Good plot, very sympathetic characters with little charming quirks, and good storytelling make this a really enjoyable book to read!
Lilli Goodweather can talk to cats and believes in magic; when she meets 12-year old Erika, daugher of her widowed neighbour Tanner, it breaks her heart how pragmatic Erika is, how goal-oriented - and how much she's not believing in magic.
When Lilli discovers that Erika's cat Fluffy apparently has witnessed a murder, Tanner decides to intervene so as not to have Erika involved, and to put a stop to all this magic nonsense.
His problem are the sparks flying between him and Lilli, although none really trusts the other.
As I said, plot, character and good narration come together to make this a really charming book, with lots of witty dialogues, misunderstandings and, of course, cats.
I would love to get my hand on more books in this series.