My Five Word TL:DR Review: A Hug in a Book

Basically, if you need a cosy, warm, enticing and delicious fantasy filled with mischievous cats, wickedly handsome and misunderstood magicians and one feisty woman prepared to stand up for her charges, then look no further.

I loved Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series, it was amazing and ended on a high for me so I couldn’t wait to see what she came up with next. I think I can confidently say that the Mystical Cat Shelter is going to be a winner.

In terms of the story, we meet Agnes at a low point. Her cat shelter has been damaged by magic users taking part in some kind of magical dual and many of the shops in the near vicinity suffered from the backlash. Agnes is desperately trying to find new premises to move her beloved cats before the cold winter months really set in. Unfortunately, not many landlords are happy to rent their premises once they discover who the new tenants will be. That is, until she finds a delightful shop, on a lovely street, bigger than she expected and much cheaper than the norm. With very little choice elsewhere Agnes signs up for a new shop on Rue des Hirondelles, even though she knows deep down that something has to be rotten in Denmark – if something seems too good to be true, well, it quite often is.

Within fairly short order, and no surprise given the fact that the shop has a hidden trapdoor and is visited by a constant supply of strangers who are certainly not there to see the cats, Agnes comes to understand that she has rented a shop that is harbouring none other than Havelock Renard, notorious magician extraordinaire and none other than the man who almost destroyed the world! Well, Agnes is not pleased, to say the least, but she has to think of the cats. She certainly can’t storm out with nowhere else to go and so she simply pays no attention to the strange goings on and gets on with her day to day life – which, lets face it, gives her little time to think about anything else.

Now, I’m not going to go further into the plot. Things pretty soon go to hell in a handcart with all the explosive repercussions that you might expect. The police are searching for Havelock but more importantly another magician is trying to find him. Havelock keeps many magical artefacts and his nemesis wants one of them – I mean REALLY wants it.

To be honest, this is cosy fantasy so don’t come expecting all guns blazing and dangerous situations.

What I enjoyed about this.

The writing is really good. I had no problem picking this up and sinking into the story with ease and I was impressed by the world and creativity at play. Yes, there is a romance that eventually takes place but it’s a very slow build and it certainly doesn’t dominate the plot which I was very pleased about. The magical aspects to the story play a real part here. Magic users seem to be drawn to a fae place called Rivenwood where their magic is increased, however this is not without danger and most magicians do not travel beyond a certain level, I hope this is something that is explored at greater length if indeed this is going to become a series (I don’t know if more books are expected and this reads as a standalone although there is an opening for more adventures).

This is not a world that embraces magic which is understandable as there are some magicians that believe they can and will use their abilities without any regard to the plain old humans living amongst them. This definitely gives magic users a bad name, but as with anything in life, not all magicians are bad and far from being a dark overlord Havelock seems more intent on squirrelling himself away to conjure beautiful spells – unfortunately most people are scared witless by him (it seems that almost destroying the world will damage your reputation after all).

I liked the dynamic between Agnes and Havelock. They are total chalk and cheese. Agnes is organised and dislikes chaos, she runs a tight ship and adores her cats. She’s determined to make a difference to the number of strays and find them new homes. Havelock is a walking shambles. He’s chaos personified, and, of course, he’s allergic to cats. He’s also maybe a little bit lonely as most people are scared witless by him. Agnes would be scared of him if she had time but she has too much to do. There’s a lovely romance that develops here and I adored the ending.

In conclusion, this is a lovely cosy fantasy. Cat lovers and cosy readers prepare to be enamoured. I admit that I’m probably more of a dog person (no, I don’t dislike cats!) but, feline or canine lover, or both, this is a delicious, easy to read little nugget. It has an intriguing story with a couple of twists that were equally unexpected and quite a delight.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4 of 5 stars