A Small Town, Forced Proximity, Fake Dating, Grumpy x Sunshine book

This is the 3rd book in the Influencers series, I was a big fan of Set On You so was very excited to receive this arc.

I love a small town romance and thought that the setting of Cora's Cove was described really well and felt authentic. I also loved the family dynamic of Evans family.

I'm always a little apprehensive when the main character is an influencer because they are quite often written as a bit dense and vain but I think Mel was written really well. Evan is a perfect book boyfriend, he did so many little acts for Mel that were totally adorable. The book takes place over a two ish week period, I wish it was longer so we could see Mel and Evans relationship develop a bit slower.

Thank you Netgalley, Penguin Books and Amy Lea for the arc of this book.

3.75 stars (rounded up)

There may be slight spoilers within this review, but I’ve tried to keep it as vague as possible.

To start, I absolutely loved Exes and O’s. It was my favourite of the series and after reading this one, it still is.

I enjoyed the overall story, the descriptions of the scenery is just perfect and I felt like I was there. Sadly, the rest didn’t work for me. There are similarities to other small town fisherman novels out there and I liked Evan, but I didn’t love him. I think that a dual pov would have solved that for me.

I did love Mel, she wasn’t irritating and she felt like a friend, which I liked as a reader. I wasn’t keen on the set up or the reason behind the fake dating and felt that there wasn’t much chemistry between them before they got serious.

I adored the family. Well written, funny, a great set up, when they were interrupted so many times, it just worked. Great addition.

Overall, it was a fun read. There were things I loved and other things that just didn’t add up for me in the long run. I don’t regret reading it at all.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the Arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows Melanie Karlsen, an influencer, who’s invited on an all expresses paid luxurious getaway in Nova Stotia. However when she arrives there’s a mix up with the
Hotels and she finds herself stuck there with nowhere to stay for a week. She manages to find a b&b listing on Airbnb but when she arrives, grumpy Evan Whaler who immediately takes a dislike to her. Soon after they meet Evan is in a small boating accident where Mel claims to be his fiancé in order to be let into the hospital, word spreads fast and soon she and Evan find themselves agreeing to fake their relationship, for a week, to his family to try and resolve a family feud. Mel gets roped into the Whaler family and finds that when the week ends she doesn’t want to leave them or Evan…

The Catch included so many of my favourite tropes such as: enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, fake dating and found family and I loved it! The banter was amazing, I was constantly smiling and laughing but it was also so heartwarming at the same time, seeing Mel become part of the family and finally feeling like she belonged where she hadn’t had that support system before, she was the one trying to hold herself and her brother up. The tension and chemistry between the two was also amazing and I enjoyed every minute of this book!!

Thank you to @netgalley @vikingbooksuk and @amyleabooks for the opportunity to read The Catch, all opinions are my own.

I had previously read Exes and Os so thought Amy Lea's new novel The Catch was worth a read too. It was an enjoyable - if predictable - storyline, although I think Melanie is my least favourite of the three friends so a novel from her POV was slightly less fun in that sense. Evan's family were great and I liked those scenes the most.

Mel is a Boston lifestyle influencer who receives an offer to travel to Nova Scotia to promote a hotel. She ends up getting her dates wrong and is a week early, so must find alternate lodgings amidst a very busy fishing season. Enter hot (and grumpy!) Airbnb host, Evan Whaler, who owns a rundown Inn in Cora’s Cove, a small town outside Halifax.

I really loved this small-town romance book. It has everything you need for the perfect summer romance, with a bit of spice. I also really liked that it included emotional topics such as Evan grieving the death of his cousin, and Mel struggling with her own emotions after basically being the primary caregiver for her younger brother.

This was the first Influencers book I’ve read, and I can confirm that you definitely don’t need to read the first two to connect with the character of Mel and enjoy the story overall. I think I’m now going to go back and read the others though!

My only critique of this book is that the ARC I received didn’t format properly in my Kindle, so there were often odd breaks between paragraphs, or speech not being split up enough. That will probably be solved in the final print, but just mentioning it as it did make reading a little difficult at times.

I absolutely loved this! The Catch is the 3rd instalment in the influencer series and my favourite of the trio. It's full of Lea's trademark wit and charm, that gave me butterflies while reading it. Mel and Evan's story sizzles in all the right places and equally made me cringe ( a good cringe) and whoop for joy 🤣 I found myself really rooting for them from the get go. The heavier topics of grief and mental health, I thought were woven very well into the story and gave it more depth but still kept the lightheartedness of a rom com. This truly was a lovely bit of escapism that has left me wanting more! 4⭐️

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Penguin for the arc in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'The Catch' by Amy Lea.

