Desert Isle Keeper

Catch A Mate is as close to a perfect book as you can get, featuring non-stop laughter, intense love scenes, and vibrantly true-to-life characters. I finished reading with a huge smile on my face. This is the ultimate feel-good book, particularly for those skeptical about love. Showalter’s story will make a believer out of anyone who is sure they’ll never find their soul mate.

Jillian Greene works as an employee for To Catch a Mate (aka CAM), a service that helps women discover if their boyfriends or husbands are cheating on them. She acts as bait for these alleged cheaters and her encounters with them in bars and clubs are captured on film. Jillian also has big aspirations. She is led to believe that when her employer retires, she will take over the reins. She has quite a surprise in store because her boss already sold the business to Marcus Brody, the male version of Jillian.

The first time Jillian actually sees Marcus is when she notices how nice his butt is. All she can think about is that part of his anatomy and even gives him a nice nickname to show her appreciation. When Jillian finally encounters Marcus face to face, she gives him major attitude. Marcus is no wimp, so he returns the favor. At first this seems a bit childish, but as they swipe insults back and forth, what they actually think is quite the opposite. Their thoughts from their initial meeting and throughout the story are X-rated and absolutely hysterical.

Jillian and Marcus sparkle. Their constant inner dialogue about each other, along with the reasons why they think love is for fools, makes the book. When Jillian was a little girl, her father cheated on her mother with the next door neighbor. Her mother discovered them in bed and tried to kill herself. It was Jillian who found her mother after her suicide attempt, and because of this trauma she is cynical about men and relationships – and enjoys her work at CAM.

As for Marcus, his ex-wife ruined his view on love. He started his own mate catching business for men who think the women in their lives are cheating on them. Both Marcus and Jillian are so stubborn and strong willed that they fight like cats and dogs and insult each other every chance they get. But their insults are really a type of foreplay. They may talk of hate, but in actuality all they want to do is tear off each other’s clothes. They make out nearly as often as they fight, and one drunken night their fantasies become reality. As a result of this consummation, their feelings become more intense and real.

Along for this wild ride are a second set of characters who are just as fun as the lead couple. Jillian’s childhood best friend Georgia also works as “bait”. She considered herself an ugly duckling in school and worked a major crush on Jillian’s older brother Brett. Brett secretly returns her affections but because she is now beautiful, fears she believes he is only interested in her body. His antics are beyond adorable! Every time he calls Jillian, he asks about Georgia to the point that she finally tells him she’s tired of being his pimp. Brett tries every trick in the book to show Georgia what he feels for her is real. Their romance counteracts the hot and sweaty one Jillian and Marcus have going on. We also have Jillian’s mother, who has begun to date online because “she has needs”, her father, who tries his best to prove he is worthy of his daughter’s forgiveness, and Brett’s twin sister Evelyn, who calls her husband every sickening cutesy love name in the book.

Zany and quirky yes, but this story will give you a belly full of laughs till the very end. There is not enough praise I can give this book. It should be required reading for all cynics and pessimists…and everyone else.