Love Among the Stars: A Matchmaker Romance

Entertaining Love #1

by Claerie Kavanaugh

Hollywood's best matchmaker may have finally met her match. Genevieve “Eve” Davis is Hollywood’s best, most sought-after matchmaker. Just about everyone in the City of Angels owes her for their happily ever afters. She’s been in the business for ten years and has never made a false move. The only person she hasn’t been able to hit with Cupid’s arrow? Herself. Then Jemma, Hollywood’s most recent “it” girl, appears on her doorstep. But rather than having an extra bounce in her step, she looks like a dog just crapped all over her brand-new designer boots. The date Eve set up for her was anything but a fairytale beginning. In fact, it was a downright disaster. The first bad review Eve has ever had. If she can’t fix this, her perfect reputation will be torn to shreds. Even worse, the deeper she digs for that secret ingredient that will help her find Jemma’s perfect match, the harder she falls.

Book one in the standalone sapphic celebrity romance series ENTERTAINING LOVE

Genres: Romance, Lesbian, LGBT, Queer, Contemporary, Adult, Fiction

106 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 2023

About the author

Claerie Kavanaugh has spent most of her life telling stories, but she never imagined herself writing romance. In fact, she used to think it should only be reserved for Hallmark movies. It wasn't until college, when she discovered fanfiction, that she learned what romance was truly about: not just fluffy relationships and happily ever afters, but human connection, the desire to push one another to be better, and create hope that somewhere, somehow, everyone has someone.
When she's not writing, she loves to travel and explore new cultures, helping other authors polish their works as a freelance editor, and singing while doing so. Broadway musicals are her soul-food, something her mother and sister know well. She constantly blasts the newest soundtrack through the halls of their Missouri home, much to the chagrin of her very sassy and spoiled cat.

Reviews

[Emily]

I thought the premise of this sounded fun but unfortunately punctuation/spelling issues etc. were very distracting and I felt it rushed through most events. I like the concept and the cover is v pretty but this just didn’t work for me personally.

[Netgyrl (Laura) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars - It started off ok but I continued to lose interest as the story went on. This is a matchmaker romance and I was just bored with the dates that had nothing to do with the main couple. I skimmed a lot to get to the end.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Por las reseñas pensé que de verdad me encontraría con una historia decepcionante, pero no ha estado tan mal, tiene sus cosas chistosas y se lee muy rápido, se podría pensar que el final queda a deber, no obstante tienen continuación y entonces es justificable.

Lo recomiendo para pasar el rato.

[EternityFae · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars because the premise was good, but the execution was terrible.

The book is littered with spelling errors, punctuation problems, and no clear breaks to show the passing of time. It really needed a good editor or at least a team of beta readers/volunteer copy-editors to go over it and outline the issues.

I know girl-girl relationships IRL have a reputation for being fast paced, but the insta-love in this book isn’t captivating at all.

There is a nice foundation here but the whole book was surface level, there was no depth to any of it. I wish I could go in, tear it apart, and build it back up with real scenarios, real interactions, and real… well… everything!

[Lyyyy ʕ⁠ ⁠º⁠ ⁠ᴥ⁠ ⁠º⁠ʔ · Rating 2 out of 5]

LOTSSS of spelling mistakes + everything happened so fast????????

[Pia Krolik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't expect much from the book, given it's fairly short and I got if for free on Stuff Your Kindle Day. And it's not a bad book per se but it is also just... Not good. I enjoyed the very inclusive bisexuality, that was nice.

Other than that... I've seen puddles deeper than this. And that's fine. It's a Hallmark Christmas Movie book. Bland characters with even blander best friends who have witty one-liners and a seemingly endless amount of patience and time.
We all knew how this book was gonna end and there'd be shenanigans in-between. Honestly, the book might as well be called "five times Jemma had a bad date and one time she didn't"

As many have pointed out, the timeline makes no sense. How does she apply for the service on January 15 but has her first date on New Year's Eve? Why would it take the best Matchmaker ever nearly an entire year to find a date and then screw that one up so badly. And then Jemma has like four dates in four weeks while apparently also doing interviews for her movie (that we never learn anything about it annoyed me to no end).

Also, and here's a spoiler maybe, I couldn't stop thinking about the date at the wildlife sanctuary. For many, many reasons.
Jemma gets attacked by a bird of prey, it's so bad she's at the ER (with her Matchmaker? Where is the owner of the sanctuary? The employee who showed them around?) and she gets a treatment plan for the next days and weeks and Matchmaker Eve says its a serious wound - AND YET SHE STILL SETS HER UP FOR AN EFFING SURFING DATE TWO DAYS LATER! I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure that sporty activities and freaking salt water aren't great for the healing process of a wound that was deep and bleeding.

