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Touch Not the Cat
a Sexy Halloween Romance
It will take a Halloween intervention of the furriest kind to pair a darkly sexy wizard and a naive librarian.
Egan Warburton can have any woman he wants—so of course this eligible wizard will choose a witch to share his new home. But why can’t he keep his eyes off his pretty neighbor? She’s too innocent for the likes of him … although she does love cats, especially Warlock, his own alter-ego. In either form, he can’t seem to resist playing naughty tricks to get her attention.
Too bad she’s a mortal with no idea his magickal realm even exists.
Paige Turner is the first to admit she’s as vanilla as they come--librarian, good neighbor and kind to cats, even black ones. But in her dreams, she’s a femme fatale who’s not afraid to shake off her bonds of caution and go after what she really wants ... such as her mysterious new neighbor, who is suddenly starring in her most erotic fantasies.
Too bad he’s also the most obnoxious man she’s ever met.
It will take a Halloween intervention of the furriest kind to pair a darkly sexy wizard and a naive librarian.
Egan Warburton can have any woman he wants—so of course this eligible wizard will choose a witch to share his new home. But why can’t he keep his eyes off his pretty neighbor? She’s too innocent for the likes of him … although she does love cats, especially Warlock, his own alter-ego. In either form, he can’t seem to resist playing naughty tricks to get her attention.
Too bad she’s a mortal with no idea his magickal realm even exists.
Paige Turner is the first to admit she’s as vanilla as they come--librarian, good neighbor and kind to cats, even black ones. But in her dreams, she’s a femme fatale who’s not afraid to shake off her bonds of caution and go after what she really wants ... such as her mysterious new neighbor, who is suddenly starring in her most erotic fantasies.
Too bad he’s also the most obnoxious man she’s ever met.
347 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 13, 2015
14 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Cathryn Cade
45 books786 followersThe bigger the alpha, the harder he falls!
I write sexy contemp, contemp paranormal & sci fi romance, inviting you along on a heart-pounding ride with heroes who can only be tamed by the greatest force in the universe … love.
I live in a little town on a big lake in North Idaho, so look for the Northwest in my stories.
I write sexy contemp, contemp paranormal & sci fi romance, inviting you along on a heart-pounding ride with heroes who can only be tamed by the greatest force in the universe … love.
I live in a little town on a big lake in North Idaho, so look for the Northwest in my stories.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 21, 2022
What an exhausting book. It started great, faltered near the middle, and by the end I was fighting just to complete it. There may be some light spoilers ahead, but I've marked any I felt would give away any significant parts of the book.
So without further ado:
The Good:
I picked this up expecting a junk-food read, a light story containing some hot slap-n-tickle moments in a Halloween setting. I was expecting shallow characterization, little worldbuilding, and silly scenarios. I was almost right.
The story is much better written than I was expecting, though I will say the author is a much better storyteller than she is a writer. The tale itself is engaging, even with the more technical issues it has, and every character in it was likable (except the bad guys, who were appropriately unlikable). The chemistry between the two main characters sizzled, and I even loved the domineering way the male main went about things...some of the time (more on that in a moment). The worldbuilding was decent, and the concept was absolutely enthralling.
She also has a way of painting scenes in such detail that they nearly leap off the page. I feel "blind" in many books, but in this one, I was never lost for where I was, who was talking, or what I was supposed to be seeing. She does rather well walking the tightrope between too much and too little, and I don't see enough of that these days.
The editing had some issues--some sentences had missing words, and there were a few others where tweaks needed made so the text would be more clear (and before the cat even had a name she was referring to it by name, so there's that)--but overall for a book I suspect was not professionally edited but done entirely by the author and maybe a couple of informal beta readers, it was head and shoulders above what I'm used to from the self-pub/small-publishing-house crowd.
And since professional editors are expensive, often far outstripping the profits an author with a small audience or self-pubber might see on any given book, I understand why authors try to tackle editing themselves. When it's obvious they tried their best, I can forgive a few mistakes, and I feel like this author truly did try their best.
