If you want a cute romcom for today, The Catch just came out yesterday and is a fun romp. It is the story of Mel, an influencer whose reservation at a resort in Canada gets messed up so she ends up at a family run B&B in a small town, complete with a surly fisherman running the place. Yeah, it is a grumpy meets sunshine, enemy to lovers trope. It has some While You Were Sleeping vibes with some fake dating thrown in there too. And overall, just some witty, flirty banter, sweet romance, entertaining side characters, a darling little town and a fun insider look at the influencer life. And the neighbor back in Boston stole the show!

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Read if you like:
▫️grumpy x sunshine
▫️opposites attract
▫️small town
▫️fake relationship

This book was very similar to It Happened One Summer, but with an added element from the movie While You Were Sleeping. However, I liked both of those better.

Mel is a great protagonist. She basically devoted her entire life to raising her younger brother. She loves deeply and fiercely, but doesn’t let anyone in because she’s afraid of them leaving her. She’s a total city girl and is unashamedly high maintenance. She’s loves nice clothes, fake eyelashes, and makeup; and I fully support that! I feel like women are too often judged for liking those things.

Evan left something to be desired. He is the stereotypical broody, strong-and-silent, plaid-wearing, muscled hero.
He was pretty flat as a character and didn’t have any growth. The only interesting thing about him is that he’s a Canadian lobster fisherman who also plays the guitar and sings.

Mel and Evan initially hate each other, with
Evan being rude and dismissive and Mel sniping at him. There’s no buildup, tension, or pining. They go from dislike, to fake relationship, to being in love in the span of a week. Later, Evan claims that he didn’t hate her, he was just having a bad day.

Overall, the book was ok, but the romance was bland.

Thank you to Berkley, Berkley Romance, NetGalley, and Amy Lea for the ARC. I received an advanced copy for free, and am leaving this review voluntarily.

It’s here! Be sure to get your copy of The Catch by Amy Lea if you like opposites attract, fake relationship, close proximity tropes full of awkward situations, witty banter, and a little steam. I enjoy all of this, so I loved this book!
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Due to a miscommunication in dates, influencer Mel takes the only room available at an out of the way Airbnb. Instead of a week being papered at a plush resort, Mel is at a B & B under construction, with a grumpy lobster fisherman as the proprietor, and more time outdoors than she ever planned, or packed for.
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Evan is that grumpy proprietor who would agree to almost anything to keep his home and reunite a feuding family, including a fake engagement to Mel while she is staying in this quaint Canadian fishing town. Of course the two are drawn to each other, they are each quite the catch!

This book was so freakin' cute!!

I am sad to say I still have not read the first book in this series; but I loved the second one. And this was a perfect little follow up to that. I will definitely be going back to read the first!

I loved the differences in the main characters and how they interacted. It did feel a little predictable at times and yet I was eatinggg it upppp. I really really enjoyed them together.

I was a little worried about how the potential third act break up/ending was going to go - but I thought it was great. And the resolution was even better than I could have hoped for!

4.5 rounded to 4/5

Melanie, a Boston-based fashion influencer, has the opportunity to take a trip to Nova Scotia as part of a deal with a new resort, but a booking issue and the height is the tourist season leave her stranded. She eventually finds a bed and breakfast online and books it. When she does up, she's told there's a mistake, but she talks then into giving her a room anyways. This is just the beginning of the bickering and banter between Mel and Evan, a lobster fisherman whose family owns the local b&b that's the center of attention in the latest family feud. After a boating accident somehow leads to Evan's family believing Mel is his fiance, Mel agrees to play along if Evan helps her with her recent social media issues.

This book has a great, fun group of characters from the hunky lobster fisherman to the quirky small town residents. Add in your Boston city girl influencer and you have yourself this cute opposites attract rom com full of the bickering and banter we all love. I'm also a sucker for a book that digs deep into both main characters' pasts and we get to watch them unpack all their baggage together. This is also probably my first book where bugs could be considered a side character, but in a fun way. Definitely a cute read especially as the weather starts warming up!

