This book was It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey mixed with some scenes from 90s/2000s movies. I was hoping for something to happen that would set it apart, but it felt a bit predictable to me.

I enjoyed the *falling for him AND his family* aspect and I always love a meddling grandmother. I had a hard time relating to the characters and I never felt that attachment to them to make me care what would happen.

This is listed as book 3 in a series, but can definitely be read standalone. I’ve read both of the books prior, and could not remember how this one was tied to those.

I read this as an audiobook and enjoyed the performance. Thank you @prhaudio for the advanced review copy.

This one may not have been for me, but it may be for you!

Perfect for you if you like:
Hate to love
Falling fast/insta love
Found family
Fake engagement
Grumpy - grumpy
City girl, small town boy

One thing about me, is that I am a sucker for a grumpy MMC. Especially one who is an absolute sweetheart behind their growly exterior. This was such a sweet novel, it gave total Schitt’s Creek vibes and I thought it was a great story.

I can’t believe this is the last book of the series! This one was so good!! I loved Mel and Evan, I enjoyed the grumpiness and the fake dating as well. It was everything! Romantic, funny, amazing side characters, the spicy scenes, small town, opposites attract and enemies to lovers. Perfect formula here! Evan was sooo amazing, and sexy 👀 A lot of lobsters 🦞 and a lot of events that would make you love each character 🩷😍 Highly recommended!

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for granting me access to the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is cute and fun read, Amy Lea did a great job on creating the characters. I stayed up late to finish it.

A wonderful addition to the Influencer series by Amy Lea! This grumpy/sunshine story was so cute, and I loved how their fake engagement brought the family together after years of being apart over a mutual loss.

Melanie and Evan couldn't be more opposite, and yet it's undeniable how perfect they are for each other. I highly enjoyed the look behind the life of an influencer, especially as she ventures out of her comfort zone to achieve some of her goals.

The audiobook was great and I loved the narrator, who brought Melanie to life and had me cheering for her happy ending!

In a desperate attempt to salvage her influencer career from the brink of irrelevance, Melanie travels to a rural fishing village on the east coast of Canada. Not a nature girlie, Melanie thinks that the only scary things she'll find are outside. She wasn't expecting the burly and bearded bed-and-breakfast owner and fisherman, Evan Whaler, who somehow ends up disproving the theory that all Canadians are "nice."

After an unfortunate boating accident lands Evan unconscious in the hospital, Mel steps up as Evan's fake fiancée to stay with him in the ICU. But Evan's quirky family, who are embroiled in a long-standing feud over the B&B, don't get the memo that these two aren't ACTUALLY engaged to be married. In a bold attempt to heal a family, Mel agrees to fake their engagement for one week in exchange for help with her social media content.

But spending time together in nature and opening up their vulnerabilities shows the two they have more alike than they realized and suddenly a week doesn't feel like enough time. But is Mel willing to sacrifice her life in the city for unfiltered love in the wild?

This was a fun, easy read that had so many things I love in a romance novel. Grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, a bed breakfast in an adorable smalltown, a community of side characters that make you laugh, and amazing romantic tension. The Catch reminded me of books I love like It Happened One Summer and the Queen's Cove series, but also had unique elements that added to the story. I liked the discussions of adoption, grief, and what it means to be vulnerable, online and in person.

I definitely recommend this book if you enjoyed the other titles I mentioned or you just want to get lost in Nova Scotia with a hot fisherman and the beautiful influencer he falls for!

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC!

