It’s well-known {that a} style – any style – typically depends on its tropes – some may say cliches. , fantasy includes elves, dragons and swords, SF includes spaceships, and so forth.
It’s a part of the enjoyable, and likewise the weather that followers love.
To that group I have to add the preponderance of a sure animal. Cats are seemingly all over the place in Fantasy fiction. Whether or not they’re witches’ familiars (see Sabrina the Teenage Witch), and even characters of a novel themselves (see Tad Williams’ Tailchaser’s Track) they appear ingrained into the fantasy cloth.*
I’m additionally informed that skilled writers should deal with the animals of their tales VERY rigorously – there’s a couple of e-book I can consider with a number of human deaths, horror and mutilation all through, and but the readers are most anxious or upset about is the demise of a single animal. (“Sure, by no means thoughts all of THAT, however what in regards to the cat/canine/mouse?” and many others is a commonly-asked query in e-book teams I’ve been concerned in.)
Why am I mentioning this right here? Effectively, Heather’s new Fantasy novel ticks all of the containers in case you are appreciative of our feline mates. (And as a plus I might say that no cats are killed within the progress of the novel, even when they’re put in peril. It’s simply not that type of e-book.)
From the writer: “All strays are welcome right here.
Agnes Aubert could be very fond of creating lists. These lists stored her afloat when she misplaced her husband two years in the past. And now, because the founding father of a cat rescue charity, her meticulous group abilities really feel like the one factor standing between her beloved cats – His Majesty, Banshee and candy aged Thoreau, to call a number of – and utter catastrophe.
However when Agnes is pressured to maneuver the charity, she quickly discovers that her new store is getting used as a entrance; proper underneath her ft is the lair of the decidedly disorganised – to not point out self-absorbed and infuriatingly good-looking – Havelock Renard.
Havelock is all the things Agnes doesn’t need in her life: chaos, mischief, and slightly an excessive amount of journey. However as she will get to know him, she discovers he’s greater than the darkish magician of legend, and that she could also be prepared for slightly intrigue, maybe even romance. In spite of everything, second possibilities aren’t only for rescue cats. . .”
My instant thought on starting to learn this novel was to think about the e-book as a literary equal of a Studio Ghibli animated film – I’m considering Kiki’s Supply Service, for instance.
The main focus of the e-book is clearly on the characters, whether or not human, magician or feline. Agnes, is as you may count on, coping with problem and adversity with a usually cheerful and constructive viewpoint, seeing one of the best in all people. Elise, her youthful but bossier sister, tends to maintain Agnes’s flights of fancy in examine, bringing her all the way down to earth when mandatory. Their relationship is typical of many siblings – typically aggressive, often squabbling and but fiercely supportive of one another. That is in distinction to Havelock, whose relationship along with his sister Valerie is the reason for a lot of the e-book’s mischief.
The connection between Agnes and Havelock could be very comparable in tone to these of the Emily Wilde sequence (for Agnes, see Emily, and for Havelock see a younger Wendell.) Their banter and burgeoning relationship is the centre of the novel. The romance a part of the plot will not be too mawkish, being extra of a faintly fuzzy type of amorousness reasonably than all-out raunch.
However actually the e-book is in regards to the cats that Agnes and Elise take care of. There are a selection of usually lovable creatures resembling Banshee, whose response to something is often a silent meow, and Ambulance, whose arrival is often greeted by a continuing howl (therefore the identify.) As a cat fosterer myself I have to admit that I empathised with Agnes’s work; Heather’s typically amusing descriptions of their routines and habits are fairly correct.
The e-book is as an alternative gently amusing, one thing which I at all times say is troublesome to get proper. One instance I appreciated was that Havelock, from whom Elise is unknowingly renting her premises from, is allergic to cats. Clearly, the cats know this and are decided to maintain him firm. Sneezing typically follows. Kudos additionally for letting the story have a particular ending, though there’s scope for the plot to be continued, ought to the publishers and readers need it to be.
Actually, the plot itself is reasonably secondary to the characterisation. There’s a seek for a misplaced magical object which can put the world’s ills to relaxation, sibling rivalry that threatens to destroy the world and a romantic curiosity with Agnes coping with a brand new beau and a love rival, though it’s fairly clear that the connection with ‘the opposite chap’ isn’t going to be severe.
We might quibble that this e-book will not be one to consider too deeply, that it might not totally work in case you are ambivalent to moggies, and that its characters are one thing we’ve learn earlier than. However actually Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter is precisely what you hope it will be like from the beginning – a narrative full of appeal and humour, memorable characters, pastries and cats, an enormous nice hug in a e-book that on the finish leaves you with an amazing large smile.
And for that motive, beneficial.
© 2026 Mark Yon
Hardback | Orbit Books
AGNES AUBERT’S MYSTICAL CAT SHELTER by Heather Fawcett
February 2026 | 358 pages
ISBN: 978 0356 529 318
*Different animals could also be equally lovable. I’m conscious that canine have a robust following too.
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