A review by ellelainey
Love, a Kitten, and a Salty Dog by Nenko Nen

hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a strange little story, with some real potential. It was cute, I loved Okura/Salty Dog, but I just never really connected with Momo/Yuu.

The story felt rushed, searching for convenient ways to bring them together. Momo is a male escort to pay his way through college, while Okura is a vet. They're brought together when Momo finds a stray kitten and brings it in for treatment. But while Okura is instantly attracted, Momo isn't.

By the end of the story, Okura's attraction morphed into more of an addiction than love, while it took a long time for Momo to even like him back.

There's also a case of questionable catfishing when Okura accidentally finds Momo on a dating site and strikes up a friendship without revealing who he is.

Overall, it would have benefitted from being longer, to give them a more natural progression from strangers to friends, and also to properly explore Momo's issues. I'm also not sure how I feel about Okura's insistence that Momo stop being an escort and letting Okura take care of him instead. It's not quite slut-shaming, but it does feel a bit possessive and obsessive. Maybe if it took more time with the characters we'd have explored why Momo was an escort, helped him deal with those feelings and we could have seen whether he did or didn't enjoy it before Okura made that declaration. If we'd seen Salty Dog and Yuu chatting about him not enjoying his work or something it wouldn't have felt so possessive.