I normally don't do holiday-related reviews on this blog, only on my movies/series review blog, but since I came across this book in the library at the winter-section I figured: why not? There's a first time for everything. So have this Christmas-related review for you all. Spoilers ahead, as always.
Molly and her (now adult) kittens all live at a cat café where they're adored daily and have a loving owner, Debbie. But when Debbie's sister Linda arrives in tears one day, she soon moves in, taking with her a dog and even bringing in a new cat, a fancy Siamese named Ming. Molly quite dislikes Ming and Linda, but her family thinks that she may be judging them to soon. However, emotions are the rise more and more, both between Debbie, Linda and the cats. Will there be peace around Christmas time, or will Linda be forced to move out and look after herself?
Okay, so, two notes before we go in. One: I did not know that this was a sequel to another book going in. It never indicated that anywhere on my Dutch translated edition so I had no clue. Luckily everything is explained enough that I could go in blind. Two: This book, despite the title, is honestly barely Christmas related. Like, some of the events take place around Christmas but it's not central to the story at all, more just a coincidence in timing. 90% of this book could've just taken place at any other time of the year. So despite this being my first Christmas-based book review it barely even meets the quota in spite of the title. Oh well.
Still, I kind-of enjoyed this book. It wasn't fantastic but I had a decent time reading it. Some of the characters were fun and flawed (e.g. Molly, the narrator, herself) and I was invested in this drama the family had going on. But at the same time...that's also really mostly all this book is. There's very little plot to speak of, the story doesn't really follow one central plotline, other than Linda's and Debbie's struggles. There's a subplot regarding one of Molly's children running away, another one not feeling at home at the cat café, Molly being jealous of Ming, and the inheritance left behind by Molly's late former owner. Which are like, interesting plot points, some of them at least, but it wasn't enough to keep me thoroughly engaged.
Like, for example, when Molly's son goes missing you'd expect her as our proactive main character to do something about it. Go looking for him or something. But instead his father Jasper goes looking for him and Molly just remains behind at the cat café worrying and being pissed at Ming all the time. Wouldn't a reader want to see their main character take action here? Or maybe not take action at first but later rise to the occasion and do so anyways? This is her son, for crying out loud. But instead she just sits on her ass and does nothing. And while I like Molly as a flawed, somewhat selfish main character, I would've liked her a lot more if she was a bit more proactive in the story. A lot of the story is just narrated by her with her taking very little action herself. Like, she's a central player in the story, but not really an active player. She mostly just witnesses the events around her.
The other characters were...okay but not great. Debbie is a bit of a sweetheart but has her limits, Linda is mostly just very annoying (even with her somewhat sympathetic backstory that wasn't enough to make me like her), Molly's family is okay but not featured a lot and that's kind-of where it ends character wise. I do like that David, a more minor antagonist, eventually ended up coming around and having a decent conversation with Debbie about his late mother, but aside from that I wasn't super into this book's cast. Just a lot of family drama and that just wasn't enough to keep me constantly engaged especially when I didn't care for all of the characters. Some of the subplots were also resolved rather quickly (e.g. Molly's son running away) so it felt a bit rushed sometimes.
Also, a brief part of the book really made me wonder if the author did enough research on cats. In one chapter, Linda and Debbie put up some mistletoe in the cat café. You know, the stuff that's very poisonous to cats. And it's both of them doing this. I can see Linda doing this since she's kind of irresponsible and doesn't know much or care about cats, but Debbie? The woman who is supposed to be the cat-know-it-all and love her cats to bits? Why would she put up something poisonous in her cat café? Just reeks of the author not doing her research. Heck this could've even worked as a character conflict between Linda and Debbie (since there's already so many of these).
Overall a fun book if you like cats and interpersonal character conflict, but it didn't keep my attention as much as I'd hoped. And it also isn't really about Christmas despite the title. Still a decent read though!
Rating: 3/5
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