Catch of the Day

Maggie is a small town diner owner, whose disasterous love-life provides hours of entertainment for the locals. The scenes of Maggie's horrible dates will have you rolling on the floor laughing. The strength of this book is the characterizations. Maggie isn't perfect, but she is likeable and funny and you will be rooting for her all the way. And the secondary characters (especially Maggie's family) are believable and fun. Highly recommended! I can't wait for her next book!

Once again, Kristan Higgins has written a wonderful, captivating story of love and laughter, that I couldn't put down. From the very first sentence, I became engrossed in the tale of Maggie and her laughable lovelife. From being publicly dumped by her sweetheart to falling in love with a priest, Maggie navigates the path to true love with an entire town watching (and very often commenting). Maggie learns that love doesn't always come when you want it, or from where you want it, but when you least expect it. This book was FABulous. I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Higgins characters, from the amazing Maggie to the silent Malone, and everyone in between. Like her first novel, "Fools Rush In", this book will be on my shelf for a long time to come, and I will recommend it to everyone I know.

I absolutely LOVED Fools Rush In, so couldn't wait for this one. All I can say is please write faster. These are just the funniest books ever. I love the stories, love the writing, love the laughing! I'll buy anything from Kristan Higgins - PLEASE - MORE!

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.

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