Oh Evan was a delight. While I do not like Insta-Love books, I was a fan of this one....because of Evan. Melanie had an entertaining quality to her but she took too much on herself. Her mother was awful. I loved Evans whole clan and the way they banded together to get the couple back together. They were just a joy to read about.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
The Catch is the third in Amy Lea’s “Influencer” series. It can be read as a standalone, but I do recommend reading them all, because the friendship dynamics are absolutely a highlight throughout all three books.
I didn’t have a lot of ideas about what I wanted for Mel going into this book, but I was glad to get to know her better. She’s a fashion influencer, but I love how she contradicts the stereotypes of notable IRL influencers within her niche, which has been a fairly consistent trend for the series so far. I appreciated the exploration of her backstory, from being adopted (with the concept of why she isn’t interested in finding her birth parents briefly touched on) to her mother abandoning the family, to her father’s death and her promise to him that she’d look after her younger brother, who has struggled to find his feet in the world. And even the fashion aspect had a lot of nuance, with her having built her brand after growing up relatively poor. All of the things she’s experienced have made her guarded and reluctant to let people in, with the exception of her two best friends, Crystal and Tara, the leads of the previous books.
Evan is a great counterpart for her, in spite of their initial surface-level lifestyle differences. While he has a very tight-knit family, they’re not without their own dysfunction, due to a death in the family, the circumstances of which Evan blames himself for. Like Mel, he’s also very guarded and even prickly, but at heart he really cares, and will “fall on his sword,” so to speak, to ensure his family is happy, similar to Mel’s own self-sacrificing nature where her brother is concerned.
And I really loved the romance, and how it ties all of this together. While their initial meeting isn’t the most auspicious, they slowly get under each other’s skin. Mel comes to find the full family unit she’s been searching for, and Evan makes peace with his guilt. And while their differences threaten to part them, I respect that both of them tried to do the right thing to fix the situation and atone for their wrongs.
As for supporting characters, I love Crystal and Tara as wingwomen, even from a distance, and both Scott and Trevor are also wonderful to see again. While this book lacked the presence of the delightful Grandma Flo, who was in the prior two books, she’s replaced here by Evan’s equally amazing Nana, who has a taste in fashion to rival Mel’s, and her past is very reminiscent of Mel’s present.
This was a delightful way to close out the series, and I’d recommend it to readers looking who enjoy contemporary romances, especially if you enjoy lead characters who are influencers, grumpy (yet secretly soft) heroes, and delightful family dynamics.

AMY LEA DOES IT AGAIN!

Read if you like:
- small town romance
- city girl x small town guy
- grumpy x sunshine
- fake engagement
- forced proximity
- third act breakup
- meet the fockers

I know some people didn't like this one because "it's been over done," but everything has been over done at this point so who cares. Evan and Mel are such an adorable couple. The banter and the angst are perfect. The family component (both Evan and Mel's) really make this story pop. I have nothing but good things to say about this book. I was kicking my feet, smiling, laughing, you name it. I looked like a totally idiot reading this but it was so worth it.

The Catch by Amy Lea
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 stars)

"The Catch" by Amy Lea proved to be a delightful surprise, especially for someone who typically shies away from the celebrity/influencer plot line. This was my first dive into Lea's literary world, and it certainly did not disappoint.

The narrative revolves around influencer Melanie, who finds herself in Canada for a collaboration, only to stumble upon a charmingly run-down inn and an encounter with the grumpy Evan. Despite my initial reservations about the plot, I found myself thoroughly engrossed in the tale of grumpy-meets-sunshine, fake dating, and the classic he-falls-first trope. Lea skillfully weaves these familiar elements into a refreshing and engaging storyline, leaving me wanting more with each turn of the page.

What truly sets "The Catch" apart is its humor and banter. The book had me laughing on virtually every page, creating a light-hearted and enjoyable reading experience. The emotional rollercoaster the story took me on was both unpredictable and satisfying – a ride I would gladly take again.

Melanie, the protagonist, emerged as my favorite character. Her witty and candid dialogue kept me entertained throughout. The chemistry between the characters was palpable, and Melanie's vibrant personality added an extra layer of charm to the narrative.

One noteworthy aspect is that "The Catch" can be enjoyed as a standalone, without the necessity of reading the other books in the series. This flexibility is a significant plus for readers who may be new to Amy Lea's works. Although I haven't delved into the preceding books, I am now eager to explore them, given the exceptional experience "The Catch" provided.

"The Catch" earns a solid 5/5 stars in my book. Amy Lea has crafted a delightful romantic comedy that successfully blends humor, engaging characters, and a captivating plot. Whether you're a fan of the influencer trope or not, "The Catch" is a must-read for those seeking a heartwarming and amusing escape into the world of contemporary romance.

I just reviewed The Catch by Amy Lea. #TheCatch #NetGalley

**EDIT: my sincerest apologies, I made a comment about the author being white clearly not having done my research. And that is totally my bad and I will absolutely be better about knowing who I’m talking about before I do. I just assumed and that was not okay and I take full accountability
and apologize!

Let me start by saying that the FMC, Melanie, might be my least favorite main character I have come across. She was so insufferable and all of my annotations include “girl, shut up” to maybe 90% of what she says in the book. She was so stuck in her ways about being abandoned and so hell-bent on “not letting anyone in”. Frankly, her issues were super annoying and very fixable if she worked on herself instead of literally running away from her issues. She physically ran away on multiple occasions when things were difficult.

