Book Review - Christmas at the Cat Cafe by Jessica Redland

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Title: Christmas at the Cat Cafe

Author: Jessica Redland

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Publication Date: 15th September 2023

Rating: 5 Stars

It's the most wonderful time of the year on Castle Street, and there's a paw-some new business opening....

It had always been Tabby's dream to work with cats and an inheritance from her beloved nanna has finally made that a reality. Idyllic Castle Street in Whitsborough Bay couldn’t be a better place for pastry chef Tabby to open a cat café with her boyfriend, Leon.

But when Leon leaves her in the lurch, the pressure mounts for Tabby. With Christmas fast approaching, she has to open the café on her own – a daunting prospect, especially when she's been hiding her health issues from the ones she loves.

Faced with local resistance to the café – and somebody seemingly determined that she won’t succeed – Tabby will need her friends, family and cats more than ever to recover her broken Christmas spirit and pull together for a Christmas miracle.

Will the cat café bring the festive joy to Castle Street as Tabby had hoped or will it be a cat-astrophe? And can the magic of Christmas on Castle Street mend Tabby's broken heart as well as her business?

Escape with million-copy bestseller Jessica Redland this Christmas for the purr-fect festive treat!

From the opening page of the book I knew it would be special.  And I don't mean the first page of chapter one, I mean the explanation of who all the cats are and which real cats they are based on.  It was such a special touch, and introduced us instantly to the care and level of detail, plus specialness of how the fur babies would be depicted in this story. 

And it is becoming incredibly apparent that Jessica Redland is a massive animal lover, not just a hedgehog fan, as whenever there are this many animals in one of her books, you just feel the affection and care for them. 

I loved the idea of a cat cafe, and loved seeing how it was all set up and explained how it would work. 

But what really makes this book even above our feline friends, who I totally loved, all of them, is the depiction of Fibromyalgia that our main character Tabby has.  It is clear a lot of research has been put into this and explaining what its like to live with a chronic pain condition, in such a sensitive and empathetic way, is eye opening. 

It's eye opening and such a special book in so many ways. Plus it was amazing to back in Whitsborough Bay, back on Castle Street and getting to catch up with even briefly with the lives of other shop owners that have featured in previous books was such a joy for this massive Jessica Redland fan. 

A totally amazing book, I couldn't read it fast enough, I even went to be earlier than normal so I could read for a long while undistracted, and made any excuse to pick up my kindle to make sure I devoured this. 

Just brilliant!

Thank you to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.