I don't consider myself an influencer by any means, but I did relate to the need for social media content. As per typical Claire fashion, I don't usually read books from the same series in order. This is my first Amy Lea book, and while I've had her others on my TBR for too long, this is the one I had the opportunity to get started with and it makes me excited to jump into the others!

A big thank you to Berkley Romance and the author for letting me review this advanced copy! All thoughts are my own.

THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU IF: You enjoy fast paced, found family romances with adorable opposite attract vibes.

This felt like the quintessential grumpy/sunshine story with a few twists.

When Mel’s influencer work/vacation trip has a few mishaps, she ends up demanding to stay at a closed inn where the grumpy-lobster-fisherman owner already hates her and wants nothing to do with her. Or at least, that’s what he leads her to believe.

In an attempt to regroup, Mel begins to distance herself from “her world” of tech, social media, and photo editing—and instead begins to enjoy the world (and the people) around her, while also growing to appreciate herself more, too.

OH, and you can’t forget the fake dating wrench that Amy throws into the mix!

I love how each story in this interconnected series focuses on finding oneself, even if they hadn’t fully grasped they were lost in the first place. The romances that occur are a helpful aid in encouraging these women to feel comfortable in their own skin, not because they need the men in their lives, but rather because they feel at home with them and want them in their lives instead. There’s also the mental health representation in varying degrees in each book, which Amy Lea handles beautifully.

I enjoyed this one via ebook and audiobook, and narrator Kelsey Navarro Foster did a great job pulling me into each scene and making me feel as though I was falling off of the boat with both Mel and Evan…both times!

“I love everything about you. The real you.”

Tropes:
- Enemies to lovers
- Forced proximity
- Fake dating
- One bed
- Grumpy/sunshine

I have really enjoyed every book in this series! Amy Lea writes the most lovable and relatable female protagonists, the swooniest heroes, and I also enjoy the behind-the-scenes glimpses of life as an influencer.

Mel is a fashion-lifestyle influencer and when we first meet her, she is traveling from Boston to Nova Scotia to stay at a fancy hotel she is partnering with. When she arrives, however, there has been a mix-up and the hotel can’t accommodate her until the following week. Mel’s brand is in trouble - she really needs this gig and she cannot afford to travel all the way back to Boston so she looks for temporary accommodations. It’s the height of busy season there, however, and all she can find is a little Bed and Breakfast in a nearby rural fishing village that happens to be owned by Evan, the grumpiest of grumps. Mel has no other options though and decides to make the best of the situation, grump or not. She has no idea she’s in for one of the most eventful weeks of her life!

Enemies to lovers and grumpy-sunshine are two of my favorite tropes so I was already eating up this story, but when a boating accident that is Mel’s fault lands Evan in the hospital and his family mistakenly assumes Mel is Evan’s fiance, my fake relationship loving heart skipped a beat. Evan’s family has been estranged for years now so the fact that they were actually all at the hospital and talking is enough for Mel and Evan to decide to pretend they really are engaged.

I loved that both of their hearts were in the right place even if a little deception was involved. I’m also a huge sucker for when those fake feelings start to become real, so I very much enjoyed all of the classic rom-com moments that were part of that journey for Mel and Evan.

The Catch is another winner from Amy Lea and I can't wait to read more from her!

I really enjoyed this! The Catch was probably my favorite of Amy’s books so far. If you liked It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey you would probably like this as well, the books have lots of similarities. I liked all the characters and the fake engagement antics were fun. If you liked her previous two books I would recommend picking this up!

I've been wanting to read Amy Lea's books for so long now, so I decided that THE CATCH was the one that I wanted to start with...and boy was it an excellent choice!

