Fashion influencer Melanie gets thrown for a loop when she is forced to stay at a shabby B&B after unintentionally arriving a week early in Nova Scotia to promote a luxury resort. When the grumpy B&B owner and lobster fisherman Evan sustains an injury whilst taking Melanie whale watching, Melanie poses as Evan’s fiancé in order to be permitted into the ICU. The next day, Evan’s family, who are feuding over the fate of the B&B, arrive at the hospital excited to meet Melanie, whom they are told is Evan’s fiancé. With the hopes of easing this family conflict, Melanie agrees to pretend to be fake engaged to Evan for the remainder of the week in exchange for help with her social media content.
The Catch is the third installment of Amy Lea’s Influencer series but can be read as a standalone. The Catch is a contemporary small town rom-com featuring the grumpy x sunshine, opposites attract, forced proximity, and fake engagement tropes. It’s reminiscent of The Proposal movie, and it would be perfect for fans of small town or fake dating romances like In the Weeds by B.K. Borison, Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey, Hopeless by Elsie Silver, Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez, The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas, or With You Forever by Chloe Liese. Themes and topics present include found family, vulnerability, abandonment, adoption, love and sacrifice, mental health, grief, appearance versus reality, confidence and self love, loneliness and isolation, conflict, vulnerability, and social media. Some potential trigger warnings include death of family members (off page), abandonment, and depression.
Out of all three books in Amy Lea’s The Influencer series, I think that The Catch was my favourite as it had a good mix of humour (including an embarrassing case of poison ivy), heartwarming family moments, and swoon-worthy romance. Even though the romance in The Catch was very much a slow burn (with a few spicy moments), the plot was relatively fast paced and engaging. Lastly, being Canadian myself, I appreciated the Nova Scotia setting and the Canadian references (like Timbits) as those aren’t things that I see in romance novels very often.
Some may think that The Catch may be too similar to Tessa Bailey’s It Happened One Summer (one of my all-time favourites) since the covers and descriptions seemed so alike, they do have some noticeable differences in the plots, whilst featuring the coastal small town and grumpy x sunshine vibes.
Overall, The Catch was enjoyable and perfect for fans of small town romances, grumpy x sunshine couples, and the fake engagement trope.
The Catch is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of February 13th 2024.
Will you be picking up The Catch? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
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?
