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Matching Wits with Venus
For centuries, Cupid has longed to be more than Venus’s arrow boy. When he’s sent to eliminate “Happily Ever After by Amelia”, the matchmaking business threatening Venus’s status as the goddess of love, Cupid decides to steal Amelia’s methods and make his own matches. While spying on Amelia, Cupid accidentally shoots himself with his magical arrow and falls in love with her. But bereaved Amelia doesn’t believe in the existence of Roman gods, and she’s certainly not looking for romance. She’s too busy perfecting the patented personality profile that’s made her Hollywood’s favorite matchmaker.
Disguising himself as a mortal financial advisor, Cupid manages to break through Amelia’s guarded exterior. As their passion deepens so does Cupid’s guilt about deceiving Amelia. Cupid’s interference with Amelia’s life causes her business to falter, leads to a sterile spring that threatens the animal kingdom and shatters the longstanding peace between the Roman and Greek gods. With the fate of the natural and under worlds at stake, Cupid must decide whether to reveal his true identity and risk losing the chance to live happily ever after with Amelia.
Disguising himself as a mortal financial advisor, Cupid manages to break through Amelia’s guarded exterior. As their passion deepens so does Cupid’s guilt about deceiving Amelia. Cupid’s interference with Amelia’s life causes her business to falter, leads to a sterile spring that threatens the animal kingdom and shatters the longstanding peace between the Roman and Greek gods. With the fate of the natural and under worlds at stake, Cupid must decide whether to reveal his true identity and risk losing the chance to live happily ever after with Amelia.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2011
1 person is currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Therese Gilardi
11 books19 followersTherese Gilardi is a poet, novelist and essayist whose work has appeared in numerous journals including "Literary Mama," "Mom Egg Review," "Punchnel's," "Onthebus," and "Ariel Chart," among others. An avid cinephile, Therese is a juror for the Socially Relevant Film Festival. Therese loves Celtic rock, speed trains and easy guitar riffs.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 6, 2011
My review:
I read this book in one sitting during my holiday, I couldn’t put it down. This book was exactly and little more what I expected. It was smooth reading, with interesting characters, fun plot and of course, there were gods and goddesses. What more do you want during the summer, but romance, witty and fun dialogues and characters and Greek and Roman mythology!?! Therese Gilardi’s book Matching Wits with Venus was exactly all that!
Regarding the plot:
Amelia is a matchmaker who has got a powerful enemy, the goddess Venus. Venus is feeling threatened by Amelia, who is considered the best matchmaker in Hollywood. As you know, you don’t want to get a goddess and especially goddess of love herself for your enemy, because then strange things starting to happen.
One day a gorgeous man walks into Amelia’s matchmaking office and after a bad start Amelia decides to find him a match. His name is Colin and Amelia is trying to hitch him up with an unpleasant customer from Hollywood – Randi. During the matchmaking Amelia realizes that she has some feelings towards Colin. Colin is not an ordinary man and to make it even more complicated for Amelia he is Cupid, son of Venus.
Then strange things start to happen – it seems that the nature has decided to become sterile and then the hell breaks loose.
Regarding the characters:
I liked Amelia! She is smart, beautiful yet little broke inside and lonely. She has been hurt in a worst possible way. She doesn’t believe in love and romance anymore. She does not dare – her parents’ married did not work, she lost the one she loved, so romance is the last thing she needs – at least that is what she thinks until Colin/ Cupid appears.
Cupid/Colin is the guys of your dreams: gorgeous, polite, and intelligent. He is very tender and sweet towards Amelia – isn’t that what a girl needs?!
I liked both the main characters and also side characters: Jennie, Justine, Amelia’s mom and dad. Jennie was well-written! I adored her feistiness!
Whenever gods and goddesses are involved, I am getting little picky and touchy, I love reading books where mythology is part of the book, but since I am interested in Greek mythology I have had to be disappointed in several books where they are used as characters. Luckily that did not happen with Matching Wits with Venus! Therese Gilardi created her gods and goddesses successfully! They were described similarly to my imagination how they should be. Well done!
