I was so excited to get this ARC for “The Catch” from the fabulous author Amy Lea. I highly recommend this story - I was such a fan!

The Catch was a pleasant surprise! It started a little slow, but quickly drew me in. At first glance, what seemed to be a superficial MC turned out to be so much deeper. The Catch featured a slow burn romance between the MCs and a found family for the female MC - let's be honest the family she is welcomed into is amazing! Such a sweet book full of life lessons and hard truths - definitely recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group, Berkley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was adorable and swoony and I just couldn’t get enough. The sweet country boy just melted my heart. I loved the family’s role in their story.

My heartfelt gratitude to NetGalley, Berkley, and Amy Lea for an E-Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for a honest review!

This book…ahhhh! It’s the perfect mix of It Happened One Summer mixed with two of my favorite Sandy Bullock films: While You Were Sleeping and The Proposal.

The Catch is a great rom-com read that is filled with a great cast of characters, sweet romance, and not to mention a flannel plaid wearing grump that you cannot help but fall in love with. I have loved Amy Lea’s Influencer Series, and I reading this book was definitely bittersweet knowing that it would be the last time hanging out with Crystal, Tara, and Melanie. I am going to miss reading their hilarious banter and how they support one another! Thank you, Amy Lea, for these amazing characters and the lessons they have taught me.

Crystal (Set on You) reminded me that being confident in your own skin is the most beautiful thing you can do. Tara (Exes and O’s) showed me that it is alright to embrace my emotions and lean into what makes me “crazy”!

And at last, Melanie enlightened me in how much happier we would all be if we just….just kidding! No spoilers here. I will let you just read her story when it come out February 13, 2024! Mark it in your calendar, folks, and get ready to travel with Melanie to Cora Cove in Nova Scotia. Until then, I am going to find somewhere I can eat poutine and grab a box of timbits!

I LOVED the first two books in this series so much - this one didn't completely hit the mark for me, but I still devoured it in one day, and it was enjoyable enough! I'm giving it 3.5 stars.

Synopsis: Melanie is a fashion influencer struggling to feel inspired by her content - and her followers can tell that her content is getting stale. When she gets the opportunity for a week-long stay at a luxury resort in Nova Scotia, she has to take it - the perfect opportunity to grab some great photos for her social media. But when she arrives at the hotel, she finds out the dates of her trip are wrong, and she has to find an option for accommodation for the week before the luxurious trip starts. There's only one option, as the area is busy with whale/fishing season, and it turns out to be a sketchy AirBnB with an even sketchier host in fisherman Evan Whaler. Sketchy because he seems to HATE Mel right off the bat - what did she do strong? The tension worsens - Evan ends up in the hospital after a boating accident, and for Mel to return to the room, she tells doctors she's his fiancee. When he awakens, he finds out he's in a pickle - to his (and his entire family's) surprise; he's engaged to someone he dislikes. But it could be an opportunity for Evan to bring his feuding family together and for Melanie to get some great social media content. As time passes, we see Evan's mood soften toward Melanie, and Mel realizes that life doesn't have to revolve around "likes." Will this fake engagement turn into a real love?

Trust me, I love a romance novel, and I don't even mind if they veer on far-fetched. But I DO like them to make sense, and a few things could have made more sense. Upon finding out why Evan was prickly and downright rude to Melanie at first, his reasoning didn't validate treating a paying guest at his inn like complete rubbish! If I walked into an Airbnb and the owner treated me like that...I would have lost my mind! WHAT?! Also, it didn't make sense to me that this fisherman, flannel-obsessed boy would magically fall for a girl who wears heels on a boat and almost kills him while setting up her tripod on a boat for the perfect shot. I suppose that opposites attract, but that didn't make any sense to me. I can't picture a guy who hikes to a waterfall to really take in the moment falling in love with a girl who hikes to a waterfall and then asks him to take the perfect photo multiple times without actually looking at said waterfall.

And another random tidbit, but part of me liked that it was Evan who showed up on Mel's door, in the end, to win her back. Still, there was a missed opportunity to return to Nana's story about how she met her husband and, after returning to the big city, traveled back to the Cove and found him on a boat. He said, "What took you so long?" Or something to that effect! It would have been such a great cyclical moment for Mel to find Evan on a boat after returning to Boston, realizing her love for him, heading back to the Cove, and for him to say the same thing - mainly because Nana was such an important sub-character.

But hey, this is such a quick read that can truly be devoured quickly. It's a fun romcom; I always love an Amy Lea steamy scene, and by gosh, I would date the HECK out of Evan, ha!

Thank you, NetGalley and Berkley Publishing, for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Have I felt like I have read this plot before? Sure. Will I tire of it? Absolutely not. Plus, it's Amy Lea so you can't lose. I think fans of any Sandra Bullock movie will love this, plus anyone who wants more whale-watching in their books.

This was another great read by Amy Lea! I thoroughly enjoyed Mel and Evan, and their love/hate dynamic. And now I want to visit eastern Canada!

Amy Lea is back with her The Influencer series and this time she's taking us on a trip to Nova Scotia. I had a great time reading this book and here's why:

* It was cool that this book left Boston for another location. It gave this book a fresh feel while still being connected to the first two books in the series. The new setting was so much fun! I loved the Canadian coastal town and the rundown inn. They were almost characters themselves.
* The meet-hate was awkward in the best way. I loved the irritation that simmered with chemistry that developed between Mel and Evan.
* The accidental fake relationship between them brought some big laughs along with the chance for a deeper connection between Mel and Evan.
* I liked learning about Mel and Evan's pasts and what shaped them into who they were. There was trauma to unpack and the way they shared it with each other and grew through it was special.
* The side characters were larger than life. Lucy was great. I would love for her to get her own romance. Evan and Lucy's family was hilarious. The feuds, the wackiness...pretty much everything about them added fun to the story. It was also nice to get a little Crystal and Tara as well.
* The spider, the slug, and the centipede.
* Lea did a great job mixing the big, tough emotions with uplifting, laughter filled moments.

