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Verdict: A funny, genuinely hot butch/femme Passover novella with Jewish representation readers rarely get to see on the page, held back by a heroine whose hot-and-cold routine wears thin and a length that leaves both women underdeveloped.
Best for: Readers who want an explicit sapphic holiday romance that isn’t Christmas or Hanukkah, a swoon-worthy butch in a good suit, and a loud queer friend group around the seder table, and who can forgive a push-pull middle and a quick make-up.
Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — romance.io’s “explicit open door”)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.7/5 — a 3.99 Goodreads average across 137 ratings, with the three-star reviews all asking for more room)
Tropes: Butch/femme, blind date, meddling best friend, age gap, holiday romance, healing after heartbreak, push-pull, queer found family, single POV, HEA.
Matzo Match by Roz Alexander is the first book in the self-published Hot for the Holidays series, a short contemporary lesbian romance built around eight days of Passover — and the collision at its centre is Sam, still raw from a breakup and hosting her first seder alone, discovering that her best friend’s surprise plus-one is the immaculately dressed butch she has been eyeing at the grocery store.
It holds a 3.99 average across 137 Goodreads ratings and 3.91 across 52 StoryGraph reviews, and it picked up early coverage from The Lesbian Review and the Jewish book blog BookishlyJewish. Almost nobody dislikes it — just 5% of Goodreads ratings sit at one or two stars — but a fifth sit at three, and those readers agree on why. That reason is the thing worth understanding before you start.
What Is Matzo Match About?
Matzo Match is a holiday romance in the most specific sense: the story runs across the festival itself, from a first-night seder through the friends’ gatherings that follow, and the rituals are the scaffolding for every scene rather than decoration. It is also an age-gap lesbian romance, though a gentle one — one reviewer places the couple in their thirties and forties, and nobody reports the gap as a source of conflict. What it mostly is, at around 117 pages, is a novella that wants to be a rom-com and an erotic romance at once.
Sam is the only point of view. She is warm, funny, a devoted host, and nowhere near as ready to move on as her friends would like; the way her last relationship ended is the wound the book keeps circling. Jordan arrives from the outside — confident, attentive, Persian Jewish where Sam is Ashkenazi, and carrying a divorce of her own. The single POV keeps Jordan appealingly mysterious, and it also means her baggage lands as a reveal rather than something you have watched her carry.
What Makes This Butch/Femme Holiday Romance Work
- Jewish representation beyond Hanukkah: The single most praised element. Readers are delighted to find a queer Jewish romance set at Passover, and several single out the range inside it — Ashkenazi and Persian Jewish leads, a Black Jewish friend, and a Persian seder custom involving scallions that one reviewer describes with obvious delight.
- Jordan as the butch lead: “Swoon-worthy” recurs across the reviews. The author’s own series chart labels the pairing butch–femme, and one reader calls it the butch/femme couple of her dreams.
- The friend group: A loud, queer seder crowd — including non-binary and polyamorous characters — that makes readers wish they had been invited. It is the setting, in effect.
- Humour: Two Goodreads reviewers say they laughed out loud, and 52% of StoryGraph reviewers tag it funny. It reads as a rom-com first.
- Heat with clear consent: Readers describe multiple explicit scenes, toys and solo play, with consent on the page throughout.
Book Synopsis
Sam has done her mourning, or so her friends keep telling her. Her last relationship ended in a way nobody saw coming, and she is not nearly as over it as she claims. This Passover she is hosting the first seder on her own, which is a milestone and a test at the same time. What she wants from spring is simple: a full table, plenty of wine, and maybe something casual that asks nothing of her.
Her best friend Virginia has other plans. Tired of watching Sam hide, she sets her up without asking — and the guest who walks through the door on the first night is not a stranger at all. It is the sharply dressed butch Sam has been quietly admiring across the aisles of the grocery store. Jordan is charming, direct and very clearly interested, and the chemistry at the table does not stay at the table for long.
The trouble is that wanting someone and being ready for her are two different things. Sam keeps reaching for Jordan and then stepping back, unsure whether this is a fling or the first real thing since her heart was broken. Jordan, meanwhile, has a divorce of her own behind her, and she is not the only one with something to work through. With more seders still to come and the whole friend group watching, the question is whether Sam can stop bracing for the next loss long enough to let this one in.
My Review
The best thing here is the world it puts on the page. A sapphic romance where the holiday is Passover, where the leads come from different Jewish traditions, and where the table is full of queer friends passing around matzo dishes is not something the genre offers often — and readers notice. One reviewer’s “so great to find more Jewish rep” is the note that recurs most, and it is earned: the seders feel lived-in, and the variety inside the community is shown rather than listed.
