I received this book from NetGalley.

I have never been a fan of the romance genre at all, but lately I've been letting my guard down here and there. I saw the title of this book, and I was sold and I'm so glad I dove into it.. I desperately want to visit a cat cafe, I am a life long cat lover and this book just hit the spot. The love story was adorable and believable. This was such a fast read, mainly because I could not put the book down. I loved how every chapter started with a cute cat bio, this book was just so fun to read.

If you like cats, grumpy characters with a hidden soft side, and hallmark movies, this is the book for you. Ben and Kara are the two main characters who have a bit of a rough first meeting. Kara is a veterinarian who has invested all her money in a struggling cat cafe, Ben is a marketing guy who doesn’t like animals. They both have been through some awful experiences in life, that have left them afraid to put themselves out there. Can they put aside their pasts and differences and let the magic of the holidays work on them? Each chapter starts with a cat picture and description of a cat, which was a really cute feature of the book. This was a really sweet uplifting story. I received an ARC and this is my honest review.

A Cat Cafe Christmas was just the Christmas in July I book I needed this month!
Adorable story that played out as a Hallmark Christmas movie! Loved it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
no spice - only kissing

A Cat Cafe Christmas is a must read for any holiday obsessed animal lover! This book gave me the holiday feels, moments of sadness and moments of laughter so basically everything that a perfect rom-com must have. I especially loved the pacing of Ben and Kara's relationship and the conflicts that arose. Ben and Kara have a great support system behind them with Charity and Schwartz and I low-key want another holiday romance book between those two next year.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of the book on exchange for an honest review.

This was cute and fun! Perfect for Christmas! It was a little hard for me to connect at first but once I did the pages just kept turning!

What an absolutely charming romance! Special shout-out to the extraordinarily accurate cat descriptions. Instead of a sunshine/grump romance this follows two grumps who have suffered quite significant heartbreaks, but still manage to find their way to each other. Dollop on top of that the charming friendships, café fun, and all the kitties you could dream of and it a sure fire hit for a feel good holiday romance. I loved every second of this book.

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.

Perfect Hallmark holiday movie and cat lovers, this is fast-paced and a quick read. There’s sweet kissing and fade-to-black intimate moments coupled with lots of talking about feelings. You get to see both leads in their element with professional successes. And you see them vulnerable and hurting.

Each chapter starts off with a description of a cafe cat and it’s so sweet!

What you get:
Opposites attract
Meet disaster
Dual POV
SO MANY CUTE CATS
Cat puns!
Curvy/hefty MCs
Neurodivergent rep
Diversity - Black, Jewish
Great friends
Small town/small biz
Friendsgiving/Christmas
Competence porn

A Cat Cafe Christmas is a sweet, closed door romance set around a cat cafe/rescue at Christmas time. I really enjoyed Kara and Ben’s relationship, as well as all the people around her, including her best friend and the people who visited the cafe. Though the story takes place at Christmas time, it’s not an “in your face” type of Christmas setting like you see in other books with the word “Christmas” in the title. Kara is a great protagonist, and I enjoyed watching her relationship with Ben unfold. She had some setbacks, and I wish the conflict with Worthy had been a little more fleshed out/climactic than it was. This book makes me want to find and visit a real cat cafe. Overall an enjoyable holiday read!

3 Stars This was a very cute Christmas romcom and you will especially love it as a cat lover. I adored seeing Ben--who swore that he didn't like any animals, especially cats--become smitten with his adopted kitten, Chaos. I love seeing those stories online of guys falling in love with the cat that they originally didn't want and Ben fit that story to a t. I still kind of wish we got more scenes of him and Chaos, because they were adorable.

Overall, this was a story about learning to love and trust again after betrayal and heartbreak. Both Kara, a veterinarian who runs the titular cat café, and Ben, a marketing guru, have been hurt by their exes. Kara's ex-fiancé, Worthy, is a con-man and about to get out of prison after two years for a crime that severely damaged Kara's reputation online. Worried how his release will affect her budding cat café business, she decides to try Ben's 25 Day of Catmas promotion to bring in more money to open a clinic in addition to the café. Ben is still nursing a broken heart after his fiancée left him for his brother, but he can't deny his attraction to Kara.

This was a really cute story and as a cat lover, the setting was adorable! Definitely would recommend.