Generally:
Matching Wits with Venus includes very lovely romance, a good plot and believable characters, even the gods were believable and the result is one of the best summer reads this summer.
5 stars of 5.
Thanks to Therese Gilardi for sending me signed book.
I read this book in one sitting during my holiday, I couldn’t put it down. This book was exactly and little more what I expected. It was smooth reading, with interesting characters, fun plot and of course, there were gods and goddesses. What more do you want during the summer, but romance, witty and fun dialogues and characters and Greek and Roman mythology!?! Therese Gilardi’s book Matching Wits with Venus was exactly all that!
Regarding the plot:
Amelia is a matchmaker who has got a powerful enemy, the goddess Venus. Venus is feeling threatened by Amelia, who is considered the best matchmaker in Hollywood. As you know, you don’t want to get a goddess and especially goddess of love herself for your enemy, because then strange things starting to happen.
One day a gorgeous man walks into Amelia’s matchmaking office and after a bad start Amelia decides to find him a match. His name is Colin and Amelia is trying to hitch him up with an unpleasant customer from Hollywood – Randi. During the matchmaking Amelia realizes that she has some feelings towards Colin. Colin is not an ordinary man and to make it even more complicated for Amelia he is Cupid, son of Venus.
Then strange things start to happen – it seems that the nature has decided to become sterile and then the hell breaks loose.
Regarding the characters:
I liked Amelia! She is smart, beautiful yet little broke inside and lonely. She has been hurt in a worst possible way. She doesn’t believe in love and romance anymore. She does not dare – her parents’ married did not work, she lost the one she loved, so romance is the last thing she needs – at least that is what she thinks until Colin/ Cupid appears.
Cupid/Colin is the guys of your dreams: gorgeous, polite, and intelligent. He is very tender and sweet towards Amelia – isn’t that what a girl needs?!
I liked both the main characters and also side characters: Jennie, Justine, Amelia’s mom and dad. Jennie was well-written! I adored her feistiness!
Whenever gods and goddesses are involved, I am getting little picky and touchy, I love reading books where mythology is part of the book, but since I am interested in Greek mythology I have had to be disappointed in several books where they are used as characters. Luckily that did not happen with Matching Wits with Venus! Therese Gilardi created her gods and goddesses successfully! They were described similarly to my imagination how they should be. Well done!
Generally:
Matching Wits with Venus includes very lovely romance, a good plot and believable characters, even the gods were believable and the result is one of the best summer reads this summer.
5 stars of 5.
Thanks to Therese Gilardi for sending me signed book.
January 27, 2012
I have to be honest here - I realize that I'm going against the common opinion with this book. I've read other reviews and I know that most people seemed to really like this book. I was given this book months ago to review, so this review is well past due, but when I started reading it, I only got about 2/3 of the way through it and had to put it down. I kept thinking I would come back to it and try reading it again, but I just haven't been able to make myself do it. I'm solidly in the middle with this review. There were things I liked about this book and things that I didn't like.
The concept is interesting and original. There are several Greek Gods and Goddesses that play a central role to the story and it's interesting and fun to see how the author chooses to portray them. And therein lies one of the biggest problems for me: I didn't like the main characters very well. I didn't get attached to them and I wasn't invested in what happened to them.
Amelia, our heroine, runs her own business, playing matchmaker to the millionaires. She does her job very well and it's amusing to see how the celebrities are portrayed. (Note: No known celebrities are mentioned) She is also very nice to some of the local "colorful" people, which is nice to see. But she is also judgmental and comes across as shrewish - to me.
Colin/Cupid is likeable in some respects, but in other respects he drove me nuts because of his childish/immature behavior with his mother. On one hand it's funny, that this Greek God can be ruled by his mother so completely to the point where he is sneaking off like a teenager trying to get away with something. On the other hand, he is quite literally hundreds of years old and I was often left thinking "grow up! Grow some backbone!" And the role of his best friend, Inuus, in this book confuses me. I couldn't decide if he was Cupid's best friend (which you would think would merit some loyalty) or if he is Cupid's mother's errand boy.
