Catch a Mate by Gena Showalter

Published: June 1, 2007

Now that I have finished all of the Lords of the Underworld books by the wonderful Gena Showalter I have decided to continue into her other novels. There are so many good ones so I decided to start with the ones that my library owns. Yes, I went to the library. Everyone should go to the library. Anyway, this novel was not what I was expecting. But I should learn by now to not have expectations when it comes to novels. Doing that can leave me disappointed. That didn’t happen in this case but it could have!

Jillian works for the company ‘Catch a Mate’. It’s not what you are thinking. They don’t help you find your perfect mate or anything like that. Their job is to film and catch cheaters in the act. Jillian was made for this kind of job. In her mind all men are cheaters and there are no exceptions. She knows that her boss (Anne) feels the same way so when she hires a male to play the role of bait she doesn’t know what to do. Especially, after Anne says that she will be training him for the job. They take an instant disliking to each other and working together will be near impossible. And when he says women are the problem and not men it’s like a nuclear bomb goes off and she knows that they will never be friends. That is compounded by the fact that the woman hater is her new boss.

Marcus bought ‘Catch a Mate’ because he wanted to expand his business. He had a similar one in Texas so buying the floundering company in Oklahoma was a no brainer. However, he doesn’t know what he has gotten himself into. The whole office is against men and he knows that women are the real problem. Not only that but the person that Anne suggested to be his second in command cannot stand him. In her defense though, he didn’t make that difficult. For someone who only wants one thing from a woman Marcus cannot believe how turned on Jillian makes him. With her fierce, take-no-shit attitude he was like a moth to a flame. The more he learns about her the more he wants.

Honestly this book was pretty hilarious. Each chapter has a cheesy pick-up line as well. It’s perfection! In addition to the cheesy pick-up lines, the back talk between the two was worth the time it took to read. It was well written which I sometimes don’t expect from early works by an author but I was not disappointed. She has the witty banter and the sexual tension down to an art form in this novel and I really wanted another book that would follow the women and men of ‘Catch a Mate’. They all deserve their HEAs too. Right? Maybe someday in the future but I won’t hold my breath. I don’t suggest you hold your breath either since this novel was written over 10 years ago. But it still holds up and that’s what I like about romance novels. They usually hold up no matter what.

—“How about you sit on my lap and we’ll talk about the first thing that pops up?” -Ch. 14 pick-up line, pg. 205—