The Matzah Ball
Mira Books
September 28, 2021
Advance reader copy
336
Free from publisher
Oy! to the world
Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach.
But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah’s not magical. It’s not merry. It’s not Christmas. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy—Jacob Greenberg.
Though Rachel and Jacob haven’t seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah—and Jacob—in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze.
3.5 stars
I usually read a few "Christmas" themed books every year, but I don't know that I've ever read one centered on Hanukkah, so this was a delight to find. I loved that while the main premise is an enemies to lovers trope, typical of the romance genre, this book had a lot more to learn about and explore. The main protagonist Rachel is a romance novelist, she writes Christmas romances under a pen name. She loves everything about Christmas, but is thrust into writing about Hanukkah by her publicist, who thinks who better to write a Hanukkah romance than a nice Jewish girl? The problem is that Rachel can't imagine coming up with anything worthy of writing about for this particular "boring" holiday, so she ends up relying on the Matzah Ball for inspiration. The Ball is being organized by none other than her enemy from summer camp back when she was a preteen. While this part of the story seemed very predictable, the other part about Rachel suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome was very enlightening and educational to me. I've never personally known anyone who suffers from this, but the author did a wonderful job explaining how people who suffer from this disease are often dismissed as not having a "real disease". I also learned a lot about Jewish traditions and these were explained in a way that someone who doesn't have much knowledge about that faith could understand. The look at the publishing world, and its impetus to thrust authors into writing about a subject they are not necessarily thrilled to take, on was very interesting, and makes you wonder how often this occurs? While I genuinely loved Rachel, I wasn't as enamored with the love interest Jacob. He did some things that made me question why a grown man was still acting kind of controlling toward Rachel at times. He was redeemable in the end, but it was kind of too late for me to care. Rachel's antics at the ball were also a bit over the top.
All in all this was a fun read, with some extra education about Jewish faith, the book publishing industry, and the stigma of a chronic condition. I can definitely recommend as an extra holiday read this season.
