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Book 17 of 2024

Thank you to @NetGalley for sending a copy of Amy Lea’s latest rom-com. I have all of Lea’s books on my Kindle but went into this blindly and was so pleased I did. I expected a frothy tale of grumpy-sunshine but it was so much more than this!

From the synopsis: In a last ditch attempt to rescue her brand from the brink of irrelevance, fashion influencer Melanie Karlsen finds herself in a rural fishing village on the east coast of Canada. The only thing scarier than nature itself? Burly fisherman Evan Whaler - who single-handedly disproves the theory that Canadians are 'nice'.

After a boating incident lands Evan in the hospital, Mel is mistaken for his fiancee by his welcoming yet quirky family. And, in exchange for Evan's help with her social media content, Mel agrees to fake their engagement for just one week.

But reeling in their budding feelings for each other proves more difficult than expected.

Is Mel willing to sacrifice her picture-perfect life in the city for a chance at true love in the wild?

I absolutely loved the setting of Nova Scotia, Cora’s Cove and the descriptions of the location had me thinking of Anne Heche’s ‘Men in Trees’ (even though that was Alaska!).

I loved Evan and how he makes Melanie feel beautiful when she is feeling anything but minus her eyelashes and insta-perfect life. And there was an epilogue to swoon at.

The perfect palette cleanser from the dark books I have read of late but I had no idea this was a series. Just shows that this could be seen as a standalone read but I am intrigued about the earlier books in the series now.


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Last year I read Amy Lea's first two books I enjoyed them a lot. I liked the fun style and the banter between the main characters, and I especially loved the positive body image message they focused on. So, when I saw the author's third book was the story from one of the secondary characters in the previous stories, I jumped at the chance of reading it.

And what a great decision, as I enjoyed The Catch even more! It tells the story of an influencer that ends up in a remote bed and breakfast that needs some love. We soon realise that not only the building needs some love but its owner and his family do too. It was real fun to see how different this world was for our main character and how she learned so much about herself in this new location.

I was also happy to have a catch up with the characters from the previous books. All in all, this trilogy (although each book has its own stand alone story, so completely fine to read this one before having read the previous ones) is a lot of fun, with real characters with flaws but that know their worth and with lots of chemistry and banter!

After really enjoying the previous two books in this standalone series, I had high hopes for the final instalment. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the romance entirely convincing and I felt like there was so much untapped potential. Still, it was a lighthearted, easy read.

The premise of the fake engagement to family trap Evan’s mum and aunt into reconciling was a fun idea, but I thought it was rather neglected. More emphasis should have been put on Mel and Evan working as a team to bring the two headstrong ladies together. Through this, the fake engagement would have made more sense to the plot, and not just a way to push Mel and Evan into close quarters. Similarly, I wanted there to be more scenes of Evan’s family taking Mel under their wing. There were a few, but I didn’t think this bond was built up enough.

Despite Mel’s financial insecurities and familial troubles, the romance was definitely the core of the story. There were a few shining moments, but these were undermined by how unfounded the relationship between Mel and Evan seemed. Evan immediately was mad at her as soon as they met. While his reasonings were later cleared up, it still felt contrived in order to fulfil the ‘enemies-to-lovers’ trope. The pair’s bickering came across as childish and petty. Only when Evan finally had grounds to be annoyed at Mel – she was the sole reason for the accident that sent him to hospital – did he start to cut her some slack. The incident was entirely her fault, so frankly, the least she could have done was try and mend his family’s relationship.

From there, Mel and Evan became increasingly flirty. Their tentative friendship quickly developed into a full-blown romance. This transition from adolescent annoyance to absolute adoration only took a couple days. I know romcoms tend to demand that you suspend your disbelief, but this was too unrealistic for my liking. From such a rough beginning, I didn’t understand how either could have been charmed by the other. At least by the time the third act came around, the novel seemed to mature. I was glad that they eventually solved their dilemma, and were able to find a sense of home in each other.

While I thought the premise was fun, I wasn’t entirely convinced by the whirlwind romance due to its blistering speed and lack of development. Still, it was an easy, lighthearted read.

This is a hug in book form. It's a romantic comedy filled with witty banter, swoon-worthy moments, and characters you'll want to be best friends with. Lea's writing style is engaging and her storytelling keeps you hooked from the first page to the last. If you're in need of a feel-good read that will leave you with a smile on your face, this is the perfect catch!

5 star read!!! This must be my favourite of Amy Lea’s books. Rivals to lovers, forced proximity, fake dating??? SIGN ME UP!!! The tension between the characters was palpable and they had such great and deep back stories. Side characters are some of the best I’ve read about recently and wish we had more of them. Also LOVE how similar this was to The Proposal which is one of my all time favourite romcoms!

