This was a super cozy holiday romance! Cutie cats and Christmas- what more could you want? I really enjoyed it. Kara and Ben had wonderful chemistry. I loved the grumpy/grumpy trope. Read this magical rom com!!

A Cat Cafe Christmas is as adorable of a read as you would expect from this title and cover!

Full disclosure: I am allergic to cats. BUT I am also an animal lover and each chapter of this book begins with mini dating profiles for these foster cats. The attention to detail in each had me turning the (digital) pages, looking forward to the next one!

Both Kara and Ben, the main characters, are coming off heartbreaks and learning to trust themselves and others again. They are flawed and frustrating at times, but I enjoyed watching them grow. Ben's love language is clearly acts of service because the man delivered from start to finish and I loved that about him.

I wonder if author Codi Gary has something in store for friends Charity or Schwartz, and I would definitely be interested in reading more!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the advanced copy and the opportunity to share my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a pleasant surprise! I really loved the cozy vibes (and its a holiday themed romance. *swoon*) and can’t wait to add it to my recommendation lists this holiday season!

I really craved a holiday read this summer. I needed one that would bring some humor my way and I’m so glad I picked this one up from the advanced reads list. It was my first by this author. The banter was great and I really enjoyed this has a very different dynamic with the cafe. I really haven’t read one in a while where there’s a threat of losing one’s business so I enjoyed that aspect as well. Fun holiday read just in time for that time of year.

Description: "A laugh-out-loud, opposites attract romance about three of the world’s most beloved C’s: Christmas, Coffee, and Cats."

I mean who wouldn't want funny around coffee, cats, and Christmas!! It was holiday magic and just an all around amazing read! The book pulled me in immediately and didn't let go until it was over! I will most definitely be reading more by this author!

Thank you to NetGalley, Codi Gary, and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this Arc in exchange for an honest review!

I had to jump on this one right away because based on the title and cover, I knew I would love it!

It did not disappoint. What worked:
- grumpy to sunshine
- closed door romance
- CATS!!!
- café and clinic trying to find forever homes for cats. The café allows people to come in and interact with the cats prior to adopting which sounds so fun
- all while taking place at Christmas time

The writing sucked me in from the beginning and didn't slow down until the end. I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.

Thank you NetGalley, Codi Gary and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC of A Cat Café Christmas. This is my personal review.
What a fun Christmas romance book this was to read. And the cats – oh the cats what a treat to have them in a story!
Ben and Kara are meant to be together, and the story did a great job of making me cheer for them to be together. This book was a fun way to spend a day and spend it with these amazing, wonderful cats!

I am here once again with (yet another) advance review for a 2022 holiday romance! I was totally pulled in by the very cute illustrated cover, and being a cat owner, I was ALL kinds of excited to get early reader access to Codi Gary’s A Cat Cafe Christmas.

As always a huge thank you to my pals at NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the eARC thoughts below are my own, enjoy!

I’m starting to get a little worried that maybe holiday romances really aren’t for me? Which truly is wild because, my god do I love a Hallmark fever-dream of a made for TV holiday romance. But much like There’s Something About Merry, I just found myself growing more and more dismayed as I worked my way through this one.

Let’s start with what I did like: the cats! Man I wish we had more time with them? Each chapter gave us little snippets of who these adoptable cats were, and even little Chaos was truly the star here, I could have spent and loved my time with them rather than the leads who, I just STRUGGLED to root for the entire read.

First, we have Dr. Kara Ingalls, a vet running from a terrible breakup and nationally tracked embezzlement scandal the last man she dated unwittingly made her an accessory of. She’s guilty of being too trusting y’all! She was responsible for the largest data breach in history along with hundreds of thousands of donations from the charity she was working at (or running it was hard for me to make sense of) being emptied. She’s been coined The Bride of the Grinch, and is trying to have zero social presence as she rebuilds her life. She also is partner in a fledgling cat cafe, with her BFF and biz partner Charity.

Next we have Ben Reese. A transplanted Bostontonian trying to run from his family. Of which they sound insanely manipulative and terrible. His fiancee leaves him to quickly elope with his younger brother and then gets pregnant almost right away. He’s trying to get some space from them all (which like YES, and MAKES TOTAL SENSE TO ME), but his parents and siblings are not respecting his boundaries and are emotionally blackmailing him into giving his forgiveness away and just, I dunno GETTING OVER IT?

