The Singles Table - Review

The Singles Table (Marriage Game, # 3)

By: Sara Desai

Publication: November 16th 2021 by Berkley

336 pages

Genre: Adult, Contemporary

Source: Borrowed from the e-library

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Goodreads description--Opposites attract in this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy about a free-spirited lawyer who is determined to find the perfect match for the grumpy bachelor at her friend’s wedding, from the author of The Dating Plan.

After a devastating break-up, celebrity-obsessed lawyer Zara Patel is determined never to open her heart again. She puts her energy into building her career and helping her friends find romance through the wedding season. She's never faced a guest at the singles table she couldn’t match, until she crosses paths with the sinfully sexy Jay Donovan.

Former military security specialist Jay has no time for love. His life is about working hard, staying focused, and winning at all costs. When charismatic Zara crashes into his life, he's thrown into close contact with exactly the kind of chaos he wants to avoid. Worse, they're stuck together for the entire wedding season.

So they make a deal. She'll find his special someone if he introduces her to his celebrity clients. But when their arrangement brings them together in ways they never expected, they realize that the perfect match might just be their own.

I have no idea what the description of this book is talking about with Zara having had some devastating break-up. From what I could tell, Zara had never had a particularly intense relationship before. She's just simply beginning to feel the pangs of her age catching up with her and getting tired of all of the aunties trying to insinuate that she's getting old to be single still.

Zara was such a fun character to read. She's someone who talks to think. Stream of consciousness literally flows out of her mouth. And while I can't say that I always love to be around people who do this in real life, she was easy to like. I could easily see how people could think she was "too much" so I kind of felt guilty for feeling that way about people who are similar that I've shied away from. Stories tend to always help the reader feel sympathetic to the main character because we get to see inside their heads and read their thoughts, go through their struggles with them, and seeing Zara be aware and even (sometimes) insecure about herself made her likable and relatable. But Zara has found a way to meld her personality with the expectations of her family.

Jay (Donovan is not his last night by the way Goodreads) was in the military. And he grew up with just him and his mom. He has mixed heritage and his dad left long ago. His grandparents disowned his mom when she got pregnant before marriage and so Jay hasn't had the ties into the culture that Zara has. He really only has his business partner and a few lifelong friends. But mostly Jay has found that structure and control help him distance himself from the poverty he and his mom went through.

Jay and Zara initially have a meeting where the two of them butt heads. Zara isn't at all interested in him, but she's likes to compete against the aunties during the wedding season and try her hand at matchmaking. She's been successful before. So she sets out to try to match Jay with someone. Only the more she gets to know him, the less she sees other women as compatible with him. Jay is on board with the idea of him and Zara sooner than she is. I can't remember exactly what Zara's hold-up was. I did finish this book a full two weeks before I sat down to write my review.

The Singles Table was exactly what I needed at the time. It was a fast read about two characters I could root for. Zara isn't someone I'd typically gravitate towards in real life, but I couldn't help but like her. Jay needed someone like Zara to bring him out of his shell. And I enjoyed every minute of their story. The Singles Table gets 4 Stars. Have you read The Singles Table? What did you think? Let me know!