The second strength is Jordan, and the heat she brings with her. She is written as the kind of butch a romance reader falls for on arrival — attentive, well dressed, sure of what she wants — and the explicit scenes are the reason several readers picked the book up. Even the reviewer who found the prose flattest called the chemistry the most developed thing in it. BookishlyJewish sums up the attitude: “a sex positive book.”
Where it struggles is Sam, and space. The most repeated criticism is her stop-start routine: readers describe her as hot and cold, as giving Jordan the run-around, as the reason they were frustrated, and one three-star reader says she loved the first 75% until the communication went strange. Alongside that sits the length problem. Several reviewers say there was too little development to know either woman — one could barely tell them apart — and that the final coming together felt rushed. One careful three-star review adds that Sam’s grief is stated rather than felt, with therapy language standing in for interiority. Another flags awkward phrasing, including calling Jordan “the butch” in place of her name. And the matchmaking premise itself divides: a friend building a profile without Sam’s knowledge struck at least two readers as odd rather than charming.
One expectation to reset: the marketing calls it scorching and at least one reader files it as erotica, while another says she wouldn’t call it erotic at all. romance.io’s band — explicit open door, one step below the top — is the honest middle. If you came for wall-to-wall scenes, calibrate; if the word “erotic” put you off, relax — it is a rom-com with real heat, not erotica with a plot.
My honest note: A four-star setting and a four-star butch in a three-star novella, where the heroine’s back-and-forth does more work than the page count can support. If you need to feel a heroine’s grief before you forgive her hesitation, this will frustrate you. If you want a hot, funny Passover romance with a table full of queer Jews, it is exactly that.
| Element | In Matzo Match |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Sam & Jordan — heartbroken femme host and confident butch blind date, age gap |
| Core tropes | Butch/femme, blind date, meddling best friend, holiday romance, push-pull, queer found family |
| Setting | A queer friend group’s Passover — three seders across the eight days of the festival |
| Heat level | 4/5 — explicit open door |
| Series | Hot for the Holidays book 1 — standalone couple, HEA; later books follow other couples |
| Content notes | Explicit sexual content including toys, divorce, a cheating ex and infidelity, past toxic and emotionally abusive relationship, off-page racism and homophobia, mentions of fertility struggles and pregnancy |
How Spicy Is Matzo Match?
A 4/5. romance.io places it in its “explicit open door” band, one below the top, from a small pool of ratings, and the reader reports back that up: multiple explicit scenes, strap-ons, solo play, and sex in more rooms than the bedroom. Of the five books on the author’s own comparison chart, this is the only one flagged for toys. Readers treat the heat as a main attraction, and The Lesbian Review notes that the repeated strap-on scenes may be something some readers skim.
The element worth knowing in advance is that split in expectations: one reader expected erotica and found a sexy rom-com, while another went in expecting romance and called it erotica. No reviewer I found flags anything darker than the past relationships already listed. For contemporary age-gap romance in the same heat band, Stud Like Her and Dark Horse sit at the same level.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you want Jewish characters doing Jewish things at a holiday that isn’t Hanukkah, you fall hard for a confident butch, you like explicit scenes in a funny book, and you enjoy a big queer friend group that feels like part of the romance.
You may want to skip it if: a heroine who keeps pulling away frustrates you, you need a novella to build real interiority for both leads, you find surprise matchmaking intrusive rather than sweet, or you want low heat or none.
In short: the seder table and Jordan are worth the trip; Sam’s hesitation and the short page count are the price.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (September 2026)
There is no viral moment behind this book and no sign of a new one. It is a quiet 2021 debut with a small, steady readership: 137 Goodreads ratings, 52 StoryGraph reviews, and a Kindle Store sales rank around 998,000 when I checked — which means almost nobody is finding it by browsing. The trails that do lead to it are specific. One reader heard about it on Twitter; one received an early copy through Booksprout; one book club read it together; and at least one reader picked it up for the 2025 Read Harder challenge task of a romance set around a holiday other than Christmas. That last route is the book’s real niche: when readers go looking for a sapphic Jewish holiday romance, there are not many to find. The original release was in March 2021, ahead of Passover, and the Kindle edition was relisted that July. There is no audiobook that I could find.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Representation, first and by a distance — readers are grateful for queer Jewish characters at Passover, and they keep naming the range within the cast. Second, Jordan: “swoon-worthy” recurs, and one four-star reviewer who could not stand Sam says Jordan and the writing carried the book anyway. Third, the heat and the humour together, the combination a review from AnaCoqui, quoted on the Amazon listing, calls its favourite and several Goodreads reviewers echo. StoryGraph’s crowd tags it lighthearted (73%), emotional (57%) and funny (52%), rates it fast-paced (70%), and says it is character-driven (70%). Notably, 92% of StoryGraph reviewers say the characters develop strongly — the opposite of the Goodreads minority below, which tells you the thinness is felt by some readers and not others.