I loved the story and I knew I would because I love “It Happened One Summer” from Tessa Bailey and this was pretty much the same plot. City girl ends up in a small coastal fishing town and is annoyed by the big, grumpy local fisherman as he is with her. But “The Catch” lacked the depth that Bailey writes. So much was just unexplained and we just moved on. Such as, when Melanie starts to develop feelings for Evan and realizes that she doesn’t hate him as much as she thought, we don’t hear much of her thinking about it and it’s like a switch was flipped and they all of the sudden they don’t hate each other anymore. It just didn’t feel flushed out. It felt unresolved and too instant.

Melanie also talks a lot about her struggles as a kid which then turned into over-mothering her brother, not opening up to others because “they are just going to leave anyway”, and insecurities about money making her do a job that her heart is not in. And not in the way you think, she’s an influencer who is tired of being fake online just to make money… I understand that her struggles growing up were real but if she didn’t stop pouting about it and go to therapy !!!!!!!

Also, she was Chinese which you would not be able to tell from the current cover. Or from the book at all. At one point Evan’s grandma wants to do her birth chart and asks what her birthday was but she doesn’t really know because she was adopted and the book says “It’s embarrassing how little I know about my origins and my past, including my own birthday.” WHY WOULD THAT BE EMBARRASSING? **Please don’t write characters of color unless you know what you’re doing like I can’t take it anymore.

There were just so many things she did that pissed me off, being upset that her best friend was moving like an hour away with her husband, she was so upset that she was able to easily talk to Evan, how she decided just to hate Evan so much from the start of the book, her being so disrespectful of the Canadian culture/norms, just her always over-explain everything to us (writer’s problem), how she magically fixes her thinking about her issues in like a random thought one day… BE REAL WITH ME ??!!

With all of this being said, I still did enjoy this book and finished it even if I didn’t think it flowed well, was repetitive, and the FMC made me want to pull my hair out.

Some of my annotations:
27% “What the f**k is wrong with her?”
46% “This like entry-level feminism is crazy and I hate it”
57% “The transition to them liking each other wasn’t it”
83% “Girl, love is about risks… also if all you can think about is eventually breaking up then you have no business being in a relationship”
88% “What a weird thing to say”

Read if you like:
🌏 Asian American Characters
🤳🏻 Influencers
🔀 Opposites Attract
💋 Forced Proximity
💍 Fake Dating/Engagement
🌤️ Grumpy x Sunshine

This is the book for you if you loved While You Were Sleeping and The Proposal!

This book combines vibes of both with the fake engagement story told to the family and hospital staff when Evan gets hurt and goes overboard while taking Mel on a whale watching excursion after their hate at first sight meeting when Mel ends up at his family’s Inn unexpectedly when her influencer trip to stay at Resort near by doesn’t go as planned and has to find alternative accommodation for a week.

I loved the elements of their fake dating and how it continues after Evan comes to at the hospital in order to use their ‘engagement’ to try to bring Evan’s family back together and to save the family inn from being sold in the midst of family drama.

I truly loved their love story with the grumpy x sunshine aspects, fake engagement, and forced proximity, as all of these classic tropes combined were so well done especially tied in with the small town romance with the FMC and MMC being opposites.

Thank you so much Berkley Romance for my ARC in exchange for my honest review!

While You We're Sleeping meets The Proposal in the best way in The Catch. Amy Lea is truly a forced to be reckoned with when it comes to having influencers in her books. Normally, I shy away from books with influencers because they feel very contrived, but each book in this series had me wishing the fmcs were real people I could follow. When Mel ends up stuck in an abandoned BnB with Evan and his cousin, she thinks her only chance at breathing life back into her socials is ruined. Evan is grumpy, judgmental, and hates her. Yet, after a boating trip goes awry she finds herself to be the only person there to make sure he's taken care of in the hospital. So what if telling hospital staff that she's his fiancée leaves the two stuck in a fake engagement arrangement?

Character wise Mel is very much a mirror ball girl. She is doing whatever it takes to keep herself relevant in a social world that is leaving behind her private nature while also worrying for her brother after the previous death of their father. She is a caretaker by nature; though, many don't look past her socialite seeming exterior. Obviously, I loved her.

Don't even get me started on the Mel x Evan slow burn romance!! I was obsessed from their meet cute. I love opposites attract especially in a small town setting. It's always so much fun, and Amy Lea definitely served up a tension filled, hot romance between the two. I also love that she made it clear that Evan liked Mel for who she was with her love for fashion and beauty. He liked seeing her dressed up! And obviously his feigned hatred for Mel was deliciously revealed to be a lie. Chef's kiss imho!!!

