Katia Rose is really good at writing two people who want to kiss each other. It’s a simple thing you would think, from a romance author, but damn if this isn’t two books in a row I have read, after The Devil Wears Tartan, where I really was so into the idea of two girls kissing. I mean, this is a pretty standard position for me to take, but this time I was really into it.
Catch and Cradle is the story of Hope and Becca, two members of the members of a university Lacrosse team in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Both are coming into the new year with memories of bad breakups hanging over them, but they find themselves drawn to each other despite their better judgement. Complicating them is the issue of the fact that the team has a strict “No Dating Teammates” policy, that was introduced by Becca herself, in her position as captain, after a disastrous breakup tanked a season a couple of years prior. Their chemistry starts to become undeniable though, and the way that they are compelled together is a delight to follow.
The other thing about this book, as compared to even some of the better romance books I have read this year, is that this book is unapologetically horny. There is some truly outstanding sapphic horniness on display here.
“Becca steps out onto the porch, and I know if she asked me to drop to my knees right then and there, I’d do it. I’d crawl to her” – Katia Rose said bottom rights, and honestly, good for her.
There is a lot to be said for a fun sex scene (and let me tell you, this one has a very fun one), but the way in which both Becca and Hope are horny for each other outside of the bedroom, when they are thinking about each other, was just so gay and good.
As the book goes on and the season and their relationship progresses, this ends up being a book about the first time you have to untangle relationship trauma and move on, to find it in yourself to trust yourself and others again when you have never had to do that before, and the healing that you can do. Becca finds it hard to trust herself, and Hope finds it hard to trust others, and they have to figure out how to navigate that to let each other in and move on to the poosibilites of the future, both together and in the other areas of their life.