First off, I absolutely loved the characters! Melanie and Evan were wonderful and I loved seeing their relationship evolve...and oh boy, oh boy did I adore having a lumberjack-esque grumpy fisherman as the hero in this--I feel like that's a high I've been chasing ever since I read (and loved) Tessa Bailey's It Happened One Summer, and while there were definitely some similarities to the premise, Amy Lea kept this story so fresh and fun and I loved every single second of it! I loved that it was set in Nova Scotia, I loved Evan's family and all of the small town shenanigans! As someone from a small Canadian town that's a similar size...albeit in a very different part of the country, I can confirm that the way everyone knows all the news and the way everyone all comes together is very, very accurate. :P

Along with amazing characters and loving the Canadian setting, I loved the plot and story so much! It had elements of WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING, and THE PROPOSAL, and gave me all of those gooooooood ol' school rom-coms vibes! The chemistry between Mel and Evan made it even better, and it was so fun to see everything that they got themselves into.

Overall, I thought that THE CATCH was absolutely amazing and I loved it so much! I did read it as a standalone, so I think that if you wanted to do the same, you definitely can! I have to admit that I will definitely be going back to read the first two books in the series now though because I definitely want to get to read Crystal's and Tara's stories, too! Highly recommend this one if you're looking for a fun, steamy rom-com that you won't want to put down...and I recommend it even more if you're like me and can't resist a grumpy, super capable hero that seriously knows how to take care of the woman he loves. ;)

This is book 3 of the influencer series but can be read as a standalone.

I loved this book! I loved the banter between Melanie and Evan and their chemistry. Melanie's character is spicy, funny and sweet. Evan is a grumpy fisherman but a big teddy bear at heart, and I adored his family.

Read if you enjoy:
Sunshine/grump trope
Fake fiance
Stories about influencers

✨REVIEW✨
The Catch
Amy Lea
📣 happy pub day!!

okay this had me GIGGLING and laughing out loud! big city influencer lands meets small town fisherman🤭

🩷 maybe it’s my need for a good romcom read
🎣 maybe it’s the sleepy seaside small town with universal healthcare (hi canada)
🫏 maybe it’s the older sister MC and everything she carries (cue Surface Pressure from Encanto)
❤️‍🔥 maybe it’s the can’t-get-enough banter and growing tension between Mel + Evan

or maybe it’s maybelline and this is easily my favorite of the Influencer series!! this reminded me of the best parts of Love, Naturally and The Long Game! best kind of tropes galore: grumpy/sunshine, one bed, fake dating, small town romance🥰

❣️thank you @berkleyromance for this free copy!!

This was a cute romcom. I loved the setting of Cora’s Cove. It was such a quaint town in Nova Scotia, and someplace I would totally visit. I struggled a bit to get into this one at first as I wasn’t connecting to the characters, but once the fake engagement happened the pacing picked up and I began to like Evan and Mel better. Evan’s grumpy character worked really well against Mel’s sunshine, and as he opened up more, I ended up really liking his character. Who doesn’t love a hot fisherman!? Mel was a bit much for me, but as the book progressed she calmed down and became more relatable.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Amy Lea’s The Catch is an enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating, opposites-attract romantic comedy that brings together some of the best tropes into a story surrounding an influencer who finds herself stuck in close proximity with a local man in a rural Canadian town. This book is funny, cute, and everything rom com fans could want!

Melanie Karlsen is in her late twenties. She’s worked hard to monetize her passions by building her brand as an influencer. However, a decline in followers and partnerships have led to a financial bind that is pushing her to seek out new opportunities. When someone reaches out with an opportunity to partner with Seaside Resorts in Nova Scotia, Canada, Melanie jumps at the chance. An all-expenses paid luxury spa getaway just to share her experiences on social media? Sounds like a dream job!

The only thing that is worrying Melanie is that she will need to leave her younger brother behind. Their father recently passed away and she hesitates to leave him to grieve alone. She knows he will be fine for a week, but she worries after the last time she left him alone.

After arriving in Nova Scotia, her worries turn towards a new problem—there has been a mix-up with her reservation and she is not able to complete her stay until the following week. Melanie ponders returning all the way back home, but decides to stay locally until the resort opens up. A lobster festival means most of the hotels (including the resort she is supposed to stay at) are booked, but she finds a vacancy at a B&B an hour away.

