The school’s biggest rivals are fingally going to play nice. Maybe too nice. In fact, there might be kisses involved…
Edie and Dane have been at each other’s throats for years. Now, for the first time in ages, they actually agree on something–the Love Quiz app is wrong. And they mean to prove it. Their desire to disprove the app’s accuracy has nothing to do with their results, or the fact … the fact that they got each other as a love match.
Nope. Their determination to succeed is solely for the sake of science. Obviously.
Except…after a couple days working side by side, all scientific objectivity gets thrown out the window. As group project leaders, they’re supposed to be watching from the sidelines. So why is Dane suddenly so interested in Edie’s results? And why is Edie so angry when she spies him with another girl?
By the time the experiment ends only one thing is clear…
These match makers have met their match.
The Match Makers is the third installment in a three-book YA romance novella series. The books should be read in order to avoid confusion and spoilers.
Series order:
The Love Fakers
The Deal Breakers
The Match Makers
more
Terrific conclusion to a delightful, G-rated, YA, romantic-comedy trilogy
The Match Makers is the third and final book in a young-adult, romantic-comedy trilogy. Though each book is free of loose ends within the HEA for its central romance, Books 1 and 2 contain spoilers for this book. For that reason, it is a good idea to read the other two books in this fun series before reading this one. Also, because they are as terrific as this cute book, you won’t want to miss them.
Edie and Dane have known each other since kindergarten, and they were friends until the eighth grade, when a humiliating mutual misunderstanding turned them, overnight, from potential romantic partners to bitter rivals. Both are attractive, smart, charismatic, and born leaders—or as each freely admits, control freaks—and for the past three years, they have intensely competed for every leadership position on offer. But usually one or the other has been a clear winner. Until now.
Their psychology teacher has assigned their whole class with an oddball group project. An extremely popular dating app, called the Love Quiz, claims to be able to connect individuals with their ideal match based on the theory that human emotion can be quantified using a compilation of online, social data. The goal of the various groups in the class is to either prove or disprove the theory behind the app. Every group in the class needs a leader, but there is no way that either Edie or Dane is going to relinquish that title to the other within their little, project group of six so, by default, they become co-leaders. And, amazingly, for once they agree on something: they believe that the Love Quiz is nonsense, no more accurate than reading a horoscope. But, unfortunately, their teacher won’t let the two of them simply stand on the sidelines as leaders who observe, crunch numbers and write the final report, which was their original plan. He insists that they must surrender to being vulnerable guinea pigs, right alongside the other four members of their group. But to the utter frustration of Edie and Dane, that degree of hands-on participation in their project will inevitably bring the pair of them in closer contact with each other, on a regular basis, than they have experienced since they morphed into enemies at age 13.
The “enemies to lovers” trope is a fan-favorite of the romance genre, and this delightful romantic comedy is a wonderful example of it. Edie and Dane are both strong, dynamic characters whom I liked and admired very much. Edie is always championing the underdog, and Dane is a very responsible guy. He is determined to win a swimming scholarship to college, and he puts his grades first, the swim team second, and girls come a distant third. In short, though he is a gorgeous, athletic guy, he is no playboy.
Besides Edie and Dane, this concluding novel offers fans of this series an opportunity to revisit the two other romantic couples from the previous two books of this trilogy, which acts as a fun, additional—though not intrusive—epilogue for them. This book also contains some interesting subcharacters who are friends of Edie and Dane.
This book is structured as a classic romance which provides a guaranteed HEA, no cliffhanger, and the dual point of view of both the heroine and the hero. The latter allows us to deeply experience Dane’s thoughts and motivations for his actions toward Edie, which adds great depth to the story.
This book is G-rated. There is no underage drinking, no cussing, and no more than mild kissing. But in spite of how squeaky clean the book is, there is plenty of romantic chemistry between these two delightful protagonists once they move past their long-time enmity.
This book is definitely a keeper, and I am positive I will enjoy re-reading it many times in the future.
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5 stars
Hero: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 5 stars
Romance plot: 5 stars
Setting: 5 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars
(4.5 stars) – Short but just right
This is Book 3 of the Love Quiz series, & despite its brevity, it’s the best yet. It can standalone, but it’s better to start with Book 1 as this is the concluding episode in an overarching storyline.
To recap: Six high school juniors have to do a psychology class project that proves or disproves whether or not love can be quantified. They decide to test a popular dating app (from Dallen’s “Tall Dark & Nerdy”, which is not necessary to read for this, but is a fun read in its own right!)
Each of the 3 couples gets their own novella to tell their story, with this final one pulling it all together & wrapping it up.
After a misunderstanding in 8th grade, Edie & Zane went from liking each other to being frenemies.
Yet for some reason, the app has matched them up. Edie desperately wants to change the results to avoid the risk of humiliation, but Zane sees it as an opportunity to possibly fix what happened years before
I couldn’t help thinking at the beginning that the two both seem too strong-willed to make a good match, but the author totally sold it & made it work out believably. The wrap up of their story, as well as the series, is pure fun. I’ve totally enjoyed them all!
*Clean romance level: sweet kisses, nothing graphic
I am in my 80th year and don’t usually read YA books but can tell you I don’t miss one of Maggie’s! It’s hard to understand how she fits so many giggles in with so much teen angst on subject matter anyone can identify as important to humans. Edie and Dane are super competitive: popular head cheerleader and football star. You’d think they were made for each other as does the app that matches them. But no, they fight about everything EXCEPT proving the app wrong. Thank goodness, I can count on Maggie for a HEA ending.
Edie and Dane have been nemesis since middle school. Even though they are both smart and popular and hang in the same circle of friends, they cannot stand each other! When paired together with 4 other students for a school project to prove that a dating app “Love Quiz” doesn’t work, their dislike for each other only intensifies, or so it seems! Great YA read to find out why they dislike each other and if they prove that the app works or not!
Never before have I wanted to scream at the angsty and bullheaded teenagers quite like I did with this book. Dane and Edie are perfect for each other and it was a great story seeing them overcome pride and previous pains to get to the love they had for each other. It was sweet and heartfelt.
This final book in the trilogy tells the story of Edie and Dane, the masterminds (well…) behind the infamous Love Quiz study conducted in books #1 and #2. I really enjoyed this longtime-crushes-turned-frenemies-to-more story as well as the “big reveal” of the study results at the Valentine’s Dance.
As is par for the course for Maggie Dallen’s books, the story is well written, has a lot of funny moments but also plenty of butterflies and swoons.
Now, I can’t help wondering whatever happened to the other study group…
Solid Conclusion. This is Book 3 of a quick novella series – no one book is much more than 100 pages, and the back 2 are under that mark – and as such both of the prior books should be read first. Though at least in this one, that isn’t as imperative as in the second book. Even though the timelines continue to coincide, there is not as much from the first two books that directly shows here as there was in the 2nd book, mostly due to the more limited number of appearances of these two primary characters in the first two. But this does finally get us to the Valentine’s Dance that is the official “big reveal” of the series, and even manages to tie back to (and provide minor spoilers of) the book that this series serves as a spinoff of. Very much recommended.