There was only one thing that didn't work for me as well as I wanted it to...

* There was a big build up to the characters finally acting on their attraction, but somehow it still felt like instant love. It almost felt like it came out of nowhere when Evan was wanting Mel to stay his fiancée. It shouldn't have, but the only thing I could think of to maybe make it work better for me was having at least a few chapters in Evan's POV.

Other than that one thing, I loved this book. It was a lot of fun to read. I'm looking forward to reading whatever Lea wants to write next.

How can I be more obsessed with this book? The answer is, I cant! Everything about this book was perfection. From the witty banter to the emotional moments to the character development. I loved it. Do yourself a favor and read this one.

Amy Lea does it again! I love her writing style and she really hit the nail on the head with this one. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone! My patrons will love this!

I really enjoyed this enemies to lovers romance novel. I liked this better than the second book in the trilogy, but set on you is def my fave. I loved the setting and the vibes and all of the characters. I will 100% buy this for my romance collection at my library.

While I *liked* the first two books in this series, I truly *loved* this one. Mel's book by FAR has the most chemistry, swoon, and spice. I really has zero complaints.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this advanced reader's copy of The Catch by Amy Lea! Another absolutely delightful rom com from Lea!

Perfectly fine and cheesy. It's the third in a series, but you don't exactly have to read the other two in order to understand. The main characters of the previous two books play somewhat major roles in this book, but since they're romance novels, one can pretty much guess how the previous two end without reading them.

Melanie is probably the most believable of the three in the series, and I liked the play "While You Were Sleeping." Isn't a book I'll go back and reread, but it was good for what I needed.

Thanks, NetGalley!

Mel traveled to Canada for an influencer gig, all expenses paid, at a luxury hotel. When she finds out there’s a mix-up with her hotel reservation, she’s debating where to go back home, or find another place to stay for a week. She finds this inn at a small town. When she arrives at the inn, it doesn’t look like the online pictures.

She meets Evan, a grumpy fisherman running the inn with his cousin, Lucy. Mel and Evan don’t exactly get along. Thanks to Lucy, Mel is able to stay for a week until she can go back to the hotel.

After a boating accident puts Evan in the hospital, Mel feels terrible. They will only allow family members to stay with him, so she tells them she’s his fiancée. Mel then has to keep with the charade, when Lucy hopes to have some family relations restored.

Having to go through a fake engagement, Mel and Evan’s forced proximity start making sparks fly.

It was cute, sexy, and it made me laugh many times. Nana was my favorite character. This is the first book I read by Amy Lea. I did not feel lost while reading without reading the first 2 from the Influencer Series.

Thank you NetGalley, Berkley Publishing, and Amy Lea for the ARC!

The Catch by Amy Lea

Amy Lea has become one of my all time favorite rom-com authors this year. Exes and O's will forever hold a top spot of my all time favorite books. I was really excited to read The Catch. When I got the Netgalley approval, I let out a pretty loud screech. 

This book did not disappoint! It was 5 "couldn't put it down" stars. It had all the best tropes wrapped up in one perfectly written rom-com.
-Enemies to lovers (the best trope IMO) great banter and tension. 
-Opposites Attract (fashion influencer and Canadian fisherman)
-Fake Dating/Fiancé
-Found Family 

What I also loved about this book:
-Nova Scotia small town setting
-I fall hard for an outdoorsy man wrapped in plaid, that is able to show his emotions
-Side characters
- Amy Lea knows how to write the perfect quirky grandmother 
-I loved the underlying story about family 
-Even though I could not relate to Melanie's character on a personal level, I loved her back story and it made her very likable. 

There was nothing I did not enjoy about this book. When you're getting sad at 90% that is going to be over soon, you know that is a good book! 

Thank you to Berkley Romance, Netgalley and Amy Lea for the gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was SO cute! The Catch was one of my most highly anticipated books & it definitely didn’t disappoint. I’ve loved every single book I’ve read by this author so far, & I can’t wait to read more!

the first half was slower for me to get through, but i really liked the back half. i always love a small town or seaside setting, and this book has both. i came to enjoy both leads, even though they weren’t my favorite to begin with. i kind of got the vibe the evan’s surliness was masking more emotional feelings from the start, so it was nice for that the be vindicated. the way the whalers welcomed mel into the fold was heartwarming considering her past.

#netgalley

The Catch was one of my favorite reads in quite a while! Amy Lea is on her way to becoming my new fav author! I’m currently reading a collaboration she did with Mindy Kaling for Amazon and loving that as well! This book has me swooning, emphasized how important family is, and also teaches us that what we see on someone’s social platform is not their real life. I loved the interaction between our main and her close relationship to her brother. It took me a little while to get into the romantic aspect, but I liked how they also didn’t jump right into love either because that wouldn’t be believable. Plentoy if fun dude characters and crazy but lovable family members as well as a family feud make this one a delight to watch unfold. I think this is a series so I really want to go back and read the first one as well as check out the new one!

QUEEN AMY LEA DOES NO WRONG

I read this book in one night and with no regrets. I have gone around telling everyone how perfect this romance is, with grumpyxsunshine to clear communication I absolutely devoured this cutie.

I never thought Amy would be able to top Exes and O's as it was in my top 5 books ever but I have to say this one honestly may be a little better.

I absolutely fell in love with these characters and their town/family. I am looking forward to rereading again!