Sheila Norton

Recently separated, Nicola moves back in with her mother, starts as a teaching assistant at the local primary school, gets a puppy and joins a group of dog walkers. Her five year old daughter struggles adjusting to the new school, while Nicola struggles adjusting to having shared custody; the dog walkers investigate missing cats and then embark upon a mission to save the local park from being sold to developers; new friends are made along the way.

This was very low-angst and, once I realised the sort of story it was, kind of predictable. I can recognise the appeal of this brand of realism, but personally would have preferred more humour or more emotional complexity. I’d also have liked more about Nicola’s job, or the trials and joys of training a puppy -- were Nicola a colleague of mine, it’d be easy to find things in common, topics we could discuss.

But, as a fictional character, her story wasn’t quite what I was looking for.… (altro)

This was a delightful Christmas and animal story. It takes place in a small village in England where life is a lot slower and the people need to depend upon one another. I really enjoyed this story and it made me smile often. The story is told by Olvier, the pub cat to a young kitten Charlie. It is really the story of 2 couples and a recluse, his daughter and her nurse. Of course there are many other characters involved, but they all revolve around the others.

Oliver is a cat who lives with George, who owns a pub. One night the pub, above which Oliver and George live, catches on fire. Oliver wakes George and they get out alive. George ends up in London with his sister who has allergies. Oliver is found by Daniel who fosters Oliver with his girlfriend, Nicky and the neighbours Sarah and Martin. This occurs because Daniel and Nicky can not afford to feed Oliver but Sarah and Martin can. They also have two girls who fall in love with Oliver, Grace and Rose.

As I mentioned, it's written in first person point of view from Oliver's perspective ... he is telling a kitten about how he "saved" Christmas last year. Oliver speaks Cat, but can understand what humans are saying, which allows him to help the humans. Because Oliver is telling the story his terminology is cute, kids are human kittens, human hands and feet are referred to as paws and dogs on leashes are strapped. Oliver is extremely likable. Though he really misses George, his goal is to help people and that's exactly what he does. Some of his assistance is hissing at a bully and scaring him off, reacting like Lassie and meowing to get people to follow him in order to meet someone or see something, to just plain cheering up a sick little girl.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes animal stories, Christmas stories or just stories with happy endings. I think anyone from middle grades and up, including adults would enjoy this book.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.… (altro)