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ARC Review: Matchmaking a Grump by Angela Denise

He wants to destroy her show. She wants to get on Santa’s naughty list with him.

Rowan
No man wants to be nicknamed Cupid. My family’s run a matchmaking business for years, though, and my sister’s a romance novelist. You get the picture. To make matters worse, my narcissistic grandmother just sold a reality dating show to network television. Thanks to her, our small town is about to become a hotbed of tourists and opportunists.

Her show needs to be stopped, and I’m exactly the man to do it. Cupid, reporting for duty.

The star of the show, Kennedy Littlefield, isn’t my type at all. She’s a wealthy heiress with an unhealthy obsession with Christmas.

There’s just one problem: I can’t stop thinking about her.

Kennedy
I’m lucky to be doing this show. Maybe I’ll start believing it if I repeat it enough…because I’m supposed to be dating eight men, and they all suck. I’m not here to fall in love—I’m trying to save a non-profit with the publicity from the show—but I’d hoped for a Christmas miracle.

love Christmas, only it hasn’t come to the set because the show doesn’t air until spring, and no one—with the exception of me—wants to watch a Christmas show in March.

There’s only one thing I want more than Christmas cheer: the ornery grump who keeps hanging out around the set.


This might be my first book with a fake relationship that’s not between the MC’s. Kennedy Littlefield wants to raise money for the non-profit that she works for and since she’s not allowed to give away her trust fund, she came up with another plan. She’s going to be on a reality dating show where she gets engaged but she doesn’t expect to find love, she just wants to draw attention to the non-profit. She had it written into her contract that she gets to mention the charity in every episode and she even makes her suitors compete by creating marketing for it. Kennedy’s heart is certainly in the right place but she grossly underestimated how difficult it will be to pull this off.

The men courting her are literal nightmares and Nana Mayberry is a demon who appears as an elderly woman. Her brother’s roommate, Harry, is the only bright spot in this mess and the two quickly become friends. Things start off in the worst possible way when the make-up artist gives her self-tanner that turns Kennedy orange. And that’s the best thing that happens to her, because it’s all down hill from there.

Rowan Mayberry wants to ruin his grandmother’s show. She’s a horrible person and it’s an awful show since she created it and has way too much power. He’s sick of being embarrassed by her antics and watching the Mayberry name get dragged through the mud because of their horrible matriarch. Her attempts at fame draw tourists to their quaint little town and deprive his family of their privacy. So Rowan plots to make sure everything goes wrong, in the hopes that the show won’t be renewed for season two. He doesn’t care about anyone involved with the show, besides his roommate Harry, especially not the douchey contestants or the spoiled little princess they’re here to woo.

But when they actually spend time together, he realizes Kennedy isn’t at all what he believed her to be and he actually likes her. Like like. A lot. The attraction between them is sharp and intense but she can’t jeopardize her mission by dating outside of the show and he knows they would never work anyway. Yet they’re drawn to each other and becoming more attached with every moment they spend together. They both want more than these stolen moments but don’t see how it’s possible at first. Until they realize they’d do anything to make it work. Where does that leave the show? How can they manage to have a relationship between Chicago and North Carolina?

Kennedy is smart and funny and everything that Rowan doesn’t even realize he needs in his life. She’s far from the rich brat he expected, with a heart as big as the moon and the motivation to help the world. Rowan is a cranky hermit with nothing to offer her, or so he thinks, although Kennedy disagrees. I loved everything about their story. It’s sweet and funny and so much fun, just like everything else in this series. I received an ARC from Valentine PR in exchange for an honest review.

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