Mr Perfect on Paper

Mr. Perfect on Paper

by Jean Meltzer

Dara Rabinowitz is a third generation matchmaker with a 21st century app that makes matchmaking an algorithm to be solved instead of gut feeling to be followed. Years of coding and spreadsheets has convinced her that marriage can be formulaic and romance isn't necessary.

Chris Steadfast lost his wife two years before and has been trying to keep things going for himself and his preteen daughter ever since. With his daily show about to get cancelled, he's looking for a miracle to keep things going.

When Dara and her grandmother come to the studio at the start of the High Holidays to promote her app "J-Mate" and celebrate her grandmother's near 90 years on this earth, the miracle Chris is looking for seems to happen, though Dara's not so happy about it. Grandmother Miriam announces to the audience and the cameras that Dara has a list for her perfect husband (written during a drunken rant with her sister a few weeks before) and then proceeds to read it on air. A simple short segment goes viral and Chris decides that he's going to use this to save his program.

With Dara's agreement, Chris sets up blind dates for her for each of the High Holidays with men who meet the requirements of Mr. Perfect. Each date starts well and then ends in disaster. And with each date, Chris sees more and more that he'd much rather be dating Dara than setting her up.

But when Mr. Perfect on Paper shows up one day, will Chris be able to show Dara that her list is wrong?

Final thoughts: This is a checkbox romance with the author ticking off her list as she goes. It just doesn't feel organic. There are a few scenes where it seems Meltzer was having fun, but the rest was just her ticking off item after item on her rom-com must-haves list. It felt like she's pitching a story to Hallmark instead of writing a fun romance.

Rating: 2/5

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.