Cat Lady: The hot, must-read Richard & Judy Book Club novel for summer 2023 from the Sunday Times bestselling author

Product Information

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Dawn’s journalism has appeared in multiple publications and she was the monthly columnist for Glamour magazine.

Trying to get back into reading and this book kept me wanting to continue and found it funny in spots, also relatable if you have a cat you love.The only part of the book which was not completely predictable is the work subplot, and what happens to poor Pigeon (sorry for the spoiler alert but again - don’t read this if you love cats. I think the only thing stopping this getting one star is that I flipping love cats and would absolutely lay down my life for mine - I am cat lady, so those segments where she just loves Pigeon so much got their hooks in me hard. She's never actually fibbed about Pigeon, she's just let the rest of the group ASSUME that she's gone. I like to think I’ve got quite a varied sense of humour, and apparently this was “laugh out loud”, and maybe it is to some but hell no, not to me.

Sometimes however having it 'all' isn't all it's cracked to be - having to put up with her husband's ex-wife who spends way too much time at their house. She also covered most current topics like racism (her boss she works for says some racist things), sustainability etc. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. OK so she loves her cat Pigeon more than her husband Tristan, is irritated by most of her colleagues, has no friends, and has to put up with her husband’s awful ex-wife Belinda for the sake of her stepson Oliver - but whose life is perfect?She has made thirteen documentaries about all sorts of things, including polygamy, childbirth, geishas, body image, breast cancer and even the movie DIRTY DANCING. Dawn started out in TV production but quickly landed in front of the camera, making numerous documentaries that included immersive investigations of Polygamy, Size Zero, Childbirth, Free Love, Breast Cancer and the movie Dirty Dancing. As a self confessed wannabe ‘cat lady’, I really enjoyed reading Mia’s journey from her ‘safe’ existence to her self-realisation of the person she truly is - an independent cat lady living for herself. I received a complimentary ARC from NetGalley and am posting this (brutally - sorry) honest review with no pleasure but as a warning to proceed with caution. I didn't get the humour or wit and I haven't read any of Dawn O'Porter's other works to compare them to.

I would also say the overwhelming feeling for me wasn’t ‘fresh, funny’ but actually probably ‘unusual, sad’. One of the best 'rom-coms' I have ever read, well written and pushing boundaries throughout, yet still remarkable insightful, heartfelt and most of all funny! You may have seen her dragging two huge pink suitcases with broken wheels and a Siamese cat (Lilu) in a box through international airports. I could relate to Mia's love for Pigeon and her wish to protect herself from just about every other living being.A massive thank you to HarperCollins UK, Harper Fiction and Tandem Collective UK for my early copy of Cat Lady. Dawn is obsessed with vintage clothing and recently set up her own clothing label, BOB (she also has a bob…) --This text refers to the hardcover edition. Cat lovers will rejoice in this tale of a woman who simply cannot, and maybe doesn’t want to, be tamed’ HEAT --This text refers to the hardcover edition. Although I was intrigued to see where the novel was going to end up, I found that the humour felt a bit forced and sometimes missed the mark for me personally. I'm always excited to read a new Dawn O'Porter novel and as usual I loved this one, she has such a wonderful way of creating such relatable and vivid characters.

It’s not in any way funny (unless you find people dealing with grief, trauma and other mental health issues amusing. When the silent protagonist cat has more personality than literally all the characters in a 300+ page book, there’s a bit of an issue.I also think you need to be a cat lover to really appreciate some aspects of the story, so it didn't help that I am not a cat lover! There are few remotely likeable characters in the whole thing - her colleague Fliss, her put-upon sister Liz, and the members of her poor maligned support group. The ways she views her cat (the shower scene) is kind of what finished me off, oh, and describing the actions of a dog and some peanut butter. I like Dawn O’Porter on Instagram, she’s fun, witty, and has incredible fashion sense but that charisma just does not in any way translate to her novel (I’ve only read this one).