The True Story of a Not So Crazy Cat Lady

by Catherine Walker

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) Entry - this eBook is a sample of the first 3,000-5,000 words; it is not the full book. The ABNA contest is operated on Amazon.com only. Visit this entry on Amazon.com to leave customer feedback. To vote for the Grand Prize winner starting July 8, visit www.amazon.com/ABNA. If a dog is a man's best friend, then a woman's best friend is her cat...or cats. On a cold wet day not long after twenty-eight year old Harriet falls in one fell swoop from happy wife to broken hearted divorcée, she finds a litter of abandoned kittens. Relating to their vulnerability as she peers into the soggy cardboard box, she decides to take them in and soon finds out that the perfect antidote for a broken heart is falling in love all over again. But not everyone understands the relationship which builds between Harriet and her five cats. It isn't until her birthday that she realises she has earned the official title of Crazy Cat Lady of the family but it is not just their teasing which she finds irksome. It seems life won’t cease to conspire against her; that is until she meets Dan, a talented photographer, whose past is as chequered as her own. Despite the scars they both bear, they dare to fall in love again, blissfully unaware of the loss and regret that lies ahead which will threaten to bring the world they have created, crashing down. Almost everyone has a pet either at home or locked within the most tender memories of their past and we all know, whether we like to admit it aloud or not, that animals have the capacity to touch our hearts. A fresh angle on an eternally popular subject matter, The True Story of a Not So Crazy Cat Lady brings the cute and cuddly into contemporary women's fiction, and looks at the love triangle between boy, girl and cat. We have all fallen in love and had our hearts broken, never forgetting the four legged friends who stood beside us through it all.

Genres: Animals, Cats, Romance, Fiction

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 24, 2014

Reviews

[L Y N N]

I wish I had known she started with 5 and ended up with less. My oldest kitty of 5 is 16 1/2 years old and in renal failure and reading this book made me cry...really cry, like streaming tears crying. There were too many similarities to my own life in that regard...at least for right now. I felt the writing was a bit choppy the first 40 pages or so, but after that the book and story flowed for me. I admit I wanted to shake the protagonist repeatedly and tell her (maybe even yell at her) that she shouldn't allow others' opinions to matter to her, especially not as much as she did! But I realize that for many people what others think of them is very important. So glad she rebuffed "Richard" (also my ex-husband's name) and thrilled that Dan and her family finally came around and accepted her and her feline fur-babies!

[L Y N N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review: http://books-n-music.blogspot.com/201.... I wish I had known she started with 5 and ended up with less. My oldest kitty of 5 is 16 1/2 years old and in renal failure and reading this book made me cry...really cry, like streaming tears crying. There were too many similarities to my own life in that regard...at least for right now. I felt the writing was a bit choppy the first 40 pages or so, but after that the book and story flowed for me. I admit I wanted to shake the protagonist repeatedly and tell her (maybe even yell at her) that she shouldn't allow others' opinions to matter to her, especially not as much as she did! But I realize that for many people what others think of them is very important. So glad she rebuffed "Richard" (also my ex-husband's name) and thrilled that Dan and her family finally came around and accepted her and her feline fur-babies!

[Raquel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad I came across this book and bought it right away.
Really lovely story, I know I'll find myself coming back to some chapters (or the whole book, to be honest) in some time, which is something that doesn't happen often, really. So many books to read, such little time.
Anyway. Totally recommend it even if I haven't given it five stars. I honestly think that the only reason I gave it four was because of Richard. I was expecting him to appear, but oh man, his presence bothered me much more than expected. I wanted (still do) to slap him so bad. What an asshole.
And Dan, oh Dan. There are no words.

What a goddamn good book. One of those that you say "it's not the best book ever but it's great and you should go read it". One of those books that can be exactly what you need at an exact point in time.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Ashley E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was short and sweet in its way, but strangely didn't really feel like a romance to me. Maybe I just didn't feel the main character's chemistry, or maybe the author was trying for something that missed me, but it was an enjoyable book nonetheless.

For me, the best thing about this book was the cats and Harriet's relationship with them, as well as the interesting way that the author portrayed the ways that divorced women and "cat ladies" are stereotyped. It felt real and was very interesting to see Harriet grow more comfortable with her new place in life. Compared to this, the romance with Dan felt almost secondary and unimportant.

This is definitely a book that cat lovers will appreciate most.

[I received this book for free through First Reads and was not required to write a positive or any other type of review. All opinions stated herein are solely my own.]

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book.

[Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5