Cute story for younger children. It tells a story of a rough life for Nimbus and what she has to go through to get back to the little boy who saved her.

Wildly exciting and engrossing! I read this to my second grader, and she and I both loved the characters and story pacing.

I think this is a sweet and enjoyable read for younger middle grade readers. Unfortunately I found it a bit slow and repetitive at times. I do like that the action started off pretty quickly in the story, but I wouldn't have minded a little more backstory about Nimbus's relationship with Fletcher and more of her backstory in general. The dream-realm element was an interesting twist. Overall I felt it was a bit slow, not exactly for me, but probably a good fit for some kids in the target audience. This might have been better as a graphic novel?

This book was so much fun to read. Nimbus and Rhett worm their way into your heart right away. We keep pet rats, so Rhett really struck a cord at our house. We did this as a read aloud with the whole family, and even our for year old was there for it. I feel like every character in this story did their job. Highly recommend if you're looking for something for Halloween.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Nimbus is a magical adventure following a young kitten on a mission to save herself and her young owner from the perils of an ancient demon. She is separated from her boy, Fletcher, after the demon attacks them, and then must find her way home. She meets a theatre-loving rat, in addition to a kindly witch and her four housecats. In addition to help from her friends, Nim must use her special powers to get home and save Fletcher.

I found this to be a fun and delightful adventure for children between the ages of 8-12 who are interested in magic and animals. Nimbus had a visible character arc, and I thought Rhett was funny while also proving himself clever in the end. The ending was great and hints at a sequel that might be even more intriguing than this installment. My only critique is that the writing style, may be a little dense and wordy for the intended age group. Also, I absolutely love the cover art, and the one illustration near the end of the book. I wish we could get more of these illustrations to accompany the magical story.

I received a free copy of this book for a review

Nimbus first started as a confusing book. His owner somehow has a bottle, two bottles actually, I had forgotten about the second bottle. There was absolutely no leading to this book. It just started. I did not care about the characters. Nimbus is of course a cat so I was like maybe it’s gonna be good.

However, once the plot started, I didn’t understand where the plot was going. What is the book about Nimbus becoming a real cat because he gets training with the others and picking up real cat skills? Was it about him exploring those new power that he has? Was it about him becoming part of a family? Was it about getting back to the boy?

Nimbus just kept saying I need to get back to the boy I need to get back to the boy but yet he never did any action to actually get back to the boy. The cat even got sedated and stitched up almost 4 times in this book. I felt like if I had to read, it’s him waking up again taking off the bandages again and then also eating the cat food again I was gonna go crazy.

Not only did it feel like at every four chapters it just repeated the prose was so long and descriptive. Every single sentence was the same lines. Every single sentence was long. Every paragraph was long.

I really don’t feel like middle grade should be a slog. I don’t feel like they should be long-winded. I can understand, wanting to write like tale of Despereaux, but this was excessive

Not to say that her writing is bad it just needed to be condensed a lot.

I wanted to give this book two stars, but I ended up at three because the twist at the end was actually very good. With the boy being the witch.

The cats were all very good actually. That was also one star I’m not sure where the other star comes in but I wasn’t mad that I read this book. Maybe that is where it comes from

But unfortunately, I did not like Rhett. The rat kept quoting Shakespeare. I don’t feel like he added anything to the story. And the whole dragons eye think was kind of ludicrous and completely off the point. It really had nothing to do with the main plot. The whole territory thing with the cats and the rats non-consequential. Just waste of words cut it.

Overall, I could have lived my life without reading this book. I do think that this book is two books together. One great story about nimbus trying to get back to his boy and meeting Rhett and one story about Nimbus possibly being Agatha’s familiar and meeting the cat crew

There is no reason why the whole Agatha plotline should’ve been a thing. She is so minute that of course he is not her familiar.

Oh well. Thank you for the read, I wouldn’t mind trying the author again for her next book if it’s a bit shorter

Thanks so much to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC copy of this book!

I have scheduled promotional posts around release day for this book and I will provide a full review on my Instagram once I am able to get to this read.

Rating 5 stars on Netgalley as a placeholder for me to update later once the review is complete.

Will also complete a review on Goodreads once read.

Thanks again!

Nimbus is an unusual cat. She got a rough start but learned how to protect herself.
Blazer & Bray let me read this book (thank you). It will be published September 5th.

She had a boy that was her friend but his aunt took her in a box to the dump. There she made friends with a rat.

She could dream walk, and she wanted him to know she would be returning. Of course she has to finish off the demons first.

This is a fantasy book that is good to read.

You don't know if she will win or if the demons will...

This was such an unexpected but amazing story for me. It was sweet, heartwarming, dramatic, and immersive. I loved our little characters and had the best time with this.