I would happily read an entire series set in this world.
If....
The Bad:
...the author gave it the gravitas it deserved.
What really didn't serve this story well was that the author herself didn't seem to know if she was making a lighthearted romp or a Serious Romance Novel, and in trying to accomplish both she did neither.
She also relied far too much on The Rule of Hot, but since this isn't a porn read but a real story, all the sizzle in the world cannot set some of the story flaws right. And as the book progressed and those flaws began to pile up, it became a slog to make it to the end.
The biggest flaw was charaterization, as she had these awesome characters, but didn't seem to know what to do with them.
She had this alpha male she wanted to tease and bully the heroine. You know what, okay, I'd never date that in real life, but it's fun to read about so I'm fine with that.
But then what he did was just so pointless. Like filling her yard with leaves--what was the end game there? "I like you, so I'm going to make sure you do a backbreaking chore." Why???? Many of his behaviors would have made a lot more sense (and even be more acceptable) if he'd been waxing hot and cold, but no, he likes her so he makes her life more miserable, doing things sure to make her hate him? WTF?
Plus, the hero had no shits to give about the heroine's boundaries. None.
There was no line he didn't cross.
Now, to be fair, I have read PNRs that had heroes do similar things because they were either wrestling some dark demons (which they eventually won against), were literally not human and so didn't function as humans would (and eventually figured out how to compromise with a human mate), or were from long ago and dealing with outdated codes of ethics (which they slowly learned to update). A guy showing a few red flag behaviors can be acceptable in PNR as long as the character-building is good and whatever line he's crossing is confronted and dealt with through the story.
But not here. In this one the heroine just...stopped being human. Upon discovering her neighbor had invaded her privacy in such a personal way, she didn't leave in a huff, chew him out, or become actively alarmed as a real human woman would...no, she was intrigued. Not only was he never given any punishment for this behavior, he was actively rewarded for it.
The book had a lot of these cognitive dissonance moments, where any sane reader is going "Woah, pump the brakes now, that's not okay!" while the characters just shrug and smile and roll with the Very Bad Things.
All of which the author could have done something about; she obviously has some storytelling chops so fleshing things out more so they felt less "ick" was completely possible. But she didn't. I feel like many of these scenes were meant to be humorous, but instead they fell flat as comedy, but also didn't carry well as drama. And while yes, there was (finally!) a discussion had at the end of the book, it seemed far too late and very tacked on.
Add to that some dropped details, hastily ended subplots, and rather more going on than the length of the novel had time for or the focus of the novel had room for and what this book feels like more than anything is a missed opportunity. This feels like what could have been a fantastic novel was instead merely a mediocre one, either because of lack of technical skill on the author's part (the "writer" part of writing), or because she pounded it out quick just to make some bill money.
The Just Stop It Already:
Sooooooo much Madonna/Whore complex going on here. Sooooooo much!
Every female character was either all good or all bad. The most sexually aggressive characters were always portrayed in a negative light, from being called "sluts" to being literally evil. Meanwhile, the purest character in the book had been traumatized into being practically celibate (to the point the character even described herself as a "spinster"). And when she finally came out of her shell and into a sexual awakening, every step of the way she called herself a slut, worried about being a slut, and constantly put herself down for her alleged "sluttiness."
Do you know how hard it is to root for a woman becoming more adventurous and daring when she slaps herself around every time she acts outside of her normal behavior? Somewhere in the middle of the book I just wanted to do triage on her brain. By the time I was 3/4ths the way through I just never wanted to hear the word "slut" or anything slut-adjacent (like "walk of shame") again.
And her body issues. This is a woman so hung up on her body that after a night of hot-hot-hot sex in a hotel room with her lover, come morning she couldn't bear to walk the few steps to the bathroom because she'd have to walk there (gasp!) naked. The man just had his tongue in her crotch and yet now it's suddenly inappropriate to flash a little skin so she can go pee? This is edging into some serious "needs therapy yesterday" territory.
