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Catch Me Twice Kindle Edition
A STANDALONE SECOND-CHANCE ROMANCE
If a man tells you he's no good for you, best heed the warning. I learned the hard way. I had Jake Basson's baby. He left to chase his dream. Now he's back, demanding a second chance, but why should I give him anything after four years of nothing? No correspondence, no news. I finally have my life back on track. Jake has never been uncomplicated. He never follows the rules. I should've known he'd play dirty in his fight to win me back.
He caught me once. I'm not going to let him catch me twice.
Note: This story contains cheating, an unredeemable MC, forced proximity, and lots of groveling. HEA guaranteed.
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateSeptember 24, 2019
- File size3.9 MB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Catch me Twice was intense and beautiful, painfully so but exactly how I'd expect a book by Charmaine to be. She has such a wonderful way with words, handling the poignant and realistic so well. She also writes dual POV's so effortlessly that I'm always left breathless whilst reading one of her stories. The story of Jake and Kristi is definitely one of my ALL-TIME FAVOURITES." - Cupcakes and Bookshelves
"Charmaine Pauls takes a premise that can be disastrous and turns it into absolute pure gold. It's like reading Michelangelo's David. And from a literary perspective, Charmaine produces exactly that high level of storytelling perfection." - Buffyanna, Goodreads
"Once again, Charmaine Pauls penned a tantalizingly torrid, ALL-CONSUMING, utterly spellbinding love story that shattered my heart, healed my soul and made me truly rejoice! CATCH ME TWICE, which revolves around a roughhewn, privileged rich boy whose fate collides with a starry eyed, trailer park good girl in a moment of crazy, lust filled ecstasy only to find their worlds crashing and burning down around them was no syrupy sweet fairytale. But yowza did it leave a LASTING IMPRESSION! The prose was pure splendor, the full throttle intensity of this angst-ridden novel was off the charts, the raw sensuality utterly electrifying and the feels? Omg! The feels PACKED A WALLOP! Ms. Pauls did not shy away from taboo topics in this book, but unapologetically embraced them head on, and for that I am totally in awe! This story held me in its thrall from beginning to end, and the manner in which she lovingly developed the main characters was truly phenomenal." - Epic Romance Reviews
"Addictive, all-consuming, and downright combustible from start to finish. This is a love story filled with obsession, heartache, drama, and angst, but also forgiveness, hope, and redemption. This story is well written, perfectly laid out and very unique. Ms. Pauls made me feel that I was actually in South Africa, with all its harshness and beauty. She pulls you in with her words, wrapping them around your heart and squeezing till it's ready to burst. The main characters are meticulously developed and well supported with strong secondary characters. The chemistry between Jake and Kristi is explosive!" - Lori, Goodreads
"Charmaine has done a splendid job of showing us all the ups and downs of a love story that never got off the ground to begin with, then never got the time to ripen to its maturity. She showed ALL the pitfalls unashamedly, nothing was veiled, every sore, every cut, every bruise, every scab was to be seen like an ugly wound it was. The patterns she weaves into this love rug compliment beautifully and the end result is a tapestry of human spirit. There's compassion, grace, dignity, camaraderie, love, strength, despair, redemption and patience. A scrumptious buffet of varied emotions." - Book Bistro Blog
"If there was ever a story of redemption and growth, this is the one. If there was ever a story about life driving a person instead of the person driving life, this is the one. If there was ever a story that will rip you to shreds and make your heart soar all at the same time, this is the one!!" - Jessica Alcazar, Goodreads
"In real life, love can be messy. Not everyone gets it right the first time, and the greatest obstacle to love may ultimately be oneself. Pauls masterfully pulls off a brilliant love story surrounding a sensitive, taboo romance genre topic with great elegance through beautiful writing and gritty, soulful storytelling." - Hettie Ivers, USA Today Bestselling Author
"Charmaine is one of the most skillful writers I have ever read and this time she surprised me with a book that was a swirl of emotions, penned in the most sinful way. It torn my soul. It broke my heart. It played with my mind. It pulled the right strings. A tragic romance that attracts heartbreak, lust and passion." - Alexandra, Goodreads
"Charmaine has a knack of pulling the reader in with every word she writes. She's penned a story that many can relate to. A tumultuous read, Catch Me Twice is a story about redemption despite the chaos that ensues." - Lissette, Goodreads
From the Author
About the Author
When she moved to Chile with her French husband, she started writing full-time. She has been publishing novels and short stories since 2011.
