Perfect Match by AG Meiers

Secrets can derail even the most powerful attraction.

Logger Sven Larson has never found a man worth publicly coming out of the closet for. But his family has other plans. As a thirtieth birthday gift, his mother hires the online dating service Perfect Match to find Sven the love of his life. To say Sven isn't thrilled is an understatement, but it's too late to cancel, and Jayden Calver arrives.

Perfect Match's success rate is unsurpassed, but they don't come by it honestly: if a client can't be matched, the agency uses a stand-in to fulfil their guarantee and protect their profit.

Tough luck has left Jayden in debt, and playing Perfect Match's deceptive game is his only option. So he travels — sparkling toenails and all — to a remote camp deep in the mountains to meet Sven Larson and pretend to be his perfect match for a few days.

Sparks fly on first contact. But as the two men get closer, Sven grows more and more suspicious of Jayden, and Jayden struggles with guilt over his deceit. They both want a future together, but first they must find the courage to be honest with themselves and each other.

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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆
I really wanted to love this story about a bearish lumberjack who is matched online to a pretty city boy, but the writing felt stilted and the characters never really came alive for me.

I didn’t quite buy into the relationship between Sven and Jayden. Sven is a bit rough, a bit closeted, and not even necessarily kind to Jayden. Jayden is timid and desperate and his attachment to Sven feels a little bit opportunistic. I liked Jayden more than I liked Sven, but I don’t feel like I got to know him well enough to really care about him. Sven’s mum and uncle are the character highlights in this story.

I want to avoid spoilers but after finishing the book, I was still confused about the dating website that set up Jayden and Sven. Initially, the organisers are villanised as scam artists who use Jayden’s debts to coerce him into a relationship. But then there’s a final chapter where I think we’re supposed to like the villains. I was annoyed that nothing was actually explained or resolved, and the last chapter did little to get the bad taste of dubious consent out of my mouth.

My biggest annoyance with this book is the setting. This is a book about a small town in rural British Columbia. As someone who grew up in rural BC, I have to wonder if the author had actually visited the area. BC is notoriously liberal and inclusive. The rest of Canada tends to see people from BC as quinoa munching hippies who wave rainbow flags and smoke a lot of weed. The descriptions of ignorant redneck lumberjacks and closeted forestry workers/RCMP officers living three hours from Vancouver does not ring true at all. I get that this setting allows the author to exaggerate the differences between Sven and Jayden, but it feels more than a bit clumsy.

Eighteen years ago, AG Meiers came to the US for adventure and stayed for love. Currently, she lives in New England with her husband and two awesome kids—balancing work, friends and family, and writing.

When she has some free time, her favorite thing to do is travel and visit new places. Her past trips have already brought her to a variety of countries on four continents. She never passes up an opportunity to experience different cultures, diverse people and amazing locations.

Even though she has been dreaming up stories all her life, she has only recently started to write them down and share them with the world. As a writer she loves to put her characters through a lot of challenges, conflict and heartbreak, before she allows them to find their happy-ever-after.

Connect with AG

Facebook  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Perfect Match by AG Meiers to read and review.