And apparently accidentally showing less than an inch of cleavage while wearing a business suit turns a woman from a professional into a sexpot business fetish. Because boobs are inherently magical things and All Men Are Horndogs, I guess?
(A note from the larger-breasted women in the industry--we call that "a day ending in 'y'" and can confirm an accidental inch or less of cleavage flashed has never resulted in us suddenly becoming sexpots, or even one iota more attractive or less professional than we were when it wasn't showing. Boobs and/or cleavage are not magical items, they are body parts. And most people in offices are professional adults, not 14 year old boys. End irritated side-rant.)
Oh, and can we discuss the character's entire sense of self-worth being tied up in her attractiveness to men? Because it totally is.
The books is like a who's-who of toxic gender tropes and a few rape apology ones mixed in to boot (like a little cleavage turning one into a walking fetish). It's deeply uncomfortable to read, and more so once you realize the author is writing what she literally believes to be true of women. Honestly, it's hard enough to have to deal with conservative asshats who believe in this crap every day, I don't want to read about it in my romances as well.
To any aspiring authors reading this far, if a character is enjoying a sexual awakening, please make learning to be shameless and embracing her sexuality with joy a part of her coming out of her shell. Watching a character self-flagellate rather than discovering her power is just...ugh.
Would I give this author another chance?
I like enough of the good parts to maybe give one of her more well-trod series a chance and see if she does any better in those. Since it is a series with the goal of a continuous cash flow, she may care more about them. But gotta say, first sign of Madonna/Whore, slut shaming, body hatred, or other crap like that and I'm out permanently. I can find plenty of romances that don't carry that baggage.
So without further ado:
The Good:
I picked this up expecting a junk-food read, a light story containing some hot slap-n-tickle moments in a Halloween setting. I was expecting shallow characterization, little worldbuilding, and silly scenarios. I was almost right.
The story is much better written than I was expecting, though I will say the author is a much better storyteller than she is a writer. The tale itself is engaging, even with the more technical issues it has, and every character in it was likable (except the bad guys, who were appropriately unlikable). The chemistry between the two main characters sizzled, and I even loved the domineering way the male main went about things...some of the time (more on that in a moment). The worldbuilding was decent, and the concept was absolutely enthralling.
She also has a way of painting scenes in such detail that they nearly leap off the page. I feel "blind" in many books, but in this one, I was never lost for where I was, who was talking, or what I was supposed to be seeing. She does rather well walking the tightrope between too much and too little, and I don't see enough of that these days.
The editing had some issues--some sentences had missing words, and there were a few others where tweaks needed made so the text would be more clear (and before the cat even had a name she was referring to it by name, so there's that)--but overall for a book I suspect was not professionally edited but done entirely by the author and maybe a couple of informal beta readers, it was head and shoulders above what I'm used to from the self-pub/small-publishing-house crowd.
And since professional editors are expensive, often far outstripping the profits an author with a small audience or self-pubber might see on any given book, I understand why authors try to tackle editing themselves. When it's obvious they tried their best, I can forgive a few mistakes, and I feel like this author truly did try their best.
I would happily read an entire series set in this world.
If....
The Bad:
...the author gave it the gravitas it deserved.
What really didn't serve this story well was that the author herself didn't seem to know if she was making a lighthearted romp or a Serious Romance Novel, and in trying to accomplish both she did neither.
She also relied far too much on The Rule of Hot, but since this isn't a porn read but a real story, all the sizzle in the world cannot set some of the story flaws right. And as the book progressed and those flaws began to pile up, it became a slog to make it to the end.
The biggest flaw was charaterization, as she had these awesome characters, but didn't seem to know what to do with them.
She had this alpha male she wanted to tease and bully the heroine. You know what, okay, I'd never date that in real life, but it's fun to read about so I'm fine with that.