Amy Lea does it again!! I swear I have a thing for Celebrity x Small Town Hunk. Both protagonists are just, I'm just madly in love with them both. I was captivated from page one and I felt all the feels reading this book and it does break my heart to realise this is the final book of our beloved influencers, I'm gonna miss them.

I really appreciated the authors note as it had me prepared for the not so light sections and it didn’t hinder my enjoyment. I loved how the book starts! The humour is there from the get go and I loved the romance! Where’s my fisherman? 😂

I've loved the first two books in the Influencer series, but this one has been my favourite by far!! I love a small town romance anyway, but this one was particularly good! 💕

Book three in the series follows Crystal and Tara's best friend Melanie, who is a fashion influencer struggling to keep her content fresh and relevant. When an opportunity comes up to travel to Nova Scotia to make new content she jumps at the chance, only for the dates to be wrong. She ends up in a small town miles away from anywhere, in an Airbnb in serious need of renovation. There she meets Evan, a fisherman who appears to take an instant dislike to her.

Without wanting to give away any spoilers, I'll just say their relationship soon thaws and Melanie begins to feel like she belongs, both with Evan and his family. Her insecurities soon flare up though and she struggles to see how a relationship can work when they're completely different people, and these issues need to be worked through.

This was just my kind of book - definite It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey vibes, which is no bad thing because I loved that book too! 😂 It was such a lovely read though, and the sense of community and family, something Mel hasn't had in so long, shone through.

I also think at this stage I just love Amy Lea's writing? It's hard to explain why but I think it just puts me at ease and makes reading the books effortless and enjoyable! 💕

As I say, this was my favourite book in the series, and while I wish there were more to come, I'm lookimg forward to seeing what comes next! 💕

Thank you to Amy Lea, Penguin UK, and Netgalley for the arc! 💕

I loved this. I really didn't like Evan to start with but, like Mel, I warmed to him and all of Castle Cove.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Yesterday, I decided to start The Catch by Amy Lea and I have to say, I couldn't put this one down!

The Catch is a small town x city girl romance book that follows Mel, a fashion social media influencer and Evan, a fisherman who loves to dress like a lumberjack throughout the whole book 😅

I really liked Mel as a character, she was driven, friendly and didn't let anyone stop her from being her true self. Shes definitely someone I'd want to be friends with. 🥰

I wasn't too sure about Evan at first, but as he got sweeter, I was sold! He was a kind, thoughtful and supportive MMC that was the perfect balance to Mel.

I loved all the side characters and the town as a whole was just so cute - Let me come visit!

Overall, it was a fun easy read that I would definitely recommend ✨️

Genre/Tropes 💙:

○ Fake Engagement
○ Found Family
○ Social Media Influencer X Fisherman
○ Small Town Romance
○ Grumpy x Sunshine

This is the first book that I’ve read by the author, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

It felt like a fun little romance, and was the perfect palette cleanser sort of read. It contains enemies to lovers, with the added bonus of a fake-dating/engagement trope. Plus forced proximity?! I was sold. I did feel like it was quite insta-love, and that the romance did move fast- the whole story is set over two weeks. However, the author did a really good job of addressing this, and I felt that it worked well with our two lovebirds, Mel and Evan. In terms of spice level, this isn’t the spicest book I’ve read. I’d give it 1.5, possibly 2 chillis out of 5. However, this was an open-door romance, significantly more so in the last 30% of the book. Keep that in mind if it isn’t your vibe.

I also adored every single side character in this story. They helped bolster the novel, and just added that extra bit of umph. It gave me all of the cosy vibes, and I was about damn near ready to move to my own rural fishing town. Preferably one that comes with my own Evan Whaler.

This was the final book in the series, but I do feel like it works well as a stand-alone. I’m on my way to grab the rest of the series now. I loved the authors fun and fresh writing style, and I’m excited to see how this translates onto the rest of her work.

This book was the cutest small town, fake dating romance ever. Picture an influencer meeting a fisherman who simply had no time of day for said influencer. What a combo!

The storyline follows Melanie, the female protagonist, as she ventures to a new area for work. Due to complications, she meets a B and B owner, Evan, who could not appear to give less of a crap about her existence. After he has an accident, Melanie claims to be his fiancee so he is not alone in the hospital.

