TAYLOR JONES SAYS: In Make Me a Match by Carrie Zimmerman, Maddy is a witch—a witch in love with Sean, who thinks of her as just a friend. He also doesn’t know she’s a witch. In desperation, Maddy uses a spell to help her find her true love and get over Sean as he is never going to return her feelings. When she says the spell she is supposed to think about what she wants in a man. Instead, she is so worried about saying the words right that she forgets to think about what her dream man. Thus, the spell is non-specific and applies to all men, not just the one she wants. As a result Maddy suddenly becomes extremely popular. Men from 19 to 99 are asking her out. Maddy is frantically trying to figure out how to undo the spell, when Sean decides that he loves her after all. But does he really, or is he just reacting to the spell?

The story is very clever and the characters enchanting. The plot is fresh and unique, with some nice surprises to keep you on your toes.

REGAN MURPHY SAYS: Match Me a Match revolves around Maddy, who’s a witch, but not a very skilled one. She is tired of pining away for the man she loves—who doesn’t return her feelings—so she decides to use a spell to find her true love. Did I mention that she is not particularly skilled? Well, you guessed it, she screws up. Instead of attracting her dream man, she attracts everyone. So what’s wrong with that? you ask. Well, this means she attracts eighty-year-old married seniors as well psychos—yes, it’s a major oops.

The characters are charming and well-developed. The plot is strong, and quite clever. While there are a number of books out there about witches and spells, there are too many about bumbling ones who mess up their spells. This gives Zimmerman’s tale a fresh and unique twist that only adds to its appeal. This lighthearted fantasy romance is guaranteed to make you laugh, cry, and gasp, sometimes on the same page.

Chapter 1

Walking through the aisles of Full Moon Books was like visiting old friends for Maddy Simpson. She spent more time there than she did at home, so immediately upon finding an unfamiliar book, she was more than a little curious. Maddy carefully picked up the book and carried it back to her office.

The book felt familiar in a way a book shouldn’t–like a living, breathing thing instead of a collection of paper and ink. The book smelled like cinnamon, cloves, and the past. For an instant, Maddy was transported to her grandmother’s kitchen, watching her stir some mysterious potion. Maddy ran her hand along the faded cover, feeling the embedded pattern that had faded to the point of being indistinguishable from the leather. Maddy opened the book and gasped.

There on the very first page, written in what looked like either dark red ink, or maybe blood, was a protection spell, marking the book as something only those in the direct line of the Simpson witches would be able to hold or read. This was the Simpson spell book and it should have been packed away in her attic. How did it get to the bookstore?

Maddy started to flip to the next page when her office door flew open.

“Maddy, you have to see–” Annie, her college-aged weekend helper, came bursting through. Maddy quickly shut the book and covered it with a stack of papers from her desk. Annie stopped and took a deep breath. “You have to come and look at this guy who’s looking around in the thriller section. He is the hottest damn thing I’ve seen in a very long time.”

As quickly as she had burst into Maddy’s office, Annie was gone, but she wouldn’t leave Maddy alone if there was a sexy man involved, so Maddy carefully wrapped the spell book up in a sweatshirt she kept in her office and put it into her tote bag. Maddy’s cousin Fiona would know what to do with the misplaced book and might even know how it had managed to appear at Full Moon Books.

As nonchalantly as possible, Maddy walked to the front of the store, pausing here and there to arrange books on shelves or to see if a customer needed help. She made it close to the thriller section before pausing to look for the man Annie had been drooling over in her office. She froze when she saw him. Damn, he’s one sexy man.

For a moment Maddy’s brain took a detour to fantasy land and she imagined herself walking straight up to the sexy stranger, pulling him close, and kissing him. It had been more than a year since she had gone on a date and the lack of mouth to mouth contact with a man was starting to get to her. She shook her head to chase the fantasy away and took another look at the man. He was really gorgeous. He had reddish brown hair, freckles, and incredible cheekbones. Maddy had never been attracted to a man with red hair before, but this man was sex on a stick.

Annie sidled up beside Maddy and poked her in the ribs. “Why don’t you see if he needs any help?”

Maddy smiled. “Why don’t you?”

“He’s too old for me and I’ve got a man. But I checked and there’s no ring on his finger.”

“Just because there’s no ring doesn’t mean he’s single, Annie.”

“No, but he’s looked over here several times while we’ve been talking and I think he’s been checking out your ass.”

Maddy laughed, but was secretly pleased. She chanced another look over at Mr. Sexy and, sure enough, he was looking right at her. He smiled her way and she smiled back. Just as Maddy was gathering her courage to go talk to the gorgeous stranger her cell phone rang. Thank you, universe.

While flirting with Mr. Sexy held appeal, Maddy really wanted to get back to the spell book and find out exactly who, what, where, and how she was going to deal with whatever chaos it was sure to unleash. Because Maddy knew one thing–nothing good ever came from a Simpson witch messing with magic.

© 2015 by Carrie Zimmerman