Quick Synopsis –A stray cat brings together five strangers over the course of one fateful summer in this heartwarming novel about love, found family, and the power of connection.

Song This Reminds Me Of – Everybody Wants to Be a Cat from The Aristocats soundtrack

Publication Date – April 01, 2025

Bookshop Link – Order Here (as a Bookshop affiliate if you use my link to order, I receive a small percent)

Content Notes – This is some violence against cats, but no animals are severely harmed or killed. There is a lot of grief and dealing with the death of loved ones throughout the book.

Rating –⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 out of 5

Review – No cats are seriously harmed or die in this book. I just wanted to post that really quick, because I hate reading an animal story and the animal dies in the end. I want a heartwarming story, not a story that will leave me weeping. This story is a multi-POV story about 5 people and one stray cat in Brooklyn, New York. The cat even has his own sassy POV, which I absolutely loved. Really the best part of the book is the Cat narrative, especially when he is pushing the human characters together.

Ultimately, this is a story about how lonely living in the city can be and the unexpected things that can bind us together. We have Nuria who is a single woman who volunteers to take care of stray cats, Collin a semi-shut-in author, Bong a widower who owns a bodega, Omar the friendly mailman, and Lily a young grocer. Each person is connected by the neighborhood they live in and the black cat, Cat, that they all sort of take care of. Of course, Cat is also taking care of them.

I’ve always felt like pets choose us and I absolutely love the found family of this story. The way the Cat draws them together and the way grief is woven into the story is so lovely. The only reason this isn’t a 5-star read for me is because there are several phrases that are repeated over and over that I just didn’t like. It felt like the author didn’t know what to put, so they just used a filled sentence. Normally it wouldn’t bother me, but it kind of took me out of the story.

If you’re an animal lover that enjoys a good found family story, this is definitely a book for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing – Ballantine Delacorte Press.