Title: The Catch
Author: Amy Lea
What It’s About: A grumpy lobster fisherman tosses a fashion influencer’s impeccably curated life overboard in the next romantic comedy from international bestselling author Amy Lea.
In a last-ditch effort to rescue her brand from the brink of irrelevance, Boston fashion influencer Melanie Karlsen finds herself in a rural fishing village on the east coast of Canada. The only thing scarier than nature itself? The burly and bearded bed-and-breakfast owner and fisherman, Evan Whaler—who single-handedly disproves the theory that Canadians are “nice.”
After a boating accident lands Evan unconscious in the hospital, Mel is mistaken for his fiancée by his welcoming yet quirky family, who are embroiled in a long-standing feud over the B&B. In a bold attempt to mend family fences, Mel agrees to fake their engagement for one week in exchange for Evan’s help with her social media content.
Amid long hikes and campfire chats, reeling in their budding feelings for each other proves more difficult by the day. But is Mel willing to sacrifice her picture-perfect life in the city for a chance at a true, unfiltered love in the wild?
Our Thoughts: Where to even begin with this one? At first, it may sound like I didn’t like this book, but let me be blunt. I loved it. I loved every last second of this book, even when I wasn’t loving every last second. And why would that be? Well that would be because no book is perfect.
But what a book is, well they are an escape to another world. They are transportation to another world. They are transportation to another life. And The Catch did it’s job. It made me want to hop a plane to Canada, find some small fishing town, hit up a lobster festival and look for the hottest grumpy man in plaid.
The cons of this book – well, it was a lack of understanding how influencing really works, too many storylines going concurrently and it felt as though every single trope known to mankind was thrown in there. Yet are those negative?
While normally I would be the first to tell you that a book has too many tropes, I will tell you that even with all theh ones in this book, I wasn’t the least bit put off by them. I welcomed the enemies-to-lovers, grumpy meets the sunshine, opposites attract, forced proximity, and the fake-dating all wrapped in a chaotic bow. It was Lea’s way of crafting all of these into a page turner that made me think – I am going to need more.
More of this.
Evan is the hot lobster man in plaid. Melanie is the misunderstood influencer. While I would be the first to say that the way that they come together isn’t totally plausible, I will tell you I would over look it. I will overlook it because it’s a book and it is a good time.
Lea makes the reader hate Evan, but also be strangely attracted to Evan. Reading her words, when Melanie books an Air BNB and heads to check-in, she’s greeted by a hot dude in plaid. He’s got an attitude the size of Texas and it sounds like he has the muscles to match.
From the moment that they meet, it seems that the two hate each other, but as Evan tries to kick Melanie out, enter his cousin who gets her to stay. She’s a lot more welcoming to Melanie and is willing to do whatever it takes to help Melanie out.
When Melanie and Evan head out on a whale watching tour, he ends up overboard because she wouldn’t listen to him and long story short, he saves her life. It’s at this point where everything starts getting really interesting. And well more tropes are thrown in.
While I could give you the rest of the story what you need to know at this point is Lea’s pacing really hits the spot at this point. She manages to makes rue that you can’t stop turning the pages – fear that if you put down the book you will miss something really hot. This is all due to the fake engagement and enemies to lovers tropes that really heat up at this point.
Lea manages to tell a story that is sexy, fun, and captivating. She has you feeling for each character, wanting them all to have a happy ending and really praying that this family finds peace (you’ll know what I am talking about when you read the book. You’ll embrace plaid and flannels. You’ll want to attend a lobster festival and you’ll be looking for a small town with lighthouses to go and visit.
The Catch is a page turning romance that reminds you to live your life and let others live theirs, while supporting them. The book examines finding peace with the past. Yes, there are things that you will examine as a person, even in romance books. I would actually argue that romance books examine human emotion more than any genre out there. They are stories about life with sex tossed in.
And yes, the NSFW parts in The Catch are REALLY GOOD.
