Having the story set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin felt perfect for me. The book made me feel like I was back home where I grew up.
Maren and Joe just so perfectly together and that made the book even better!
The author did a great job of making the story jump off the pages and into my heart. I have read other books by Erin Hahn and will recommend her books because they are written with feeling and make her readers care about the characters.
Thank you NetGalley, Erin Hahn and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of the book Catch and Keep. This is my personal review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
🌶️

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

For starters, this was my first Erin Hahn novel and was one of the more realistic contemporary romances I’ve read. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this was part of an interconnected, standalone trilogy. If I’ve read the others, I think I would have enjoyed this story more. Def looking forward to reading her others though.

I’ve never read a single dad/parent trope before. I think this was well done sharing the complexities that it can have especially having a child with ASD. This had the perfect autumn, hallmark feel good vibes with just enough depth.

What caught my attention was up north travels and the fmc was a fishing influencer, how fun is that? As a fellow Michigander, I appreciated all the Michigan references. Also, being from a small town, couldn’t agree more that there truly is nothing better than a hometown hardware store. IYKYK. 😅

This cozy small town romance is set to release October 15th, 2024. You’ll be in the mood to sit by a lake and casting a line. Be sure to add to your tbr!

i’ll start off extremely honest and say that i don’t think this book was made for me, which is perfectly ok! i do love romance but this one lacked some depth to me. it was a very very easy read and most definitely a “what you see is what you get” type of book, which is nice sometimes. i feel like character development was odd and some of them even went against what was shown of them. it was very predictable as well, which isn’t horrible it just added to me not thinking the book was for me. if you like fast paced, low stakes, single dad romances this is definitely the book for you!

This book has some of my favorite tropes in it, so I was thrilled to read it! Read this one if you like brothers best friend, single dad, and childhood family friends. I loved how we saw Maren’s relationship bloom with Josiah’s kids and how the author represented having an autistic child. I found the problems with the children’s biological mother unrealistic. The way Maren’s brother treated her like a child and how immature he acted at age 39 also felt a little far fetched otherwise this would have been a 5 star read. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! Run to get your copy when this book comes out on October 15!

My first Erin Hahn book and definitely not my last! I couldn’t stop reading “Catch & Keep”. It was funny, heartbreaking and lovable. As a teacher, the description of Lucy with Autism was done beautifully and realistically. Highly recommend reading Catch & Keep!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Erin Hahn for the ARC!

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up

What I did like:
The dog - you can never go wrong with a love story with an adorable dog
The setting - outdoors and lakeside - yes please
The kids - sweet and adorable, and I am not even a kid person
Her relationship with the old fisherman

What I didn’t:
“Musky Maren” - oh hell, no
Her brother Liam - total jackass for no reason whatsoever
Both of her best friends being ultra famous - seemed a little unrealistic
Her stalker situation - resolved way too easily, even if resolved by her and not him (half expected him to have to save her so this was a nice change)
A little overly fish focused

Overall I did enjoy it, and might try another one of her books at some point.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I found this novel to be a really enjoyable story about second chances. It’s a single dad romance, it’s a brother’s best friend romance, it’s a vacation-fling romance, and it has autism rep. What more could you want in a book? Fishing? It’s got that too!

I really loved Maren and Joe’s relationship. Sometimes when a book is really trope-heavy like this, the author relies on them too much to push the story forward rather than fleshing out the characters’ chemistry. Not in this book though. The tropes felt more like actual life scenarios and it really let the relationship shine.

My only issue with this book is that it felt very rushed towards the end. I felt there was a lot of buildup leading to the main conflict but then it was done and over with in the blink of an eye.

I’d still recommend you read it if you like romance! It was solid.

🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟

Another Erin Hahn novel that made me cry in the best way possible!

Maren and Joe felt like real people, with real life experiences, and I was rooting for them from their first on-page interaction. Not only did their romance bring the swoons, their friendship felt genuine and heartwarming. Also, Joe’s kids were some of my favorite parts of the whole story. As a parent of an autistic kiddo, seeing representation in the books I read means a lot! And the setting! It was so well-written, so fully formed the setting felt like its own character. Midwest is Best!

The banter and conversations between Maren, Shelby, and Lorelai were awesome! I love when past characters carry through to future books. And now I have an itch to reread Built to Last and Friends Don’t Fall in Love!

If you haven’t read an Erin Hahn book, get that sorted pronto but stock up on some kleenex or wear a sweatshirt with extra long sleeves to wipe away the happy tears!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Maren just ended her relationship and is coming back to the fishing resort where she basically grew up. She starts spending time with her brother's best friend who is a recently divorced Dad and she is trying to ignore her feelings for him because there are so many reasons for this not to work. Maren and Josiah are super cute and their relationship is sweet and fun to follow. While some parts seemed to be a bit convenient I didn't mind because you are rooting for them the whole time.

I love Erin Hahn. She’s not the best at structure or stakes but she writes kind, generous characters who really love each other.

This is the third book in her adult series (the previous two are Built to Last and Friends Don’t Fall in Love) and I think this is my favorite of the three. The lake setting is cozy and I like the small feel of the book: these characters aren’t jetting off to other cities or complicating the plot with a million side characters from work and yoga class and the coffee shop.

There is also, notably, no third act breakup here. In general the tension is pretty low and the stakes are minimal. The sex scenes felt a bit out of the blue (not enough yearning in my opinion) but I will read Erin Hahn always regardless.

this was super cute!! rogers and the two kids were just adorable and joe is such a sweetheart.
there wasn't anything in particular i disliked about this one (other than her brother, literally go rot why was he so mean) but it also just didn't stand out a ton for me. based on the other reviews though, i think this might just be me, and it was still very sweet and a fun read especially if you're looking for something simple and easy!