There are other characters in the book, that are central to the plot, that I really did enjoy. Jennie, Amelia's assistant, is a spunky character that I loved. Also, Amelia's mother - she is hilarious in that perfect Hollywood Diva wannabe way and very believable. Justin, the homeless man that Amelia helps, is an interesting character as well.
There were instances in the book that made me almost feel like this should have been given an "alternate reality" type of tag. When Justin sits down at the curb, in the middle of Hollywood and thinks to himself (in essence) "I don't hear any birds singing. Wow, Cupid must have really messed up spring," and the first conclusion that anybody in the near vicinity jumps to when something bad has happened is that the Gods must be angry - this is not my world. Even in Hollywood.
I do remember running into some grammar issues, but it's been a while since I read the book, and I didn't make note of pages or instances, so I just want to make a small mention of that.
This author has some very fun ideas, and a sense of humor. I would definitely not be against checking her out in the future at all. This book apparently didn't do it for me. And there's nothing wrong with that. Not every book is going to appeal to every single person the same way. Absolutely check it out for yourself. You may love it!
The concept is interesting and original. There are several Greek Gods and Goddesses that play a central role to the story and it's interesting and fun to see how the author chooses to portray them. And therein lies one of the biggest problems for me: I didn't like the main characters very well. I didn't get attached to them and I wasn't invested in what happened to them.
Amelia, our heroine, runs her own business, playing matchmaker to the millionaires. She does her job very well and it's amusing to see how the celebrities are portrayed. (Note: No known celebrities are mentioned) She is also very nice to some of the local "colorful" people, which is nice to see. But she is also judgmental and comes across as shrewish - to me.
Colin/Cupid is likeable in some respects, but in other respects he drove me nuts because of his childish/immature behavior with his mother. On one hand it's funny, that this Greek God can be ruled by his mother so completely to the point where he is sneaking off like a teenager trying to get away with something. On the other hand, he is quite literally hundreds of years old and I was often left thinking "grow up! Grow some backbone!" And the role of his best friend, Inuus, in this book confuses me. I couldn't decide if he was Cupid's best friend (which you would think would merit some loyalty) or if he is Cupid's mother's errand boy.
There are other characters in the book, that are central to the plot, that I really did enjoy. Jennie, Amelia's assistant, is a spunky character that I loved. Also, Amelia's mother - she is hilarious in that perfect Hollywood Diva wannabe way and very believable. Justin, the homeless man that Amelia helps, is an interesting character as well.
There were instances in the book that made me almost feel like this should have been given an "alternate reality" type of tag. When Justin sits down at the curb, in the middle of Hollywood and thinks to himself (in essence) "I don't hear any birds singing. Wow, Cupid must have really messed up spring," and the first conclusion that anybody in the near vicinity jumps to when something bad has happened is that the Gods must be angry - this is not my world. Even in Hollywood.
I do remember running into some grammar issues, but it's been a while since I read the book, and I didn't make note of pages or instances, so I just want to make a small mention of that.
This author has some very fun ideas, and a sense of humor. I would definitely not be against checking her out in the future at all. This book apparently didn't do it for me. And there's nothing wrong with that. Not every book is going to appeal to every single person the same way. Absolutely check it out for yourself. You may love it!
August 12, 2016
Amelia Colliard, the owner of a Hollywood matchmaking service called ‘Happily Ever After by Amelia’, has ticked off Venus, the Roman Goddess of Love and Beauty, by using her computer savvy to succeed in the matchmaking business.
Like any fierce competitor, Venus seeks to learn Amelia’s secrets and shut her business down so she enlists her son, Cupid, to go undercover to help her tip the scales of success back in her favor.
Now Cupid/Colin isn’t the naked winged cherub you see on Hallmark cards. No Mrs. Gilardi’s Cupid is an Italian heartthrob that makes Amelia’s female clients eager to be matched with him. The only problem is Cupid has fallen hard for Amelia so his mother’s mission and other women are the further things on his mind.
As a lover of mythology, I have to say Matching Wits With Venus is a refreshing contemporary look at the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. Mrs. Gilardi used her excellent storytelling skills to asked her readers to contemplate the possibility of gods and goddesses still among us.
