Customer Reviews

Catch Of The Day

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When it comes to love, nobody has worse luck than Maggie Beaumont. And unfortunately, most of her humiliations are public, providing her neighbors and friends with plenty of unplanned comic relief. Her first serious boyfriend broke up with her publicly when he brought his new girlfriend home for a visit after getting signed by the Boston Red Sox; and then there's the crush she has on her parish priest that has made her the laughing stock of her tiny Maine town (she unknowingly told everyone that she met her soul mate, not realizing he would be their new priest). And it doesn't help that she has an identical twin sister with a seemingly perfect life. The only guy she can count on is her lovable dog Colonel. And thank goodness she loves her work - running the family-owned diner that she painstakingly revitalized. When surly and silent lobsterman Malone rescues her from a blind date no show then plants a wet one on her with no notice, she suddenly finds his gruff personality hard to resist. Not much of a talker, she's not sure he just doesn't want a body to warm his bed.

Higgins sophomore effort is a bittersweet and humorous slice of life, proving that her success with "Fools Rush In" was no fluke. She had me laughing hysterically and in tears. Many readers can connect with Maggie and appreciate her quest for love (and to be voted best breakfast in Washington Country). "Maloner the Loner" is an intriguing character - at times sexy as hell (loved the hand cream scene). His lack of communication combined with Maggie's verbal diarrhea make for some hysterical situations, and I found myself trying to guess what his first name could possibly be (and glad it was revealed). Tossing in another secondary couple, as well as marital strife for Maggie's folks round the story out. Higgins is an auto buy for me!

Quick plot summary: Maggie, bighearted, single and devoted to her beloved golden retriever Colonel, lives in the small Maine town of Gideon's Cove, runs a diner and is always willing to whip a huge meal for the church supper, firemen or other cause. Everyone has witnessed her romantic screw-ups and humiliations and her close network of family and friends often compares her to her perfect identical twin with a doctor husband and beautiful baby. This is the kind of town where everyone knows everything about everything you and your family ever did and everyone, especially her mother, can't let Maggie forget that she is still single at 32 and running out of townsmen and men from the not so nearby environs to date. When Maggie meets a seemingly perfect newcomer, she tells one too many people that she's found her soulmate leading to yet another humilation in front of the town when she finds out who he really is. She's so busy fixating on him that she fails to notice an unconventional but great guy that she has overlooked for years. Will Maggie ever find a soulmate? Is that the one man she can't have? Or is it taciturn and surly Malone, a friend of her brother who is so silent and unfriendly the town calls him Maloner the Loner? *********************************************
I loved this book. I thought Ms. Higgin's first book, Fools Rush In, was well-written and plotted but somehow did not do it for me. I think the ick-don't-go-there factor of the heroine hooking up with her ex-brother-in-law was the sticking point on an otherwise great book. I almost did not buy this book because I remembered being put-off by that plot point. What a mistake that would have been. I stayed up until 2 AM reading this book straight through. This book was almost perfect. It was funny, making me laugh out loud, moved me to tears (and actual choking sobs at one point), portrayed a charming (ala Marcia Evanick) but not too unrealistically cutesy (Sherryl Woods, I am looking at you!)tiny Maine lobstering town. The book has a wonderful, moving heroine with a first POV, which I normally hate with a passion but felt right here. She is strong but flawed, smart, sticks up for herself when it matters and has some funny screw-ups that seems like they could really happen to you or I. It's hard to find a good romantic comedy anymore. Authors usually try too hard with the wackiness, create characters too stupid to live or otherwise fall flat. This book's tone is spot-on. I love the dog, who is treated in a great way so that he supports but does not steal the book away; Maggie's family and friends, especially her twin are also well drawn.

My one complaint: the end feels rushed to the point I was anxiously checking the page count as I got near the end to make sure the book wasn't mising pages because so much was unresolved. I'm not sure by the end that a happily-ever-after had been fully earned and that the hero's, (Malone), behavior had been fully explained. Dare I hope this is because the author plans Book 2 and we will pick up with these characters again? Please say so. Malone is so uncommunicative and many of his actions so inexplicable that he essentially remains a maddening but intriguing enigma still by the last page. I would have like another couple chapters or a different climax to make us feel that this couple was going to be able to live together and communicate going forward. The author make the reader want everything to work out for them but I was left with a nagging feeling that no happily ever after was guaranteed for these two still. DO NOT let this stop you from buying the book, you will love it. Just consider this my plea to the author for book 2 for Maggie and Malone.

I mostly enjoyed this book and parts of it brought tears to my eyes (the dog story line) 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.

Also I had a pretty hard time with how she kept embarrassing herself. I'm not real fond of wincing through an entire book.

Like the other book I read by this author, Too Good to be True, the heroine makes a mistake and the hero immediately condemns her and breaks up only to come back later and say never mind I changed my mind. If he were going to change his mind, he should have let her explain and tried to forgive her in the first place.

I did not like that the book was written in first person present tense. That's just hard to read. I prefer 3rd person but I can take first person past tense. But with 1st person present I can't help wondering if the heroine is wandering around with a piece of paper jotting notes to herself..."I walk in the room, I look to the left. Malcolm is here. He takes me in his arms and kisses me." Are you scribbling your notes on his back while he's doing so?

