Book Review: The Empire State Cat’s Christmas Gift by Nic Tatano

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Title: The Empire Cat’s Christmas Gift
Author: Nic Tatano
Publisher: HarperImpulse
Date: November 4th, 2016
Pages: 265
Format: eARC
Source: from Publisher for a review

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

The purrfect gift this Christmas…

The night her house catches fire, kick-ass lawyer Tish McKenna’s neatly ordered life is thrown into chaos. At least she’s alive—thanks to her adorable cat, Socks!—and after her near-death experience Tish realises she wants more in her life than late nights and case files…

Professionally speaking, hot-shot attorney, Spencer Capshaw hadn’t realised how far off track he’d come. Sure, he had his reasons originally—saving his dad’s life required more money than the DA’s office paid him—yet helping corrupt corporate bigwigs was not why he became a lawyer…

With a little help from a furry friend, these two lost souls find each other in the heart of Manhattan. But when Tish and Spence are pitted against each other in a trial that pushes them both to their limits, can their budding relationship survive?

Will there be a diamond in Tish’s stocking this Christmas? Find out in new festive favourite The Empire State Cat’s Christmas Gift by Nic Tatano!

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Review:

One look at The Empire State Cat’s Christmas Gift is all you need to figure out why I wanted to read this book.
It has a cat (and I adore cats, cats are my weakness) and it screams “festive”.
I mean, what more do I need?
Nothing, that’s what.

Except… the only thing that’s festive when it comes to this story is it’s title (in reality, if we remove the title from this cute picture, it doesn’t feel so festive anymore, does it?).
It all comes to good marketing, because the book came out around Christmas time, but the story itself is festive as much as I Heart Vegas by Lindsey Kelkthe story takes place during several months and the last chapter happens around Christmas. That’s it.

But don’t let my complaining stop you  from picking this book up! It was a good story, after all!

I had some problems with it (I will get to them soon), but overall I pretty much enjoyed it the whole time.

I am not sure what it is about Nic Tatano‘s writing, but it feels like everytime I read one of his books, I can’t seem to stop myself. “One more chapter” – that’s what I say to myself and before I even realize, I read half of the book.

The story centers around Tish, a lawyer and an owner of a really cute tuxido cat called Socks.
At the very beginning of the story, Sucks turns out to be a hero – she wakes up Tish while their apartment is on fire and, therefore, she saves their lives.

Although Sucks plays a role in The Empire State Cat’s Christmas Gift, her presence is not what keeps this story going.
When in The Lost Cats and Lonely Hearts Club, the first book in this series, the story centers around cats (so much that it was even overwhelming at times), in this sequel the balance between the two (cat’s and people’s stories) was done better.

Spencer is Tish’s love interest. He is a successful attorney with good manners, and I even dare to say that his character represents a knight on white horse.

He acted perfectly, but I find it hard to believe that today a guy of his age would use phrases like “fine young lady” for a woman he likes.

I also didn’t feel the chemistry between the two of them. I felt like the whole thing was happening way too slow at first, and then, all of a sudden, way too fast.
When we’re taking only that part of the book into cosideration (chemistry/relationship development between Tish and Spencer), it almost felt like reading a christian fiction.

As I already said, I had some problems with this story.

My first problem was slut shaming. This is not the first time happening in chick lit genre that a woman who “looks like a plastic doll” is immediately portraited as a cheap slut who doesn’t know how to behave herself and is stupid.
I was very dissapointed when I read how characters were judgamental and I couldn’t help but feel that the writer’s  own points of view blended to pages, because if every single character speaks down about something/someone in the same way, I can’t help but think that the author shares the same opinion.

Secondly, we should believe that Tish is “shark” in court, but she seemed unprofessional to me. Spencer was even worse. 
So, even though Tatano told us they were very good lawyers, he showed us a different story (spoiler: great lawyers do not talk about movies they watched the night before in front of the court, they do not talk about their personal life with the judge in the middle of the case, they do not have to win one case so they wouldn’t end up on a street and if they do, they are not too picky when it comes to cases and people they will represent, and they surely don’t represent people they want to see lose the case).

Thirdly, the villian of this story was underestimated. I believe he would do what he did, but I don’t believe for a second he would be so stupid to do it the way he did it in this story, and got so easily caught in his crime.

Altogether, this was a quick read that I would recommend to chick lit lovers.