I loved the concept of this centering around a cat cafe, and the intro to each chapter being a profile of a cat was adorable.
For some reason I wasn’t drawn into the dialogue enough to get really excited to keep reading.

"A Cat Cafe Christmas" is a really sweet romance novel with cats, 3-dimensional side characters, and again — cats! I loved the unique challenges that each character had a compelling story all on its own. Usually in romance novels, the plot can feel like a secondary element to the romance, but in this novel it could have honestly stood on its own — both leads, Ben and Kara, each had backstories that they overcame with each other's support.

The only things that prevented this from being a five-star review for me were:

I *really* did not like Ben's family and his relationship with them — his mother was over-involved in family conflicts, and seemed to only care about Ben's feelings in the context of her desire to have a "happy family." It made Ben's forgiveness and rekindling harmony with his family feel hollow. His mother's ambivalence (and seemingly everyone else in his life) towards his brother marrying his ex-fiance was honestly disgusting, so I wish it would have been acknowledged by them that they were unfair to Ben. This would have made the "happy reunion" feel genuine.

The other issue is admittedly nitpicky, but I am a professional marketer who works in an agency and the way that marketing is portrayed in this book is all over the place. The first bad sign was "Ben and Schwartz created an entire marketing plan in 2 hours," which included a new logo design. What? And it seems like Ben is an expert in...events marketing, public relations, social media, website UX, AND he is pitching clients on commercials? The "bonus" from that pitch also doesn't really make sense — it sounds like he got commission for closing a sale (which is again, strange, because he is not described as a salesperson). Again, this is minor and if I didn't work in his industry I don't think the ridiculousness would have broken my immersion...but it did. I almost wish that his boss signed on the cafe as a pro-bono client and that they brought in a "team" to help rescue the cafe. Would have connected the work scenes a lot better, built on the "community comes together to save the cafe" theme, and ultimately would have been a lot more realistic.

Overall, this was a cute and cozy read that I really enjoyed! Despite my minor issues, I would still recommend it to someone who is looking to cozy up for the holidays with ample descriptions of many (very many) cute cats!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

A Cat Café Christmas by Codi Gary
4.25 ⭐

I want a peppermint mocha and to finally adopt that dog we’ve been talking about for years.

Quick Summary: Kara (certified cat lover) and Ben (self-proclaimed pet pessimist) have nothing in common…except a lack of trust in romantic relationships due to past heartbreak. Oh and that attraction they feel when they’re in the same room. And maybe their first impressions were wrong. Can they overcome their personal baggage to make this work or were they always meant to be temporary?

Thoughts: This is a delightful, contemporary, romcom with conservative intimate scenes and almost no swearing. I like that the two main characters each have a story arc where they learn and grow through the story. I laughed out loud at multiple points while reading. If you like sweet, fun, character stories you will like this book. But be warned, you might end up with a new pet by the end!

This year, I took Christmas in July to a whole new level! I was lucky enough to be given the chance to read an ARC for A Cat Cafè Christmas, and as I cat lover, I was absolutely ecstatic to dive into this book!

A Cat Cafè Christmas was such a heartwarming story. We follow our two main characters, Kara and Ben, as they both navigate life after experiencing heartbreak and betrayal. There were so many relatable moments and certain chapters that had me feeling all warm and fuzzy (I’m looking at you, chapter 3!)

This is the perfect Holiday read! If you are a cat lover who is looking for a feel good rom com, this book is definitely for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for giving me the chance to read and review this book!

"They continued dancing...This reminded her of those moments in romantic movies when the couple does something she couldn't imagine ever happening in real life, but being in his arms, surrounded by the scent of Ben's spicy cologne and his body, Kara thought she could stay in this moment, blocking out the world, the worry, the stress."

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ME. This was too cute. It was a hallmark movie wrapped in a book and I was 100% here for it. AND IT HAD CUTE CATS!! I was highly invested in the success of this cat cafe that was on the brink of closure. A super quick holiday read that I had a great time reading!

Not only were all the cats adorable, but Ben and Kara were also giving the cats a run for their money. They were a cute, flirty, banter-filled pair and I loved reading them go from their awkward first encounter to becoming a comfortable staple in each other's lives as their relationship became stronger.