Plus... Imagine a super rich young woman books into your wildlife center to go on a day with an up and coming Hollywood starlet and your employee gives them a private tour and then a freaking bird of prey attacks the starlet and your employee runs away.
The PR nightmare. What even!

I didn't have the spelling or formatting issues many people mentioned, so maybe that got fixed.

[Fran Sappharc · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short book which I enjoyed. A couple of bits I felt could have been developed more, or at least I would have liked to see more of. I liked the way aspects of the dates worked well but again, a longer book maybe could have made some things make more sense.
3 stars rounded up but with a bit more could have been 3 up to 4.

[Kay ❤️‍🔥 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ehh 2.5 stars. Wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read

[a 🔮 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh boy, I only made it to 25% before I called it quits on this. It honestly has an interesting premise but it’s executed so cringe. The timeline discrepancies was driving me bonkers. So she applies for this matchmaker services on January 15, it’s not til December 31 she is matched with a date. In the January 15 prologue shes been recently discovered and has a few months “in Hollywood” but in chapter 1 with the 11.5 month time jump she says shes only been in Hollywood for 6 months.

Eve matched her with a guy who is TERRIFIED of cats, and naturally Jemma has a very cute cat. Like come on, for “the best matchmaker in the business” to make a mistake that I am sure was noted on their applications, Jemma says that she wrote about how much she loves her cat on her application. Also if you’re the best in the business why would you recommend Jemma to go to a competitor? Like if you’re the best and you made this error how can you expect your much worse competitor to do better? Also if you have all the information you need on her application, why do you need to take her to dinner? This is all very weird and I was not liking the vibe.

This is separate from the actual writing but the formatting and use of spaces between punctuation marks like quotation marks and commas ex. “ this is how she would write , and it really bugged me for some reason “. Or lack of spaces between end quotes and the next word. But it was not consistent which somehow made it worse?

I am very sad because the cover is so cute, but this is a no for me.

[Ellie | meepsbooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not get into this book for the life of me!! The writing was quite dull and I could not tell you anything about it a month later.

[Nadine Stamminger · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a bit disappointing after seeing the cover i was in love and expected a brilliant book because someone who gives their cover so much thought and work must write an amazing book, right? The storyline sounded promising and interessting, its one of my favorite tropes, but even if these two facts made me grab this book - the contend didnt deliver. The writing or me as a foreigner okay, i only registered some missing quotation marks - which made some parts hard to undertsand.
The idea and the overall storyline of this book is really good, but its just so many smaller things that are super wrong and added together it makes this book for me a fail. Starting with times that dont add, from application to Matchmaker, to first date and next dates. On the one hand Jemma is an up and coming hollywood starlet, hard job, lots of promotion and work but than on the other hand she is free everytime Eve just sends her time for a new date or shows up at her place. Than Eve is described as the best Matchmaker no fails in 10 years, even if you want to describe that Eves heart wasnt in the game with Jemma because she has a crush on her instantly, some of fails we whitness in this book are amateur fails (catlover meets cathater, hollywood wannabe starlet who just wants her for promotion) there should be a bit more creativity behind to show the reader that she sends her off on dates that dont work out because her inside already knows she is the one for her...

If this was a fanfiction i would say it would be a great story and probably would rank it 4 starts, a cute read and i dont expect to much from people who do this for fun in their freetime. But as a published book i expect a little more. I expect timelines of a book to match, basic stuff like quotation marks proper done and a bit more deepth and background work for the main character and just all around a bit more finesse into their work. Because this way this book is written this autor didnt make me curious about their other work.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet another one of the books I got in the romance novel sale. This one is about a matchmaker (Eve) trying to set up a rising actress (Jemma) on a successful date. Jemma is unlucky in love and lonely with it while Eve's reputation of never failing is on the line. Of course they end up falling in love.

This one is cute! I loved the set-up and the different dates/people Eve set Jemma up with were so clever. We didn't just get the generic bad date stereotype, we got a variety of people who just weren't right for Jemma. And along the way Eve is trying to get to know Jemma so she can set up her better and there is also Jemma wrestling with her fame and what that means in her dating life.

I did like this one, which is good because Hollywood/LA settings can be very hit or miss for me. Would recommend!

3.5 stars!

