The Matzah Ball By Jean Meltzer
Jean Meltzer ´ 3 free read
can rom com authors stop acting like colonisation and genocide is funny orrrrrrr The Matzah Ball (ARC)
I was so excited to read this book until in the literal first chapter, this happens:
“Rachel wanted to tell people the truth about what she did for a living, but coming out wasn’t that easy. She couldn’t just stand up on the bima, like Mickey had done at his bar mitzvah all those years prior, and tell everyone the truth.“
In case you’re confused, yeah, the main character is comparing her telling people she writes Christmas themed romance novels to her friend coming out as gay…
I was honestly so taken aback by this comparison that I have really no interest in continuing. Coming out as LGBTQ+ is nowhere near the same as telling people you like Christmas.
(I may go back and try to finish this, but as of now this is a DNF) The Matzah Ball The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer
Holiday story romance with a Jewish base line. Second chance troupe. Clean.
Though the daughter of a famous Rabbi, Rachel has a secret and successful career writing Christmas romance novels. When her editor demands a Hanukkah romance, Rachel doesn’t know what to do. It’s Christmas that brings her joy, not her own life experiences. The reappearance of Jacob, the one boy who broke her heart, is serendipity. Jacob is hosting a party that can give Rachel the inspiration she needs to keep her career alive.
Joyous, touching and sweet.
A celebration of love and romance. Of Hanukkah and Christmas and destiny. Of ME/CFS or myalgic encephalomyelitis also know as Chronic fatigue syndrome.
Rachel was hit with the disease during her college years. The story doesn’t make us feel sorry for her, but rather focuses on her overcoming the limitations. Jacob, the hero is impressive in his handling of their history and Rachel’s lies. Toby is awesome in several ways.
Overall, I fell in love with this story.
Excerpts 1:
“Shabbat was coming.
Jacob loved these aspects of Jewish life. There was a focus on tradition and family and doing the right thing, tikkun olam, in order to make the world a better place. All the things he had wanted as a child and never got.”
Excerpt 2:
“You know, there’s a belief in the Jewish culture that every person in the world has a person they are destined to marry. Your bashert. A soul God cut and created, designated just for you. Isn’t that the loveliest concept?”
Excerpts from The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer
I received a copy of this from NetGalley.
The Matzah Ball L’chaim my friends! This book is extremely swoon worthy, heartfelt, charming, enchanting and touching!
Both of the MCs are huggable, likable, a little obnoxious and self destructive but they are truly golden hearted ones who deserve a HEA!
The enemies to lovers: strict entrepreneur vs
sunshiny romance author, summer camp archenemies themes worked perfectly well in this story.
You laugh, you clap, you sigh, you get pissed off to their misunderstandings and less of communications. Tears drip down across your cheeks as you hold your heart tightly and sigh slowly: this is the best book honestly reflects Judaism traditions, rituals but it also reflects its magical and soothing face. I think this book mostly show us those traditions’ magical ways to gather the families and bond them tightly with those rituals. This book is about destroying your inner walls, confronting with your resentments that holds you back, fighting against your inner fears.
Rachel Rubenstein Goldblatt, living her nice two bedroom Upper West apartment, single, a rabbi’s daughter ( Quick correction: Rabbi Goldblatt is not a no name-low level rabbi, he is a macher, a bigwig in her community, coming from a big family of Jewish philosophers and founders of Jewish Community Centers) suffers from chronic disease: myalgic encephalomyelitis ( chronic fatigue syndrome) affects her neurological,immune, autonomic, metabolic systems. Rachel daily lives with crushing fatigue, brain fog, migraines, weirdo pains force her spending her days in her bed, lying in the dark.
Most of the people including her employers don’t know her illness. Only her family and her childhood friend Mickey know her secret.
But this is not the only thing she keeps to herself. She lies about her profession: as a rabbi’s daughter, coming from conservative family, she likes Christmas because when she’s sick at young age, Christmas spirit and those all Hallmark movies gave her hope, saved her suffering soul. And she’s famous Christmas romance author with a secret pen name. Her three books were already adapted into movies, airing on TV but she cannot share this brilliant news with her family.
But now she’s doomed because the publishers have intention to accept a new Christmas novel. They want her to write a Hanukkah romance. But how? She’s Jewish but she doesn’t find anything spiritual about Hanukkah!
But as a magical coincidence, she finds a Jewish newsletter at subway telling that a sensational Matzah Ball party : a Jewish music celebration at the eight of Hanukkah will be thrown in a few days. This event of the year can help her find the perfect muse to write about perfect Hanukkah romance! All she needs is inspiration!
But when she finds out the party’s organizer is her camp archenemy Jacob Greenberg who is her first kiss, first heartbreak, first big humiliation: the ruthless little boy who pulled meanest pranks on her, she cursed her bad luck! The same boy got invited to her family Shabbat gathering which means she can kindly ask a ticket for the party and reconnect with her enemy.
