Sophie Go's Lonely Hearts Club

June 27, 2022
Lim (Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop) treads well-worn ground in this tender if derivative tale of a matchmaker and her demanding parents. Sophie Go has returned from Shanghai to her hometown of Toronto to establish her matchmaking business. However, her debut is ruined by her mother, who reveals that Sophie was expelled from matchmaking school after a tragic incident involving a client. Desperate, Sophie offers to matchmake her neighbors, a group of male seniors known as the Old Ducks, in the hope that success with a difficult demographic will draw customers. Meanwhile, Sophie’s parents apply constant emotional and financial pressure. Lim offers promising forays into the psychology of love and intergenerational toxic parenting, but ultimately sinks into the age-old debate over self-happiness versus filial piety, with protracted instances of Sophie’s constant desire to please and placate and a requisite showdown that feels insufficiently cathartic. The saving grace is Sophie’s relationship with the Old Ducks, whose idiosyncrasies and genuine affection for Sophie counterbalance some of the tropes, such as the serendipitous way each Duck finds his mate and the forbidden romance between Sophie and another client. Still, fans of Lim’s earlier works should find in this another welcome match. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency.

Starred review from June 15, 2022
A young Toronto woman has just returned from training as a matchmaker in Shanghai and begins to set up her business. Sophie Go has a rare ability: She can see the red threads that dangle from people's hearts, indicating that they are open to romantic love. When a pairing is made, a couple's red threads join together. The strength of their bond is indicated by the thickness of the connection and their trials and tribulations, by its knots. She has inherited Toronto as her territory, and she has major--and well-respected--shoes to fill now that Madam Chieng has died. But at the party where she is to be launched into high society, her mother shows up and tells everyone that Sophie was expelled without graduating from the matchmaking academy. What follows is sweet, earnest, candy-loving Sophie's effort to set up her business while she works on getting accredited. She meets the Old Ducks, a group of men in their 70s who could use her matchmaking help, including Mr. Regret, who listened to his parents and never married the woman he loved; Mr. Wolf, obsessed with his show cats; Mr. Sorrow, a widower of 23 years; Mr. Durian, lover of that smelly, delicious fruit; Mr. Dolphin, humorous and perfectly put together; and Mr. Porcupine, prickly and disbelieving about matchmaking as a profession. This engaging book takes a close look at love, friendship, sorrow, loss, and responsibilities to family--both the family members you are born with and the family members that you find. Personality quirks are embraced in this delightful story about seeking--and finding--love even if you need help along the way.

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July 1, 2022
After moving out of her overbearing parents' house and attending matchmaker training in Shanghai, Sophie is finally on her own, ready to take Toronto by storm. Sure, she has to build a client list from scratch, and her tiny apartment mostly houses her candy collection, but she's on the right track. When she overhears a group of elderly men gossiping in her building's lobby, she recognizes that the untapped geriatric market could be her big break. But as she starts to understand what being a professional matchmaker is all about, Sophie realizes she's been ignoring her own heart. Tinted with magical realism in the style of Mary Simses, Andrea De Carlo, and Samantha Verant, Sophie's story is a funny, frank, and heartfelt journey of inner strength and new connections. Lim (Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop, 2020) portrays Sophie and her parents with layers and nuance, setting cultural expectations against Sophie's modern sensibilities. Filled with luscious food, a catchy Beatles soundtrack, and the sight and sounds of Toronto, Lim's latest is a treat.

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