And while Gary does a good enough job getting me to feel a little bad for both of these ding-dongs, I just could got get into it enough to care. Ben at times is high-handed (hello just making a whole marketing plan for the cafe with zero input from the partners) and then kinda problematic (HE HATES ANIMALS?!) oh and he has a metric f*ck-ton of emotional baggage from his past relationships (case in point each time he essentially flies off the handle with jealousy around Adam). And ok he does adopt Chaos but it’s all in the telling and nothing in the showing. We get essentially no real time with him or the cat wherein he can take that terrible attitude about animals and figure out where it’s coming from…

And Kara is deeply traumatized from her stint in the spotlight and being villainized in the court of public opinion. She gets pushed a lot throughout by both Ben and Charity (BFF and Biz Partner) to put herself back out there, because the ex is getting out of jail soon and he’s been sending her letters and calling, something bad this way comes.

Much like There’s Something About Merry, A Cat Cafe Christmas suffers from a whole lot of plots and conflict but also Trinity The Tuck voice where are the jokes? Where is the romance? Maybe the real lesson I’m learning this year is that I’m the grinch who can’t read holiday romances in 80 degree weather? Huh. Maybe. Both of these crazy kids need therapy, I’m hoping Santa brings them some.

There is a slog of a third act break-up, and with some magic wand waving things all kind of sort themselves out, but reader when I tell you, there is no world where these two are in it for the long haul, maybe a 2-3 year run TOPS. Ben, we were rooting for you. We were all rooting for you.

Like the ramblings above suggest, this one just missed the mark for me. But that does not mean it won’t work for you! If you’re interested in checking out A Cat Cafe Christmas, grab yourself a copy wherever you get your books when it hits stores October 4th 2022!

Christmas in August? Guess that's one way I've been trying to avoid this MA heatwave.

Things I loved:

🐈 The kitty illustrations and descriptors in the headings of each chapter were absolutely precious.
🐈 Overall, I really loved the male MC in this story. Ben is handy around the house, a champion of small businesses, and what seems like an overall good dude.
🐈 Kara, our female MC, has gone through so much and her choice to return to veterinary science just shows her resiliency.
🐈 Ben's best friend is my favorite, as is Kara's.
🐈 Chaos is the absolute best kitten and I need him in my life.

Things I struggled with:

🐈 Kara is an absolute bitch to Ben for no reason, repeatedly throughout this story and honestly it's not cute.
🐈 I liked the multiple POV for the characters, but I really wish the 2 MCs spent more time together. I don't truly feel like they really built a romance together, but more just ruminated existentially on their own for long periods of time. This left me way more invested in the potential romances for the side characters than the MCs.
🐈 The miscommunication in this was infuriating. Without spoilers, the choices that were made for Kara despite Kara's explicit declarations of "no" were NOT it for me.
🐈 The audiobooks are not reading shade is totally unacceptable and ableist. It should be taken out of the final print.

There’s a lot 0f purring going on in A Cat Cafe Christmas. Kara has had a tough past and is worriers about the future of her shared business venture with bestie Charity. A combined bakery cum cat sanctuary, they’re not financially flushed.
Enter Ben, who nurses his own past hurts. He comes through for Kara many times and is key to things turning around. But can they click besides just over cute felines?
It’s a cute read with lots of good dialogue, resolutions, good deeds, growth, and cute fur balls.
No hissing, just curl up with this book.

Thanks netgalley for letting me read this one it's a fun Christmas book that I could read again who doesn't love a fun Christmas book and cats I love cats it was so much fun to read

This was such a cute book, I really love the combination of Christmas and romcom.

I love grumpy x grumpy trope so I was screaming when I saw that in here.
Kat and Ben are perfect for each other, I specially love how they both were broken at the beginning but together they found the way to heal themselves and be better persons for it.
I love the representation of ADHD and anxiety with Kara, she is such a strong character and the fact that is so relatable made it better.
The cats completely stole the show, I’m so sure Taylor swift would love this book.
I recommend it to all the cat and Christmas lovers.

Adored the premise and was lured in by that combined with the cover, but unfortunately this book just wasn't for me. I'm beginning to realize that the 'grumpy protagonist' archetype just profoundly isn't my thing.

Kara Ingalls dreams of opening a low-cost veterinary clinic to help more families in her town. She currently runs a cat cafe with her best friend and while they’ve helped many animals find new homes, the cafe is starting to flounder. When a mischievous foster kitten brings her together with Ben Reese, a marketing expert, together they try to pull off a Christmas miracle and save the cafe and fund the clinic.

A Cat Cafe Christmas is a sweet holiday romance with just a touch of drama. Kara and Ben have that perfect chemistry that only a grumpy/sunshine pair can have. Both of the MCs are well developed with full backgrounds that are revealed throughout the storyline. Kara and Ben are both struggling with recent heartbreaks but are shown moving forward in different ways.