This book is Maggie's story of a young women from a small town who owns her a diner and his having Man problems. Her one big problem is that she has a crush on a Priest and the other is pool of men is very small. Maggie goes down some very funny road to find a man - it was a fun book - great for the plane, Enjoy! Off to read her other book Fools Rush In....

I would also recommend; Hot by Julia Harper,Crown Jewel by Fern Michaels and Accidentally Yours by Susan Mallery and The Remains of the Dead by Wendy Roberts.

Would have given this book more stars except for one irritating thing---Not enough Malone. I kept waiting for his character to be developed,to learn more about the enigmatic lobsterman and to find out why he behaved in the irrational way he behaved at times. Needless to say I was very disappointed when I got the end and found that nothing had really been resolved. We never did get to find out what made Malone tick and that was supremely irritating. I'd love to read a sequel to this book and get the low-down on the most interesting and neglected character in the book.

First, I want to say I think Ms. Higgins is better than 90% of the romance writers out there. She writes evenly, creates well-developed characters, her descriptive passages add color and interest without being wordy, and she can write a believable dialog. This is the second book of her's I've read, and I like that she weaves pathos as well as humor into her novels.

Possible Spoilers:
But.....and there are several "buts" for me...this books was not nearly as enjoyable as it could have been. For one thing, the book is written in first person present, which is awkward in my opinion. Why do that? First person past isn't my favorite, but it beats present tense. Secondly, I don't enjoy reading about embarrassment and humiliation. There is a certain brand of humor that I don't find humorous, and laughing at other people's painful situations is one of them. Maggie is continually subjected to embarrassing situations, either of her own making or due to cruelty of "friends" and "family."

In addition, we are never privy to the emotional inner-workings of the male love-interest (a short-coming of first person narrative, perhaps). Malone remains a mystery, and some of his most dramatic actions (and reactions) are never explained. Which leads to my last complaint, the ending isn't believable for the simple reason that we DON'T know what motivated Malone in the first place, so how do we interpret his change of attitude at the end? This book badly needed an epilogue. For the time and effort I put into the book, I felt like I deserved more insight into Malone.

So, I like the quality of Ms. Higgins' writing, and I like her ability to plot believable stories. I loved her first book, "Fools Rush In" and based on that, and her writing, I will definitely read more of her books. But "Catch of the Day" was a missed opportunity for a really, really first-rate novel.

Catch of the Day is pretty good chick lit but a little weak on the romance side of the aisle, still I read it quickly because it had a charm that only comes from a self deprecating character.

Maggie is a diner owner and this story is completely her story told in first person with many quirky and touching tales only a completely honest woman can tell. She is unmarried and she has the hots for the new priest. To her credit she did not know he was a priest but that just added to the humor of the story. She reveals the ins and outs of life in Maine with a perfect twin sister, an engaging younger brother, a sexy best friend, and a very critical mother. She wants a romance and she is set up on humorous blind dates via the priest.

She does know a lobsterman who is gruff, silent and way too mysterious but she cannot imagine any kind of romance with him until he comes to her rescue one night. Now she is in an almost romance with strong, silent Malone and we the reader get to delve into her insecurities and joys in this relationship. The best parts of this book are when she is with Malone or her pet golden retriever but this does not happen nearly enough. The ending is sweet but left me wanting more. The reader does not get to really know Malone that well. Still this novel is humorous, (at times I laughed out loud) and at times quite touching (I cried too), just do not expect a sweeping romance.

After loving "Fools Rush In" by Kristan Higgins, I eagerly awaited her next book & my high expectations were totally fulfilled. "Catch of the Day" had me laughing out loud & snorting to the point that I nearly needed the Heimlich. I don't know how she does it, but her characters are so real: ranging from pious to promiscuous, with feisty and raunchy good humor and down-to-earth humanity galore. I want a dog like Colonel & I want to live in Gideon's Cove so these folks can be my neighbors.

Maggie owns a diner in a small town, and her love life seems to be everyone's problem. Maggie has quite a crush on the local priest. Since Father What-a-Waste isn't a practical solution to her dating dilemmas, she's forced to look for someone else. When Maggie's stood up on yet another disastrous date, the strong, silent Malone presents himself as an alternative. Malone isn't the most communicative guy. At the same time, he manages to get his point across: He's the guy that Maggie's been looking for, but he must wait till she figures it out for herself.

I loved "Catch of the Day". It's full of laugh-out-loud humor, a hero and heroine pulled from real life, and it's even better than Kristan's first book, which was excellent. She has a gift for writing characters that leap off the page. She describes Maggie and Malone's life in Maine so realistically you can smell the salty air and feel the sand under your toes. You'll fall in love with them as they fall in love with each other.

If you love smart and funny romantic comedy, "Catch of the Day" is exactly what you're looking for!

There were some great moments in this story of a diner owner who has a twin with a great husband and great child and wants the same for herself. I thought the family dynamics (and I am including the dog in this) were wonderfully written. I also thought Higgins did a great job with what, on the surface sounds a bit cheesy, single gal with a long term crush on the priest.
However, I am not a huge fan of watching the heroine embarass herself and jump to conclusions so much. And I felt the romance got shorted a bit, in one scene the hero gets mad and throws the heroine out and I felt there wasn't really any discussion about that later.
I think her other books may be more to my taste, this one didn't quite work for me.