Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: Catch Me
SERIES: Kitchen Gods #2
AUTHOR: Beth Bolden
PUBLISHER: self-published
RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2018
BLURB:
Chef Wyatt Blake is finally ready to move on from his thankless job. He gets no wiggle room, zero praise, plenty of abuse, and on a good day, he might only spend twelve hours in the Terroir kitchens. A friend of his recommends a private chef position, but despite the boost in pay, Wyatt doesn’t want to babysit some spoiled, rich LA family.
Imagine his shock when the family isn’t a Kardashian clone, but Ryan Flores, the only professional baseball player to ever come out of the closet.
Ryan is also at a career crossroads. His team’s management wants to see his more responsible side, which means no more late night hookups and no more adrenaline-charged stunts. When his agent suggests he find a fake boyfriend to give him an air of domesticity, he’s only reluctantly interested.
Until Ryan goes to a local bar and spies the cute private chef he’s supposed to be interviewing the next day. Maybe a quieter life wouldn’t be so bad, as long as Wyatt is part of it?
Wyatt believes Ryan could be more than just a crappy boss, but he isn’t sure about leaving the kitchen for the life of a professional boyfriend. Especially when he wants the reality so much more than the fantasy.
Catch Me is a 85,000 contemporary m/m romance, and while second in the Kitchen Gods series, can be read as a standalone.
REVIEW:
This was a really good book. I’m glad it could be read as a standalone, so I didn’t miss really anything. There was some definite angst going on in this one. Brings a few tears to the eyes. But so worth it.
Wyatt has had enough. He’s in a job he hates because he’s supposed to be a chef, but the boss of the place he works at, is a major ass. Trying to shake of the melancholy of life, Wyatt heads to a bar to maybe find a fling for the night. Maybe not. What he didn’t expect was to sit and stare at baseball’s out and proud gay man, Ryan Flores. He knows he will never have a shot with a man like that, but it’s nice to dream. Being fed up with it all, he leaves the bar to get some sleep for his interview tomorrow. What he doesn’t know is that Ryan has been watching him too, and followed him out of the bar. What passes for a hot sexual experience happens and they go their separate ways. Which wakes Wyatt up in a bad mood. He goes to his interview, and lo and behold, it’s Ryan. Wyatt is pissed but he needs the money from this job, so he stays quiet. Ryan hires him as his private chef. Wyatt soon finds out, though, that’s not all Ryan wants. After a few more sexual encounters, Wyatt is getting attached. But Ryan just wants him for a fake boyfriend to appease the managers of his team into signing him for more seasons. Wyatt says no but for many reasons. He stays on as chef and tensions are high. The more they’re together, the more they are ‘together’. Now it’s just a matter of whether they both can get over bad pasts and hurts and make this real or let hearts be broken and move on.
I think if I was in Wyatt’s shoes, I wouldn’t know whether to jump in with both feet or smack the crap out of Ryan. When feelings start getting involved, pretending at anything usually ends up bad. And with both having past bad relationships, that just sets it up for worse. I have to hand it to Wyatt, though. He keeps trying. He keeps trying to get the real deal, no matter how much Ryan screws it up. And I hate that it took something drastic to get Ryan to pull his head out of his ass. Relationships are never easy. They take a crapload of work. But both have to be willing to be in it for 100% or it don’t work at all. And Ryan was torn. Most times he was running scared, and then he’d turn around and be all sweet. When you ride the fence, nothing happens. Actually the other party gets tired of it and leaves. So it was rocky. But persistence pays off. Just don’t let something drastic have to happen to get through.
Good good book. I’m intrigued by other characters in this book as well. I loved Ryan’s best friend. She didn’t take any crap and told Ryan how it should be quite often lol. But the other two that intrigued me were Wyatt’s friends. Kian and Xander. Xander I wanted to smack most times, but Kian…. There’s something about him. This is a good series. I need to go back and read book one, but from what I’ve read it’s going to get even better hopefully. Happy reading!
RATING: 
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