Thank you netgalley for giving me an arc!

3/5 ⭐️

I struggled to get invested in this one. It had a few things in the book that I usually love but then it also was very insta love with the whole story taking place in less than 2 weeks. It made it very hard for me to feel a connection between the characters. I liked Melanie and Evan. They're both good people with hurt pasts.

😊 strangers to lovers
💕 insta love
🏡 small town romance
💍 fake fiancés

Overall i would recommend this book if you are looking for a fun and quick read!

Love the big city girl falling in love with the small town boy. The dialogue between them had me giggling out loud. A fun book about friends who are more like family.

this book felt so cozy! i would love to visit its setting!

however, i wasn’t the biggest fan of this being described as enemies to lovers, it felt more like annoyances? it was still a good romance, but the description seems wrong. i also disliked the third act breakup.

most of my problems are made better by how much i loved Mel! she was amazing to read about and i was excited for her book for ages

Amy lea does it again, i absolutely love her books. The covers are always amazing and the writing is always fantastic. Well developed characters and hot romances ❤️

This is the second Amy Lea book I’ve read and I really like her writing style; fun, light-hearted and feel-good, with just the right amount of smut.

Here’s what I enjoyed about this one:

🌲 The beautiful Canadian fishing village backdrop - I love nothing more than being by the water and in nature.

♥️ The small town vibes. Nosy town folk who know everyone’s business are my weakness.

🤫 I’m also such a sucker for a fake dating storyline! Yes, it’s far-fetched and predictable, but it had me smiling ear to ear throughout.

☀️ The grumpy x sunshine trope is also always a winner with me.

🔥 The lighthouse scene.

Fans of The Proposal movie will love this book.

If you’re in the mood for a cute and cheesy romance read to brighten up the long and dark winter days, this is an ideal choice!

🐠The Catch by Amy Lea🐠
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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After reading Exes and Os, I was so desperate to read The Catch so when Netgalley offered it to me I did not hesitate 🤭🤭🤭

This book follows the story of Melanie, an influencer who finds herself in Cora’s Cove after confusion over her stay in the city. This is when she finds herself at the Whaler Inn with a very grumpy, very sexy fisherman, Evan Whaler.

Amy Lea books are full of banter and little surprises. When I thought this book was going to go one way, it did a complete 360 on me and had me laughing so hard my abdomen hurt🤣
This is the perfect read for a quick and lighthearted bit of romance to have you smiling after a long week🤍 I loved every second of it and I can’t wait to read more!

Thank you NetGalley for this awesome arc!

The Catch is definitely my favourite of novels by Amy Lea. Her previous novels, Set On You and Exes and O’s are fantastic and I truly enjoyed them, but The Catch, with its wonderful characters, the beautiful small town setting, and the fake engagement kept me completely engrossed and I couldn’t put it down.

If you’ve read the author’s previous novels, you have already met Melanie. Fashion influencer in need to boost her brand and increase her followers, she accepts a partnership with a spa resort in Nova Scotia. However, things start going wrong from the beginning. First there is a mix-up with reservations at the spa, then she arrives in a dilapidated inn in a small fishing town where she clashes with the grumpy and handsome owner, Evan Whaler, and then she finds spiders in her bathroom and she is not a nature-loving person. But, following a boat accident and a small lie told in a moment of desperation, Melanie becomes Evan’s fake fiancée, accepting to keep up the farce to help his family solve a years-long feud and save the inn. Melanie is happy to help, after all they must pretend just for one week, right? What Melanie didn’t expect is to be welcomed into the Whaler family like one of their own. Her only family is her younger brother Julian, who she’s been taking care of all her life, and she is not used to having close relationships and unconditional love, especially when her feelings for Evan start to become more real than she would like to.

The Catch has everything I love in romance novels: fake engagement, enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, and grumpy vs sunshine. Also, it reminds me of one of my favourite movies, The Proposal, so I kept picturing Evan as Ryan Reynolds (with a beard). Witty, steamy, and heart-warming, this is a story I didn’t want to end. Highly recommended!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't realise that was the third book in the series going into it, but you can still read most of it despite that. I plan to look into Amy Lea's other pieces, after finishing this one. it's a book you can read in one sitting and just eat it up.
I got to watch their romance bloom despite the fact it moves quickly yet didn't feel rushed. Not only do you fall in love with the main character as you read the novel, but you also develop a deep affection for the small town and its residents.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of The Catch by Amy Lea in exchange for an honest review.