[soph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Minor spoilers -
Besides the grammar, spelling, and timeline errors... Even though this book was supposed to be about Eve and Jemma's chemistry and falling in love with each other, I felt like (actually, I know) the author spent more time with each of the dates that didn't work out. There were a lot of cut scenes - for example, instead of writing the scene where they played CAH, the author just wrote a couple of sentences saying they played it and that they had fun. I didn't feel the chemistry... I feel like this could've been a really fun read - it's a really cool concept. I cannot stress more that I really wanted to like this book so badly!!!! It's only 148 pages which usually takes me a few hours to read but I really dreaded picking this back up. (Sorry!)

[sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75

like many people said, the premise of this book was good but there was a lot more that needed to be done before releasing this book. first off, this book needed an editor/beta readers because there are grammatical/spelling/punctuation/timeline errors that just make it hard to stay in the story. second, the book was just wayyyy to short to flesh out any of the relationships between the characters and explore deeper themes, which is a bummer. nothing felt earned. like most of the book is spent with jemma on dates with other people like? and when she spends time with eve we barely get anything. it could have been good but it just felt short. it was cute.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read Love on Page Six first, and enjoyed it, I was all for reading and reviewing Love Among the Stars. First off, I liked the premise—a Hollywood matchmaker crushing on her client who’s the Hollywood “it” girl looking for love in all the wrong places.

I enjoyed both characters. Even though Jemma is a Hollywood actress, she’s down to earth, a great cook, and loves her cat. This match-up was believable for me, since Eve is tight with Hollywood and its stars, and is even interviewed about her match-making business on TV (where Jemma sees her), so I thought they’d be a great fit.

Read more here: https://wp.me/p12iNR-9YK

[Mx Phoebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs lots of work

The premise is solid. The journey isn't too bad. It has lots of humor. The ending needs to be reworked. Jemma responds to every date like an animal in mating season so it's kind of hard to believe she has been in love with Eve since they met.

Then there are the huge amounts of grammatical and spelling errors. I don't think anyone did any editing on this book. My recommendation would be to look at every quotation mark because almost all of them are done incorrectly. Then I could suggest reading the story out loud.

[Robin Kenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet love story for sure.

Claerie Kavanaugh has put together a very sweet story, unfortunately for me it was riddled with typos and grammar issues, missing or repeated sentences that spoiled the read. If you can get passed that, it is an easy read, the characters are interesting and there are some good laughs. This is not a typical story for me so take it with a grain of salt.

[Katie (hobbitthereader) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. honestly, it was cute, but boring. the repeated dates with awful people were meh. there were a few inconsistencies and errors that could’ve been picked up with another round of editing, but they didn’t detract much from the story.

however, it wasn’t until 80% that eve confessed her feelings, and jemma immediately says oh i loved you from the beginning - bitch, who are you trying to fool? i read your chapters, you did not think of eve that way once 😂

[Ashlee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this one didn't quite work for me. There were a lot of plot holes or things that didn't make sense. I felt like the timeline was off and the interactions with the two MCs were very short. It also needs some editing, there are missing words, misplaced punctuation and other things that made it difficult to get through.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Fun Read

This is a quick entertaining story and a fun read. The characters are fairly well developed and the encounters between the two main characters are mesmerizing. I couldn't give it five stars because of quite a few editing errors, but they didn't cause me to stop reading. The story is fun.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good premise and good cover. Grammar & spelling may have been now tidied up as I didn’t find them a problem but the timeline is all over the place both for overall story and individual bits. How many hours are there in an evening?! And it pulls you right out of the story if they’re watching the sun dip lower in the sky when you know they watched it set on the previous page.

[FionaH · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off great, put petered out as if the author lost interest. Also way too many typos for me to overlook, including a sentence that literally had [insert cocktail here] in it. I hope the author revisits this, as the story was good.

[Ida Umphers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the Hollywood setting of this one and the fun of watching Eve trying to repair her reputation after the matchmaking she did for Jemma was such a fiasco. It doesn't take long for the reader to realize that no one is going to work for these two but each other.

[Sabina Rastokina · Rating 3 out of 5]

short and sweet

this was short and sweet. hea, and not a lot of drama and tension.
however the editing errors were kind of distracting. not sure if it was a printing issue or not, but was notable.

[Tierney Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. I enjoyed the leads. More time could be spent with them and less on Jemma's dates with other girls maybe. There is space to add more of their time together. But I was invested in the MCs and enjoyed what was here enough to read the sequel short story :).

[Wilhemina Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story, terrible editing

[Michelle Schuler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love Among the Stars

Claerie Kavanaugh wrote a good story. The chemistry was good, I enjoyed the MCs. It was a quick read with a slow burn.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Grammar errors, a rushed plot, surface-level interactions, no character development, and instant love - not the book for me.

[aj · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was a fun time and that’s what counts

[Stcgubcdddhkjqva · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, easy read