Romance Review: The Catch | Amy Lea

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!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Penguin Random House for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | Amy Lea

Amy Lea is the international bestselling author of romantic comedies for adults and teens, including Set on You, Exes and O’s, and Mindy Kaling’s Book Studio selection Woke Up Like This.

Her acclaimed works have been featured in USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Elle Magazine and has been long listed as a CBC Canada Reads finalist. They have also been optioned for film and sold to over a dozen foreign territories.

When Amy is not writing, she can be found fan-girling over other romance books on Instagram (@amyleabooks), eating potato chips with reckless abandon, and snuggling with her husband and two goldendoodles in Ottawa, Canada.

About the Book | The Catch

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?