But then what he did was just so pointless. Like filling her yard with leaves--what was the end game there? "I like you, so I'm going to make sure you do a backbreaking chore." Why???? Many of his behaviors would have made a lot more sense (and even be more acceptable) if he'd been waxing hot and cold, but no, he likes her so he makes her life more miserable, doing things sure to make her hate him? WTF?
Plus, the hero had no shits to give about the heroine's boundaries. None.
There was no line he didn't cross.
Now, to be fair, I have read PNRs that had heroes do similar things because they were either wrestling some dark demons (which they eventually won against), were literally not human and so didn't function as humans would (and eventually figured out how to compromise with a human mate), or were from long ago and dealing with outdated codes of ethics (which they slowly learned to update). A guy showing a few red flag behaviors can be acceptable in PNR as long as the character-building is good and whatever line he's crossing is confronted and dealt with through the story.
But not here. In this one the heroine just...stopped being human. Upon discovering her neighbor had invaded her privacy in such a personal way, she didn't leave in a huff, chew him out, or become actively alarmed as a real human woman would...no, she was intrigued. Not only was he never given any punishment for this behavior, he was actively rewarded for it.
The book had a lot of these cognitive dissonance moments, where any sane reader is going "Woah, pump the brakes now, that's not okay!" while the characters just shrug and smile and roll with the Very Bad Things.
All of which the author could have done something about; she obviously has some storytelling chops so fleshing things out more so they felt less "ick" was completely possible. But she didn't. I feel like many of these scenes were meant to be humorous, but instead they fell flat as comedy, but also didn't carry well as drama. And while yes, there was (finally!) a discussion had at the end of the book, it seemed far too late and very tacked on.
Add to that some dropped details, hastily ended subplots, and rather more going on than the length of the novel had time for or the focus of the novel had room for and what this book feels like more than anything is a missed opportunity. This feels like what could have been a fantastic novel was instead merely a mediocre one, either because of lack of technical skill on the author's part (the "writer" part of writing), or because she pounded it out quick just to make some bill money.
The Just Stop It Already:
Sooooooo much Madonna/Whore complex going on here. Sooooooo much!
Every female character was either all good or all bad. The most sexually aggressive characters were always portrayed in a negative light, from being called "sluts" to being literally evil. Meanwhile, the purest character in the book had been traumatized into being practically celibate (to the point the character even described herself as a "spinster"). And when she finally came out of her shell and into a sexual awakening, every step of the way she called herself a slut, worried about being a slut, and constantly put herself down for her alleged "sluttiness."
Do you know how hard it is to root for a woman becoming more adventurous and daring when she slaps herself around every time she acts outside of her normal behavior? Somewhere in the middle of the book I just wanted to do triage on her brain. By the time I was 3/4ths the way through I just never wanted to hear the word "slut" or anything slut-adjacent (like "walk of shame") again.
And her body issues. This is a woman so hung up on her body that after a night of hot-hot-hot sex in a hotel room with her lover, come morning she couldn't bear to walk the few steps to the bathroom because she'd have to walk there (gasp!) naked. The man just had his tongue in her crotch and yet now it's suddenly inappropriate to flash a little skin so she can go pee? This is edging into some serious "needs therapy yesterday" territory.
And apparently accidentally showing less than an inch of cleavage while wearing a business suit turns a woman from a professional into a sexpot business fetish. Because boobs are inherently magical things and All Men Are Horndogs, I guess?
(A note from the larger-breasted women in the industry--we call that "a day ending in 'y'" and can confirm an accidental inch or less of cleavage flashed has never resulted in us suddenly becoming sexpots, or even one iota more attractive or less professional than we were when it wasn't showing. Boobs and/or cleavage are not magical items, they are body parts. And most people in offices are professional adults, not 14 year old boys. End irritated side-rant.)