She was looking forward to staying in a luxury resort, but ends up at an eccentric (and potentially haunted) inn. The owner of the inn Evan Whaler overhears her concerns. He despises basically everything about Melanie and her career, and the two instantly are at blows with one another. But when a boating accident winds up with Evan in a coma, Melanie can’t help but feel guilty and lies that she and Evan are engaged so she can sit by his side in the ICU.

It seemed like a harmless lie at first, but when his family arrives Melanie and Evan realize that continuing to pretend may benefit them both. Evan’s family immediately welcome Mel, throwing engagement parties and treating her like one of the family. The more they play up their relationship to Evan’s family, the more they realize there are real feelings between them.

The Catch is such a great story. It reminded me of The Proposal and maybe a dash of While You Were Sleeping. Amy Lea is a talented writer, and this managed to bring several romance tropes together into a story that still felt unique and fresh. Melanie’s backstory was quite heavy, and it made her relatable and sympathetic to the reader. She didn’t grow up with money or nice clothing, and she was often made fun of.

With so much loss in Mel’s own family, Evan’s family feels like a warm mug of tea on a bitterly cold day. She worries as the fake relationship progresses about losing his family and hurting them. Meanwhile Evan is worried about losing his inn and what he could provide for his family. Evan reveals himself slowly to be a kind and gentle person. He hides behind a rough exterior but he is much kinder and soft than he seems.

I liked seeing their relationship progress across the novel. It’s a heartwarming story that romance fans will love!

This is the type of book I pick up when I want something that will let me escape into a world of new friends and leave me happy and content. The characters are appealing and I wanted to be friends with them.

Fashion-influencer Melanie's trip to rebuild her brand at a luxury resort is not going well. Her reservations were messed up and now she has a week where she needs to find somewhere else to stay. The only thing available is a bed and breakfast in a small Canadian fishing village and the first impression is not good. Evan, one of the bed and breakfast owners makes it clear that he doesn't want her there and the B&B needs work. But she has no where else to go so she stays. When an accident ends up with Evan in the hospital and everyone thinking Melanie is his fiancée things get complicated. Can pretending to be engaged save the B&B? Will they be able to carry off the engagement without revealing too much? A fun read that leaves you wondering if two people from such different worlds can find a way to make the future work.

this one was probably just ok for me. it took me a while to get through it because I really didn't vibe with the beginning. it definitely got stronger in the end, but I think I liked the second one better.
this is marketed as a while you were sleeping/the proposal mash-up set in canada, but there was really only one scene from each movie in the book so it didn't really do it for me. it's definitely a small town romance, but I think some of my favorite parts of the small town romance trope were left out.
there were definitely some silly moments and some swoony dialogue, but overall I think this will go as a book I'd recommend if you want something to read on vacation that you would immediately forget once you got home.

Amy Lea is one of those comfort authors that you know what type of story you will be reading before you even get into the book, and she knows how to deliver on that comfort. I've adored everything by her so far, and The Catch is no different. We have the last in the influencer series where Melanie (a side character from books one and two) is put out of her comfort zone in a small town with an innkeeper, Evan. This story had me laughing out loud and swooning for Melanie and Evan. The chapters are the perfect length, and if you can't get through it in one sitting, you won't be stopping mid-chapter. Amy is just the ideal mix of comfort with some fresh takes on our favorites. This gives "While You're Sleeping" meets "The Proposal." I highly suggest that you check this one out.

Tropes;
-Third in series but can be read as a standalone
- single POV
- fake dating
- grumpy x sunshine
- small-town romance

The publisher provided me with an ARC, and I purchased my own copy. All my thoughts are my own.

Well, that’s 3/3 for me and Amy Lea. I have been a fan since the very beginning with Set on You and I have just continued to genuinely enjoy Amy’s writing style and storytelling ability. I would 100% recommend each and every one of her books.