Charmaine currently lives in Montpellier, France with her family. Their household is a lively mix of Afrikaans, English, French, and Spanish.
Product details
- ASIN : B07V4FWDVC
- Publication date : September 24, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 3.9 MB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 372 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : B0B4MBFQTR
- Best Sellers Rank: #670,268 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #9,339 in Small Town Romance eBooks
- #9,468 in Alpha Male Romance eBooks
- #17,351 in Women's Romance Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Join Charmaine's newsletter on her website to be informed of new book releases.
Charmaine loves to write dark and edgy romance that will melt both your e-reader and your heart.
She's a mom of two teenagers, an adorable dog, and a dominant cat. Her country of birth is South Africa where many of her stories play off. Her French husband whisked her away to the south of France where she currently lives with her family.
When she's not writing, you'll find her in the kitchen baking cakes or in the gym lifting weights (because ... all those cakes!).
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the story compelling and soulful. They describe the writing as gorgeous and beautiful. However, opinions differ on the character development - some find them strong and well-developed, while others consider them two-dimensional or doormat-like.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the story compelling, soulful, and heart-wrenching. They appreciate the original and unique storytelling that keeps them enthralled from start to finish. The emotional depth is also mentioned as great.
"...Pauls masterfully pulls off a brilliant love story surrounding a sensitive, taboo romance genre topic with great elegance through beautiful writing..." Read more
"...Still, Charmaine Pauls manages to weave a beautifully emotional story about the power of redemption, forgiveness and love...." Read more
"...I loved the angst and drama, too, and it wasn't overdone. Definitely a page turner with a storyline that I couldn't get enough of." Read more
"...The characters are so real and the story is definitely not cookie cutter like some stories. Just read this book!..." Read more
Customers enjoy the writing quality of the book. They describe it as a well-written, epic story with a wonderful ending.
"...In Catch Me Twice, Jake & Kristi go on a truly beautiful, filthy, angst-ridden, messy journey through a minefield of heartbreaking life events that..." Read more
"...It's an amazingly written, heart-wrenching story of a man lost and the woman who helps him find himself—a second-chance romance unlike any other...." Read more
"This was a nice and sweet story. Different than the author other novels, but it kept me interested. I liked it." Read more
"...and of course the emotional depth was there, along with a wonderful finish." Read more
Customers have different views on the character development. Some find the characters good and strong, while others say they are two-dimensional and the heroine is a doormat.
"...The characters were well written that I felt their emotions all along the way and I found myself empathizing with both of them...." Read more
"...This guy was not what any woman would want.The heroine was a doormat. I was really disappointed because the beginning was great...." Read more
"...The characters are so real and the story is definitely not cookie cutter like some stories. Just read this book!..." Read more
"...Kristi was a strong heroine even though she waited waaaaay too long for Jake to stake his claim on her...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2019In a genre whose reader base has grown increasingly obsessed with avoiding all manner of "triggers" in favor of embracing fantasy, Catch Me Twice throws up a figurative middle finger and tells a story inspired by real people by diving headfirst into the real relationship struggles a couple can sometimes face in life when one falls in love with another person before falling in love with oneself. The harsh realism in this young love gone awry tale can be quite unsettling, though, hence the trigger warning the author has placed on this title.
In Catch Me Twice, Jake & Kristi go on a truly beautiful, filthy, angst-ridden, messy journey through a minefield of heartbreaking life events that will tie your stomach in knots and may have you shouting "Why? Why?!" at your e-reader. Jake is self-destruction personified, and I loved and pitied the hell out of his trainwreck character throughout the book. At the same time, I never felt like I fully understood Jake’s character, which added another layer of the realism brilliance to this story, in my opinion, because individuals who go out of their way to cheat themselves out of happiness in life are hard for most of us to understand and to wrap our brains around.
Truly, I believe the “normal person” reaction is to be mystified by a character like Jake because his actions from a logical perspective make no sense. But that’s because the act of self-loathing in and of itself is the opposite of sensical. I think a pitfall in trying to understand the psychology of self-destructive behavior is to look for reason and logic behind it or to outside influences on which to lay blame. While there are always reasons and external circumstances one may point to, they’re less relevant than the underlying pathological internal condition, which is often experienced to large degree on a subconscious level.