This was such a sweet story. I love romances where mature adults step up and support each other. Good relationships should bring out the best in us, and this book was the perfect example of that. The connection between the two main characters was believable, and the chemistry was strong.

Such a fun book! I love a good single dad romance, and then add in the brother/best friend aspect this book is a total “catch”!

The story drew me in from the very beginning and absolutely transported me into the story!

I gobbled this up like a fresh baked dona de azucar! I knew Maren & Joe's story would be good, but they smacked me in the face with their love. I'm not one to read "sibling best friend" anything, but it's Erin Hahn and a bestie from a certain trio, so I had to dive in. And I LOVED IT. All parts. The angsty bits, the sibling digs (oof, but boy do I get it), the humor and little loves. It was, what I've come to understand, signature Erin Hahn. Honestly, loved the communication between the MC's. I'd rather see them working together than reading through a third act break-up or grovel (don't get me wrong, I do love me a great grovel). Also the representation was wholesome and well written, even the hard parts. It was great and even had me shedding a tear or two. Towards the end I found myself saying "Thank you Erin Hahn" out loud-- alone in my room of course.. There was no added hoopla, just love, family, and friends. Oh, and a true boat daddy (;
So, thank you Erin Hahn.

This was so cute!! I love this book as much as I loved her others. I loved the characters in this book as much as I loved the town. The plot was just as good as the romance and the pacing was perfect. Just overall a really good romance!

Loved this adorable book. I felt quickly invested in all of the characters. A great beach reach for this summer.
Thank you to netgally for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this story in exchange for my objective review. There are some spoilers that follow, so proceed with caution. Our female main character Moren left Michigan after a proposal gone wrong and a lost work promotion, and relocates to Wisconsin to take over an inherited bait shop on the lake where she spent childhood vacations. Joe, her older brother's best friend, a single dad to Anders and Lucy and ex-Marine, runs the family-owned local resort. This is the third in a trilogy, which I didn't know going in, but this worked fine for me as a standalone and I didn't feel I was missing out on key plot points by not having read the first two in the series.

What I liked:
• Written in dual first-person POV, which I always like because you get better insight into both main characters.
• I love that she was a park ranger and she also had a successful fishing YouTube channel when she was younger. There's a sweetness to her reminiscing about her past friendship with the gentleman who owned the bait shop.
• I enjoyed the way the author writes banter, and Moren's snark. I also really enjoyed her relationship with Joe's children, as well as how they were written with all their quirks (and that their quirks were something to be enjoyed and celebrated).
• I liked that Maren was the one to resolve the issues with her stalker on her own. I was concerned that the author was setting her up to be saved by Joe, but thankfully she was written as her own savior instead. As she should have been, you don't write a strong independent woman with a career and background like hers and then have her be incompetent with managing her own struggles.
• Although at first Joe gave her grief (alongside her brother) about her competence and abilities, and I worried how that dynamic was going to play out over the course of the book, he did seem to respect her independence and strength. Other books with similar storylines would have had him be her protector and hero (especially since he's the ex-Marine nurturing single dad). Thankfully the author didn't have this book play out like that or it would have been a DNF for me.

What I didn't like:
• Her older brother is an infantilizing jerk and was that way through most of the story. He gave her grief from the get-go, all of it mired in the over-done "little sister" dynamic. And it took his best friend to finally lead him to realizing he was being over-bearing and ridiculous and borderline abusive. He couldn't have figured that out for himself? It would have been a stronger resolution had he been willing to listen to Maren when she protested his treatment and attitude over and over and over again. I guess at least he apologized, eventually.
• The stalker. I get why he existed since it added some tension to the story (and the fact that she had a stalker seemed very realistic given that she had been at one point a popular YouTube star). But the resolution with Bryce felt unrealistic and a bit anti-climactic. He seemed such a large part of the story as he kept popping up in menacing ways, especially after years of infatuation. It felt like a bigger show-down was being set up to happen, and that he posed a much larger danger than he seemed to at the end. And then all that happened was that she told him off while also flaunting her boyfriend, and he was appropriately chastened and just slunk away? Yeah, okay.
• Maybe a minor point, but it seemed a bit much that she also did beauty pageants as a kid, in addition to being extremely interested in fishing. Not that young girls can't and shouldn't have diverse interests, but more like the author wants to make sure we know that, "Yeah she's outdoorsy but she's also gorgeous!" It seemed unnecessary and I didn't feel it added anything substantial to the story.

Overall, I did enjoy the story for the most part and I would read this author again. The writing and the story was enough to keep me engaged to the end, and Joe's kids were adorable and wonderful. 3.5 stars rounded down to 3, it would have been 4 stars if her brother hadn't been such a colossal and condescending jerk to her for no real reason.

Love this second chance love story and have been looking forward to Maren's story! Erin never fails to deliver! Love the character development in this novel and feel that this is the perfect summer read to cozy up to with a great amount of spice!

I loved the characters in this book. The depth the author layers into their stories all comes together and made this book a delight. This is an amazing second chance, found family book that I would recommend and read again. This romance had the “it” factor. The characters have real connection as well as chemistry and it adds substance to this book.

I have enjoyed all of Erica Hahn’s adult novels. They are romantic and fun. This one follows Maren who is best friends with the characters in her previous books. She just broke up with her boyfriend by throwing up on him while proposing and she runs away to a cabin that was left to her. There she sees Josiah Cole, her brother’s best friend, who is divorced with two adorable children. They find themselves drawn to each other. This book is a fun read. I love the characters and I enjoy seeing these two characters pull for each other. It’s such a cute story. Perfect for summer!