But Jacob has no intention to give her pass if she doesn’t work as a volunteer at his organization for 8 days. It will be compelling task for Rachel because of her health issues but she’s not a quitter so she handshakes with her enemy.
But what if Jacob is not the reason of her big humiliation. He acts like she was the one who broke his heart. He acts decent, sincere around her. Could she think wrong things about him for all those years? Could she fully trust him to share her big secrets?
As they spend more time together, she slowly sees Jacob is also broken, lonely and he needs someone to rely on. Maybe she could make a truce with her enemy! Maybe she can do more than that!
Only thing bothered me about this book is the character become their love interests when they were 12! They were just children. Well they were way too young to feel too deeply for each other and holding grudges for 18 years. Maybe they would be 15 or 16, that would be a little more reasonable for me!
Anyways I’m still rounding up 4.5 stars to 5 Mazel Tov, this is inspirational, magical, tender, tear jerker, romantic Hanukkah romance stars!
Don’t forget to read author’s note to learn her connection with the character she’s created! I’m looking forward to read more works of her in near future.
Special thanks to NetGalley and HARLEQUIN Trade Publishing for sharing this amazing reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions. The Matzah Ball This book glorifies the murders of Palestinians. Seriously disgusting and dehumanizing. The Matzah Ball
Oy! to the world
Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach.
But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah’s not magical. It’s not merry. It’s not Christmas. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy—Jacob Greenberg.
Though Rachel and Jacob haven’t seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah—and Jacob—in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze. The Matzah Ball
I honestly tried to give this book a chance. But I am tired of the trope. I am tired of reading books about Ashkenazi Jewish women obsessed with Christmas. And supposedly Jewish holiday romances that only ever center Hanukkah, and even then only because it happens to land in proximity to Christmas on a calendar. How can it be that with such a rich, ancient and diverse culture, this is all we have to represent us? Unfortunately, this book fell into too many stereotypes and cliches, a representation that we have seen before and is honestly tired and hurtful. The Matzah Ball [Adding this disclaimer now that I've learned that apparently this review is being circulated and I'm being called a Gentile or an antisemitic bitch or whatever else, because APPARENTLY the part in this review where I said I'm a Jewish woman of color was not clear enough, so--I AM A JEWISH WOMAN OF COLOR. Review below is unchanged since I first posted it.]
The hook for this book is so charming that I was super excited to read it, and it is so spectacularly terrible I can't even believe I got through the whole thing, except I guess that spite and the prospect of writing a vicious review fueled me.
First I hated it and decided to give it the benefit of the doubt, because even though I can't tolerate the whole BBYO, basic-goyishe-bitch-even-though-I'm-Jewish, As a Jew it's not possible for me to be racist because I'm not capable of distinguishing my white privilege from my experience with antisemitism, and I'll just ignore the fact that Jews of color exist, even within the Ashkenazim, I actually thought Birthright was great, I have been American Ashkenazi my whole life but once I started going to Hillel I started acting like I have always used Hebrew and not Yiddish* crew IRL, I should be be able to do it in a book, right? But nope, as a WOC who is thoroughly Broad City, Seinfeld reform, cultural Jewish, who identifies with the ethics and intellectual philosophies of Judaism more than feeling the need to turn off my phone on Saturdays, I can't stand these people in prose any longer than I can stand them in real life....which is to say a lot less time than the handful of hours it took me to read this.
And beyond my personal, philosophical, and sociocultural mismatch with the particular corner of the Jewish world portrayed in this book, since I recognize that not all books are required to be mirrors, this novel is just awful on a narrative level. Rachel is an irredeemably self-centered bitch who uses her (actually well rendered--possibly the only well done thing about the book) chronic illness to avoid taking adult accountability for literally anything ever, Jacob is a poorly adjusted adult whose childhood trauma was never adequately treated and who was framed and deserves better than everyone in this book (though he is also inconsistently rendered, has weird, stilted dialogue, and has a job that makes no sense, and . Everyone is just mean, and all the side characters except Rachel's mom are unremarkable, unmemorable stock characters (The One Who Is A Gay Best Friend And Token Adopted Child Of Queer Parents All At Once, The One Who Is A Millennial But Talks Like He's Straight Outta Ellis Island in 1895, The Wise Old Person Who Spouts Talmudic Philosophy But It's Progressive Because She's the Bubbe, Not the Zayde). The italics for all the Hebrew and misspelled (I know it's transliterated, but it's still wrong) Yiddish bothers the shit out of me like it does when any other non-English language is italicized, and everything Jewish, including the fucking Holocaust, is so aggressively overexplained that it's clear this book was written for goyim. Like, you cannot tell me you are writing a novel for all the Jewish readers and watchers who feel left out of Christmas festivities and then tell me that in case I wasn't aware, The Holocaust Was Bad or The Shamash Lights The Other Candles.
