Cats

Book Review: AGNES AUBERT’S MYSTICAL CAT SHELTER

| Jessica Crawford
The above was originally an MP4 video file in which the cat at the bottom is animated and spins around. For some reason, none of the embed codes from Canva work for me in WordPress, so I uploaded it as a JPEG image instead. The result is what you see above–the back view of a cat facing away. I tried, fam! But honestly, I kind of dig this version, too.

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett is a 353 standalone novel published in February of 2026 by Del Rey.

Genre:

Cozy Fantasy

Blurb:

A woman who runs a cat rescue in 1920s Montreal turns to a grouchy but charming wizard to help save the shelter in this heartwarming cozy fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde series.

Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life—and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a much-needed cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for lost cats.

But after she is forced to move the cat shelter, Agnes learns that her new landlord is using her charity as a front—for an internationally renowned and thoroughly disreputable magic shop. Owned by the disorganized—not to mention self-absorbed, irritating, but also decidedly handsome—Havelock Renard, magician and failed Dark Lord, the shop draws magical clientele from around the world, partly due to the quality of Havelock’s illicit goods as well as their curiosity about his shadowy past and rumors of his incredible powers. Agnes’s charity offers the perfect cover for illegal magics.

Agnes couldn’t care less about the shop—magical intrigue or not, there are cats to be rescued. But when an enemy from Havelock’s past surfaces, the magic shop—and more importantly, the cat shelter—are suddenly in jeopardy. To save the shelter, will Agnes have to set aside her social conscience and protect the man who once tried to bring about the apocalypse—and is now trying to steal her heart?

Opening Line

I paused on the threshold of the shop to stamp the frost from my boots.

My Thoughts

As a cat lover myself, this cozy fantasy about a cat rescue shelter hit all the right notes on that front. The author clearly knows the species and the varied personalities one is likely to find among its members, which is delightful.

That being said, the story built around this core is…fine. But honestly nothing all that mindblowing.

Agnes is Type A and dedicated to rescuing strays when she finds herself in a pinch and has to move her shop to the only location within her means, a suspiciously affordable front on the Rue des Hirondelles. She is initially alarmed to learn that her new landlord is none other than the infamous Dark Wizard Havelock Renard, who is using her business as a front for his illegal trade in magical Artefacts in the building’s basement. But not only is Agnes in no position to find another shop, she soon learns that the renowned master magician may just be more awkward and curmudgeonly than evil, and people may have gotten the completely wrong idea about what really happened when the world almost ended three years before. Now it turns out there is a truly wicked magician after Havelock, and Agnes and her cats may be in harm’s way.

It was nice, it was fine. But where this book really works well is in the cozy vibes brought by the cats and the pastries and the crackling fires in the hearth while frost coats the streets of 1920s Montreal. For these reasons alone I enjoyed my reading experience. If you’re looking for a story like that as a nice balm to the soul, give this one a try. But if you want epic storytelling, perhaps look elsewhere. I personally feel like the author’s Emily Wilde series did a better job at balancing the two.

Book Review: CAT’S PEOPLE by Tanya Guerrero

| Jessica Crawford

Cat’s People by Tanya Guerrero is a 304 page standalone general fiction novel from Delacorte Press with a publish date of April 1, 2025.

Genre:

General Fiction, Cozy

Opening Line:

Cat knew to stay in the shadows.

Synopsis:

A stray cat brings together five strangers over the course of one fateful summer in this heartwarming novel about love, found family, and the power of connection.

Núria, a single-by-choice barista with a resentment for the “crazy cat lady” label, is a member of The Meow-Yorkers, a group in Brooklyn who takes care of the neighborhood’s stray cats. On one of her volunteering days, she starts finding Post-It notes from a secret admirer at the spot where her favorite stray lives—a black cat named Cat. Like most cats, he is rather curious and sly, so of course he knows who the notes are from. Núria, however, is clueless.

Are the notes from Collin, a bestselling author and self-professed hermit with a weakness for good coffee? Are they from Lily, a fresh-out-of-high school Georgia native searching for her long-lost half-sister? Are they from Omar, the beloved neighborhood mailman going through an early mid-life crisis? Or are they from Bong, the grieving widower who owns her favorite bodega? When Cat suddenly falls ill, these five strangers find themselves connected in their desire to care for him and discover that chance encounters can lead to the meaningful connections they’ve been searching for.

My Thoughts:

This is a heartwarming story about a stray cat, the people he interacts with, and how he brings them together and facilitates the connection they could all use.

Chapters alternate POV. There’s Nuria, a barista in her thirties who works with Trap/Neuter/Return programs and rescue organizations; Collin, a struggling author with severe social anxiety; Omar, a cheery mailman who doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life; Bong, a widowed bodega owner deep in his grief; and Lily, a young woman come to NYC from the South in search of the half-sister she only just learned she had. And of course, we get chapters from Cat’s point of view!

This reminded me a lot of the cozy stories coming out of some Asian countries these days (The Full Moon Coffee Shop from Japan, Marigold Mind Laundry from Korea), although the writing style on display here suits me a bit better – possibly just because it’s more like what I am used to. That being said, it certainly isn’t going to be winning any literary awards. But it succeeds in its aim of being a cozy, heartfelt, inspiring story that also exudes a love for cats and coffee (I am the target audience here!)

This was such an overall sweet story that it took me be a surprise when there was an occasional F-bomb dropped in out of nowhere. It includes queer representation, and gets bonus points for the couple who named their daughter Bernie in honor of the senator they ferociously campaigned for in 2016! For me, this was a 3.5 star read rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press and Ballantine of Penguin Random House for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

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Book Review: THE FULL MOON COFFEE SHOP by Mai Mochizuki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood

| Jessica Crawford

The Full Moon Coffee Shop is a Japanese novella in translation that was originally published in 2020.

From the synopsis: “In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they’ll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon.”

This is a sweet, cozy story that also manages to be thought-provoking and inspiring.

A substitute teacher and the group of students she would walk home at the end of the school day once showed great kindness to some cats. Now, years later, the Full Moon Coffee Shop shows up for each of them. The coffee shop is run by speaking cats who can change into human form, and who are each named after a different astrological body. They choose specific food and drink tailored to each customer, and offer to read their star charts. In this way, the cats of the coffee shop are able to help each of these former schoolmates understand what is holding them back in life, and how to get back on course. There are lessons on being less hard on oneself and others, improving one’s state of mind and focus by making one’s surroundings more pleasant, admitting one’s true desires to oneself, and more. It’s a very nice story!

I am not 100% sure about the English translation of this book, as there were some idioms that miss the mark – although I suppose it’s possible these are expressions used in the UK and not the US and so I’m just not familiar with them (just as the book uses the British English term “anticlockwise” rather than the American English “counterclockwise”). Things like “plumping for a suit” , “looking pretty flash”, “splashing out on” the fancy dishes, and referring to singles (as in romantically unattached people) as singletons. I was a bit worried when the book opens with a male tortoiseshell cat, which, while not impossible, is unlikely (1 in 3000 tortoiseshell cats are male, and that’s because they are born with an extra X chromosome). Although I suppose it’s certainly not less likely that the cat will also be the physical form of a heavenly body come to bestow wisdom on people who have earned favors by being good to cats!

This is not the kind of book that will keep me thinking about it for a long time to come, but it IS the kind of book that gave me warm fuzzy feelings while also offering opportunities for introspection. 3.5 stars

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