The gods actual identities are veiled from our eyes as they observing our society and some gods even use our advancements to help them in their godly tasks. (Yes, that’s right Mercury has developed his own a cell phone, while Cupid likes to utilizes computers and drives expensive sport cars.) I enjoyed how Roman and Greek gods personified meet our modern humanity. It’s such a great story with many surprises.
I liked the main characters, Amelia and Cupid. Both of them have very firm beliefs about love and their purpose in life. Amelia reminds me of many women that excel in their job but place their own love life on the back burner. Mrs. Gilardi revealed the emotional depth of her heroine through her interactions with her employee/best friend, Jennie and her parents. She also pulled back the veil on the personalities of the Roman and Greek gods and goddesses by letting readers view Cupid and Venus’ exchanges in the underworld.
Matching Wits With Venus is a delightful read I highly recommend you pick it up. I found the novel easy to read and engaging throughout. For the most part the characters were interesting and consistent. The storyline is intriguing, charming, and well designed. Overall I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy, paranormal or romance. It’s a different play on the many gods/goddesses and their powers. A great metaphor on how we as humans become enlightened by our own inner god/goddess.
Like any fierce competitor, Venus seeks to learn Amelia’s secrets and shut her business down so she enlists her son, Cupid, to go undercover to help her tip the scales of success back in her favor.
Now Cupid/Colin isn’t the naked winged cherub you see on Hallmark cards. No Mrs. Gilardi’s Cupid is an Italian heartthrob that makes Amelia’s female clients eager to be matched with him. The only problem is Cupid has fallen hard for Amelia so his mother’s mission and other women are the further things on his mind.
As a lover of mythology, I have to say Matching Wits With Venus is a refreshing contemporary look at the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. Mrs. Gilardi used her excellent storytelling skills to asked her readers to contemplate the possibility of gods and goddesses still among us.
The gods actual identities are veiled from our eyes as they observing our society and some gods even use our advancements to help them in their godly tasks. (Yes, that’s right Mercury has developed his own a cell phone, while Cupid likes to utilizes computers and drives expensive sport cars.) I enjoyed how Roman and Greek gods personified meet our modern humanity. It’s such a great story with many surprises.
I liked the main characters, Amelia and Cupid. Both of them have very firm beliefs about love and their purpose in life. Amelia reminds me of many women that excel in their job but place their own love life on the back burner. Mrs. Gilardi revealed the emotional depth of her heroine through her interactions with her employee/best friend, Jennie and her parents. She also pulled back the veil on the personalities of the Roman and Greek gods and goddesses by letting readers view Cupid and Venus’ exchanges in the underworld.
Matching Wits With Venus is a delightful read I highly recommend you pick it up. I found the novel easy to read and engaging throughout. For the most part the characters were interesting and consistent. The storyline is intriguing, charming, and well designed. Overall I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy, paranormal or romance. It’s a different play on the many gods/goddesses and their powers. A great metaphor on how we as humans become enlightened by our own inner god/goddess.
January 24, 2013
For centuries, Cupid has longed to be more than just Venus' 'arrow boy' - and he has several ideas that he's sure his mother would appreciate, if only she'd listen to him. The problem is, "Happily Ever After By Amelia", the thriving matchmaking business that caters to the Hollywood set is threatening Venus' status as the goddess of love. When Cupid is sent to eliminate "Happily Ever After By Amelia", he is initially very curious about how and why Amelia Coillard has become so successful in her business. He decides to steal Amelia's methods and use them to make his own matches. While spying on Amelia, Cupid accidentally shoots himself with his own magical arrow and falls in love with her.
However, bereaved Amelia does not believe in the existence of the Roman gods, and she is certainly not looking for romance. She is too busy perfecting the patented personality profile that has made her Hollywood's favorite matchmaker. Disguising himself as a mortal financial adviser Cupid manages to break through Amelia's guarded exterior. As their passion deepens, so does Cupid's guilt about deceiving Amelia.
