Review - - Finding Mr. Purrfect

Finding Mr. Purrfect

by Codi Gary

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: January 16, 2024

Reviewed by PJ

 

Frenemies + Fake Dating = Falling for the wrong person…for all the right reasons
 
Charity Simmons may have great taste in friends, felines, and fruit tarts, but if there’s one thing the baker and co-owner of Meow and Furever Cat Café knows, it’s that she has horrible taste in men. Case in point: Will Schwartz. He may be the best friend of her best friend’s boyfriend, but after their one night together, Charity is positive Will’s nothing but a womanizing charmer—despite his nice-guy persona and adorable, crooked smile. So why then did she pick him to pretend date to get her parents off her back about being single?

Will Schwartz may give relationships a hard pass, but he’s not about to say no to fake dating Charity. She’s brilliant, hilarious, and best of all, she’ll put an end to his mother’s interrogations about his love life. And maybe, after all this time giving him the cold shoulder, Charity will finally warm up to him.  But it’s not long before Will and Charity realize they got much more than they bargained for--and they’re freaking out. What if what they have isn't make believe but the real, forever kind of love?

PJ's Thoughts:

I have mixed feeling about this one. I liked the Cat Café. Any story that spotlights rescue animals is a plus with me. The marketing menu blurbs at the start of each chapter were fun and more than a few had me drooling. I want recipes! 

The first few chapters of this book were light and fun, setting up what I thought was going to be the vibe for the rest of the book. But then the story took a hard left and, whoa, dysfunction city. Suddenly we're knee deep into toxic family relationships (Charity), work stress, looming financial crises, misunderstandings, childhood emotional trauma (carried into adulthood), health crises, family secrets (Will), a fake relationship with physical attraction but a decided lack of understanding and compromise (from both main characters), and more. For me, all the side issues kept getting in the way of connecting with the two main characters as a couple. Others may not have that issue but I wanted more development of their relationship without all the extraneous issues. It's not that I didn't like the book - it has a lot of positives going for it - it's just that I wanted a deeper connection with the characters and less noise steering me away from their romantic journey. 

If you enjoy a frenemies-to-lovers romcom with flawed characters, a fair number of romantic obstacles, family you'd just as soon toss off a cliff, but also solid friends and rescue cats, this book might be a good fit for you. 

Review - - A Cat Café Christmas

A Cat Café Christmas

by Codi Gary

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: October 4, 2022

Reviewed by Hellie

Veterinarian and animal lover Kara Ingalls needs a Christmas miracle. Opening the Meow and Furrever Cat Café to find loving homes for adorable, adoptable cats was a dream come true—but with more cats than customers, it’s quickly turning into a nightmare. If Kara can’t figure out some way to get the café out of the red, it won’t last past the holidays. 

Marketing guru Ben Reese may be annoyingly smart and frustratingly bossy, but when he hatches a plan to put the café in the “green” by Christmas, Kara realizes that she’d be a fool to turn down his help. And so what if he turns out to be an excellent problem solver and nerdy-hot—he can’t even handle fostering one little kitten. She needs to keep their relationship professional and focus on saving the café. 

But if Ben and Kara can set aside their differences—and find homes for all the cats by Christmas—they might discover that, by risking their hearts, they’ll have their own purr-fect holiday . . . together.

 

Hellie’s Heeds 

In a world of dog lovers, I’m a cat person–and this book was a delight from beginning to end. I wanted to adopt and pet every one of the cats “featured” in this book–except Chaos–Chaos can remain with Ben, for the sanity of everybody. Now, being it was a romance with a happily ever after, my favorite happily ever after was all the happily adopted cats at the end of the story, including cats who are more challenging to adopt (i.e. seniors or cats with disabilities.) That just made the story PURRFECT.  

Of course, we’re here for the romance–the grumpy hero and the snarky veterinarian–and they do not disappoint. They both have their own “tragic” pasts that do a number on keeping them apart and wary of each other. Trust is something that definitely has to be earned with these two. They are both very stubborn and it takes some heroic efforts on their mentoring BFFs to turn them around and get them back on the path of happily ever after.  

I was very sympathetic to Ben’s tragic past–and very put out with his family who seemed to constantly be telling him, “Just get over it already and make mom happy again.” (I wanted to shake his mother; but I’m not sure if other readers would feel the same. They might be in the mom’s corner.) Kara’s past was more horrifying, but her friends were more sympathetic on the whole, though there was a point where Kara also needed to “let it go” and trust again.  

The heroine is more on the curvy side, but this is not treated as a plot point. There are a couple scenes where I believe Kara feels that her friend Charity is the more attractive one, et al, but when the hero does show interest in Kara, she doesn’t question it or hide herself (body wise) from him. I only mention this because I’m very used to books featuring characters on the curvier side and the weight being a plot point–so I’m enjoying books now featuring a more varied selection of characters and using other aspects for conflict and growth.  

Now, if you’re a dog lover, I think you’ll still enjoy this book. And knowing dogs as I do, I know they won’t mind you reading a book in which all the animals waiting for their forever home finally find a place to call home–they too enjoy a happy ending. And if you get to enjoy that with a side of steamy kisses and hunky man candy, all the better. This book is so Christmas, it even has a Love Actually airport scene. This book is definitely a lovely kick off to the Season.