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The Untouchables Are All Grown Up! Grab A Tissue As Matt’s Story Begins In Earnest ...
Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 20 mai 2021
With His Own POV Sixteen Years After Brooklyn’s Death. Matt – The Only Remaining Untouchable Bachelor – Gets Help From Penny, Who Hopes To Play Matchmaker. Be Prepared For A Few Big Surprises.
Empire High Matchmaker is the emotional fourth book in the Empire High series. The first three books in the series take place while the Untouchables are in high school, and book three’s ending is devastating. The series is Matt’s story, but it has been almost entirely told from Brooklyn’s POV to this point. This book picks sixteen years later in Matt’s POV.
Chronologically, the characters in Empire High have gone on to other series in the interim, prior to the time Empire High’s book four takes place. Keeping with the basics, though, the following books take place and advance the overall story following book three of this series:
1. Temptation (James Hunter & Penny Taylor’s story, part 1)
2. Addiction (James Hunter & Penny Taylor’s story, part 2)
3. City of Sin (Mason Caldwell & Bridget Cowen’s story)
4. Eruption (James Hunter & Penny Taylor’s story, part 3)
5. Third Chances (Rob Hunter & Daphne Hughes’s story)
6. Devotion (James Hunter & Penny Taylor’s story, part 4)
7. Missing Pieces (Tyler Stevens & Hailey Shaw’s story)
8. The Light to my Darkness (James & Penny Hunter, part 1)
9. A Whirlwind of Color (James & Penny Hunter, part 2)
10. This Is Love (James & Penny Hunter, part 3)
As you can see, a lot has happened in the lives of the Untouchables during the sixteen year interval. James Hunter has an epic romance with Penny Taylor; Rob and Mason find love as well. Matt is the only remaining bachelor of the Hunter and Caldwell brothers. You will get the most of this and all of the above books by reading them all, but it is certainly possible to skip straight to Empire High Matchmaker.
FROM EMPIRE HIGH MATCHMAKER, BOOK FOUR:
This book opens sixteen years later in the fall.
Matthew Caldwell, thirty-two, has to keep busy. Like the other Untouchables, after graduating from Empire High he went on to attend Harvard where he studied finance. He took over for his father as CEO of MAC International, a job that had originally been intended for his older brother Mason. He enjoys throwing himself into his work. In his off hours he works out, improves him home, and for the last several years he has been the volunteer assistant football coach at Empire High. With Coach Carter’s retirement, Matthew has now taken over as head coach. Empire has a winning team under his direction, and the pressure is on to score points. Still, Matt takes a stand this year when he takes Henry Jefferson under his wing. Jefferson is the only freshman on the varsity team, and it isn’t clear why Matt keeps him on as their kicker. The kid always misses. But Matt has a soft spot for Jefferson because he is a scholarship kid, like Brooklyn had been. Matt hopes that by making him into a winner, the other kids at school will embrace him.
When he goes home at the end of the day, Matt works on improving his house. The problem is that he is almost done and it is a perfect home for a family. He had dreamed of having that one day with Brooklyn. Matt made a promise to her that he intends to keep, and in keeping his commitment to her, a wife and family will never be in the cards for him. He never invites anyone to his home, where he keeps a room devoted to Brooklyn’s memory. He hangs out with Mason, James, and his best friend Rob, but there has been a lot of change in recent years. They have all found a happy ending, something that was taken from him. It is a bitter pill to swallow at times. He hates being the third wheel, but he loves all his nieces and nephews. And he loves Penny. Penny reminds him most of Brooklyn’s personality, and the animosity he sometimes feels towards James has him occasionally acting rather recklessly. He knows there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed, but sometimes it is hard to remember why.
Therapy didn’t do Matthew much good over the years, and per Matt’s request the guys still don’t talk about the past, about Brooklyn. He found a friend that listens, though, a friend who also lost someone he loved. Tanner Rhodes is also Matt’s best friend. Neither Tanner nor Rob like sharing Matt, which leads to a lot of crazy drama. Tanner’s role in Matt’s life is important because he needs someone to talk to about Brooklyn. With Tanner’s encouragement, Matt takes up Penny’s offer to help set him up on a date. She wants to play matchmaker, but he just wants the excuse to spend time with her. But Tanner being Tanner, he wants to be matchmaker, too. He wants control over the process. Soon word gets out and everyone wants to help Rob get matched – but only Tanner knows Matt’s true intentions, and Matt himself has a difficult time knowing his true feelings.
