Marianne’s Pick of the Week: Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter

            “A cat is the soul of the home.” Motto of Agnes Aubert’s cat shelter

In case you did not know I am an unapologetic cat lady. I have two cat tattoos to prove it. My current charge, Ringo, is an adorable, albeit not the smartest, gray feline. So, when I spied the title of Heather Fawcett’s newest work, Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, I could not resist picking it up.

As I suffered through one of the coldest winters in recent memory, this one warmed me up like a cozy cup of tea or hot chocolate (who am I to determine one’s warm drink of comfort). Agnes Aubert is looking for a new shelter to house her forty-eight rescued kitties after her current home and shelter was destroyed in a battle between dueling magicians. She finds a deal that is too good to be true and hastily signs a lease. Does it matter that a suspicious trap door is located at the back of the shop? Is it strange that a parade of chicly attired folks wanders into the shelter to only disappear down said trap door? And who is Agnes to complain that the bakery oven (did I forget to mention that the building formerly housed a bakery) gifts her with delectable pastries each morning?

Agnes finds to her horror that the lower levels of her now beloved home/cat shelter is also home to one, Havelock Renard, the witch king responsible for nearly destroying the world. And not to mention blasting her former home to smithereens.

Havelock is dealing in magical artefacts from the basement of Agnes’ shop. This grumpy, cat-allergic magician is too handsome for Agnes’s state of mind and too unorganized for list-happy Agnes to suffer for long. Havelock is in the midst of battling his own sister for the right to keep the world whole. Agnes is trying to save Montreal’s feral cat population and recover from the death of her beloved husband.

Agnes and Havelock’s relationship follows the old enemies to lovers trope, with delicious pastries for them to enjoy. A handsome police detective adds a complication to their relationship. The cats are a hilarious, tender touch to the narrative. Each feline filled with its own personality and quirks. I wanted to cuddle each and every one. As with the cats in John Scalzi’s Starter Villian, these kitties ranged from silly and villainous to lazy and feisty. If you enjoyed A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna or about any cozy romance or fantasy, you’ll want to pick up this one.