Off the Charts and On the Horizon – they call me the cat lady (Amy Miller)

Ahoy there me mateys!  Though this log’s focus is on sci-fi, fantasy, and young adult, this Captain does have broader reading tastes. So occasionally I will share some novels that I enjoyed that are off the charts (a non sci-fi, fantasy, or young adult novel), as it were. I received this literary eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

they call me the cat lady (Amy Miller)

Title: they call me the cat lady

Author: Amy Miller

Publisher: Bookouture

Publication Date: TODAY!! (paperback/ebook)

ASIN: B07N8GFKHF

Source: NetGalley

This novel caught me eye because of the title.  It is not in me usual genres but me ship holds three feline cohorts for luck and love.  All of me friends and family are dog people.  I get called the cat lady . . . well crazy cat lady ALL THE TIME.  I am given cat socks and sent photos like this:

I figured this book would be a purrrrfect fit!  I picked it up expecting a silly, light read.  I didn’t get a light read but what I got instead was ultimately interesting and fulfilling.

The story follows a woman named Nancy.  She is soft-spoken, private, and independent.  Though everyone in town knows who Nancy is, nobody really knows much about her.  Other than she has cats.  So she is known as the cat lady and watches other folks’ cats when folks are out-of-town.  Everyone likes Nancy but seem to want to delve into her past which she has no interest sharing.  Until one day her past comes to her in the form of a photograph.  Finding that photo unleashes an unexpected series of events.  Nancy has to choose how to face both her past and her future.

This tale was wonderful.  It is about grief, hope, friendship, kindness, closure, isolation, life, healing, and lack of judgment.  I thought Nancy was extremely relatable and lovely.  I also enjoyed the cast of characters that help bring down Nancy’s walls of sorrow.  I particularly loved George and Alfie.  I loved how we got to see how people deal with negative events in different ways.  I loved how it shows ye can’t know what goes on behind other people’s facades unless ye let them into yers.  I loved the connections.  I thought the ending was absolutely touching and I may have shed a salty tear or two.  Seriously I wouldn’t mind having a Nancy in me life.

So if ye want a lovely story that warmed up even this grizzled sailor’s old bilge-pump I call me heart, check this yarn out.  Arrrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank you Bookouture!

Goodreads has this to say about the novel:

Everyone in town knows Nancy Jones. She loves her cats. She loves her tumbledown house by the sea. She loves her job in the local school where she tries to help the children who need help the most. Nancy tries hard not to think about her past loves and where those led her…

Nancy never shares her secrets – because some doors are better kept locked. But one day she accepts a cat-sitting request from a local woman, and at the woman’s house, Nancy sees a photograph, in a bright-red frame. A photograph that opens the door to her painful past…

Soon Nancy doesn’t know what frightens her the most: letting her story out, or letting the rest of the world in. It’s impossible to find companionship without the risk of losing it. But can Nancy take that risk again?

A heart-wrenching and heart-warming story of love lost and found, and of second chances

To visit the author’s Facebook page go to:

Amy Miller – Author

To buy the novel go to:

they call me the cat lady – Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List