating
site, she rebels and lets her grandmother believe that she's a lesbian.
That one lie of omission allows Raina the freedom to relax without the
pressure of dating. Her grandmother has a hard time keeping her
secret and the gossip spreads through their Indian community like
wildfire. Not everyone's as open-minded as Raina's grandmother and
this causes a huge rift within their community. While the guilt eats away
at Raina, she's convinced it's too late to share the truth. It's hard to feel
sympathy for Raina as she lets her lie spiral out of control wreaking
havoc on the relationships in her life.
One devoted modern girl + a meddlesome, traditional
grandmother = a heartwarming multicultural romantic comedy
about finding love where you least expect it
Raina Anand may have finally given in to family pressure and
agreed to let her grandmother play matchmaker, but that
doesn't mean she has to like it--or that she has to play by
the rules. Nani always took Raina's side when she tried to
push past the traditional expectations of their tight-knit
Indian-immigrant community, but now she's ambushing Raina
with a list of suitable bachelors. Is it too much to ask for
a little space? Besides, what Nani doesn't know won't hurt
her...
As Raina's life spirals into a parade of Nani-approved
bachelors and disastrous blind dates, she must find a way
out of this modern-day arranged-marriage trap without
shattering her beloved grandmother's dreams.