Sunday, May 2, 2021

Review: Like Cats and Dogs by Kate McMurray

Like Cats and Dogs by Kate McMurray
Series: Whitman Street Cat Café, Book 1
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Contemporary Romance 
Like Cats and Dogs cover
ISBN: 9781728214542
Release Date: May 4, 2021
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

Can you fight like cats and dogs, and still be perfect for each other?

Things are getting ruff in this Brooklyn neighborhood when new veterinarian Caleb Fitch moves in next door to the Whitman Street Cat Café and gets on the wrong side of café owner Lauren Harlow. Lauren has a few things to teach the new vet on the block, and rescuing kittens is only the start…

Lauren can't ignore the fact that she is instantly attracted to Caleb, but he gets her even more riled up when he argues with her about how best to treat the cats in her care. Determined to smooth things over, Caleb comes to the rescue when a new litter of abandoned kittens is left on Lauren's doorstep, and they confront the fiery attraction that's been building between them from the start. But saving the baby kittens is only the first challenge Lauren and Caleb have to face, and when a real estate developer comes sniffing around their block, they'll have to work together, or risk losing everything…

Between the adorable cover and the promise of a romance set at a cat café, there was no way I could resist picking up Like Cats and Dogs. Kate McMurray delivered on her premise of an enemies-to-lovers romance with adorable furry friends as sidekicks, but the overall result was a bit of a mixed bag.

Lauren and Caleb rub each other the wrong way except when…well, I’m sure you can guess. I’m not the biggest fan of enemies-to-lovers but it can work when done well. Only at the beginning the sexual tension that came from Lauren and Caleb’s bickering really fell flat. Caleb is recovering from a divorce and he’s cold and extremely wary of getting hurt again. Lauren is a bit off her stride from her ex getting married and she and Caleb get off on the wrong foot. They’re hot and cold with each other and it goes on for so long that it made the love story a bit hard to believe. There’s potential there, but I grew frustrated with both of them at various points in the story. Caleb and Lauren are flawed characters and there’s a core of truth to their flaws that kept me reading. I wanted a bit more from the romance to make the ending believable but overall it was OK.

My favorite parts of Like Cats and Dogs involved the non-human characters. As someone with a rescue cat of her own it was a guarantee that the Whitman Street Cat Café cats would steal my heart. They’re adorable with their own unique personalities and I wanted to see each and every one of them adopted to a loving home. The characters’ love of animals gave Like Cats and Dogs its heart and definitely boosted my rating of this book when the romance and the side story of the evil real estate developers left me wanting more. Overall, I had mixed feelings about Caleb and Lauren’s romance but the series setting ensures I will definitely be back for more Whitman Street Cat Café books.



FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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