(courtesy Harper Collins Canada)
If you’re going t do a festively fun take on a novel as loved and revered as Jane Austen’s Emma, then you need to be up to the task of doing it justice.
Thankfully, Sheila Roberts is more than up to the task with her new festive novel, The Merry Matchmaker, full of heart, humour and a dose of well-intentioned, charming romantic chaos.
Set in the aptly named town of Carol, Washington, up in the atmospheric northwest of the United States, The Merry Matchmaker is centred on 50-year-old Frankie, a widower of some four years standing, who runs a Christmas shop, Holiday Happiness, in a prime spot in town and who employee her feisty loveable mum Adele, her daughter Natalie and new arrival in town, a quiet, unassuming late thirty-something woman who tends to hide in the background in almost all respects.
Into this hub of town festiveness, because what self respecting romcom doesn’t have somewhere where characters can interact on a regular and hopefully romance enhancing basis, pops all kinds of people – Mitch from the hardware store next door, with whom Frankie has a close friendship but no romance (YET), Frankie’s single sister Stef who, at 38, is just two years out of a toxic marriage, and William, the local bookstore owner who has clear eyes for Elinor though she remains oblivious to the fact.
Plenty of others pop in too, but equally it’s just as likely that Frankie, who’s much loved in the town, will find them too in a town bursting with funky bars, cool cafes and great restaurants.
She sent him a laughing emoji, but then got to thinking. Was that crack about Mrs. Claus a subtle cry for help in spite of his insistence that he didn’t need any? Could she find a Mrs. Claus for Mitch? He hadn’t done well finding someone on his own. Maybe she should give him a helping hand. maybe she would.
The thing about Frankie is that she can’t resist meddling in other people’s lives.
She means well, she means exceptionally well, but her best efforts to bring people together don’t always work out as intended and she often finds herself having to deal with messy fallout.
But in this charmingly funny and sweet warm hug of a novel, anger doesn’t simmer for too long, and after a coffee her and a pizza there, all is usually well with the world.
But does Frankie learn from these well-intentioned errors of judgement? Oh where would be the fun in that?
Fortunately, while she does overreach when it comes to those she loves, Roberts beautifully paints as a solid and sound person with a lot of love in her heart; so, what she does at times can be humourously exasperating but Frankie herself is never a joke.
She is, in fact, the beating heart of The Merry Matchmaker which serves up lots of festively romantic ups and downs, all set in a town which knows how to celebrate Christmas.
It’s not all cosy and cute and gorgeous with Frankie’s yarn shop-owning arch nemesis, Barbara, constantly trying to outwit her when it comes to running the annual Christmas day, the Santa Walk, but by and large, this is a novel where happiness gets more of a look in than not and you can escape into its warm and cosiness and forget the world around for a second.
(courtesy official author site)
The delightful thing about The Merry Matchmaker, and really it’s just one of a number of delightful things in a novel that rarely, if ever, puts a foot wrong, is how emotionally rich the story is right throughout.
Sure, there’s a heady dose of fairytale-esque festive romcom escapism, and it’s executed flawlessly, but there’s also a healthy recognition that life can be very tough and sad at times and there’s no easy getting over things.
Stef is still scarred by her marriage to an emotionally abusive narcissist and Stef’s possible love interest is still mourning the loss of his wife just as Frankie, four years on, still mourns the fact that her beloved Ike is no longer in her life.
The prospect of life at Christmastime is a delight no matter how you wrap it, but the fact remains that for these three people, and others besides, moving on in life isn’t as easy as the usual romcom would have you believe.
So, thank goodness that The Merry Matchmaker is not your average romcom.
Roberts is a sure and talented writer whose characters feel fully realised, who write dialogue that feels truthful and honest even as it sparkles and shimmies with wit and fun, and whose storyline flows naturally and beautifully.
A lot of romcoms fumble the emotional scarring or good narrative progression but Roberts excels in both, and as a result, The Merry Matchmaker is a joy to read throughout its entire heartwarming length.
But [redacted] didn’t love Mitch. She couldn’t. They wouldn’t be happy together. There was only one woman in Carol he would be happy with, and that was Frankie, and they were going to fix this.
All of that authentic humanity, movingly expressed and empathetically addressed, gives The Merry Matchmaker an affecting emotional heft which is what a good, nay great, romcom needs if it is to ascend to the ranks of classic greatness.
The Merry Matchmaker gets there easily because in amongst all the fun and carrying on, you are reading about real people who want so much more from life, including Frankie who in her heart of hearts loves Mitch but can’t quite bring herself to admit out of loyalty to dear, sweet Ike, but are not always sure about how to bring it about.
Christmas in all its sparkly bonhomie and loveliness does give them a healthy helping along, but simply being in a magical season and having the right person pretty much right before you doesn’t instantly open your heart and get you ready to fold yourself in all the wonderful possibilities a new love can offer.
Roberts is sage enough to realise this, and so, while The Merry Matchmaker is awash in comedy, new love and giddy whimsicality, all draped in a festively tinsely glow, it is also cognisant of how intransigent and unyielding grief can be and that maybe it takes something extra special to make the heart open, the soul look outwards again and to embrace all the great and wonderful places life can be take to when you’re ready to go down that road again.