Jean Meltzer

"Magical Meet Cute" by Jean Meltzer offers a whimsical journey into the life of Faye Kaplan, a Jewitch potter navigating love, identity, and the consequences of her magical creations. While Meltzer's witty prose and exploration of serious themes add depth to the narrative, the fusion of romance, fantasy, and weighty topics did not resonate with me.

Set in Woodstock, New York, Faye's life takes an unexpected turn after a night of drinking leads her to create a golem, a Jewish protector against anti-Semitic attacks. When the golem transforms into Greg, Faye's dream man, after a chance encounter involving her bike, she questions the limits of her magic.

Meltzer skillfully addresses themes such as abuse, trauma, and identity, allowing for genuine character development and emotional depth in the slow-burn romance between Faye and Greg. Faye's relationships with her friends and her journey of self-discovery add layers of complexity to the story.

Known for her delightful romcom stories, I felt she tried to throw too much at me in her latest book. The inclusion of "Jewitch" practices and the exploration of anti-Semitism alongside the romance felt disjointed and detracted from the overall narrative cohesion.

Despite its flaws, Meltzer's adept writing style and exploration of complex issues make for an interesting read, although one that may require a willingness to accept its eclectic mix of genres.… (altro)

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This was a new-to-me author who was recommended to me by a friend and, oh, I liked this book! Faye is a "Jewitch" potter who meets Greg, an amnesiac she hits with her bike. But is Greg really the clay golem she created the night before when a hate crime is committed that hits close to home? Read the book to find out! A mix of the serious and comedic, this is a wonderful story about finding out who you are, and learning to live with generational trauma and love yourself despite your flaws. My only complaint is that the title, the description, and the cover of this book belie the serious themes that run through this story. I felt like they really made it seem like it was going to be a much lighter story than it was, which is an injustice to the author's work. I will be reading more by this author, her ability to mix light and dark (as well as her comedic voice) made this an enjoyable read.… (altro)

Predictable but OH so delightful, Mr. Perfect on Paper is about a third-generation matchmaker living with generalized anxiety disorder. Dara Rabinowitz has become a Jewish dating app tycoon and is looking to take J-Mate to the next level. During a media push with her matchmaker grandmother, Dara is horrified when Bubbe takes over the interview and plays the shidduch, challenging Dara to look for her perfect match; the dreamy single-dad goyish host Chris Steadfast offers to capture the whole thing as a recurring segment as double duty to help out their family business (over 10,000 matches made!) and save his failing good news show.

Dara’s perfect husband list limits occupation to doctor or lawyer; no baggage of past marriages or children, and MUST be Jewish. She meets a few men who seem perfect on paper, but all of the dates that trails on end laughably horribly–until she meets an actual doctor who a family member has been trying to set her up with. Maybe it’s beshert! Meanwhile, Chris is (steadfastly) in the background on each date, providing comfort and support, and while the reader can see they are meant to be, it’s clear Dara can’t break tradition to marry a non-Jew, no matter how much she likes him… or can she?

Meltzer beautifully incorporates modern-day Judaism into a rompy dating app rom-com where everyone just has best interests at heart. She doesn’t shy away from the realities of chronic illness, and these details make the story more real, more compelling, and more authentic.

I read #MrPerfectOnPaper via OverDrive from my local public library; after finishing Kissing Kosher, I needed to get my hands on everything else Jean Meltzer ever wrote, and while I didn’t love The Matzah Ball as much, partly because the formatting of the galley edition made it difficult to read, I think this an author who gets better with every book.

https://hiplibrariansbookblog.com/2023/07/05/mr-perfect-on-paper-by-jean-meltzer...… (altro)

The Lippman and Cohen families have been rivals for two generations after a mysterious falling out. Avital Cohen, the general manager of Best Babka in Brooklyn, is helping to keep the business she now co-owns with her very distractable brother Josh afloat–in spite of her chronic illness–he has a head for baking but not for business. Their company is hugely successful but growth is limited by their small shop. It’s secretly infiltrated by Ethan (Lippman) Rosenberg, who at his grandfather’s behest, plans to steal the pumpkin babka recipe that made Best Babka famous. His dreams are dashed when instead of starting out in the kitchens, he’s stuck folding boxes and going on a supplies runs. His meet cute with Avi is seeing her naked tuchus after they collide (due to her chronic cystitis, she’s sans underpants), and his attraction is immediate. Avi keeps Ethan at arms length first because of her challenging pelvic issues and then because she learns his true identity–and keeps his secret.

Their burgeoning relationship grows slowly as Ethan, who is truly a mensch, becomes a friend, then supporter, then lover of Avi, always empathetic to her illness without ever making her feel less than. The plot is complicated by Ethan’s family issues (the grandfather who took him in alongside his pothead younger brother and disabled younger sister after their parent’s death is abusive and controlling). Avi’s depiction of living with a chronic illness is real, matter-of-fact, informative, and well-characterized; suffering readers will feel seen. Finally, a fantastic subplot about a halachic rabbi in the medical marijuana trade brings it all together in a satisfactory way.

Jean Meltzer keeps getting better with every book. Hebrew/Yiddish/Jewish terms and festivals are succinctly explained, but I think she could take the lead from writers like Sonia Dev or Elena Armas who let terms in their original language sit as they are used, providing context but leaving it to the curious reader to do the grunt work to define a term, look up a translation, or do their own research. In fact, Meltzer could do less telling and more showing. I did have a sense that things were cut or simplified to keep the page count a little lower while maintaining wonderful details like the characterizations of other workers at Best Babka (a shout-out to the phenomenal ex-con who loves to knit and make bourekas; his presence serves to show tikkun olam in action). The over-explaining is the only reason this is a 4 1/2 star book instead of a 5 star book for me, and I’m blaming it on editing, not content, writing, setting, or characterization, which are all A+.

Additionally, I take with the reviewer who claimed in their NetGalley review, “This book had serious representation issues, that made me wonder (and look up) whether the author was Jewish.” Not only is Meltzer Jewish, she went to rabbinical school and cites rabbinic supervision in the acknowledgements! If there is one thing my conversion to Judaism taught me, it’s that there is more than one way to be Jewish; it’s a culture, a religion and an ethnicity with tons of diversity and degrees of practice. Just because she went with an interpretation that breaking a glass in a wedding represents the fragility of human life (which is just one of several meanings of the symbolic ritual) or that her main character schedules an interview for Friday afternoon (it’s not sundown YET) does not mean she doesn’t know what she is talking about. Avital and Ethan are not modern orthodox, but prayer and tradition is important to them and maybe supercedes travelling on Shabbat, and that’s okay.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #KissingKosher from #NetGalley.

https://hiplibrariansbookblog.com/2023/07/05/kissing-kosher-by-jean-meltzer/… (altro)