Match Me If You Can

A Novel

By: Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

In This Heart of Mine, you met Kevin Tucker. Now meet Kevin's shark of an agent...and Annabelle Granger, the girl least likely to succeed.

Annabelle is tired of being the lone failure in a family of overachievers. She's endured dead-end jobs and a broken engagement. But that's going to change now that she's taken over her late grandmother's matchmaking business. All Annabelle has to do is land the Windy City's hottest bachelor as her client, and she'll be the most sought-after matchmaker in town.

With his money-green eyes and calculated charm, Heath Champion is the best sports agent in the country. He's wealthy, driven, and gorgeous, so why does he need a matchmaker, especially a red-haired screw-up like Annabelle Granger? True, she's entertaining, and she does have a certain quirky appeal. But Heath is searching for the ultimate symbol of his success: the perfect wife. And to make an extraordinary match, he needs an extraordinary matchmaker, right?

If Annabelle isn't careful, she just might find herself going heart-to-heart with the toughest negotiator in town, a man who's beginning to ask himself...exactly how perfect does perfect have to be?

©2005 Susan Elizabeth Phillips (P)2005 BBC Audiobooks American & © 2005 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Captivating romance....Phillips has once again created a delightful page-turner. (Publishers Weekly)
"Dazzling contemporary romance." (Booklist)

Light Predictable Read

Of course we could guess the outcome right away, but it was still fun seeing how it got there. Interesting characters kept it going. My only complaint is that the ending seemed to drag on.

Wonderful!!

I LOVED this book. I truly enjoy SEP's humor and her characters. Even though the ending may be predictable, the journey she takes to that end is not, and that is what is so intriguing about her stories. "Match Me" is my first read of her books, and since then I have read 2 others, and enjoyed them as much.
I hope that Audible will continue to provide her books in the unabridge format. Anna Fields is an amazing narrator. So often I forget that she's doing all the voices. It's only after hearing some others that I really appreciate how good she really is.

Love this story!

I loved this book's premise - even it's setting. Could use a male narrator. Great!

Totally predictable storyline

Entertaining fluff, no surprises here. well performed by the artist. Light and easy to listen to this story

One of SEP's best

Setting: Chicago Contemporary
Genre: Romance
Annabelle Granger, at 31, inherited Matches by Myrna from her grandmother. As part of her modernization, she changed the name to Perfect for You and has started targeting a more lucrative market than the seniors of her grandmother's focus.Her friend, Molly Somerville Tucker (from This Heart of Mine) referred her to Heath "The Python" Champion, her quarterback husband's agent. Heath is a 34 year old, very successful sports lawyer/agent whose goals include getting married by age 35. With that in mind, he contacted Portia Powers of Power Match and contracted with her. However, because Kevin Tucker is a client, he gives Molly one chance to find a viable candidate and if she accomplishes this he will contract with her as well. She does, and she and Prtia compete to find a wife for Heath Champion.
Dean Robillard, an up-and-coming quarterback with the Chicago Stars, needs an agent, and the best way for Heath to get close to him would be through the team's owner, Phoebe Somerville Calebow. Unfortunately, Phoebe hates him because of some hard-ass moves on his part when he was starting as an agent. When he realizes that Annabelle knows Phoebe socially, he pressures her to take him with her to some social occasions. The first leads to some hilarious results involving glitter and a lost phone. The too handsome for his own good Dean is an amusing character who is both supportive and irritating to Annabelle, and adds positively to the story. The plot is further enhanced by Annabelle's phone conversations with her mother, who keeps pushing her to go back to school for a degree in accounting so she can keep up with her brothers. They are super-successful while Annabelle has been looking for her niche.
As is usual with an SEP novel, there is a strong secondary plot.The one here involves Portia, the 37(42) year old owner of Power Match, and Brody, Heath's 37 year old assistant/driver/best friend. "You're not 37. I'm 37. You're 42." This relationship provides some humor, as well as a bit of mild pathos.
The characters in this book, from the protagonists all the way through the least of the supporting cast, are interesting and contribute to the overall plot. Annabelle, with her ambition contrasted with her compliance, and Heath with his brash, aggressive exterior hiding vulnerabilities, are well rounded, and the development of their relationship is absorbing. Portia and Brody have depth, and even some of the supporting cast have dimension.
This was the first Susan Elizabeth Phillips novel I listened to, on my sister's iPod. It made that 2007 motorcycle ride from Indy to Milwaukee more than bearable. I downloaded it for myself in 2012 and this time (2016) was my 4th listen since then. It, along with Natural Born Charmer, tie for first in my top 5 favorites in this genre. In fact the whole of the series except one are in my top 25.
Although this is #6 in the series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone. I recommend, however, reading the whole series in order. It started as a 7 book series which concluded in 2007), but #8 (First Star I See Tonight) was added on 8/23/16.
The narration is excellent because that's all you can say about the late Anna Fields. I mourn for her every time I hear a SEP without her. She performed all
SEP's work until her death. I miss her vocal talents.

fun and light

I listened to this book while I was painting furniture. Hours would fly by as I listened and it kept my attention. I thought it was funny, interesting, and a good single girl's book. Enjoy!

Loved It!

I loved the book! A great story line mixed with wit, humor and a twist. I would definitely recommend and I can't wait to read the other books in this series.

Love Every SEP Book

loved it as always. SEP is my all time fav author! The Chicago Stars series is her best!

Excellent!

Anna Fields is one of my absolute favourite ever narrators. Excellent story from SEP. True love forever … 😍😍

story better than narrator

I liked the story, it was amusing, the characters were engaging. It's light, breezy and fun. I got it because I wanted something light and the ratings were all so good. But I had a couple of problems with story in general and the audio book in particular.
1. I don't care for sports, especially American football. But to her credit, the author made these characters likeable, so that was a pleasant surprise, still there was too much sports in this book for me.
2. I think the book might have done with an edit to tighten it up - awfully long for a romance.
3. I really did not like the narrator. As another reviewer said, she doesn't do men's voices well. Her women's character voices, especially Annabelle were quite good. But her general narration was flat and I wish she would do narration with the same spark she did Annabelle. As far as men's voices, we know the narrator is a woman, she's not going to sound like a man - by forcing her voice so low, the men are hard to listen to.