Melanie has bagged a luxury spa stay which she is desperately hoping is going to help revitalise her influencer career which has been slowly losing engagement. However, when she arrives in Canada, she finds out there’s been an error and her reservation isn’t until the following week. She can’t afford to fly home and come back again so instead starts to frantically search for an Air B&B to stay in for 5 days. She ends up in a remote fishing village, but has another issue, technically her reservation request wasn’t accepted, and the grumpy air b&b owner doesn’t welcome her to stay.

Grumpy x sunshine, fake dating and cheesy romance combine to make an easy to read romcom in a lovely Canadian setting.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, the publishers and to Amy Lea for giving me the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

After reading some other reviews and seeing the rating on goodreads, I was a little appreciative about starting this ... However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I LOVED this small town romance!

Starting off with some of the best tropes: small town romance, guy falls first AND harder, and of course .. a sprinkle of everyone's favourite, enemies to lovers. I was hooked from the moment that Melanie met Evan after demanding she got to stay at the family inn while it was under construction. And I mean .. who doesn't love a grumpy man with good arms?

What I appreciated the most about this read was that it was the fmc, Mel, who struggled with intimacy and vulnerability not only with Evan, but with her friendships and family as well. I related so heavily to her and how she felt as an older sister, almost feeling like she had to take the role of her brother's mother .. and how she wasn't as open as she wanted and should have been with those who cared and loved her the most because she hated to sound like a burden to anyone .. like wow. Did Amy Lea reach into my brain and take all of my experiences and write this character?

Evan was a sweetheart. Like he was a grump at first but a true cuddly teddy bear at heart. I was squealing reading him go into detail about how he believed Jack brought Mel to him on the anniversary of his death, and how he would volunteer himself to take Mel whale watching to get her attention and how he was staring at her seductively eating her strawberries at breakfast while she thought he wanted to murder her?? Just brilliant.

I was so glad that I decided to listen to my own gut and go with my own opinion rather than listen to some reviewers because this book was adorable!!

Thank you again to Netgalley, the publishers and Amy for the arc!

I absolutely adored this book.

I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to read this early.

I am such a huge fan of this author and every time I read one of her books it becomes my favourite read!

I think the writing style of this book was incredible and the story line flowed so easily, there were some slower parts however these part were also filled with moments that were either hilarious or wholesome and I am soooo happy that one of my favourite tropes (grumpyxsunshine) made an appearance!

I am also a sucker for a small town romance and this book had the most perfect vibes.

One of my favourite parts of this book was the dialogue between the two main characters! my feet were KICKING and I have never audibly giggled so much throughout a book.

10/10 would recommend this book to anyone looking for a lighthearted pick me up!

I have devoured every book in Amy's influencers series, and this one was no different. It did give me 'It Happened One Summer' vibes, so if you liked that and the concept definitely give this a go. Exes & O's just tops the series for me - or it'd have been 5 stars!

I expected this book to be great and it was. A brilliant author for light, fun reading that doesn't feel trite.
Effortless chemistry between the main characters and a brilliant setting for a romance. Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced copy to review. All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.

The Catch is the final book in Amy Lea’s Influencer Trilogy- and a perfect 5 star end.

I’ve loved every book I this series, but when early reviews mentions While You Were Sleeping vibes, I *knew* I had to request an ARC Copy. ( I will be purchasing a copy when Afterlight do a special edition to go with the Exes and O’s special edition they did last year.) WYWS is one of my favourite films, and when a book is compared to it- I’m on it!!

And The Catch did not disappoint. We are finally on Mel’s story, a fashion influencer who we have seen glimpses of in previous books. She gets an all expenses paid trip to a resort in Canada. But add in a mix up of dates, a confusing Airbnb booking and you get a proper Grumpy/Sunshine meet cute.

Our grump is Evan, a rough and ready deep sea fisherman, his and Mel’s worlds could not be more different. But after an accident (the WYWS link) and a fun fiancée- esq mix up, their story truly begins.
They have great chemistry from day one, and their journey together is a really engaging read. Mel’s personal struggles, Evans family dynamics and a few mutual misunderstandings leads to really solid ( and spicy) story.

Cora’s Cove is a delightful setting, with a cast of fun locals and Evans family, all bringing so much to the final story in this brilliant trilogy.

I cannot wait to read whatever Amy Lea writes next!

This was such a cute enemies to lovers, fake dating set in a small town read. I loved the setting of this book how it was in a small fishing town and gah they have lobster fest. Truly the things of what dreams are made of. I throughly loved Evan & Melanie's banter and their journey from enemies to lovers to fake dating and then of course something more. This was by far my favourite of Amy Lea's books I have read thus far.