Long story short, this a dream of a novel. It had everything I adore in romance novels; small towns where everyone knows each other, grumpy flannel-wearing, emotionally unavailable men and a scenario which forces them to develop their relationship without their actual knowledge.

Amy Lea did a superb job at bringing the characters and their scenario to life and I feel lucky to have witnessed their journeys, as individuals and together.

Honestly, this feels like a Walmart version of It Happened One Summer. The book starts off strong - it’s initially very cute, but gets boring once the MCs realise they like each other. I didn’t buy their chemistry, and the fake dating trope felt so unnecessary and shoved in.

I haven’t read Set On You, but Exes and O’s was so fresh and original compared to this.

Also, the book takes place over a timespan of 2 weeks… so Mel and Evan’s relationship develops quickly, which I’m not a fan of.

Despite the above, this was still a cute palette cleanser between heavier books. It’s super quick, and I enjoyed the small town romance vibes.

If the above doesn’t bother you, then you might have a better time with this than I did!

The Catch was an extremely cute, sweet and easy to read small town romance with all of my favourite tropes: grumpy x sunshine, fake dating and enemies to lovers.

I really loved this book. I didn't realise it was a part of a series as it reads well as a standalone but I'd be more than happy to read the initial two instalments!

The character development within this book was amazing, Melanie started this book being incredibly closed off to everyone, including her best friends! She's even lost boyfriends because of her surface level relationships. By the end, Melanie has opened up, she has worked on her flaws and become a generally better person.

I wish I had seen more of Evan's history and the angst between his mother and aunt. However, I really liked what we did see.

Overall, this book is the perfect palate cleanser or summer read! It's impossible to put down and there's never a dull moment.

Absolutely love Amy Lea and her style of writing. From the first page you are drawn in by the wit and authentic flow, yet there is a really clever depth to the characters and they are developed so well over the course of the story. You might think you know how this story will end, and yes, it is what you think… but how the characters get there takes you on a magical journey. I didn’t want to put this down! Can’t wait to read her next. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

The last of Amy Lea's trilogy. Mel, the social media influencer, realises that she's actively closed her self off to people and that her followers are slowly decreasing. So, when offered a trip to Nova Scotia, to experience a popular spa, she jumps at the chance.

That's when everything falls apart, including her barriers...

I really enjoyed this book and the relationships that grow throughout, as well as Mel's own self-growth.

I am a MASSIVE lover of the influencer series, and the first two books hold such a special place in my heart, but unfortunately this one was very middle-ground for me. I still enjoyed reading it and totally devoured it, and I am so grateful to of received an ARC, I enjoyed this book so much but it’s still my least favourite in the series. I feel like the fake dating/fiance trope was a little forced, but still if it brings them together, it brings them together! I absolutely love Mel and I’m so glad she finally got her story, Evan’s family are an absolute dream and I can’t think of a book character that deserves to be loved by a big family as much as she does!

The setting, the characters and the whole idea of this book was right up my alley and I absolutely couldn’t wait to start it, but as I got closer and closer to the end, I was like, surely it’s not over already? It’s like these characters went from hate to love in about 12 hours. Whilst I know that this story happened over a short period of time, it just didn’t feel realistic. That being said, I would instantly fall in love too if I was either one of these characters because they are both people of dreams. I just wish we could’ve seen more of them falling in love, so their story could feel a little more ‘complete.’

  As readers, we saw Melanie dig so much into her past and really connect her emotional issues to events that she has experienced in the past. I adored how much we got to know her as a main character, I just wish we could’ve learned more about Evan as he almost felt like a background character to me. I loved his family, but at the beginning, he wanted to hate Melanie for the most shallow and superficial reasons, and their rapid relationship just didn’t sit right with me. A dual POV would’ve been perfect for this book, so we could’ve seen more to Evan than his awful first impression and grumpy comments. But, in the end, it was written to be Melanie’s love story so we can’t have it all. I’m so sad this series is over, I can’t wait to see what this author comes out with next!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for emailing me an eARC of this one!

This was the perfect last instalment to this series!
I loved the slow burn and the fake dating while including heavier topics such as death and family conflicts.
I will definitely be recommending this book

This was ‘It Happened One Summer’ meets the film ‘The Proposal’ and it just so fun to read, I flew through it!

It had some of my favourite tropes, grumpy x sunshine, fake dating/fiancé and small town romance.

Very bingable book with a surprising depth to the characters!