3,5

Book Review: The Lost Cats and Lonely Hearts Club

the lost cats

Title: The Lost Cats and Lonely Hearts Club
Author: Nic Tatano
Publisher: HarperImpulse
Date: August 26th, 2016
Pages: 250
Format: eARC
Source: from Publisher for a review

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Swapping Prada for purrs…

While covering a story, feisty network reporter Madison Shaw gets more than she bargained for when she rescues a box of orphaned kittens. Suddenly the glamazon of the Manhattan news room is doing two am feedings to keep these furbabies alive!

This is certainly a change of pace for the high maintenance workaholic she’s become and taking care of the kittens makes Madison realise how far off track she’s come—after all, she was a stray once too…

When a video of her caring for the kittens goes viral, she knows her image as a hardnosed reporter is shot to hell. What Madison doesn’t expect is the media circus that propels her and the kittens to stardom. And the domino effect that has on her, her career and her love life—especially when she meets sexy Officer Nick Marino…!

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Review:

Imagine finding four little orphan kittens, too small to take care of themselves and without a mother to feed and bath them. What would you do?

If you’re a person with a good heart, you would take them under your roof and do your best to give them what they need to survive.
And that is exactly what Madison did.

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Disclaimer:

I will have to start this review with a disclaimer and say that I will be totally subjective when it comes to expressing my thoughts. This story is very special to me and I observed it from a different angle then usual because I experienced (almost) the same thing as the main character of this story, but was also in a situation that in parts reminds of the one  character Nick was in.

I really don’t want to make this review about me, but I think it would be fair to tell you that, because my personal experience is what led me to percieve the story in the way I did.
So I will just briefly mention that I have two cats that were only 13 days old when they lost their mother and I bottle fed them and took care of them. They are healthy now and are best cats in the world.
Also, five years ago I had a car accident and I was unable to move for weeks. Those days all I could do was lie in bed and sit with someone’s help, so I know how the recovery process looks like.
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Now, on to the real review…

Lost Cats and Lonely Hearts Club tells the story about a reporter called Madison. She is a real career woman. One day when reporting from construction aera, she and her cameraman find four kittens and a dead cat. In order to save kittens’ life, she takes them home and starts taking care of them.

Although she did not plan to, she keeps them and becomes their second mother because she got atteched to them, especially  to the tortoiseshell one.
For Madison, cats are not just company. They (or should I say tortiseshell one) help her see what kind of person people around her are so she ends up breaking up with her cold hearted boyfriend the same night cats move in.
As the story progress, we follow Madison and her three friends living a life in New York, dating and helping the world make a better place.

This book warmed my heart. When I say it, I really mean it.
There were so many memories that came back to me thanks to this novel.
And although it wasn’t the best read ever, I certenly enjoyed reading it.

The writing style was really good, easy to read and you can read this novel pretty quickly.
It is written in first person, from Madison’s point of view.
What surprised me is the fact that the writer is male.
I don’t usually pay attention whether I read male or female authors, but it really blew my mind how Nic Tatano perfectly described women’s way of thinking.

Character development plays a big part in this story.
Madison really changes through the story and even if that change is mentioned more then few times by side characters, readers can also see it in Madison’s behaviour.
However, I have to mention that I wasn’t on best terms with some of her actions.

The story itself was naive in parts in a way that everything went so easy for Madison, but I will assume that the purpose of this book is to bright reader’s mood.

It also had some flaws and unexplained things that I just feel like they have to be metioned.
I will write them down in the spoiler section  so I wouldn’t ruin anyone’s reading experience without their permission.

Overall, this book was pretty good and it really left me in a good mood.
I think that cat lovers would enjoy it so if you are one of them, I suggest you to give it a try.

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Spoiler Alert!!!

  1. We never got an explanation why mother cat died. I know some things we’ll never know, but somehow I wish we got to know what happened to her.
  2. Tortoishell cats are basically always female. Male tortoishell do exist, but they are so rare, finding one is like finding a niddle in haystackes, and male can’t produce due to their chromosomes. I wish vet said that to Madison bc I have a feeling many readers will just assume that the writer didn’t do his homework because „all tortoishells are female“.
  3. Nick had an accident where he lost the ability to walk and had to use wheelchairs. I feel like his situation was described unbelievably too easy. Madison could have just leave him alone for hours and it was like there was no fact that he is human and therefore has to use toilet, has to take a bath. Madison once told him he can just roll into the shower but guess what? He has to take off his clothes, wash himself and use a towel. Without help, that is impossible.
    I feel like the whole thing could have easily be fixed if there was a nurse to help Nick.
  4. Although it maybe is not a big deal, I wish getting rid of parasites was also mentioned.
  5. I wish tabby, rushian blue and tuxedo cat were more present in the story. They were in the tortoishell’s shadow.

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3,5