The Matzah Ball

One thing this book does well: representation of life with an invisible disability/chronic illness (both the author and the FMC have ME/CFS). I also liked the tone - this was a romcom in the actual sense of the word, not “book with an illustrated cover and unclear heat level that actually gets really dark” sense that it's often used these days. Not that that annoys me or anything.

Like I said in my placeholder review, I wanted to like this book more than I did. I am very much here for underrepresented voices in romance! Holiday romances aren't usually my thing but I liked the premise here! But I was really disappointed. The big conflict/reason for the MC's rift is one of those “just talk to each other” moments and also if Rachel and Mickey have been such amazing friends for so long you'd think they might have discussed this before now, and also they were twelve, who expects their camp crush at age twelve to be The One? They both have completely different interpretations of what happened back then, and it ends up with the MMC being pretty mean to the FMC in the early part of the book, which wasn't all that fun to read, even if he didn't do it with actual malicious intent.

Anyway. I didn't think the characterization was really there, either - this is technically dual perspective but it read more like an omniscient narrator than close third-person. I never really felt like there was much insight into either MC's thoughts on a deeper level. Rachel could've been a much more interesting character; I was really interested in her inner conflict about being the daughter of two prominent members of the local Jewish community and also a secret Christmas obsessive/romance novelist, but that was really underdeveloped and resolved in basically an aside at the very end that's not explained. I grew up in a close-knit religious community (not Jewish, but evangelical) and I thought that could be really fascinating as a reason for conflict, but it just sputtered out, sadly. I can't speak to the accuracy of the Jewish representation here, but I did want to highlight a review I found illuminating on that issue.

Also, this book does not bang (in the @HEA_doesitbang sense), which is fine if you're into that but you might want to be aware of. And in writing this longer review I've realized this is probably a two-star instead of a three-star book for me. Why do I always have more to say on the books I didn't like??

Meltzer's writing reminds me of a Hallmark movie (ironic?). If you can get past some of the cheesiness, it can give you nice feelings.

This one was a bit of a stretch for me. The motivations of the characters seemed trivial and contrived (summer camp rivalries from more than a decade ago, desperately needing a Matzah Ball ticket for inspiration, etc). 

Also, I don't know when the phrase became “crashing symbols” (Chapter 10) but for some reason I doubt that would be as loud as “crashing cymbals”!

Very nice, Jewish romance novel set during Hanukkah. I enjoyed the Jewishness sprinkled in the story. I had to ask my Jewish husband what some of it meant :-D
And I would still like to know what Rabbi Goldblatt thought of Irving Berlin writing Christmas music.

I didn't like the “let's just misunderstand and overreact and cause drama out of nothing when simple communication would solve everything” trope.

Oh, and to people, who gave this book one star and said “This book glorifies the murders of Palestinians. Seriously disgusting and dehumanizing.”
You are lying. This book is about a Jewish event in New York, and doesn't even mention things happening in Israel, Palestinians, or Palestine, and no-one was murdered. Do you go around leaving one star comments on all books written by and about Jewish people?

I was expecting to love this one a lot more. There are a lot of funny parts and usually I LOVE me a good enemies to lovers trope. I also love a book that has disability representation.

However, the immaturity level of Jacob and the overall feel of Rachel's character just didn't fully work for me.

The narrator did a great job with this one and made this an easy one to listen to.