Oh, and can we discuss the character's entire sense of self-worth being tied up in her attractiveness to men? Because it totally is.
The books is like a who's-who of toxic gender tropes and a few rape apology ones mixed in to boot (like a little cleavage turning one into a walking fetish). It's deeply uncomfortable to read, and more so once you realize the author is writing what she literally believes to be true of women. Honestly, it's hard enough to have to deal with conservative asshats who believe in this crap every day, I don't want to read about it in my romances as well.
To any aspiring authors reading this far, if a character is enjoying a sexual awakening, please make learning to be shameless and embracing her sexuality with joy a part of her coming out of her shell. Watching a character self-flagellate rather than discovering her power is just...ugh.
Would I give this author another chance?
I like enough of the good parts to maybe give one of her more well-trod series a chance and see if she does any better in those. Since it is a series with the goal of a continuous cash flow, she may care more about them. But gotta say, first sign of Madonna/Whore, slut shaming, body hatred, or other crap like that and I'm out permanently. I can find plenty of romances that don't carry that baggage.
October 27, 2015
Touch Not the Cat is a lighthearted sexy fun pnr with wizards, witches and a human librarian who will steal the show. Hunky warlock Egan Warburton moves in next door to mortal librarian Paige Turner. She is smitten by his good looks and totally put off by his attitude. He too is smitten but doesn’t want to be. When he finally decides to pursue her his alter ego, Warlock, a large black cat seems to be doing better with Paige than he is. Love in a small town can be just as fun, complicated and kinky as in the big city. Halloween can be lots of fun. I loved this book and want Mandy’s story next.
April 6, 2021
Interesting plot that I enjoyed but the amount of errors were atrocious.
Liked Paige quite a bit, but felt she chased after Egan even when she thought he was with someone.
Egan was a complete arse in his behaviour and the tricks he played on Paige. Especially being his own cat self and letting Paige tell him her secrets, fears and dreams.
It isn’t Paige’s fault he lusted after her but was fighting it as she is mortal.
He also blew hot and cold but did manage to save Paige from some nasty magic.
The distance between Egan and his father was dealt with too easily and with only a few words.
I also want to know why Chelle wanted that job?
I usually love this authors books but this one just misses the mark for me.
Read through Kindle Unlimited.
Liked Paige quite a bit, but felt she chased after Egan even when she thought he was with someone.
Egan was a complete arse in his behaviour and the tricks he played on Paige. Especially being his own cat self and letting Paige tell him her secrets, fears and dreams.
It isn’t Paige’s fault he lusted after her but was fighting it as she is mortal.
He also blew hot and cold but did manage to save Paige from some nasty magic.
The distance between Egan and his father was dealt with too easily and with only a few words.
I also want to know why Chelle wanted that job?
I usually love this authors books but this one just misses the mark for me.
Read through Kindle Unlimited.
September 8, 2019
Group fall themed challenge, read a book based around Halloween. It sounded cute, jumped back and forth in holding my attention (I did need to finish it, pretty sure how it was going to end, but still), and then proceeded to immature grade school behavior, to sweet, to rather crude behavior in public.
Oh well
Oh well
November 2, 2018
Another great one
Why did I choose this rating? If you have ever read any of Catherine Cades books, you would know that they all deserve 5 stars.
Why did I choose this rating? If you have ever read any of Catherine Cades books, you would know that they all deserve 5 stars.
November 16, 2018
Interesting story
But, full of mistakes. What is it with all these authors? Do they not pay for editors? If i was to grade this as a paper....C+ at best.
But, full of mistakes. What is it with all these authors? Do they not pay for editors? If i was to grade this as a paper....C+ at best.
Did Not Finish
October 15, 2019DNF 37%
The H was just a big, fat jerk to her - purposely doing mean magic tricks on her. Sorry- can’t get into that.
The H was just a big, fat jerk to her - purposely doing mean magic tricks on her. Sorry- can’t get into that.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews