Where to start...well, the heroine, Lindsay Parker, is a spoiled young woman who this reader found incredibly hard to like for most of the book.  In fact, I spent more time rooting for her "foes" than I did rooting for her.  Yet, I still found THE MATCHBREAKER to be a highly engrossing and witty novel.  Only the best of authors could take a thoroughly unlikable character and still have the reader glued to the pages. 

Lindsay's father is the light of her life.  After her mother and father's ended due to tragic events, Lindsay's father has been the only person in her life.  Lindsay has chased away three fiancées already, and she is determined to make Karen, his personal trainer, her next victim.  Her father thinks himself madly in love with Karen, but Lindsay knows Karen is just not for him. 

Faking good intentions, Lindsay offers to set up a four-day bachelorette party in Ibiza, where Lindsay's best friend, Gemma, has a family yacht.  There is one major problem: Karen can't swim.  During a drunken argument, Lindsay pushes Karen away from her and Karen falls overboard and isn't found until a day later. 

This quickly ends the engagement between Karen and Lindsay's dad, but something changes.  Lindsay's dad becomes seriously depressed, so Lindsay realizes she needs to repair their relationship.  When she finds Karen in the throes of another man's arms, Lindsay is forced to break up Karen's new relationship in order to push Karen back into her dad's arms. 

Much of THE MATCHBREAKER focuses on Lindsay's repeated attempts to destroy her father's relationships.  The girl doesn't work, she sponges off her father's salary despite her degree, and for this reader I felt he was far too generous from the start.  Eventually, Lindsay does have to face up to her past, present, and future, but by that point, I'd almost given up caring about her and her selfish ways. 

Despite all, I wound up staying up late to finish Chris Manby's excellent novel.  I may not have liked Lindsay, but I adored the other characters and watching Lindsay face up to her childish behavior was highly rewarding!