Jake abandons Kristi because he doesn’t love himself. He is his own nemesis. And he spends the greater part of the book’s second half groveling for forgiveness and scrambling to put the pieces of his destroyed relationship back together. It’s equal parts painful and rewarding to watch. Admittedly, I don’t fully understand how Jake ultimately manages to turn his self-destructive tendencies around. But I also don’t fully understand those tendencies and compulsions at the level a person with Jake’s predilections experiences them.
Catch Me Twice doesn’t glorify or romanticize Jake’s hurtful behavior toward Kristi. In fact, it reveals it for all its raw, dark self-loathing ugliness and self-destruction. I loved that about this book!
In real life, love can be messy. Not everyone gets it right the first time, and the greatest obstacle to love may ultimately be oneself. Pauls masterfully pulls off a brilliant love story surrounding a sensitive, taboo romance genre topic with great elegance through beautiful writing and gritty, soulful storytelling. 👏👏👏
- Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2019This is not a dark romance. This might seem like a strange observation with which to start a book review, stating what it is not. But I think it is kind of what lies at the heart of my criticism of this book. Even though I mostly know the author thru two previous “dark” works, the Loan Shark Duet (Dubious / Consent) and Beauty in the Broken, I enjoy reading a variety of romance genres, from rom-com, paranormal romance to romantic suspense and dark romance. So, my problem was not with the fact that this wasn’t a dark romance, but that in ways it skated the edge of “dark” and indeed might have worked better if it were truly dark.
First, we have the hero, or as it were, the anti-hero, Jake. A pre-requisite for any credible anti-hero is usually a terrible childhood or some other awful trauma. And though the first part of his life hasn’t been exactly a walk in the park it also isn’t as bad a life as for many other children. And then he sort of gets to go off to pursue his dreams, only he screws up badly, and not because of any outside forces or unlucky circumstances, but because of his own cockiness and afterwards he is too much of a coward to own up to his faults, instead trying to drown his sorrows in alcohol, drugs and meaningless sex. And this after he left his childhood sweetheart pregnant and to fend for herself, but not before he extracted her promise to wait for him. In the end it’s one of his remaining good friends (though we never learn what their friendship is based on) that makes him man up and return home to face the mistakes of his pasts.
Second, I really liked Kristi, the heroine. Her problem is that she wants to be overwhelmed and conquered (at least sexually), but after the way she has been betrayed, she is trying to hold back emotionally and all the while sending out mixed signals to Jake, that almost made me feel sorry for him, although he is the jerk in their story. So, while Jake tries to force the issue, the decision to give their relationship another chance ultimately lies with her.
Still, Charmaine Pauls manages to weave a beautifully emotional story about the power of redemption, forgiveness and love. Also, this story shows that there are things more important than can be bought with money, intangible values “that can’t be captured in a bottle”.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 20194.5 stars. I knew I'd get sucked into this book based on the synopsis and all the teasers and excerpts that I'd read. I felt compelled to learn more about Kristi and Jake because I'm sure their back story was complicated. And it was. Not because they were complicated, but because of the circumstances. Two young people who had their whole lives ahead of them and plans they made for the future. Where they belonged in each other's lives was still a bit of a question. They both had their own journeys and paths to pave. It wasn't easy for either one. I love second chance romances because there's always that history between the characters that can't be changed and the chemistry is still there, but there's new issues to address. Jake has made some really bad decisions that can't be undone. And what would it take for Kristi to forgive him so that he gets a second chance and to prove that he is trustworthy. The characters were well written that I felt their emotions all along the way and I found myself empathizing with both of them. There were some really starkly honest and raw conversations that I often find lacking in second chance stories, but not this one. I loved the angst and drama, too, and it wasn't overdone. Definitely a page turner with a storyline that I couldn't get enough of.
Top reviews from other countries
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StruweleReviewed in Germany on July 18, 2021
4.0 out of 5 stars Mal was anderes!
Ich kenne von Fr. Pauls nur durch Loan Shark. Daher habe ich angenommen, das es wieder düster und schwer wird. Aber trotzdem eine berührende Geschichte. Außerdem spielt die Geschichte mal nicht in NY oder London sondern in Südafrika. Interessante Szenenbeschreibungen und sehr plastisch.