Review of ReMatch by Erynn Mangum

Written By: Timothy Fish Published: 9/25/2007

“Say it ain’t so.” I read Erynn Mangum’s latest novel Rematch last night. I was hesitant about reading it. My biggest concern was that I would get estrogen poisoning or something. Rematch is classified as a Chick Lit novel, but since I will read pretty much anything in moderation, I gave it a try. I will say that I did survive the experience, barely. They still have me on oxygen and I had this sudden urge to go shopping today, but other than that, I am okay.

No, in all seriousness, the book is not bad. It is a quick read. It took me about four hours to read it. Most of it is dialog and she wrote the rest in first person present tense. The book begins with all of the coffee in town having mysteriously disappeared. The reader quickly learns that this is only a dream and Lauren Holbrook’s world is restored to its normal state.

Lauren Holbrook is a matchmaker. Throughout the book, she does two things. She drinks coffee and she helps people get together. She is quite successful at both, but her world is about to be turned upside down. While she is perfectly content to see singles in her Bible study become happy couples, there is one person she does not wish to see married. That person is her Dad. Her Dad has been single for fifteen years and Lauren likes it that way. When he heads off to a single’s conference in Michigan with hopes of finding a wife, Lauren is afraid that he will find an evil scientist who will do experiments on her.

I could not help but notice some of the similarities between this book and Searching for Mom. Lauren and Sara have both lost their mothers. Both are matchmakers. Even some of the book and movie references are the same, but there are some differences as well. Sara, in Searching for Mom is much more independent than Lauren. They have different opinions about their fathers getting married. For that matter, their fathers have different opinions about getting married.

It is probably a sign that there will be another book in the series, but there are a few loose ends that Mangum did not tie down by the end of the Rematch. I won’t say that it was perfect. There were a few things could have been done better. Some of that may be nitpicking on my part. Other than that, it is a solid example of how Christian Chick Lit should be written.