The Catch is the perfect enemies to lovers, cozy setting romcom. I want to build a house inside this book and never leave. Evan and Mel may be my favorite Amy Lea couple to date, but that is probably because I am a SUCKER for a grumpy man in plaid. If you love an atmospheric, spicy read with Lea’s characteristic loveable cast of family member side characters, then The Catch is for you. You may even get a glimpse of some of our past favorite couples.

This was the first book in this series I listened to the audiobook instead of reading the physical copy, and now I want to go back and listen to them all. The narrator, Kelsey Navarro Foster, was the PERFECT Mel and brought this story to life in such a fun and entertaining way. I felt like I was watching a movie because the story was so vivid in my mind.

Pick this one up if you love:

-Amy Lea, because I just love her, she is genuinely the sweetest human, and I will always read anything she writes
-A meddlesome family with the sweetest intentions. I LOVE how much they love Mel.
-A family inn that needs saving
-A small, sweet, coastal Canadian town
-Grumpy men in plaid
-Enemies to lovers and opposites attract
-SPICE (The Lighthouse seen had me sweating!)

This was by far the best romance I’ve read in a while… and I’ve read a lot lately!

One of my favorite romcoms is The Proposal and this one reminded me of so many of the things I loved about that movie 🫶

THE CATCH is the third book in a series and one of my favorite parts of these books has been the female friendships ❤️ I was so happy we got cameos from Tara and Crystal!

The tropes —
⚓️ grumpy / sunshine
🦞 enemies to lovers
⚓️ fake dating
🦞 forced proximity
⚓️ city girl & small town guy

This one truly had all my favorite tropes and it was executed SO well 👏 it didn’t feel for one second like there was too much happening! There were multiple laugh-out-loud moments and I had the best time reading this 🫶

THE CATCH is the final book in The Influencers series, which is super bittersweet. I’ve loved all three books, but this one was my favorite and it was the perfect send off 🥹

The Catch is the third book in the Influencer series by Amy Lea and I might've enjoyed the other two more than this one. I loved the setting and all the side characters in this one a lot. I absolutely loved Nana. And I liked the main characters when they were on their own but the unnecessary arguments and being rude and mean to each other the way they were in the beginning made no sense to me. What irked me the most was Evan confessing that he was attracted to her from the second morning itself even though he was mean after that. Him saying "And anyone who's made you feel otherwise is a fucking waste of space," about her clothes and her look even though he himself did that??? That pissed me off. Both MCs were pretty terrible to each other and somehow that made them fall in love in less than two weeks. I don't know. I was so excited for this one when I read the snippet at the back of Exes and O's. I flew through the first 30% of this book because of the setting and the way Cora Cove was described. But I really dragged my feet to finish this book after a certain point.

The Catch is the third book in The Influencer series. I didn’t read the first two books yet and although the characters are mentioned, you don’t need to read them to read this one. It works fine as a standalone.

When a fashion influencer, Melanie goes to Nova Scotia to work on her brand, she ends up staying in a small town at an AirBnB that isn’t actually open. She butts beads with the grumpy owner, Evan. When Evan gets injured on a whale watching excursion, Melanie pretends to be his fiancée to go to the hospital with him. When she meets his family there, they decide to keep up the charade in hopes it will help his family reunite.

This was a cute romcom. I loved the setting of Cora’s Cove. It was such a quaint town in Nova Scotia, and someplace I would totally visit. I struggled a bit to get into this one at first as I wasn’t connecting to the characters, but once the fake engagement happened the pacing picked up and I began to like Evan and Mel better. Evan’s grumpy character worked really well against Mel’s sunshine, and as he opened up more, I ended up really liking his character. Who doesn’t love a hot fisherman!? Mel was a bit much for me, but as the book progressed she calmed down and became more relatable.

This was my first book by Lea, and I do plan on reading the others in the series. I did think this book was a bit long for a romcom, but that’s my personal opinion.

Read this is you like:
- grumpy/sunshine
- fake dating/engagement
- fishermen
- quaint settings
- meddling family

Thank you Berkley Romance for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.