This is the third book in the Matchmaker Series by Elise Sax and I snagged this book from Netgalley. The series started with An Affair to Dismember and was followed up by Matchpoint; I gave both of them 5 stars.
Fall has come to Cannes and Gladie begins this book by digging out her winter clothes that have been stored in her grandmother's shed. When her grandmother warns her about opening the suitcase due to spiders - big nasty ones, Gladie's day just goes downhill from there. Zelda, her grandmother, predicts there is an ill wind blowing through Cannes, and with it comes mayhem, misunderstandings, and murder - or in other words, just another typical Gladie adventure.
Gladie has the usual bad time of it in this book. There are car crashes, physical injury, vomiting, and general craziness that follows her around. She ends up making one match (which her and her grandmother came up with at almost the exact same moment), one unmatch, one on the house matching suggestion and figuring out the whodunit of the murder.
This book had all the same hijinx and hilarity of the first two, but for some reason I had a harder time diving into the book. I started and stopped several times, just not feeling it like I had on the first two. About 1/3 of the way in I finally got excited and caught up in the action. This was a good book, but it just didn't have the pizzazz of the first two. Still worth 4 stars though.
Perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich, Jennifer Crusie, and Katie MacAlister, Elise Sax’s wickedly funny Matchmaker series proves that the road to love comes with a few dead ends.
Five months have passed since Gladie Burger came to Cannes, California, to join her eccentric Grandma Zelda in the family matchmaking business, and Gladie is quickly mastering the rules of attraction. Her latest fix-up is still going strong and Gladie’s bank account is back in the black—until a rival matchmaker arrives in town and has both Gladie and Zelda seeing red.
Not only is self-proclaimed psychic Luanda Laughing-Eagle stealing Grandma Zelda’s clients, but Zelda is convinced that Luanda’s ESP is total BS. She tasks Gladie with exposing Luanda as a fraud, but Gladie’s attention is diverted when murder comes a-calling. Spencer Bolton, the gorgeous chief of police and Gladie’s on-again, off-again flame, wants her to stay out of the investigation—and away from the deliciously chiseled detective who also aims to win Gladie’s heart. But the one thing Gladie’s learned is that in business, love and murder . . . it’s always personal.
I focused away from Jimmy the Fink’s body while Spencer called the coroner’s office. I couldn’t help but notice the stack of mail on the table. Jimmy wasn’t talking anymore, and he probably wasn’t Randy Terns’ murderer, since he had been murdered himself. Perhaps my only chance of gleaning insight into the murders and the whereabouts of Chuck Costas was in Jimmy’s mail. The envelopes were open, so, it wouldn’t technically be a federal crime if I borrowed them. Besides, Jimmy the Fink didn’t need his mail anymore. I was really doing a service for the cleanup crew, I figured. I slipped them into my purse a second before Spencer whipped around to face me.
“Did you touch something?”
“No,” I lied. I coughed and sputtered and sweat rolled down the side of my face. I stood up. “Look, I have to go home and work. I’ve taken off way too much time today. Love calls, you know.”
He put his hand on my shoulder. “You’re not going anywhere, Pinkie, until my men arrive and we get this wrapped up. Sit down.”
“Hands up, punk!”
The super crashed through the open door, the biggest gun I had ever seen in his trembling hands, his finger on the trigger. Spencer didn’t lose his cool.
“Whoa, buddy,” he said, calmly. “Take it easy.”
“I will not take it easy. Get your hands off the girl before I blow a hole through your middle so big they’ll be able to drive trucks through it.”
Spencer removed his hand from my shoulder. “It’s not what it looks like. I’m a cop. Let me show you my badge.”
But the super wasn’t listening. Instead, he was looking down at Jimmy the Fink’s corpse. “What’d you do to Jimmy? Jesus Christ, you got a gun!” Spencer had reached for his badge but in doing so, had revealed his sidearm.
“Sir, I’m a cop. I’m the chief of police. Let me show you my badge.”
“Is that true?” The question was directed to me.
“Well …,” I said, shrugging.
This seemed to be the answer the super was looking for.
