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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 date24 September 2019
- File size3.9 MB
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Product details
- ASIN : B07V4FWDVC
- 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: 339,636 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 7,609 in Small Town Romance eBooks
- 8,454 in Alpha Male Romance eBooks
- 18,584 in Women's Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 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
Top reviews from Australia
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- Reviewed in Australia on 24 September 2019A well written, sweet, second-chance romance. Worth a read, but it’s not my favourite story by Charmaine Pauls, I personally prefer her dark romances better.
I was given an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Top reviews from other countries
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StruweleReviewed in Germany on 18 July 2021
4.0 out of 5 stars Mal was anderes!
Verified PurchaseIch 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.
- H. IversReviewed in the United States on 25 September 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars A filthy, messy, beautiful masterpiece!
Verified PurchaseIn 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. 👏👏👏
One person found this helpfulReport - monadhReviewed in the United States on 24 September 2019
4.0 out of 5 stars “Something that can’t be captured in a bottle”
Verified PurchaseThis 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”.
One person found this helpfulReport - MichelleReviewed in the United States on 29 September 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic and compelling story
Verified Purchase4.5 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.
One person found this helpfulReport - meReviewed in the United States on 20 January 2022
3.0 out of 5 stars The sex scenes where hot but the story was full of contradictions
Verified PurchaseI liked the story I just felt there were too many contradictions for me. Kristi was strong and had the help of her mother to raise her baby. Jake offered her money to help support his kid why he was away, and Kristi sent it back. That's A dumb move it would have helped her child's life. Jake can't cook but he's written a cookbook huh again makes no sense. Jake takes Kristi on a 3-week trip from their child again no sense I understand a 3 or maybe 4-day vacation to figure things out but bring you kid if it's long than that. I didn't understand the slur of the foreigners running a corner store that sold toffee and gum in the US are corner stores sell liquor and crack pipes. What is teatime a lunch break or a set time that Europeans take a break Google said it was a 4pm snack time. I could go on there had to be a half a dozen contradictions.