A Wedding (Mis)Match by Kaylee Baldwin
Eliana is home for two months to help prep for her sister's wedding, but she has to keep up with her social media career while she's there. And with her entire family crashing in her sister's tiny apartment due to a flood at her parents' house, there's no way she can keep up with her videos or with writing her book, Happily Single. She realizes the grumpy speech therapist who had her car towed has been secretly living in his late grandfather's bungalow in the retirement community and sees an opportunity for some peace and quiet. Eliana blackmails Asher into letting her be his roommate in exchange for keeping his secret.
Asher has been keeping the admin staff of the retirement community at bay by telling them he's still working on clearing out his grandfather's things, but in reality he's having a hard time dealing with his grief and the knowledge that he's the last one left in his family. He puts on a good face for all of his clients, which includes Eliana's brother, but otherwise he does his best to keep everyone else at arm's length to keep from getting hurt further. That is, until Eliana worms her way into his life.
Meanwhile, Winnie, Eliana's grandmother and fellow resident of the same retirement community, has teamed up with her friends to do some matchmaking and Eliana and Asher are next on their list.
This story was told in third person from three POVs - Eliana, Asher and Winnie. I typically prefer first person and I definitely wasn't expecting a third POV so I was very confused at first! However, once I caught myself up with all of the characters and settled into the format, the story was a pretty cute sweet romance (kissing only)! Eliana and Asher were both resistant to falling for one another, each for their own reasons, so it was extra sweet to see how little they could help themselves. Eliana slowly chipped away at Asher's grumpiness and gently helped him start to process his grief. And Asher provided Eliana with a safe space to be herself instead of the perfectly made-up version of herself that her ex-husband demanded and her social media followers expected. This definitely was a romance since there was an HEA but there was a lot more to the story since Winnie had her own storyline outside of the matchmaking. Then there was some drama from Asher’s grandfather’s past that became drama between the retirement community’s residents. Plus there was a sea turtle fundraiser and a rescue sea turtle! And of course you got to see Eliana’s progress on her book and youtube videos. A good chunk of the storyline also focused on preparing for and having Eliana's sister's wedding and everything went comically wrong, which was pretty entertaining as well. If you prefer women's fiction to romance, this might be a great fit for you!
Overall this book a cute fun read with summer, beachy vibes!
Thank you to Kaylee Baldwin for this copy!