Catch of the Day

Catch of the Day by Kristan HigginsCatch of the Day by Kristan Higgins
Publisher: Harlequin
Number of pages: 384
My copy: ebook from Amazon Kindle Store

This catch of the day could be the dish of a lifetime!

First Date à la Maggie
Take one lovelorn diner owner (me)
A generous helping of nosy local gossips
A dollop of envy at married sister’s perfect life
A splash of divine intervention (my matchmaking priest)

Combine ingredients with one adorable puppy, add a strong but silent lobsterman with a hidden heart of gold . . . and watch the sparks fly.

* * *

I took some time thinking if I should get Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins after I finished reading Somebody to Love. I really liked Somebody to Love, and I was really curious to read one of the first stories that it spun off from — or at least, where the setting came from. I tried to look for it in local bookstores (I didn’t exert too much effort, really), but I was really looking at the one at the Kindle store, which was relatively cheaper than other ebooks. Resistance was futile, and I eventually got myself a copy and immediately started reading it.

Maggie is a catch. She owns the diner in quaint little Gideon’s Cove, and is pretty much an all-around nice girl, always ready to help those in need. But if she was such a catch, then why was she still single? Maggie thinks that she’s single because the guy of her dreams was actually a priest, but even so, that doesn’t stop her from pining over him. With her love life (or lack thereof) already the talk of the town, where else can Maggie go? She’s sure the town’s stoic and quiet lobsterman Malone is not the answer to her woes…until he finds his way to her heart.

I liked Maggie right from the start — her vibrant voice coupled with her single life woes talked to me from page 1. I felt like Maggie and I could actually be friends in real life, and I can definitely relate to all that she feels, except maybe if we’re friends in that small of a town, we’d both have a hard time finding our own pairs (or at least, getting found). Maggie is very smart and likable, but she does have her silly, stupid moments which always comes whenever she was around Father Tim or Malone.

Just like Somebody to Love and Until There Was You, Catch of the Day was a comfortable and easy read. I did stop reading it for a while in favor of Jane Eyre, but I found that it was just as easy to go back into the book even after not picking up for a long time. The characters in Gideon’s Cove were all the people you’d expect to read in a small town setting, and that also makes Gideon’s Cove such a quaint place to be in. I can almost see what Joe’s Diner looked like, and how the people knew each other because of the size of the town. Of course, this makes embarrassing moments all the more embarrassing because everyone basically knows everyone. But what’s a fun romance novel without the embarrassing moments?

That being said however, as much as I liked this book, I found that I didn’t really like it as much as the first two Higgins I read. I think it’s because the I got used to reading the thoughts of the two main characters in the other novels while this one I was just in Maggie’s head because of the first person point of view. I guess I liked knowing both sides of the story, except maybe I think it wouldn’t work as well here — knowing Malone’s thoughts wouldn’t exactly make him mysterious loner dude here. But this is just me nitpicking. :) I’m afraid I’m not really fond of mysterious loner dudes, though, so I wasn’t really sold on Malone, but I do agree that this lobsterman has a heart of gold. And I think that’s what really counts. :)

On another note, I love that Higgins always have pets — particularly dogs! — in her books. Maggie’s best friend and golden retriever Colonel was both charming and heartbreaking, and I found myself sobbing so hard one morning while I was reading this book. I saw it coming, actually, but it didn’t make it less painful. Sigh.

There was a point in the novel that I was really hoped that something I sort of expected to happen won’t happen, because if it did, I would end up not liking this book at all. I was really, really glad that it didn’t go that way, though! Catch of the Day is sweet and cute and basically everything that a comfort read should be. Kristan Higgins is slowly becoming one of my favorite light and fluffy comfort read authors, so Catch of the Day will definitely not be my last book from her. :)

Rating: [rating=3]

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2 Thoughts on “Catch of the Day

  1. HI, you should try Kristan’s earlier novels like Fools Rush In, Just One of The Guys and Too Good To Be True — they are better than her newer releases.

  2. I love how there seems to be a wide variety of preferences among Kristan Higgins’ books. I’m glad we all enjoy reading them and have different favorites for different reasons. I finished Catch of the Day a few weeks ago, and followed it with Somebody to Love, and I preferred the former. I do like the dual point of views however, as you said. Hopefully I’ll get a review written shortly.

    Just FYI: I love your blog and am always reading if not always commenting or taking a while to come over. :)

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