“Freeze! Don’t move a muscle,” he shouted at Spencer.
“May I go now? I’m not feeling very well,” I said. And just like that, I left the room, the super’s gun pointed at Spencer’s head, Jimmy the Fink dead on the floor, and Jimmy’s mail stuffed in my purse. In a few minutes the police would arrive and everything would be settled. In the meantime, was my presence really necessary?
Gladie, aka Pinkie, has tracked down the address of one of the men she thinks was blackmailing her dead neighbor. Turns out he is dead too. This is just one great scene in a book full of great scenes.
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Lovably troublesome Gladie Burger runs into sizzling danger and a fiery love triangle in the second installment of Elise Sax’s hilarious and sexy Matchmaker romance series.
“Elise Sax will make you laugh. Her larger-than-life characters jump off the page and make crazy seem like a fun place to hang out.”—New York Times bestselling author Christie Craig.
Since joining the family matchmaking business run by her eccentric Grandma Zelda, Gladie is always looking for love. But when an unbearable toothache knocks her out of commission and into the dentist’s chair, she prays only for relief. No such luck. Emerging from an anesthetic haze, Gladie awakes to find that not only is her tooth still throbbing, but her dentist is dead—and the lead suspect in the murder, office receptionist Belinda, just so happens to be Gladie’s first real client. Now it’s up to Gladie to find Belinda a man and keep her from being locked up behind bars.
As if that weren’t enough distraction, two gorgeous men are vying for Gladie’s attention: Spencer, the playboy chief of police, and Holden, Gladie’s secretive, gorgeously muscled neighbor. Still, Gladie’s not complaining about having a helping hand or two when the case leads her to a dangerously bizarre cult. She may have met her match—and if she’s not careful, it could be her last.
Trailer:
Review:
This is the second book in the Matchmaker Series by Elise Sax. I was lucky enough to be able to immediately read this one after reading An Affair to Dismember, the first book in the series. I went into this book with extremely high expectations, and am happy to say that not only did Ms. Sax meet them, she exceeded them.
Matchpoint starts about a month after the end of An Affair to Dismember. Gladie is sitting in Bird Gonzalez's beauticians chair, getting talked into having the Ecuadoran Erect applied to her hair to straighten it. Once this is done, Gladie looks like a whole different person. So much so that most people don't recognize her... at all.
Gladie has made only 1 other match since the one in the last book. But things are looking up, since she has had a customer specifically ask for her. Belinda is the receptionist at Bliss Dental, and though Gladie has a pathological fear of any medical personnel, she heads to Bliss Dental office to meet with Belinda. On her way to her appointment with Belinda, Gladie comes across a group of people wearing backpacks and t-shirts about being taken by aliens. Little does she know how strange these strangers to their little town are going to get.
When Gladie gets to the dentist office, and meets Belinda, Gladie realizes that this match may be a little harder than she anticipated. Especially after she faints from the sight of a drill, wakes up in the dentist chair and is warned she has some serious cavities that need to be taken care of. And then while she is under the gas to get her teeth filled, someone kills the dentist. Belinda becomes a prime suspect and now not only does she want Gladie to match her up, but to prove she is innocent.
I don't know how the author plans on topping this book, but I can't wait to find out. This book kept me giggling and gasping out loud. All the characters from the first book are accounted for and just as uncontrollable as before. There is more of the love triangle between Gladie, Spencer and Holden, and things start to heat up. This was a fantastic sequel and well worth another 5 stars.
An Affair to Dismember
An Affair to Dismember
The Matchmaker Series, Book 1
Elise Sax
Certain to appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich, Jennifer Crusie, and Katie MacAlister, Elise Sax’s hilarious series debut introduces matchmaker-in-training Gladie Burger, who stumbles into a dangerous quagmire of murder and red-hot romance.
Three months has been Gladie Burger’s limit when it comes to staying in one place. That’s why Gladie is more than a little skeptical when her eccentric Grandma Zelda recruits her to the family’s matchmaking business in the quaint small town of Cannes, California. What’s more, Gladie is also highly unqualified, having a terrible track record with romance. Still, Zelda is convinced that her granddaughter has “the gift.” But when the going gets tough, Gladie wonders if this gift has a return policy.
