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Catch Me Twice Kindle Edition

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 280 ratings

I had Jake’s baby. He left to chase his dream. Now he’s back, demanding a second chance he doesn’t deserve.

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.

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
  • Customer reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 280 ratings

About the author

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Charmaine Pauls
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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

4.2 out of 5 stars
280 global ratings

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 October 2019
    A gut wrenching and unbearably sweet tale. You root for the characters regardless of any bad behaviour, and feel all the feels.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 September 2019
    A fabulous read, one that had me unable to put it down throughout. It hooked me from the start, pulling me in deep, leaving me hooked until the end. I loved the story, could not get enough of it. Highly recommend.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2019
    I llreally enjoyed this book. I loved Kristi . She was so strong. Her Mum is also an amazing character. Despite everything that they have been through Kristi is supportive, loyal and loving. Jake came back from the brink and had to work deservedly hard to gain any trust back. Would definitely recommend this book. May need some tissues too!
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 September 2019
    ** spoiler alert ** This is a mixed bag for me.

    First of all the author warns in the opening pages that the book contains cheating, recognising not everyone likes reading about that, I liked that.

    That book is in 2 parts.
    Part 1 the Hero and heroine are young, she is a virgin, he says he isn't a manwhore but let's just say he's "popular".
    They have unprotected sex and surprise, suprise she's pregnant.
    Due to his unsympathetic family, he offers to marry her as that way she can use his medical insurance for the baby.
    There is a bit of ex drama, he brings a girl to the local pub, all childish stuff, trying to make her jealous, there's gossip, drama and childish tit for tat behaviour.
    He comes from a wealthy family and she lives with her mum in a trailer.
    They get married he goes abroad to get qualifications and a career set up. By doing this she gets the money for medical treatment.

    Part 2 is 4 years later.
    It starts with him in a brothel sharing certain intimacy with different women.
    He decides to go home.
    He only decides this as his friend opens a letter from the heroine as sees she is asking for a divorce.
    The Hero has ignored her letters for 4 years, no contact, he has his reasons but still 4 years.....
    During this 4 years he's cheating. He reckons he's slept with 50 prostitutes.
    The heroine says...
    " “I wondered if you were seeing someone else, if that was why you ignored me, every night while I waited faithfully alone in my bed.”
    His grip tightens. “I’d give my life to take it back.”
    “When you told me, you killed me fifty times over.”"

    I was irritated she would even consider taking him back.
    She is overwhelmed with the physical attraction everytime he is near.
    She has been celibate in the separation though she is now planning to marry a much older man, as she's lonely and so is he, they haven't even kissed.

    The heroine and her mum have been caring for the son and the Hero thinks it's okay to take the heroine away for 21 days, when her son has issues.... he doesn't speak... the whole behaviour of the kid was odd, there are comments about feeding himself, he's 3... I felt the author used he doesn't speak so she didn't have to make up lines for him.. it was wierd and not really explained medically, it was just he's 'delayed'.

    He inherits money and on one page he is saying people are swarming around him as he's now a millionaire and then he is doing a job he hates at the factory cos it pays the bills and considering going back to Dubai to work, for 6 years away from the heroine and his son to have a better job. That didn't make sense to me, it felt like making drama out of a non issue.

    Then we have other woman drama from his 'fun time' abroad and a woman claims she has had his baby. This was predictable but does come put of the blue in the story, it was like the author tried to create angst as they were happy.

    When the other woman turns up she says she has poked holes in his condoms, she is one of these 50, and he finishes talking to her then has sex with heroine then has a paternity test and STD tests. They didn't think perhaps he should have been tested first before risking passing anything to the heroine.
    The Hero for me although he had a sob story had gone too far, abandoning his son and wife for 4 years, he admits he wouldn't have come back if not for the last letter.

    HEA.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 September 2019
    Catch Me Twice

    Kristi and Jake’s story is full of tragedy and heartbreak from the outset.

    It really is a heart wrenching and harrowing tale of two souls who are bound together but have to navigate time, distance, betrayal and missed opportunities.

    Kristi is a truly beautiful character and Jake is life trodden and desperately seeking approval, he’ll never receive. They are explosive together and the events that follow their childhood are life changing.

    This is a slow burn, second chance romance that’s bound to leave you breathless.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 September 2019
    Wow, Charmaine has done it again! Loved the storyline and characters. So much emotion came through In this story I just couldn't put it down! It really is the story of heart break and betrayal but despite it all I loved Jake and through it all I remained hopeful things would work out for him and Kristi and that they would get their happy ever after, I highly recommend this book. I voluntary received an ARC from the author and this is my honest review.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 October 2019
    Read as an ARC.
    This book is full of emotion , sexual attraction , hate , love , lust and heartache and everything inbetween . Its absolutely explosive and is pure brilliance . You feel so close to the characters , feel their pain , their emotions and you just cant put the book down . This is my first book of hers and I will definatly be downloading a lot more . Her writing is just pure brilliance shes really at one with her storylines and characters .its definatly a must read .
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 September 2019
    Cheating stories always push me out of my comfort zone and I must admit, Charmaine has an amazing ability to push me past the point of comfort while loving every minute of it!

    I enjoyed Jake and Kristis story. Well written and well plotted!

    This wasn’t an easy story to read and to be honest my heart feels like it’s been squeezed in a vice, but hey, that’s the power of a good book and a brilliant author!

    5 stars!

    **copy received from author in exchange for an honest review**

Top reviews from other countries

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  • Struwele
    4.0 out of 5 stars Mal was anderes!
    Reviewed in Germany on 18 July 2021
    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.
  • H. Ivers
    5.0 out of 5 stars A filthy, messy, beautiful masterpiece!
    Reviewed in the United States on 25 September 2019
    In 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. 👏👏👏
  • monadh
    4.0 out of 5 stars “Something that can’t be captured in a bottle”
    Reviewed in the United States on 24 September 2019
    This 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”.
  • Michelle
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic and compelling story
    Reviewed in the United States on 29 September 2019
    4.5 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.
  • me
    3.0 out of 5 stars The sex scenes where hot but the story was full of contradictions
    Reviewed in the United States on 20 January 2022
    I 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.

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