This week I decided to treat myself after I heard about The Book Matchmaker on The Owl on the Bookshelf‘s gift guide for bookworms. The Book Matchmaker is a company that offers customers a mystery or blind date with a book. The way they do this is wrapping their books and only giving you a couple of clues before you decide to make a purchase. The clues can either be four words that are to do with the book, or is just the books genre. I thought this was a great way to find a book I may not normally pick up.

So, the date I decided to go for a Choose 4 Words Book Date. There’s lots of different books to choose from but the one I went for was the one with the words; Australia, Community, Secrets and Crime. My thoughts were that it must be a crime story and possibly either by an Australian author or set in Australia. I do like crime fiction but don’t read it regularly in case it becomes a bit repetitive, so I thought there was a good chance I wouldn’t have read it and if it turned out to be by an Australian author it could go towards my Read the World Project.

I was very impressed with how quick my Book Blind Date arrived, it dropped through my letter box just three days after I ordered it. I was also impressed with how it was wrapped – it looked lovely and very professional.

My book date turned out to be The Dry by Jane Harper. It’s a book I hadn’t heard about before but having read the blurb it’s definitely a book I’m looking forward to reading. The book also came with some hot chocolate! That’s another nice thing about this service, it lets you choose between tea, coffee, herbal tea and hot chocolate so you can have a hot drink as you enjoy your book date.

 As well as the 4 Words and Genre Book Dates, where you receive just the book and a hot drink, they also have Book Date Gift Boxes which include a book, mug, hot drink, an edible treat and a bookmark.

I think The Book Matchmaker is a great way to take a risk with what you read. I’m looking forward to reading The Dry and I will probably be making a purchase through The Book Matchmaker when I want a surprise book again.

Have you used The Book Matchmaker before? If so, what was your surprise book?