I love how Amy Lea demonstrated the different ways that grief can affect people. Grief isn't a clear cut, one size fits all scenario. This showed not only in Mel and her brother but Evan and his family. It made it all the more authentic when reading.

Another series I'm sad to say goodbye to :( But I know that big things are in store for Amy Lea and I can't wait to see them.

This was such a fun read and I loved that it's set in Canada. The FMC was my favourite kind: mouthy and sarcastic while also being a big ball of smoosh inside who just needs love. I also love this kind of rivals to lovers dynamic with the grumpy MMC (he HAD REASONS).

I think this is my favorite Amy Lea book yet! I loved the grumpy hero who of course turned out to be a total softie, and I really loved watching Mel's growth as an individual, along with watching their growth as a couple. I also really loved the family dynamics at the inn, it gave me all the While You Were Sleeping vibes, they were hilarious and so fun!

I was excited to finally read Mel's story after getting glimpses of her life in the other Influencer books. I I love a fake dating trope and the fact that there was a little inspiration from While You Were Sleeping (what a banger of a Sandy B film) was a delight. I thought Mel's struggles with her social media were the most relatable - feeling like you need to put all your thoughts and feelings out on the internet to gain or keep a following, that hit of dopamine when someone likes something you spent time and effort on, but then feeling let down or exhausted from how draining it is to put that much of yourself out there all the time. I thought her growth and learning to open up to her friends and family was well done.

While this was pretty good overall, I did wish that there was more of a buildup to Mel and Evan actually having feelings for each other. It felt like it switched from loathing to loving in an instant and it was a little jarring. I really wish this was a dual-pov story - it would explain some of Evan's actions in the beginning and would have helped with this transition. Other than that, I did enjoy reading this one and thought it was a fun, quick story!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed the push and pull of Evan and Melanie. His gruff to her proper was a great mix and had be hooked. I loved how first impressions were put into question. I loved the longing for found family and enjoyed how it was accomplished. being inside of a Melanie’s head felt authentic and vulnerable. Her worry about her brother and financial situation made complete sense and helped her feel like more of a whole human.

So cute!

Adored Melanie & Evan in this grumpy x sunshine + smalltown boy x city girl.

I love Amy Lea’s writing style & this book is no exception. Fun, lighthearted romance with a goofy family that reminds me of my own.

Tropes:
Grumpy x Sunshine
Fake dating
Forced proximity
He falls first

I’m SO SAD the Influencer series is over, but I’m so pumped for more books by Amy Lea. Her writing is phenomenal, and this book was so cute!

Mel is a fashion influencer who has always struggled with feeling financially stable enough in life- even when she is. When she is offered a trip to a spa in Nova Scotia, she takes it- but after a scheduling mishap, she has to grab a last second air bnb in a small fishing village.

Evan is part owner of the inn she ends up booking at, and definitely doesn’t welcome her warmly- he’s grumpy, he’s judgy, and they don’t start off on the right foot.

But after an accident in the water, Mel suddenly becomes fake engaged to Evan- and somehow, the lie becomes more complicated and Mel isn’t sure how to feel.

Seeing Mel and Evan grow closer was a treat, and I loved the way they ended up compromising as two very stubborn people in a new relationship. I loved this book so much, and I can’t wait for the everyone to read it!

This is my favorite of the Influencer Series. I enjoyed it so much! I loved the animosity and banter between these two enemies to lovers. There were several tropes thrown into the mix; forced proximity, fake fiancé, save the family business, city girl/small town, grumpy/sunshine… and I ate it all up. As well as some nods to “While You Were Sleeping” that I would love to give examples of but I’ll restrain myself. No spoilers.

I love Amy Lea’s messaging about social media, influencers, and in this case, beauty and aesthetic… which boils down to, I think, what works for one doesn’t work for all, nor does it need to, but if it’s your thing, own it. I specifically love that Melanie gets to be high maintenance. She gets to own tricking herself out and wearing false lashes and isn’t made to change that part of herself… just grow and embrace different surroundings and ways of life.

There’s some great focus on past traumas and family issues. Death of loved ones (off page/ in the past) and grief. Watching Evan wake up and, sort of, come out of his funk, was lovely to behold. His personality blossomed and worked so well with Mel’s and their relationship changed and grew. There was a great arc.

And the secondary characters were fun. I wish we got more of them! What felt off, though, were the interactions with Mel’s brother. I understand what the author was going for but it was an inconsiderate step too far. And their conversations were too unrealistic. The perfect insightful therapy-like talk needed some work.

Overall, though, I loved this one. It was a lot of fun to read and I flew through it.