Catch of the Day

Maggie Beaumont is incredibly unlucky in love. Her first serious boyfriend dumped her for another girl without even telling her about it, and for the past year or so she's been carrying a torch for the local priest. Although Maggie has a job she loves (owning and operating the only diner in her tiny town of Gideon's Cove, Maine) and many friends amongst the townspeople, she can't help feeling incredibly lonely at times. In desperation, she agrees to go on several blind dates, but each one is more catastrophic than the last. Just when she's about to give up hope, however, a surprising kiss from an unexpected source makes Maggie think that maybe she's finally met her match.

Once again, Kristan Higgins delivers a fun and fast contemporary show more romance. I found Maggie instantly likeable despite her flaws -- and she actually does have real flaws, not the "flaws" that chick-lit heroines often have that are actually adorable quirks in disguise. Her obsession with her priestly friend, Father Tim, is a case in point: she knows he's off-limits, but she spends an inordinate amount of time obsessing about him anyway. On the other hand, I didn't get to know and love the taciturn hero, Malone, in the same way. Maggie is utterly bewildered by his behavior for much of the novel, and I can't really blame her. If Higgins had developed his backstory a bit more and given us some insight into his point of view, I would have enjoyed the romance more than I did. But even though I thought the hero was underdeveloped, I still enjoyed this book! I definitely look forward to reading more of Higgins' work in 2013. show less

I was once again surprised by the sweetness of Kristan Higgins' books. This one was a little heavier on the internal dialogue of the heroine (Maggie) than I would have liked, and less so on the connection and the romance between her and Malone. At the same time, I liked what did develop, not to mention the laugh out loud moments. I also liked the unexpected ending for Chantal, and the storyline about Maggie's parents. The secondary characters were all pretty enjoyable as well.

The sour notes that took it down to a 3.5 for me were what I felt was some unnecessary meanness about a couple of Maggie's dates as well about Chantal and the rather abrupt ending. After several hundred pages of Maggie's thoughts (and that's mostly what it was show more since Malone was so very silent), it would have been more satisfying to have her be able to enjoy the HEA a little bit more than she did. In fact, I felt like Chantal's story got a happier ending than Maggie's did, just because we had more time to enjoy it. I was also a little annoyed that we didn't get a better explanation of why Malone reacted so horribly to Maggie's cooking for him. I felt there had to be something more behind it than what we finally got, which was...nothing.

With that all said, I kept wanting to go back to it. So, overall, that's a major positive for me. show less

Being not so secretly in love with a priest for a year makes it difficult to find a date. Living in the same small town (Gideon’s Cove, Maine) as you grew up in and owning the only diner in town, makes it so Maggie Beaumont knows everybody that lives there and they all know her. All of her most humiliating moments have been shared with the whole town. Her twin sister Christy has the perfect family and that is all Maggie really wants for herself too. Father Tim knew of Maggie’s crush on him and so he tried to set her up on blind dates to help her move past it. She willing went on several dates, until she started seeing the silent and slightly scary lobsterman known only by his last name, Malone. He had lived in Gideon’s Cove since show more high school so he knew a lot of the same people that Maggie did. Malone preferred to be the quiet one, he didn’t like to share himself, his life or his past and when the energetic talkative diner owner started coming around, he was faced with parts of himself that he never bothered to look at before.

This is a story that can touch your heart in more than one way. The relationship between the twins and their little brother (Jonah), it’s fun to see the bickering and name calling that comes from familial love. The different types of friendships available to a single women in a small town. The greatest relationship of all is the one with her best friend, Colonel her beloved dog. I am not used to reading stories written in the first person, this was fun to go through the stories of her memory to see all of her most embarrassing moments and to go through her reasoning’s for all of her thoughts and actions. A bit predictable, but overall a really enjoyable lazy day read. But, if you like dogs and you like Colonel, even a little, you will need a Kleenex, or three. show less

This was a pleasant enough romance, but it's obviously an early entry in Higgins' oeuvre. The story is pretty thin, and some of the character development, especially of Malone, is practically non-existent. That said, I've always enjoyed Higgins' books because she writes relatable women, great secondary characters, and includes plenty of humor. This one was no exception.

3.5 stars

Oh, but this was a joy. A standout among Kristan Higgins romances, all of which are arguably charming. But CATCH OF THE DAY just has a little something extra in it. It's hard to pinpoint what, exactly. Is it the setting of Gideon's Cove, which celebrates the eccentricities and tight-knitted community that has been romanticized about American small town culture for forever? Is it Malone and Maggie's atypical romance, which initially smolders, unbeknownst to all, and all of a sudden catches fire? Whatever it is, it carries this whole story so well. I can't wait to return to Gideon's Cove someday.

I enjoyed this book and parts of it brought tears to my eyes but it really should be marketed as Chick-Lit not as a romance. The heroine spent very little time with the hero and it was difficult to see how she could have ever fallen in love with him given the sparse amount of time she spent with him. I loved the idea of his character but it was very underdeveloped. We never are shown why he is the way he is much less the heroine ever getting any conversation out of him that would show her the character of the man she's supposedly in love with for all of the maybe 40 pages of the book she spends with him.

of course I hate the first person present tense style, but dammit, Kristan Higgins! you know exactly how to make me tear up the perfect amount, shed 2 or 3 tears, make me smile and ache with your lead characters, and then leave me with what I fondly call the Big Goofy Grin. I just can't stop reading these books.