Cupid's interference with Amelia's life causes her business to falter, leads to a sterile spring that threatens the animal kingdom and shatters the longstanding peace between the Roman and Greek gods. With the fate of the natural and under worlds at stake, Cupid must decide whether to reveal his true identity and risk losing the chance to live happily ever after with Amelia.
I do have to say that I'm beginning to like stories with mythological plots although I haven't read very many of them. This book was extremely good, although it did take me a little while to get into. I give this book an A! and am looking forward to reading more of Therese Gilardi's books in the future.
However, bereaved Amelia does not believe in the existence of the Roman gods, and she is certainly not looking for romance. She is too busy perfecting the patented personality profile that has made her Hollywood's favorite matchmaker. Disguising himself as a mortal financial adviser Cupid manages to break through Amelia's guarded exterior. As their passion deepens, so does Cupid's guilt about deceiving Amelia.
Cupid's interference with Amelia's life causes her business to falter, leads to a sterile spring that threatens the animal kingdom and shatters the longstanding peace between the Roman and Greek gods. With the fate of the natural and under worlds at stake, Cupid must decide whether to reveal his true identity and risk losing the chance to live happily ever after with Amelia.
I do have to say that I'm beginning to like stories with mythological plots although I haven't read very many of them. This book was extremely good, although it did take me a little while to get into. I give this book an A! and am looking forward to reading more of Therese Gilardi's books in the future.
February 24, 2012
I liked Matching Wits with Venus. It's one of those stories you want to reach out and pinch on its literary cheek. Romances have a basic structure: Boy meets girl, smut ensues, drama happens, and then resolution comes in the nick of time. It's always fun to find a story that doesn't linger so much on the smut. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy a good steamy scene. But sometimes I like to chill out with a sweet contemporary. It's a welcome change of pace. I enjoy seeing character interaction leading us to the happily ever after, and I don't always need the interaction to include love nubs, if ya know what I mean.
The cute twist on this story is that Cupid, shooter of arrows of lurrve, gets a taste of his own medicine. On a mission to scope out a match-making service owner who threatens the career of his mother, Venus, Cupid meets his match. Amelia, a woman who thinks making love-matches has little to do with hearts is successful at what she does, but isn't so successful at that love thing. Her heart, despite her reluctance, is won over by Cupid, who is masquerading as a businessman in need of a love-match.
I keep declaring this story cute. I hope it doesn't sound trite. It fits the category of sweet contemporary, because it is sweet. It takes mythology we all know from elementary school and brings it into the twenty-first century with endearing results. I enjoyed this read and think you will too.
--Joey, The One Hundred Romances Project
The cute twist on this story is that Cupid, shooter of arrows of lurrve, gets a taste of his own medicine. On a mission to scope out a match-making service owner who threatens the career of his mother, Venus, Cupid meets his match. Amelia, a woman who thinks making love-matches has little to do with hearts is successful at what she does, but isn't so successful at that love thing. Her heart, despite her reluctance, is won over by Cupid, who is masquerading as a businessman in need of a love-match.
I keep declaring this story cute. I hope it doesn't sound trite. It fits the category of sweet contemporary, because it is sweet. It takes mythology we all know from elementary school and brings it into the twenty-first century with endearing results. I enjoyed this read and think you will too.
--Joey, The One Hundred Romances Project
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2011
This was a refreshing story featuring both Greek and Roman gods. It was easy to see the personality of each of the individual characters. I will admit that it was hard to imagine Cupid as a tall, handsome hunk instead of a naked, winged cherub, but I could get used to it.
This was a sweet romance story. The plot was standard romance: girl meets boy, they fall in love, boy hides secret, girl discovers secret and tells boy to leave, boy works to win girl back, everything has a happy ending. But this type of plot is standard for a reason. This is the book you curl up with on a weekend and enjoy. It makes you feel good.
The one thing I had a hard time believing was the easy acceptance of the gods by all the humans. Everytime the gods' identities were revealed, the humans seemed to shrug and accept them as real. I can't picture that actually happening. But that is a minor thing in the grand scheme of the story.