Things get complicated when Poppy Cannavaro shows up at Matt’s office one day. Isabella’s cousin not only resembles her in her looks, but also in her craziness. Poppy delivers a letter from her uncle, Richard Pruitt, who was Brooklyn’s father. Apparently Richard has been asking to meet with Matt for years, and Matt consistently ignores his requests, blaming him for what happened years ago. Matt has been wondering if it has something to do with the mountain of paperwork he signed when he was with Brooklyn – and wonders what kind of obligations he might be on the hook for yet. While there are still outstanding questions, Poppy makes one thing very clear before she leaves: if he doesn’t cooperate, something might happen to Scarlett.
As Matt struggles with the idea of moving on, he suddenly finds himself caught up in the past. Richard Pruitt is impossible to read and not at all to be trusted, and the same goes for his niece, Poppy. Matt is being pulled in different directions. Scarlett’s safety could depend upon him, but there is a lot that remains unresolved between him and James which further complicates matters. And when Kennedy returns to town, she brings with her a flood of old memories that threaten to distract him. Matt’s life of hotels and one night stands wasn’t a life he fully embraced but a life that helped him get by. Indulging Penny’s desire to play matchmaker opens him up to a whirlwind of mixed feelings and risk taking, which leave him off his game when Richard Pruitt finally gets serious about getting Matt’s attention. Kennedy’s entrance brings back all the memories of Brooklyn and Empire High that Matt has tried to get past. His memories of Kennedy are so closely linked with his memories of Brooklyn that Kennedy feels like home to him. As Matt warms to the idea of a second chance at love after Brooklyn, Kennedy might just be the next best thing. This book ends with a twist the changes everything!
But Matt seems to repeat some of his past mistakes here. He had failed to make Brooklyn his priority, keeping their relationship a secret most of the time while he kept Isabella at bay. In this book Poppy enters the picture with her own demands and he wants to keep his new friendship with Kennedy quiet until things settle down. Matt is also very distracted. He likes to keep busy, but he has a lot going on. Too much, it seems, for him to get his act together and do the right thing with talking to James and Penny. He definitely makes some mistakes. Matt may be great at running an international finance company and coaching high school football. He may be great at one night stands. He is great with kids. But when it comes to a lot of other things, Matt relies heavily upon others for guidance. He isn’t decisive and domineering like James.
A few issues merit mention. *Spoilers* I expected things going differently here – and I hope things yet go the way I had hoped! Hang in there, because this book is basically the setup for book five. Three books written in Brooklyn’s POV make it hard to embrace Matt with anyone else. Because the series is Matt’s story, that is basically a really big hint about the direction of the overall story. Kennedy enters the story here and her friendship with Matt picks back up easily. Kennedy was Brooklyn’s best friend, and sometimes that works in a story. I personally cannot get behind it here. The idea makes me cringe. I get the confusion they might experience when they see one another and the temptation to use one another as a crutch or a way to get close to old memories. I remember Kennedy feeling jealous of Brooklyn, and it just doesn’t feel right to me. At all. She had been smitten with Felix, and I had always envisioned him redeeming himself and coming back for her one day. Perhaps Kennedy will become like a Tyler or a Melissa character – someone otherwise nice but who will only ever be second best in the situation. Fingers crossed that Matt figures this out and moves on!
Those that have not read the books that occur chronologically between books three and four of this series will appreciate an update on Mason, Rob, and James.
Mason Caldwell is now about thirty-four and runs his own successful advertising firm with his wife Bee.
James Hunter is now about thirty-four and a self-made billionaire thanks to his tech startups. He pleased his parents by marrying Isabella and sincerely tried to make it work, but the marriage ended when he discovered her cheating. He met his wife Penny while teaching. She is now about twenty-seven. She is an aspiring author and mother of two. Their children are Scarlett, roughly four, and Liam, their infant son.
Rob Hunter, roughly thirty-two, decided to find himself after Harvard since he didn’t have any specific goals. He spent years living off of his parents’ money and travelling. When in Costa Rica for James’s bachelor party, he met his wife Daphne, a high school math teacher. Their children are Sophie, roughly four, and little RJ is an infant.
Get ready to see the Untouchables all grown up! Grab a tissue as Matt’s story begins in earnest with his own POV sixteen years after Brooklyn’s death. Matt – the only remaining Untouchable bachelor – gets help from Penny, who hopes to play matchmaker. But Penny reminds Matt of Brooklyn, so spending time with her is dangerous. Be prepared for a few big surprises. The story is well-written. The plot is quite complex and layered. The characters are carefully crafted and three-dimensional. The book is written in first person in Matt’s POV, with one chapter in Kennedy’s POV. I rate this book four stars.
I received an advance copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
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