Thursday, March 28, 2013

Review: The Girl With the Cat Tattoo by Theresa Weir

This is the first book I've read by Theresa Weir so I'm adding it to the 2013 New Author Challenge hosted by the Literary Escapism blog. I've said I will try to read 25 new authors this year. I've already read a lot of new authors, but I need to write the reviews. 

The Girl with the Cat Tattoo
by Theresa Weir
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published by: Belfry Press, 2012
E-book, purchased
103 pages
Grade: B+

Synopsis: When a matchmaking cat takes it upon himself to find his young mistress a new mate, he accidentally stirs up memories better left forgotten.
 

Melody's husband was murdered by what seemed a random act of violence. Two years later, the killer hasn't been caught, and Melody is coping in unhealthy ways. During the day she's a mild-mannered children's librarian, but at night she's a party girl, hanging out in bars, drinking with new friends, and often bringing home strange men. Although acquaintances have tried to keep in touch, Melody has cut herself off from most of the people in her old life. Max, her eccentric cat, doesn't approve of her new friends, he's tired of the parade of losers, and he finally takes it upon himself to find Melody a new man.

I had this book for almost a year before I read it and really should have read it sooner. Once I started it I read it in a day. I loved the book, mostly because I loved the Max the cat! He is so much fun to read about.

From the first two sentences this book caught me:

Max had been a cat as long as he could remember, but he was pretty sure he'd been a rock star in one of his previous lives. He just had that kind of cool about him.
Max reminds me so much of one my daughter's cats. He's also black and white and he's also a cool cat...though maybe a little more adventurous than Max. Geronimo would never stay in a backyard
and actually went missing for three days when he slipped out of our house while we were taking care of him. When we finally found him I could see the thoughts slipping through his head about whether he really wanted to wait for me to pick him up. He was definitely thinking about running back into the woods!

Max, on the other hand, isn't sure he wanted to leave his backyard, but was willing to do so for Melanie, Max's mistress. He decided to do some matchmaking after Melanie had a number of one night stands. He wants to help her find someone who would be good for both Melanie and Max. Max's plan actually does work and he brings Joe and Melanie together, but perhaps Joe isn't all he seems to be! Max and Melanie begin to wonder if they made a mistake with Joe. Adventure ensues...even Ellen Degeneres makes an appearance!

I love the cover of the book showing Max wearing a hat. Melanie is a children's librarian and during the course of the book she begins taking Max to her story hour for children. She dresses in costumes so naturally Max also wears costumes. Max suffers through the costumes and the children with fairly good grace. Melanie thinks he likes the children, but, of course, he's not very fond of children!

Max has a great voice and I like the other characters in the book, too. Theresa Weir states on her site  a sequel called The Geek With the Cat Tattoo will be published in 2014. Yay!

Quotes from the book further illustrate Max's voice:
Humans tended to jump into things with no thought, when in truth the most pleasurable part of life came from the anticipation of catnip, not the crazy buzz.
and
A cat, especially a cat like him, had to retain an outward appearance of cool at all times. Upon occasion, he'd had the misfortune of spending time with cats that cried and begged and generally made fools of themselves. He would never be one of those cats.
I definitely recommend this book!

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