When Zelda’s neighbor drops dead in his kitchen, Gladie is swept into his bizarre family’s drama. Despite warnings from the (distractingly gorgeous) chief of p olice to steer clear of his investigation, Gladie is out to prove that her neighbor’s death was murder. It’s not too long before she’s in way over her head—with the hunky police chief, a dysfunctional family full of possible killers, and yet another mysterious and handsome man, whose attentions she’s unable to ignore. Gladie is clearly being pursued—either by true love or by a murderer. Who will catch her first?
Trailer:
Review:
This is the first book in the Matchmaker Series by Elise Sax. I was intrigued when I saw the first book, enough so that I was thrilled to be part of the Bewitching Book Tour for Matchpoint, the second book in the series. This gave me the push to move An Affair to Dismember to the top of my TBR pile.
The story opens with Gladys "Gladie" Burger going through her grandmother's attic office, researching and updating Zelda's Matchmaking Services records. Zelda, Gladie's eccentric grandmother, had called Gladie home to the small mountain town of Cannes, California three months prior to join the matchmaking business. Zelda assures Gladie that she has the gift to be a matchmaker. Since Gladie has spent the last 10 years going from job to job across the country every few months, it didn't take much for her to decide to move back home. As of the beginning of the book, Gladie has been in training for about 3 months, has yet to make 1 match and has gotten a little to comfortable in her role as her grandmother's trainee.
All that is about to change however. Starting with her climbing a telephone pole to rescue an owl, getting stuck and showing off her pink Victoria's secret boy shorts underpants to what feels like the entire police force and fire department of Cannes when they come to rescue her. It is here that she meets the Chief of Police and hottie, Spencer. Later that day Gladie finds out that the house next to her grandmother's has been sold to a wealthy, single mysterious man named Holden. Add to that, some how Gladie has gotten sucked into "looking into" the death of the across the street neighbor Randy Terns.
This book was a hilarious mix of misunderstandings, miscommunication, misdirection and mistaken identity. It felt like a cross between a Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum and Toni McGee Causey's Bobby Faye - basically laugh out loud action from start to finish. If you don't find yourself laughing during this book, you might want to get you sense of humor checked. I had to give this book 5 stars on Goodreads.
Interview:
Today, we welcome Elise Sax to Musings and Ramblings. Let's all give her a big Geeky welcome!
A big Geeky welcome back! And thank you!
I have some questions for you that are writer specific as well as some fun stuff so that we can really get to know the real you. *grin* Plus we will finish things off with round of Think Fast. Ready to begin?
Yes! I think so. Uh…
Writing Specific
1. Tell us something about yourself that's not in your bio.
I’m a dead ringer for Angelina Jolie. I’m Catherine the Great, reincarnated. I have an Olympic gold medal for pole vaulting. (You didn’t say it had to be true, did you?)
2. What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I love to eat, sleep, have sex (well, I have a dim memory of liking it), be entertained by all means.
3. How did you choose the genres you write in?
I start to write, and it comes out that way. I keep asking my agent what I should write to become really rich, but he just rolls his eyes.
4. Is there any particular author or book that has influenced you or your writing?
People compare me most to Janet Evanovich (what an amazing compliment!), but I think the writer of the Gilmore Girls – Amy Sherman Palladino—influenced me more.
5. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
I’ve been very lucky with reviews, but Publishers Weekly thought my first book was “confusing.” That upset me. Every compliment is the best compliment. Especially from readers. I love to hear from readers. I feel honored to hear from readers.
Fun Stuff
6. If you could have dinner with anyone, past or present, fictional or real, who would it be and why?
Someone who would pick up the check.
7. You are going to be stranded on a deserted island and bring 3 luxury items. What would they be?
A toilet. A satellite phone. A luxury yacht with a 30-person crew.
8. Pick two celebrities to be your parents. Who are they and why?
Oh, what a great question! Tom Hanks and Katharine Hepburn to be my parents and Carrie Fisher to be my sister.
9. What would we find in your refrigerator right now?
Come on over and find out! I’ll make you dinner.
