Catia Roday has learned the hard way that love always disappoints, so when she finds herself falling for Josh Rideout-the handsome, charming, seemingly-perfect guy she just met on vacation-only to find out they hail from neighboring towns, she has one question: what’s the catch? Unwilling to let love make a fool of her again, Cat tries desperately to ignore the chemistry between her and Josh, but … but it isn’t easy when their vacation plans keep overlapping. With the universe constantly throwing them together, and her friends practically staging an intervention to tell her she’s making a huge mistake, she decides to prove her point once and for all. On the way home, Cat makes a bet. She’ll take her budding vacation romance back to the real world, and when she proves Josh is too good to be true, she wins! (And she avoids another heartbreak.) What ensues is a series of tests and games with Josh one step ahead of her the whole time, until Cat realizes her friendly wager has her betting against the one man who might be able to revive her faith in love. Worse yet, it turns out Josh isn’t the gambling type.
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I was captivated by this book from the first page. I loved Cat and how much I related to her. I understood where she was coming from with a horrible past relationship and being weary of Josh’s intentions. I absolutely loved the way that they fell in love with each other and how they both fell so hard even though it was hard to admit to themselves and each other. This book ripped my heart out and I’m not sure if it was because I was already going into the last 200 pages sad or if it was the amazing storytelling. I felt so bad for Josh and how he only wanted to feel safe and prove to Cat that he was different from her ex. I’ve been loving the romance novels that focus on real life and how even though love is great, it is not a perfect fairy tale that can be the same on vacation and in real life. I already own the second book and cannot wait to get into it.
Love, love, LOVE!
First and foremost, I was absolutely thrilled about the female lead being a successful badass Latina (representation matters, but that’s another story). Now, let me tell you, this was a different type of story from other romance books I’ve read. This book, tells a story of two people who fall deeply in love since the beginning of the story but need to help each other to find a balance and understanding to make the relationship work. It’s a love story rather than a fairytale and that’s what was made me swoon the most. Two imperfect people that need to take off the veil of doubt they have in the eyes of their hearts, to find out that they’re actually perfect for each other.
Funny, sexy and swoon worthy! If you haven’t read it and love romance as much as I do, READ IT! READ IT! You’ll love it.
The moment I finished with this one I automatically clicked to buy the next one of the series.
This is such a sweet book. A summer romance that blossoms into something more. A reluctant heroine. A dreamy hero—who is officially my new fave book boyfriend. I loved watching this couple grow and figure their stuff out. Beautiful writing, awesome setting, great supporting characters and friendships (can’t wait for their stories later!). If you haven’t read this one yet, you’re missing out!
Really enjoyed it! Fun read!
The Catch was a cute and great debut novel by author Lauren H. Mae, starting at the same time the Summer Nights series. I went into this expecting a light cute read and I was pleasantly surprised by the story and the writing style of the story, she managed to keep me in the story even if the chapters were written in third person.
The Catch tells the story between Catia and Josh, the both of them find each other at a bar while on vacation with their respective groups of friends, and from there on, their connection and attraction begin to grow. After their vacation time is over, they find out that they live in neighboring towns, and Cat finds herself not believing in the events happening at the moment, making a bet with her friends about Josh being too good to be true… what could go wrong right??
One of the first things that enjoyed was that we got to see the main characters being carefree on vacation, having fun while they were doing different activities. But, after that, we see them getting back to their normal day by day, and I liked that we got to see the both version of them.
Apart from that, there is just this thing about the guy being all whipped for the girl and I loved how Josh proved Cat wrong all the time. Of course, Cat had her own reasons for being so questioning about how goof Josh was, she has been hurt in the past. However, since Josh has divorced a few years ago, he too knows what it is like to experience hurt from someone you love. It was great to see them developing their relationship, to see them learn from each other while also learning one another.
And, I cannot leave without the special mention to both groups of friends, Cat and Josh’s. I love when authors include tight groups of friends, although I have to confess that the duos of Josh and Dylan, and Cat and Dani were my
This debut novel did something I did not expect: it kept me reading non-stop when I was sure I’d be fighting a book hangover from my previous read. I hate to bring another book into this, but in my mind it’s a pretty big compliment, especially for a debut.
The Catch is basically about a perfect guy who’s actually human and a normal girl who’s been burned before. When I say Josh is perfect, I mean like—woah. He’s sweet, smart, supportive, attentive, and hot. Of course he’s too good to be true! Cat doesn’t trust it for a minute, but this is a romance novel, so of course there’s some instalust that helps move things along. And then when she does give it a chance, Josh proves to be amazing and respectable at every turn.
I found this to be a light and enjoyable read despite the emotional baggage the MCs were bringing to the table. It’s nice to read something featuring normal, likable characters that go through normal relationship pangs and get their HEA. There’s good banter and good secondary characters (and good friendships). Everyone felt very real to me, which I like in this kind of contemporary romance. The author also spends a lot of time showing the characters being in and trying to maintain their relationship. This doesn’t come with a quick, formulaic “someone screws up, someone grand gestures, HEA.” It’s nice to see the acknowledgment that an HEA isn’t a one-and-done thing, but something a couple has to work on constantly.
That said, I did feel like the story dragged in a few places. It’s quite a long book and probably could have stood to have a few scenes snipped here and there for pacing. I did read it in one sitting, but I think ultimately I would have enjoyed it more if it had been slightly shorter.
If you’re looking for low-angst and lots of sweetness, you should definitely check this one out!