This was a birthday present.
Here is the blurb …
April McVey hasn’t a romantic bone in her body. So how has she found herself at the door of Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau, job application in hand? Matchmaker Martha hopes the lively Irish girl will breathe fresh air into a business struggling to keep with the times amid the tumult of 1930s Britain. So when lonely widower Fabian arrives at the bureau, the pair’s matchmaking skills – and professionalism – meet their first true test. Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau is a charming and witty romantic comedy about friendship, loneliness, and the unexpected places where we find fulfilment
This novel had a lovely 1930s feel to it. It reminded me of novels like Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day or something by Dorothy Whipple (or any of the Persephone authors). April is a modern woman not interested in marriage, Mrs Hart is a war widow who wants to find veterans and other lonely people a suitable partner. Enter some clients (some nice some decidedly not nice) and we have a fun story. There are some dark patches – a man assuming April is a prostitute and Jewish refugees arriving from Germany, but mostly it is a light-hearted romantic comedy. It also touches on women’s role in society – what is expected of them, but also what they might want for themselves.
A review.