I will reiterate in a standalone paragraph so you don't all miss it and call me a bitch: chronic illness and fatigue rendered in prose? Sorely needed, and while I don't have ME/CFS (I have fibromyalgia and a bunch of other shit), I really could identify with a lot of it, so I'll say that's well done.
Maybe I just misread the flap copy before I hit download on Netgalley or am completely misunderstanding the author's mission? (Though I could put my academic hat on and talk about intent versus impact, Foucault's the author is dead, etc.) I just thought this book was going to be either some tongue in cheek satire of a Hallmark Christmas movie or a subversive look at how even though Jews invented a lot of what American Christmas-ism is (another throwaway I enjoyed was the reference of Irving Berlin, but it could have dug into that a bit more), and instead it was basic-ass Hallmark shit, just with some Hanukkah being Christmas-ified. I suppose if that's your thing, that's cool, but it felt like the book equivalent of goyishe Hanukkah carols that non-Jewish choir directors pull out so the December concert can market itself as a holiday concert instead of a Christmas one, even though none of us give a fuck about whether you enjoy Christmas and are not waging a war on it, and we'd rather you give us time off for Rosh Hashanah and Passover than force us to pretend Hanukkah matters at anywhere near the magnitude Christmas does.
Also, I highlighted the sentence Let's put Hanukkah on fleek because I can't tell you a more perfect line in all of fiction or reality that better encompasses the kind of basic, un-self-aware white person who misappropriates AAVE because they think everything belongs to them Rachel is (and the many people like her IRL). And you cannot convince me it was ironic on the part of Rachel OR on the part of the author. It was used with earnest sincerity.
Anyway, I'm mad that this is clearly going to be used as the flagship example of Jews! They're just like us! in (holiday) romance and feel like it's going to set us back 5782 years.
*not literal quotes from the book! Pithy one-liners of my own making that characterize a personality type and community identity that I find hard to stomach! If you're not Jewish or long married to a Jew and his/her/their entire family, you absolutely do not get to flippantly use these! It's like not being able to say my nigga if you're not black! It's an in-group thing! The Matzah Ball Here's another rom-com for your holiday season, but this time it’s a Hanukkah one!
Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate! I don’t know about you, but for me, growing up Jewish was always a little tough on the holidays, because not a tremendous amount of attention was paid to Hanukkah. People don’t go Hanukkah caroling, and Charlie Brown and his gang didn’t mark the Festival of Lights. But I always loved the Christmas spirit and all that came with it.
Rachel loves Christmas, too, but since her father is a prominent rabbi, she has to keep that hidden. She also has to hide the fact that she’s actually a best-selling Christmas romance author. But when her editor says that their readers are tiring of the same-old holiday stuff and want something different—maybe a Hanukkah romance—Rachel is at a loss. Where will she find inspiration for that?
Inspiration enters in the form of Jacob Greenberg, the handsome festival organizer and mastermind behind the exclusive Matzah Ball. Jacob also happens to be Rachel’s first love—and heartbreak—back from their preteen summer camp days. And even though she still holds a bit of a grudge, she’s determined to get a ticket to the Matzah Ball.
I loved the representation in this book. Not only were there Jewish MCs and Shabbat candles, but Rachel also had chronic fatigue syndrome, and the book dealt with the mistreatment and prejudice and pity many with invisible illnesses face.
The thing that worked the least for me was the romance, believe it or not. I didn’t feel a ton of chemistry between Rachel and Jacob, and the pranks he played on her would’ve knocked him off my list, lol.
Still, I hope that The Matzah Ball signifies the start of more Hanukkah rom-coms. It was great to buddy read this with my friend Louis, too—he’s the best to discuss books with!!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/. The Matzah Ball I expected this to be a fun story with a different take on a holiday read. I was wrong.
What I liked:
I enjoyed learning about the Jewish faith, customs, and celebrations. I also found it interesting to experience Rachel's life as she struggled with a chronic illness. Reasons as such are why I like to read different types of books; to learn about others.
What I didn't like:
The story fell flat overall. The entire plot is based on the grudge Rachel and Jacob hold towards each other, which dates back to when they were 12 years old. That wasn't enough to keep the love story interesting or believable. Since Rachel and Jacob are both nearly 30, and hadn't seen each other for almost 18 years, holding such a grudge made no sense. Instead, their interactions and behavior came across as immature and hurtful.
The supporting characters are likable and caring. Unfortunately, Rachel and Jacob's behavior towards each other took too much away from the story. The Matzah Ball is genocide a joke to you?? ffs stop writing and educate yourself The Matzah Ball