Matched for Christmas is the tenth book in the ‘Dates of Our Lives’ series. It stars Lennon, an omega reindeer shifter, and Soren, an Alpha Bear shifter. This is told in first person from Lennon and Soren’s povs.
I’ve read a few of the books in this series so I’m familiar with the app ‘Love and Hate’ mentioned in the story. However, there were so many people introduced in this book I was lost trying to keep track of who was who. That pulled me out of the story as I tried to figure out who was interacting with Soren and Lennon. The blurb is accurate so I won’t go into it again.
I want to talk about the cover and the fact that Lennon is a reindeer, also known as a caribou. The authors didn’t do their research. Male reindeer do not retain their antlers in the winter, only the females do. The cover image is incorrect as is writing Lennon as having antlers in the story. It’s a simple topic to research but clearly the authors didn’t. It’s not like Lennon was a magical Santa’s reindeer which could mean something different. Lennon was an ordinary reindeer so he wouldn’t have antlers.
I’ve read many books by this writing team and as usual one of the main flaws popped up again. Both character voices sounded the same. Neither was unique and despite the chapters being labeled with the character names, I was often pulled out of the story to go back to the chapter beginning to see who’s pov I was reading. I would think after writing so many books the authors would’ve improved in creating distinct voices, but they have not.
This story was choppy, only brushing over ideas briefly until there was a jump to another subject, or spending too much time on a scene that didn’t matter, like cupcakes. There was also the overuse of the phrase, ‘eeeewwww!’ I don’t know if the authors thought that was supposed to make the story funnier, but it just sounded childish. The attempt at humor seemed forced and cliché, and topics like Soren’s ‘flat butt’ didn’t add anything to the story.
Match for Christmas didn’t work for me. The humor was forced, character voices were similar, writing was choppy as it jumped from scene to scene without delving deeply into emotions. Soren’s conflict about his bear not protecting Lennon was contrived. This story felt like it was written just to get something out in time for Christmas without much effort put into it. I know the authors are capable of writing better stories, but this one was not it. I don't recommend this. I give this book, 2 Stars.