Review: Catch of the Day by Carla Caruso

Catch of the Day is a charming romantic comedy set against the backdrop of Kingston S.E. in South Australia. The novel tells the story of Winnie, a young journalist who is banished from Sydney to a beachside South Australian town after an 'incident' at a work Christmas function that just happened to involve someone who is very high up in the company and very, very married. Winnie has now been poked away to the costal town in order to set up a new beach lifestyle magazine. Winnie gets off to a bad start when she attracts the ire of local fisherman, Alex Bass, but the worst is yet to come when she discovers that Alex is also a freelance photographer who has been hired by the magazine. From there, Winnie begins to meet many of the quirky locals, making friends with some and enemies out of others, while being constantly thrown in situations where she has to rely on Alex.

I thought that Catch of the Day was an amusing, lightweight novel. As a South Australian, I always enjoy reading books set in my home state and many of the descriptions of Kingston S.E. did not disappoint. It was fun to watch the romance between Winnie and Alex grow, almost against their will. I was, however, a little surprised at the secret that Alex had been keeping all along, so a bit of a suspension of disbelief was required, along with the desire to see the couple get their happy ending. Some of the situations are a lot of fun--Winnie's trip to the beautician for example.

Fun, lightweight reading, intelligently written and with believable characters, Catch of the Day is the perfect afternoon read.

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