Reviews

SPOILERS FOR THE MAIN PLOT ARE INCLUDED IN THIS REVIEW.
The Catch is Ryan Wilson. He's a real catch, having all the hallmarks of being the best boyfriend that Abbie could ever wish for, but her dad Ed doesn't think so. From their first meeting he gets a feeling there's a catch to this perfect man.
Do you get it? Do you get the double entendre? If I could write a sentence that encapsulated me rolling my eyes then I would. Instead you'll just have to infer my heavy eye rolling whilst reading this review. I hated this book, as evidenced by the low score. I hated this book so much that by page 100 I wanted to stop reading but I didn't DNF as I have a goal this year to read every book club book and - you guessed it - this was a book club book. By the time I got to page 208 (51%) I decided if I had any hope of finishing this book then I had to swap to reading it in a different way, so I downloaded the audiobook and bombed through the last 6 hours in one day just so I could get through it.
Now for the actual review. This book was predictable, repetitive, lacked any sense of tension, repetitive, boring, had unlikeable characters, repetitive, unrealistic regarding wedding planning and oh did I mention it was repetitive? The first entire section had 40 chapters of Ed starting a chapter with being suspicious of Ryan, then halfway through he'd say 'hmm maybe I'm wrong?' And then by the end of the chapter he'd double down in his suspicions. Some were warranted whilst others were. Regardless every chapter followed this pattern and it was so boring to read. Eventually when something did finally happen, it was predictable and uninspired. I had been hoping it would flip what was happening and it would turn out

Abbie was the murderer or even Ed himself.

But sadly no interesting twist occurred. The only saving grace it had was that

Ed actually died. If he'd turned up at the end to save Abbie on the moors (because Ryan had been holding him hostage instead of just murdering him) I would have literally given this book 0 stars. Instead we had to deal with the unlikely event that Claire had woken up with a bad feeling, driven out to follow them and had just so happened to be in the right spot at the right time to hear her daughter's screams in the middle of a god damn Moor! Off the path!

My frustration aside, this book did not need to be 70 chapters long, it could have been half the length for a much more interesting, condensed and tense story. The lack of tension I believe was down to the prologue in which

we read a murder occurring.

Meaning that all of Ed's suspicions are valid from the very start. Literally removing that would start us off following Ed and wondering alongside him whether he's paranoid or not. It would have been so much more interesting, but because that snippet was included meant we knew from the start that

someone was a murderer and who else could it be other then the guy the book is named after?

What a waste of my time and energy. I would not recommend this book.

Content Warnings

mike1's review

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2.0

If it wasn't for my book group I would of put this book down about half way through it.I don't remember the last time I read a book that was more predictable than this one.I enjoyed "The Holiday" but this book was rubbish.

Long story short:if a person, place or thing sounds to good to be true it usually is.

becca1997's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

kerry2727's review

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5.0

Brilliant mystery book! I couldn't put it down as each chapter draws you in further and it keeps you guessing right up until the last minute...would 100% recommend if you can handle suspense!

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