The book does feature “fade-to-black” scenes. There is nothing spicy out in the open but there is some mild language.

I love the added touch of having bios for the adoptable cats at the top of each chapter.

A Cat Cafe Christmas is the perfect cozy, holiday romcom. I have enjoyed several other Christmas books from Codi Gary (Codi Hall) in the past and look forward to more holiday reads from her in the future.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing)!

Did I read a Christmas book in August. Why yes I did and it was just the amount of fluffiness I needed right now. All the cats are adorable and this is a super sweet and fun Christmas/winter read.

3.5 stars

I really like Ben and Kara in this book - the gradual build up of their relationship and the way they just worked together. But, the thing I craved more of throughout this story was more festivity. I feel like if Christmas is in the title, the book should feel like a Christmas book, and to me, other than the few instances sprinkled in, it could've taken place any time of year and had the same plot.

Was cute though.

Cozy: Snuggly, warm and comfortable. (Dictionary.com)

This book is the definition of cozy and perfect for animal lovers everywhere. Kara and her best friend Charity run a cat cafe, where people can get a coffee or pastry, spend time with the animals and even adopt one. Each chapter starts with a catchy two-line description of one of the cats, which was my favorite part. But the cafe's in financial trouble, and they're not sure if they can stay open past the holidays.

Ben thinks "women were in the same category as Double Stuf Oreos - best avoided, as they did nothing but cause problems for him" after his fiancé falls in love with his brother. Kara thinks all men have terrible motives after her ex abused her trust to steal money from her nonprofit employer. Their worlds collide after Ben's town marketing promotion sends tons of new customers to Kara's cat cafe, causing her to have a panic attack on the sidewalk.

It's dislike at first sight, but then Ben and his friend Schwartz find a tiny kitten in his ductwork. He's sure he's not a cat person, but Kara convinces him to keep it until she can find a foster. Then their friends meet, and Charity invites Ben and Schwartz to Friendsgiving. Ben convinces Schwartz to help him develop a marketing plan to save the cat cafe. As feelings grow between Ben and Kara, misunderstandings develop, and the two will have to decide if they're meant to last after all the tinsel comes down.

Ben is literally the kindest guy, and I was rooting so hard for Kara to trust him. Readers everywhere will have a new book boyfriend after this book. This romance is like a cup of hot chocolate - sweet and warms the heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book.

Cats and Christmas? What could be more perfect?!

This was such a cute read. The whole time I thought this would make the perfect Hallmark Christmas movie!! (My favorite!!)

I loved the premise and I was invested in every character, especially the furry ones. 😉

This book was seriously made for me!! It’s a Christmas romcom and had ALL my favorite tropes—enemies to lovers, opposites attract and somewhat of a workplace romance as Ben helps Kara find homes for the resident felines of the cozy cat cafe. It’s also deeper than you might think. Both main characters have complicated pasts that they need to move on from. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I honestly had so much fun reading this book and I hope I get to see it turned into a movie.

*cough* HALLMARK CHANNEL *cough*

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for gifting me an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

A Cat Cafe Christmas is a cute Christmas read! I enjoyed all the cats and the story of saving the cafe. Unfortunately, I didn’t really connect with the main characters. Both of their backstories were interesting, but not fleshed out enough to be fully believable or for me to be that invested. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any cat lover!

Cats, Chrismas and Cheer!

What more can you want from a RomCom. I enjoyed myself the entire time reading this and I NEED Hallmark to make this into a movie.

Kara is running away from her past and wants to make a difference. With her best friend Charity, they open The Meow and Furever Cat Cafe. With Charity in charge of the baking and Kara caring for the rescues, they will help so many cats! Running a business isn't as easy as they thought when the rent comes due and the special needs cats stay too long, they might not make it through the holiday season.

Enter Ben Reese. As a self-proclaimed non-animal lover, he doesn't seem qualified to help, but as a marketing professional, he's just what Kara and the cafe need to stay open.

Ben has created a plan to find homes for all the felines, and raise money for the cafe to stay open and maybe even expand. But Kara's past comes back to haunt her, will she be able to trust this handsome guy? Can Ben and Kara can set aside their differences to be together for a purr-fect holiday and save the cafe.

This is a sweet holiday romcom where two people with deep hurts from previous relationships are brought together by a kitten and the feelings they can’t deny. An enjoyable read with two lovable leads. I loved their relationship with each other and their best friends as well.

Final Thoughts - Great holiday read to get you into the spirit, enjoyable descriptions of the cats with cute illustrations and

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.