Review: Caught Out - Ann Butler (4/5)

 From the Blurb

"Bad Press is her middle name

What does a socially awkward introvert do when she's trolled for not measuring up to her super model mum and gorgeous media personality sister?
If she's Amara Allen, she keeps her armour polished and her punch bag handy. After all, she'll need some way to cope when the trolling becomes too much.
Things start to look up when the man she's been watching for months and has pegged as one of the good guys asks her on a date. Maybe with him she can let her guard down.

As for Nicholas, the man in question, dating a social misfit who struggles to make conversation is not his idea of a good time. But what can he do when her mum is pulling his strings?"

Review

(eARC provided via Netgalley, 2025)

The story's about Amara and her crush on/interest in Nicholas Lewis, a furniture brand mogul. It's not explicitly stated in the book that she is ND so as a reader, you're wondering it, without any confirmation. I wish the author had explicitly stated it so everything fir in better.

Trinity, Amara's mother, gets Nicholas/Lewis (I wish the author had decided what to call him and then stuck with it) to date Amara for 6 months in exchange for a social media campaign. This means the story is a blackmail/extortion trope.

The problem is that you get the clash first. The book starts with Amara finding out so it colors all their interactions negatively (for me). The lack of verbal communication (makes sense in the instance of MFC being ND) makes this an awkward read for at least the first half of the book. The story could have had more visual cues to make up for it, but that's neither here nor there.

Now, a lot of people may have issues with Trinity (the mom) interfering with her child's love life, but it is pretty cultural, I think. SE Asians have their parents arrange their marriages so for us, meh, it's ok.

It's not explicitly stated how old Amara and Nicholas are (as far as I remember) so that aspect would have helped contextualize their interactions as well.

Open door explicit.