A review by unfiltered_fiction
Christmas at the Cat Café by Jessica Redland

emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

A genuinely baffling book which contained very little to enjoy or feel cosy about. It's a surplus of very shallowly developed character (human and feline) going about doing a whole lot of nothing. The romance has a very uncomfortable and weird dynamic, as the love interest is the grown-up foster child of the MC's grandmother, and was pretty much raised as a sibling since the MC was seven years old... and the one character who points out that this is weird gets laid into for being rude. None of the scenes felt cosy or warm to me, and laugh out loud moments were mainly *at* the ridiculouslness and not *with* the story. However, I will say that a lot of the negative reviews floating about on this one on various platforms seem to focus on the "overplaying" of the main character's illness which is a ridiculous criticism when chronic pain is such a life-defining experience to navigate. It did feel a little bit like it was written from a couple of days of extensive googling rather than a direct insight into chronic illness, though.