Rematch: A Lauren Holbrook Novel

I loved this book. Erynn Mangum is such an awesome author. She is definitely one of my new favorites. I can't wait for the third book in this series to come out!

I loved Erynn's first book MissMatch. BUT Rematch is even better. Erynn does a wonderful job of bringing you through the characters lives. You feel a part of them w/o feeling bored by unnecessary details. "Lauren Holbrook" is a fun character and the situations she gets herself into will have you laughing out loud! The multiple relationships all going at the same time keep the book moving, while the undercurrent of Lauren's own relationships keeps you wondering. I couldn't put the book down and I loved every minute of the read. Usually "chick lit" books are a litte shallow. Erynn manages to keep the book light and enjoyable w/o being shallow. There are definitely some "deep" things dealt with, yet the overall feeling of the book is FUN!

Lauren Holbrook feels her calling in life is bringing people together. She's good at it too. Just look at her friends, Nick and Ruby, who are currently on their honeymoon, thanks to Lauren's matchmaking abilities. Now she has set her sights on Brandon, her best friend, and Hannah, a fellow employee. These two belong together. They just don't realize it, but Lauren plans to change that. She's also trying to set up friends, Shawn and Hallie. Obviously these matches are made in heaven. All they need is a little push from Lauren. Of course, she's not interested in romance, but Ryan, Ruby's brother, seems to be underfoot a lot. Then her father attends a Christian Singles Conference, and meets a woman he's interested in. Suddenly there isn't enough coffee in the world to calm Lauren's fears. What kind of woman? What if she's a genetic scientist? This is one match she can't control. Excellent follow up to Miss Match, book one in the Lauren Holbrook novels. The characters are well developed and the dialogue fast paced and witty. I'm hoping there's a book three in the works.

The enchanting matchmaker Lauren Holbrook is back, better than ever in the sequel to the brilliant Missmatch! Riding the wave of her successful pairing of her work colleague and Bible Study leader, Lauren sets her sights on her hapless single friends, confident she can lead them into their happily ever after. While consuming copious amounts of coffee and cheesecake, Lauren plots to bring her favourite barrista, Shawn into both wedded bliss with newcomer, Hallie and belief in God, preferably in reverse order! Lauren's life is suddenly complicated when her widowed Dad announces he is off to a singles retreat, Meet Your Match in Michigan, construction worker Ryan Palmer causes flutters in her stomach when he smiles and then there is Brandon Knox, her best buddy in the whole world without a girl of his own ~ what's a girl to do?! Erynn Mangum has done it again! Rematch is wonderful, replete with sparkling wit, gregarious and uplifting characters and a story that will leave you with a happy heart. Lauren's stellar voice continues to shine brightly and despite her meddling, you can't help but love her. Her naivety in her own love life is delightful and I can't wait to see how Erynn resolves that. Lauren's friends and family are just as appealing each epitomising integrity yet with enough foibles to be realistic. The final scene is a treasure ~ a secret mission with code names Vizzini and Inigo was the icing on the cake! All that was left for me to do was close the book and watch Pride & Prejudice, which I did. Read Rematch and you will understand why! This is one of those unique books that can be read and enjoyed by anyone, from the teen years and beyond!

"It began with a scowl," and so it should, it would seem, as the coffee supply has mysteriously disappeared. Coffee, the reader will quickly discover is the life giving for Erynn Mangum's alter ego Lauren Holbrook. I have never seen the word coffee used so many times in one novel. I approached this novel cautiously. It is a Chick Lit novel and there are many of the typical things that you expect to find in the genre. Knowing that some people enjoy the genre more than I, I took this into account as I opened the cover. As supper sizzled in a skillet on the stove I began to read, making it through three chapters by the time I sat down to eat a hamburger and Pringles. Four hours later, I finished the book. Most of the book is dialog. Other than that, the book is written in first person present tense. Overall, the book is very believable and I even laughed at a few things. In this book, Laurie continues her quest to unite singles into couples, but she becomes concerned about the possibility of her nearly fifty-year-old father getting married. That issue is the major conflict in the book. The rest is straightforward. Laurie sees a couple that needs to be matched up and she gets them together with little to no conflict. So, in looking at how the main character is changed by the events of the story, it is an internal struggle for Laurie and her view of her relationship with her father. There is one thing that this novel does very well. It does not go out of its way in an attempt to make it a Christian novel. Yes, there are Christian elements to it, but the reader is not left with the feeling that the author wrote a non-Christian novel and then added the Christian stuff to it. The book isn't perfect. There were a few actions by some of the characters that seemed to be used more frequently than they should have been. I won't ruin the book for everyone by saying what they were. Other people may not be a nitpicky as I am. I can't be too hard on this book, there were some very marked similarities between this book and my own book, Searching for Mom. Lauren and Sara have both lost a mother, though they have different opinions about this. Both are matchmakers, of sorts. Even some of the book and movie references are the same. So it I go too far with my criticism I will probably just end up criticizing myself.