Overall, I would definitely recommend picking up this story to read when you need a pick-me-up. It's a comfort read that is a clean romance.
This was a sweet romance story. The plot was standard romance: girl meets boy, they fall in love, boy hides secret, girl discovers secret and tells boy to leave, boy works to win girl back, everything has a happy ending. But this type of plot is standard for a reason. This is the book you curl up with on a weekend and enjoy. It makes you feel good.
The one thing I had a hard time believing was the easy acceptance of the gods by all the humans. Everytime the gods' identities were revealed, the humans seemed to shrug and accept them as real. I can't picture that actually happening. But that is a minor thing in the grand scheme of the story.
Overall, I would definitely recommend picking up this story to read when you need a pick-me-up. It's a comfort read that is a clean romance.
December 1, 2012
Matching Wits With Venus by Therese Gilardi is definitely an imaginative tale, bringing together modern characters and setting with ancient mythology. Amelia runs a successful matchmaking business – so successful in fact that Venus, the Roman goddess of love, is jealous. Thus begins a twisted campaign to malign the human matchmaker. Venus enlists several of her immortal cohorts to spoil Amelia’s business, but not before her son, Cupid, accidentally pricks himself with one of his own arrows. Who is the first person he sees once the love potion has taken hold? You guessed it – Amelia. This makes for some very intriguing complications, with some plot twists and surprises that I was not expecting. The story weaves in and out between worlds; following both the lives of the Olympian gods and the mere mortals of present day earth. It was a fun read, not to be taken too seriously, but still enjoyable.
June 16, 2011
*Drools* What an completely delectable read this was. I could not get enough of Cupid or this book. The characters are well developed, extermly likeable, and all around fun. They had me giggling, and plain ol' laughing out loud. I found everything you could possibly want was mixed into this book, romance, heartbreak, adventure, action, suspense and betrayal. All of that mixed with twist and turns you can not see coming. Oh, did I mention, it has mythical gods we all love? This was such an awesome read I do encourage you move it to your TBR pilies, or go buy it, it will not be a let down.
Check out the Charater Guest Post/interview at Were Vamps Romance: http://www.werevampsromance.org/apps/...
Check out the Charater Guest Post/interview at Were Vamps Romance: http://www.werevampsromance.org/apps/...
June 1, 2011
This was a fun book with a lot of twists and turns. It is an interesting concept to mix the contemporary world with an ancient mythological one - but the author does a good job combining them realistically. Cupid is a cute character that is just a bit naive about the world. Amelia is a tough character who definitely has been hurt before and struggles to open up again. I love how the story developed and grew to places you never expected. There were times that the plot was a little abrupt, but altogether it was a good read. The side characters of both Venus and Stella were wonderful!
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http://cleanromancereviews.blogspot.com
May 18, 2011
Tifferz Take:
I love the cover of this book! This is an exciting book I stayed up all night reading! I could not bring myself to put it down. I loved the mythology and matchmaking going on in this book. Such a sweet love story that had me laughing,smiling and pulling at my heart. The characters are so fun and they are well developed. This book has romance, adventure, action and some unexpected events I did not see coming, but really enjoyed! I would highly recommend this new and fresh clean read. I will be on the look out for more from Ms. Gilardi. Hope you all enjoy this read!
I love the cover of this book! This is an exciting book I stayed up all night reading! I could not bring myself to put it down. I loved the mythology and matchmaking going on in this book. Such a sweet love story that had me laughing,smiling and pulling at my heart. The characters are so fun and they are well developed. This book has romance, adventure, action and some unexpected events I did not see coming, but really enjoyed! I would highly recommend this new and fresh clean read. I will be on the look out for more from Ms. Gilardi. Hope you all enjoy this read!
June 12, 2011
will post review soon ;)
An enchanting tale filled with love, gods, betrayl and funny moments !! Very witty !! and refreshing, a definetly unique story of its own, that will captivate you and make you wander where Cupid is :O)
An enchanting tale filled with love, gods, betrayl and funny moments !! Very witty !! and refreshing, a definetly unique story of its own, that will captivate you and make you wander where Cupid is :O)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews