🕎🕎🕎🕎
The Matzah Ball
Jean Meltzer
416 pages
Mira Publishing
The Matzah Ball is a cute little romp through Hanukkah written by Jean Meltzer who specializes in cute. We meet Rachel, a young woman with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, an autobiographical character, who is a writer that is secretly fascinated with Christmas, which represents a dilemma since she is a practicing Jew and her father is a rabbi. She writes a series of Christmas books under a pseudonym. Her path crosses with an ex from summer camp, Jacob, who is planning a Hanukkah event to end all Hanukkah events, the Matzah Ball. This is very much a frenemies romance, which is generally not my cup of tea. However, Jean Meltzer writes them so entertainingly that I enjoy them every once in a while. Her writing is light and breezy and readers who are looking for that are likely to be very satisfied. There are also very few novels about Hanukkah (even though this also incorporates Christmas as well), so that it fills a literary niche.
I enjoyed the book and it fit the bill, with flawed characters who are still loveable, and the dialogue is light and refreshing. There are things, particularly towards the end, that are a bit unbelievable and strain credulity but that was not a problem for me, at this time of year but it is something that a reader may want to know.
The only thing, which is unique to me, is that I previously read another book by Ms. Meltzer, The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah. I loved it. However, in both that book and the one in this review, the plot and characters are essentially the same. There are, of course, little variations but it seems that this author has a formula for her novels and does not stray from that. It doesn’t affect my rating for this book because I rate each individually but it does mean that I will likely not read another of her books in the future or at least not for quite some time. That said, it was a good palate cleanser.
Leave a Reply