Like many other Cannonballers, I was familiar with Heather Fawcett because of the Emily Wilde novels, so when I saw her next novel was going to involve a magical cat shelter, I was in, even though I hadn’t enjoyed the third Emily Wilde novel as much.
Overall, I had a really fun time with this but it really was primarily due to the cats and the cat shelter, and I actually would have enjoyed even more cats, and day to day life at the shelter. A few of the cats get the opportunity to be more developed as characters in their own right (they are still cats, no magical talking companions) while many are just in and out of Agnes’s life as they find their homes. It took me a bit to get a read on Agnes. Since she is so type A, it’s easy to think of her as strict at first but she is also incredibly soft hearted, she just has check lists to stay organized.
While I had a fun time with this novel, there were a few things that ultimately didn’t entirely come together for me, but it also didn’t deter from my enjoyment. While magic exists in this world, it also kind of doesn’t. There’s a small percentage of people born with the ability to do magic but magic isn’t inherent in this world: all the magic comes from another world/dimension that is dangerous so magic users either have to rely on artifacts with magic already infused into them or harvest magic by visiting this other world. The deeper one goes into this world and the more time one spends there, the more they are exposing themselves to losing their humanity or sanity. It sets up the magic users in this world to be otherworldly but it felt a bit inconsistent in application, especially with Havelock. And there was enough going on in the novel without adding more complications.
Havelock is perfectly fine as a character, especially someone that starts out a bit grumpy and anti-cat but he didn’t leave as strong of an impression as Bambleby. It probably doesn’t help that by the time we meet Havelock, Agnes has already developed a friendly rapport with a neighborhood police officer so even if we all know that Havelock is the true love interest, we have a bit of red herring character at first.
The romance developed very slowly, and to be honest, I still needed a bit more to be truly invested in it – their interactions were entertaining but it was all very cozy, there wasn’t really any overwhelming chemistry. But the important thing about the book is lots of cute and furry cats!
