Review : Waifs and Strays (Cat Lady Chronicles #1) by Helen Harper
Nobody is just a cat lady.
Kit McCafferty’s life is quiet, unremarkable and filled with cat hair. In the magical city of Coldstream, located on the border between Scotland and England, Kit is viewed as little more than mildly eccentric and mostly harmless. She passes her days caring for her family of five cats, feeding the local feral moggies, and maintaining relatively good relations with her neighbours.
All that changes, however, when a teenage werewolf shows up at her door in the desperate hope of renting out a nearby vacant flat. Kit knows that the smart move is to tell him to leave. The last thing she needs is to become embroiled in complicated shapeshifter politics. But something about the secretive young werewolf tugs at her heartstrings.
It’s not long before Kit ends up caught in a maelstrom of mysterious crime and magical wrong-doing. Fortunately, there’s far more to Kit McCafferty than meets the eye and she has a few dark secrets of her own.
Of course, anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows that you underestimate a cat lady at your own peril.
Waifs and Strays is the first book in a new urban fantasy crime series. Expect mystery, magic and adventure with a heroine who will keep you turning pages late into the night. There will also be a lot of cats.
Dear Helen Harper,
I read this book for a buddy read and found it far more entertaining than I expected. When we meet Kit McCafferty she is trying to coax a feral cat to come to her so Kit could treat her wounds and just make her life easier. Kitty turns out to be too stubborn for Kit to handle and we also learn that Kit gives a home to another five cats with some very interesting names (apparently those are the names cats gave themselves and prefer to be called that. Yes, Kit knows, no I won’t tell you how she knows you have to read the book to find out ;-))
As the blurb tells you, a teenage werewolf comes to her to rent a vacant flat and after hesitating Kit decides to become his landlord. Very quickly the boy gets himself in trouble and trouble lands on Kit’s doorsteps.
The story becomes quite fast moving from that point forward and it was fun, but I did appreciated that the author allowed the reader to catch our breath occasionally. In other words for me at least the book did not become a video game. I thought the main character and at least a couple of others were pretty well drawn and I hope for more development in the next books.
Of course in order to be a badass lead in this urban fantasy series Kit has to have more secrets than your average ordinary cat lady. I mean she is definitely a cat lady, but she is SO very far from ordinary :).
Unless the author was playing with us, there could have been a beginning of a romantic storyline too, but of course I cannot be sure.
I thought it was very fun how some of Kit’s furry bosses were helping her at some points of the book. I liked that they were more just cute decorations if that makes sense.
B
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A cat lady! I will have to check this one out.
Oh I love this series. This series kicked off my recent deep dive into cozy paranormal mystery obsession. And yes the cat names were fun. The ending was a blast!
The third book just came out and I have it queued up after I am done with my most recent paranormal mystery series I am sunk into.
I’m interested, but the author ruined the romance in the Slouch Witch series. I’ll have to wait and see how the series progresses. I’m not interested in another Charlaine Harris type author.
@Jayne: I think you may like it.@TinaNoir: I will get into next book eventually I hope.@MaryK: I would not mind no romance at all, but if romance starts and then not developed I tend to find it annoying.
@TinaNoir: Is cozy paranormal mystery the same thing as urban fantasy or is there a distinction?
@Janine:
To me cozy paranormal mystery is to urban fantasy as cozy mystery is to police procedural
In my reading I tend to think of Urban Fantasy as being action oriented, in an urban setting and has a fair amount of on page violence. A lot of them read like neo-noir with a central character is who a bit isolated and cynical and who often have jobs where they are investigators, enforcers, hunters, or mercenaries. Think of Harry Dresden, Kate Daniels, Anita Blake, Jane Yellowrock etc.
But a cozy paranormal mystery is more akin to a regular cozy mystery just with paranormal elements. The lead character may be in law enforcement but they are more likely to be an amateur who stumbles across or gets dragged into solving an a more traditionally structured mystery with a true whodunnit. The setting is also more often in smaller towns or in bedroom communities. And there is very little explicit violence.
There is also a difference in the tone of the books. The UF is a little darker and is often characterized by a ratcheting up of tension throughout the story. Whereas the cozy just feels like lower stakes and can be a more comfortable read.
@TinaNoir: Thats how I think of these two subgenres as well.
My library has the 3 audio books in the series. I don’t normally listen to audio books but as it was the only format available and the first book piqued my interest, I borrowed it. The narrator was wonderful (I loved the accents she did) and the book was great. I liked the humor and low on page violence/danger. Definitely cozy. I’m starting the third one in the series today.
@gerund808: Thank you so much for letting us know.