What readers argue about and complain about: Sam’s hesitation, above everything. The start-stop routine comes up across independent reviews, from five-star readers who say it drove them a little crazy to three-star readers for whom it broke the book. The second theme is length: readers say there was not enough room to know a woman who begins the book as a literal stranger, that the make-up felt rushed, and that the romance read more as lust than love. Third: the craft. One reviewer found it “tell, don’t show,” and another flagged awkward phrasing, though other readers praise the writing outright. Then the smaller splits. The matchmaking setup struck some readers as weird. One reader stopped at 50% because the friend group got more page time than the couple — the same friend group others loved most. And the heat itself divides between readers who expected more and readers who expected less.
The series question worth asking first: Matzo Match stands alone. Sam and Jordan get their HEA, and the series moves on to new couples at new holidays. The good news is that the numbers climb. Higher (book 2, 2021), a butch/butch romance set around Rosh Hashanah, averages 4.16 across 81 Goodreads ratings, and A Masc for Purim (book 3, 2022) sits at 4.15 across 89. Alexander’s highest-rated title is outside the series: Bring Me Home, a butch-for-butch short, averages 4.30 across 66 ratings. If this one leaves you liking the author’s world more than its heroine, the later books are where the ratings climb.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Matzo Match a butch/femme romance?
Yes. The author’s own series chart labels the pairing butch–femme: Jordan is the butch, Sam the femme. Readers consistently single out Jordan as the draw.
How spicy is Matzo Match?
A 4/5. romance.io rates it “explicit open door,” and readers describe several explicit scenes including toys and solo play. It is a sexy rom-com rather than erotica, whatever the blurb suggests.
Does Matzo Match have a happy ending?
Yes. Sam and Jordan end together with an HEA, which both The Lesbian Review and the author’s own series chart confirm. Some readers found the final reconciliation rushed, but the romance is resolved.
Do I need to read the Hot for the Holidays books in order?
No. Each book follows a different couple at a different Jewish holiday. Matzo Match is the first, and it requires nothing else.
Is there a Matzo Match audiobook?
Not that I could find. Libro.fm does not stock one, and library listings show only the ebook.
If You Loved Matzo Match, Read These Next
For another short, warm butch/femme romance with a butch readers fall for on sight, Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon is the closest match in length and sweetness. If the age gap and the explicit heat were the point, Stud Like Her gives you a masculine-of-centre lead at the same 4/5 heat. And for an indie butch/femme novella that also wraps its romance in real life and a queer community, Get It Right is the natural companion.
For more in this register, browse our butch/femme lesbian romance guide or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
Matzo Match sets out to give queer Jewish readers the holiday romance the genre kept forgetting to write. The Passover setting is lived-in, Jordan is a butch worth the price of admission, and the heat and humour arrive together. It is also a heroine who pulls away once too often, a novella too short to let either woman fully exist, and an ending that resolves faster than the conflict earned. Whether that trade works depends on what you want — but if you want a hot, funny sapphic romance at a seder table full of friends, it is worth an evening. Check Matzo Match on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Matzo Match ranks as a warm, explicit indie butch/femme holiday novella — funny and genuinely rare in its Jewish setting, held back by a thin heroine arc, and best approached for Jordan and the seder table rather than for a deeply built romance.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ 3.99 average across 137 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ 3.91 across 52 StoryGraph reviews
- ✓ Only 5% of ratings at one or two stars
- ✓ A fifth of ratings sit at three stars
Romance ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Chemistry the most praised romance element
- ✓ Readers love how smitten both women are
- ✓ Clear consent throughout
- ✓ Some readers saw lust more than love
Characters ★★★★☆ 3.5/5
- ✓ Jordan called swoon-worthy again and again
- ✓ Queer friend group readers adore
- ✓ 92% of StoryGraph readers see strong development
- ✓ Sam’s hot-and-cold routine frustrates many
Writing ★★★☆☆ 3.4/5
- ✓ Readers report laughing out loud
- ✓ 70% of StoryGraph readers call it fast
- ✓ Seder scenes feel lived-in
- ✓ Tell-don’t-show and awkward phrasing flagged
Emotional Impact ★★★☆☆ 3.4/5
- ✓ Heartbreak recovery drives the plot
- ✓ Jordan’s divorce adds a second wound
- ✓ Low angst suits a holiday read
- ✓ Sam’s grief stated more than felt
Heat Level ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ romance.io’s “explicit open door” band
- ✓ Multiple explicit scenes, toys included
- ✓ Heat named as a main draw
- ✓ Readers split on how steamy it is
Ending ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ HEA confirmed by author and reviewers
- ✓ Standalone couple, no cliffhanger
- ✓ Epilogue returns to the seder table
- ✓ Reconciliation widely called rushed
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ One-sitting length suits a yearly Passover read
- ✓ Later series books rate higher
- ✓ One reader calls the author a holiday tradition
- ✓ No audiobook for a second pass
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