Match Me If You Can, Susan Phillips, 2005

Remember this famous quote from Pride & Prejudice (Jane Austen), "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."?

Well, this novel was about a man in such a situation: Heath Champion, a good looking, successful and ruthless sport agent, who wanted to get married by the time he turned 35.

He realised that in his sport circle, he could get laid easily, but the girls he encountered, were not whom he truly wanted to have as wife, for they could not help him advancing his future and career further.

Came from a poor background, with a drunk and womaniser for a father, Heath Champion tried his best to shake off all the bad things behind, among which, was poverty (& its smell). Got a law degree (or something similar) from Havard, he focused his career in becoming business manager for famous athletes. Then 34 years old, Heath decided to hire the best matchmaker of the country: Portia Powers, a 42 YO, cold, ruthless woman, who owned a matchmaking business named "Power Matches", to help him find a beautiful, intelligent, sweet, and "blue blooded" wife.

Unfortunately for Heath Champion, one of his best client (and friend) happened to mention his intention to his wife. This wife had a close friend, Annabelle, who at the time, was struggling to make her inherited (from her maternal grandmother) matchmaking business survived.

Out of courtesy to his client/friend, Heath had to let this Annabelle meet up with him. He did so, with reluctance, and had every intention to politely refuse her, for he had already hired a good matchmaking agency, "Power Matches" to find a wife for him.

Annabelle was 31, kind hearted, sweet, a shorty (from Heath Champion's view of her!), who had a degree in acting, (but had got no where with her life by then,) with average look, clumsy, but very determined to make her grandmother's business worked and became a success. She believed that with Heath Champion as her client, she would be able to make her "Perfect for you" matchmaking at least survived for the time being.

Heath Champion could not shake Annabelle off. He had no choice but to let Annabelle tried out her first matchmaking. He got hooked since then due to many reasons (you have to read the book to understand!).

The plot had many surprising twists, all was pleasant and cute.

The ending?

Heath realised that he liked Annabelle very much, more than anyone he could think of, but she did not possess certain features which he listed as "required" to be his wife (eg, she was not elegant or beautiful enough, too short, etc). The fact that she was an agent who supposed to help him finding a wife, confused matters further. He continued to see one lady after another (with Annabelle present as his assistant in this wife searching business, for he realised that Annabelle could help him smoothed out all the appointments he got with new candidates sent from the matchmaking agencies).

He was matched finally with a beautiful, elegant and well educated lady, from a well connected family. Her age was perfect too, 29! The lady was very keen to settle down with him, but suddenly, Heath found out that he was reluctant to propose to her or anyone.

Thing did not simply end there, that was the beauty!

I guess one has to really read it, to understand, for this novel has a very thick plot. The novel does not simply focus on just Annabelle, or Heath, but on many interesting characters. The psychology behind all the stories within, is truly amazing. Reading it, readers would feel sucked in, for the novel mentions, reflects many issues which the young generations are currently facing. I do like the way the author ends this novel, very cute!