Thank you to NetGalley, Forever (Grand Central Publishing), and Codi Gary for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!! ♥️🎄

RATING: 4.5 out of 5

I adored this read from Codi Gary! My first of hers and won’t be my last. Happy Christmas in July!! 🎅🏼

Everything you could ask for in a Christmas rom com and then some. I enjoyed getting to know Kara and Charity, both their present friendship and glimpses into their past. Ben and Swartz were such great characters… we ALL know a Swartz. None of their stories (or the characters themselves) felt out of reach, they were relatable and I really felt like I could feel what they were feeling.

Gary was inclusive in considering her MCs, and had a diversity across many aspects, which I appreciated and it felt intentional but not forced.

I loved getting to know the cats and their personalities throughought, but felt the intros at the beginning of each chapter were a little distracting and didn’t add much value. The cats personalities shined through while Kara or other characters described them.

Overall such a great read! I really loved every second of it and can’t wait to read another from Gary!

The holiday romcom of a cat-lover’s dreams A CAT CAFE CHRISTMAS is the purrfect holiday read. With all the best Hallmark-esque tropes, we get an opposites attract, meddling besties, small-town love where Ben, the marketing guru works with the community to save the cat cafe and win over the owner and girl he’s fallen for, Kara.

I adored Kara and the personality traits and quirks that were so well-written to give her such a great past and present. Each piece of her character added to her relatability and the progression of the book, as well as her growth in the story as she got past being upset about how her ex had wronged her and instead truly found comfort in exactly who she is.

I loved reading about each and every kitty, the dating profiles got to me every time, and I loved how it all tied together with their employee, store regulars and the 25 Days of Catmas plan Ben created for them to reach their goal to keep the shop open, and add on the services they hope to bring.

While the two main characters meet and get to know each other there is plenty of drama and excitement within the pages to make this story one to devour, not just for the holidays but as someone who had been wronged in a past relationship, or has fought with their family, or just needed to feel not so alone.

I loved binging this one for one of my Christmas in July titles thanks to NetGalley + Forever Publishing for the eARC to read and review, I gave this one 4.5 stars and consider it a must for holiday reading.

This was a cute book, it was something I could see myself reading in an afternoon near Christmastime. And cats are always welcome in books. I did feel like the dialogue was not entirely natural at times, and the relationship seemed rushed, especially at the end.

Personally, I am not a cat person but I did not hold that against this book. It was a very cute read! Perfect read for the holidays. I will likely pick up again around Christmas time. I love a good Christmas romcom. Hoping for a sequel!

(3.5 stars)
This was really really cute!! I gotta say I'm kind of surprised this is the first and only cat cafe based romance book on my radar? Feels like there should be way more because the setting is absolutely adorable.

This is definitely your typical romance book. There's nothing very new or exciting in it but it's still a good read. I don't quite know if I cared much for Ben's whole family drama. I thought it was kind of ridiculous that his parents (mostly his mom) was trying to make him feel so much guilt for cutting off his brother after his brother married his ex?? But okay, I get it, I just don't know how he came around so quickly. I would have held onto that grudge a little bit longer, but that's just me. I don't know if I really cared for Kara's friend, Charity. She was the classic best-friend-just-trying-to-help trope but she meddled a lot....a lot more than I would have appreciated as her friend. But Kara just goes right along with it so I don't know! I don't think I'd be able to be as chill about all that as Kara is but that's why I'm not a character in the book!

All in all, this is really cute and I'd recommend picking this up to read over the winter season and maybe snuggling up with a nice hot chocolate in front of a fire with your feline bestie.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Forever/Grand Central Publishing for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. </i>

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.

As soon as I saw the title and cover, I wanted to read this book. Cat cafes AND Christmas?! It's like it was made for me. I used to go to the cat cafes in my city before they closed down. Reading this book let me live out the fantasy of owning a cat cafe and, as someone who works in marketing, it was also super fun to read all about Ben's social media and fundraising plans. 25 Days of Catmas!! Adorable.

While A Cat Cafe Christmas was not the best romance I've read this year, I think fellow cat lovers would find it enjoyable. It has the tropes we all know and love (enemies to lovers and a mission to save a small business) and the cats were the major standout. I loved the little descriptions/sales pitches for the cats at the start of each chapter and reading about them finding their furever homes warmed my heart. It was also nice to read about two people learning to trust again. And while the book is set around American Thanksgiving and Christmas, it doesn't need to be read during the holidays!