After several years of school and work to become a medical doctor, Navashen Bhattathiri is finally returning to his hometown of Lexington to start the next chapter in his life. He connects with high school classmate Brent Carpenter, who is now a realtor and helps Navashen to find the perfect house to settle into when he moves to town. Brent also considers himself to be a bit of a matchmaker, so he also offers to help fix Navashen up with the perfect guy. While Navashen appreciates Brent's efforts, his busy schedule and responsibilities make it difficult for him to initiate or sustain a relationship with any of the guys Brent comes up with. But Brent is a constant for Navashen, and he sees Navashen's busy schedule and his work as a sign of dedication and commitment--something to be admired. If Navashen were to be honest with himself, he would love for Brent to offer himself up as a potential date. But could Brent really feel the same way?

I associate Ariel Tachna with well-written and developed characters, and this story provides no exception. I found it easy to get a real sense of Navashen, what motivates him, where he's come from, and what he wants from life. The characters around him were just as easy to follow, even those that only popped up once or twice during the course of the book. I took away a strong message that we need to be prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and our own happiness. There will always be things that we see as standing in our way--career, family, confidence--but if we're not willing to confront them or try to get past them, then we really don't have much standing to complain about not getting what we want... ( )

‘A Matchless Man’ is one of the most understated slow-burn romances I have ever read. Based on what I found out about Navashen, the doctor of Indian descent who returns to his hometown after sixteen years of grueling studies and qualification, this is the only kind of romances that could have happened to him. Discovering the reason behind his thinking and behavior was fascinating, and while I can’t emotionally relate to his position, this book gave me great insight into his thinking, his feelings, and the way his mixed cultural heritage – Indian and American – shaped his beliefs. Everything he does is logical as seen from his point of view, and Ariel Tachna helped me understand why that is the case.

Navashen is a great doctor who specializes in premature babies’ health. There is a very personal reason for this – and I loved Navashen for this decision alone. Navashen has had to work very hard to get to where he is, since his family is poor and could have never paid for Navashen’s education. As a result, Navashen has had no social life to speak of and absolutely no time for a personal life. He is extremely focused on his job, helping others survive, and taking care of his parents and younger brother, now that he can afford to support them financially. Based on experience, Navashen doesn’t expect to fall in love. In that sense he is very Indian, and an arranged marriage probably would have surprised him less than the feelings he ends up developing for Brent.

Brent is intensely competitive, a successful real estate agent, and divorced. While he and Navashen were never extremely close in school, they were friends, and it is easy for them to fall back into that pattern. Brent is determined to ensure that Navashen has a social life and begins to date, and his own feelings never become a point for consideration – until Navashen realizes that his relationship with Brent is already very close and could become even deeper with only a little effort.

Even though there are so many good reasons for Navashen and Brent to date and become lovers, there are also a ton of factors that work against them. Some are cultural, some are Brent’s personal hang-ups, some are interfering parents and other problems. Navashen and Brent go through more than one attempt before they get it right, and the finer points of why and how they deal with the barriers kept me in suspense until the very end.

If you like character-based love stories that could have easily ended like a tragedy, if two men from different worlds getting together and dealing with the obstacles between them are your thing, and if you’re looking for a read that is very subtly romantic and wonderfully understated, then you will probably like this novel.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )

Navashen Bhattathiri has recently completed his education as a highly specialized doctor and wants to return to Lexington, Kentucky, where he grew up and his family still resides. While searching for a house to purchase, he is reunited with a high school friend, Brent Carpenter, who seems intent on making Navashen develop a social life. But Navashen has many obligations - to his immigrant parents and very traditional mother, to his developmentally-delayed younger brother Akshat, and to his demanding career - and he isn't sure that he can find a man who will accept that.

I usually steer clear from medical romances of any sort; I work in the healthcare field, and the last thing that I want to do on my free time is feel like I'm at work. Plus they're usually super inaccurate. And, to be honest, I have worked with more than my fair share of asshole doctors, so whenever I see doctors treating nurses and other staff kindly, I want to point and laugh and be like "LMAO THAT IS NOT HOW IT IS IN THE REAL WORLD HAHAHAHAHAHA." (I have met a few doctors who were kind to those "beneath" them, but they are few and far between.) However, I liked the author's "The Path," and I did like that Navashen was raised poor and was a character of colour. So why not?

Well...this book was pretty light on the romance. I know that this line (Dreamspun Desires) is designed to be light on the sex (the two I've read have only had one sex scene apiece, and they were both pretty vanilla) and pretty trope-heavy (for example, this book has the "medical doctor married to his job," "old friends reunited in adulthood to become lovers," "character with too many responsibilities needs to learn just how to relax," and "friend who has a crush on other friend tries to set him up with other guys because he doesn't think said friend is interested in him" tropes, to name a few). But I expect a romance book to, well, have some romance in it - and there just isn't much here. Navashen is consumed with his new career, settling into his new house, and helping his younger brother become more independent of their overbearing mother. Brent and Nav don't really start getting together until the book is about three-quarters of the way over, which left their relationship feeling rushed and underdeveloped, in my opinion. I think that having a few chapters from Brent's perspective would have helped the plot, because their relationship almost felt like it sprung from nowhere towards the end. I mean, honestly, I didn't remember the summary when picking up the book, and I spent a good deal of time wondering if the two "leads" were Nav and a friend of Brent's, not Brent himself. Oops.

The author definitely got the feel of call right - call is a demon straight from the pits of hell, and I will never take a job where I am required to take it again (too many sixty-plus hour stretches without having a second of sleep to make me anything but bitter and mean when it comes to call, haha).

If you're interested more in family dynamics and watching a developmentally-delayed younger brother spread his wings thanks to his older brother, you might be interested in this book. If you're looking for a romance? Eh, I wouldn't recommend it. I will definitely read more from this author in the future, though, because I really enjoyed "The Path" and I like that she uses a more diverse set of characters in her books. ( )