10. If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?
Love in the Time of Cholera
Think Fast
Summer or Winter? Summer
Coffee or Tea? Coffee
Cake or Pie? Pie
Car or Truck? Car
Print or Electronic? Print
Thanks for coming by and spending some time with us. Any final words of wisdom to pass along?
Thank you so much for having me! It was a lot of fun. Yes, happy, happy reading. I hope you enjoy MATCHPOINT.
Author Bio: Elise Sax worked as a journalist for fifteen years, mostly in Paris, France. She took a detour from journalism and became a private investigator before trying her hand at writing fiction. She lives in Southern California with her two sons. An Affair to Dismember, the first in the Matchmaker mystery series, is her first novel.
Lovably troublesome Gladie Burger runs into sizzling danger and a fiery love triangle in the second installment of Elise Sax’s hilarious and sexy Matchmaker romance series.
“Elise Sax will make you laugh. Her larger-than-life characters jump off the page and make crazy seem like a fun place to hang out.”—New York Times bestselling author Christie Craig
Since joining the family matchmaking business run by her eccentric Grandma Zelda, Gladie is always looking for love. But when an unbearable toothache knocks her out of commission and into the dentist’s chair, she prays only for relief. No such luck. Emerging from an anesthetic haze, Gladie awakes to find that not only is her tooth still throbbing, but her dentist is dead—and the lead suspect in the murder, office receptionist Belinda, just so happens to be Gladie’s first real client. Now it’s up to Gladie to find Belinda a man and keep her from being locked up behind bars.
As if that weren’t enough distraction, two gorgeous men are vying for Gladie’s attention: Spencer, the playboy chief of police, and Holden, Gladie’s secretive, gorgeously muscled neighbor. Still, Gladie’s not complaining about having a helping hand or two when the case leads her to a dangerously bizarre cult. She may have met her match—and if she’s not careful, it could be her last.
Trailer:
An Affair to Dismember
An Affair to Dismember
The Matchmaker Series, Book 1
Elise Sax
Certain to appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich, Jennifer Crusie, and Katie MacAlister, Elise Sax’s hilarious series debut introduces matchmaker-in-training Gladie Burger, who stumbles into a dangerous quagmire of murder and red-hot romance.
Three months has been Gladie Burger’s limit when it comes to staying in one place. That’s why Gladie is more than a little skeptical when her eccentric Grandma Zelda recruits her to the family’s matchmaking business in the quaint small town of Cannes, California. What’s more, Gladie is also highly unqualified, having a terrible track record with romance. Still, Zelda is convinced that her granddaughter has “the gift.” But when the going gets tough, Gladie wonders if this gift has a return policy.
When Zelda’s neighbor drops dead in his kitchen, Gladie is swept into his bizarre family’s drama. Despite warnings from the (distractingly gorgeous) chief of police to steer clear of his investigation, Gladie is out to prove that her neighbor’s death was murder. It’s not too long before she’s in way over her head—with the hunky police chief, a dysfunctional family full of possible killers, and yet another mysterious and handsome man, whose attentions she’s unable to ignore. Gladie is clearly being pursued—either by true love or by a murderer. Who will catch her first?
Trailer:
Book Tour Info: Don't forget to check out the other stops on the Book Tour:
Elise Sax worked as a journalist for fifteen years, mostly in Paris, France. She took a detour from journalism and became a private investigator before trying her hand at writing fiction. She lives in Southern California with her two sons. An Affair to Dismember, the first in the Matchmaker mystery series, is her first novel.
Fall has come to Cannes and Gladie begins this book by digging out her winter clothes that have been stored in her grandmother's shed. When her grandmother warns her about opening the suitcase due to spiders - big nasty ones, Gladie's day just goes downhill from there. Zelda, her grandmother, predicts there is an ill wind blowing through Cannes, and with it comes mayhem, misunderstandings, and murder - or in other words, just another typical Gladie adventure.Perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich, Jennifer Crusie, and Katie MacAlister, Elise Sax’s wickedly funny Matchmaker series proves that the road to love comes with a few dead ends.
