I’ve read all the authors previous books which I enjoyed so much! Everyone has been poignant and uplifting and very thought provoking!.

This one is just the same, I urge everyone to read this book!

Many thanks for the ARC

Having loved this author’s previous work, I was very happy for a chance to read this contemporary novel. This is truly a story of searching for yourself within the pressures of everyday life and finding meaning. A good solid read!

This is my first book by author Dawn O'Porter and it won't be my last.
Really enjoyed this booked and a real page turner that I couldn't put down even when I knew I should be getting on with chores, I just loved getting to know Mias character.

Hmm, I'm not sure what to make of this book.
It wasn't what I was expecting at all and was quite depressing. I was expecting a funny warm book about the antics of a mad cat lady, it couldn't have been further from the truth.
It covered many emotions from sad to uncomfortable.
Although I stayed with it until the end I really didn't enjoy it and would not recommend it.
I don't like writing a negative review but this is my opinion and I'm sure that there will be many more who would love it.
Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. xxx

Having read a couple of Dawn O’Porter books over lockdown, I was really happy to pick up Cat Lady. Her writing is really comforting to read, being witty when appropriate, or addressing serious issues with a deft and sensitive hand.

In Cat Lady, we meet Mia who, seemingly, has it all – good job, good family life, a pet cat that she loves – but beneath the carefully crafted veneer, Mia is going through the motions of her life, a life that she has created to protect herself from family trauma in her childhood.

The only constant in her life is Pigeon, the cat that literally saved her life, and she fears Pigeon’s death so much that she joins a support group for those whose pets have died. Can the realities of these peoples’ lives help Mia as her own life starts to collapse?

I really enjoyed this book – as I said, it is beautifully written and deals sensitively with past trauma, issues around family abuse and what is means to lose someone. I really liked the idea of this book seeking to reclaim the label ‘Cat Lady’. Mia is called this – as many women have been – as an insult and with certain connotations connected to it. Mia makes changes in her life that show that being a cat lady is not the demeaning insult it’s become. As a cat lover myself, I very much applaud this!

Cat Lady was an absolute pleasure to read and probably one of my books of the year this year.

Rating - 3.5 stars rounded off to 4

Quirky and disgustingly funny!

Well, Cat Lady is one of those books, that I both liked and disliked, if that makes sense 😆!

Synopsis –

Mia is married to Tristan & step mum to Oliver. She is the MD of a jewelry company & loves her pet cat Pigeon. While her cat is very much alive, she attends a pet – bereavement support group, as the thought of losing her 16 year old Pigeon terrifies her. Mia has built a façade of the perfect life around her. But we all know looks can be deceiving.

Review –

With Mia’s first person narrative, the opening goes to show how everything is just as it should be in her life. As someone who values her independence and her personal space too much, Mia tries hard to be the perfect wife. Slowly we get to know her more and that’s when we understand her inner struggles, her difficult childhood and her inability to emotionally connect with people.

Mia is not a likeable protagonist by any means. With her eccentric behavior, she often finds herself in awkward situations and later feels utterly mortified about it – especially while dealing with her husband’s ex-wife.

Dismissed as a “crazy cat lady” she is used to not being taken seriously. Mia’s thought-patterns and monologues are witty although weird. She justifies her actions with perfectly valid opinions, making us realize just how harshly judgmental our world can be and how quickly it stereotypes women of a certain age and stature.

While there is a lot of humor laced with this storyline, some of things - mostly the spicy part, are so gross, that I couldn’t help but recoil 😣, almost feeling nauseous 🤢.

As the rug gets pulled from under Mia’s feet, she has to choose whether to maintain this pretense of “normalcy” in her life or embrace being “odd”, take back her power and finally start living on her own terms.

Overall, in my view, O’Porter has bravely attempted to give us a story with an unconventional female protagonist, showcasing the kind of critique she might be subjected to in this unfair world. Her writing is matter of fact and overly frank. But I only wished it was not this cliché ridden 🙄 and cringe worthy 🥴.

Oh! Also beware cat/pet lovers! You might find it hard!

From the blurb and the cover, I thought Cat Lady was going to be a light, easy, funny read about a woman and her cats and finding herself again, and in many ways it was. However, this book is far more than that.

By exploring the stereotypes of the Cat Lady, Dawn O'Porter cleverly critiques the expectations placed on women (and men to a lesser extent) by society - the need to have husband, children, job, to also have yourself together. Mia has all those things (well, stepchild) and is polished and in control. But these things don't bring her happiness and only by letting go of those expectations and allowing herself to be truly who she is, does she begin to actually live rather than exist and to feel content, and do others start to warm to her and accept her.

Some parts of the book are hilariously laugh out loud funny; some parts are incredibly sad and thought provoking. But throughout the writing is a sense of warmth, and genuine like of her character from Dawn O'Porter, which put me firmly on her side throughout, even when she made questionable decisions.

The book explores the theme of Adverse Childhood Experiences and how that shapes the adult we become, with Mia and her sister experiencing the same childhood but responding to it in very different ways, which is a subject that fascinates me and I thought was handled sensitively.

Although it covers some dark subjects, the writing is light and easy to read, and I devoured it in two sittings.

Thought provoking, curious, slightly off kilter. Everything I've come to expect from a Dawn O'Porter read. She continues with her frustrating characters that you can't help but find compelling. Not my favourite of hers just because of the overall premise but still kept me interested.

Mia is an interesting main character. At first I found her to be a little odd and I couldn’t quite work her out, but as the story unfolded and I found about more about her past, I found her to be interesting and understood her more.

I wanted to read on and find out what would happen, but at times I found her humour to feel a little forced and not natural.

I’ve read and enjoyed some of
Dawn O’ Porters’ other books and I enjoy her online content, this is what drew me to Cat Lady rather than its synopsis. A lesson in the power of the synopsis as I didn't really enjoy a lot of this book.
There was enough humour within to keep me reading to the end and some genuinely funny lines but as a whole it’s a no from me.
Some elements seemed to be there in an attempt to shock but they fell flat for me. One night stands experimenting with S&M veering into an over sentimental twee ending, is unique I suppose.

Somewhat entertaining but not a memorable read and not one I would recommend.

Some of the book sparkled, more of it fell flat. I was more invested in the cat than Mia, the protagonist.

2 ⭐️⭐️

**Read an electronic copy of this, as well as listening to the audiobook**

I adore Dawn O'Porter - as a personality, and as a writer. I have read all of her books, and this one is up there for being one of my favs!
This book felt so cosy, and was just so immersive. The plot moves very quickly, and a lot happens - but its the characters that I cared about.
The book completely grabbed me, and I just loved reading about the trials and tribulations of Mia. I really felt for her, and could relate to her a lot (even though I'm most certainly not a cat lover, dogs only for me I'm afraid!)

I really enjoyed the author's previous novel So Lucky and so was looking forward to reading Cat Lady. I liked the concept of the novel, and it started off well. Mia works at a jewellery design company, is married to Tristan and is step mum to Oliver, but her most important relationship is with her cat Pigeon. Cat Lady was an easy read, and I was compelled to finish it but sadly I didn't particularly enjoy it. I couldn't connect with the characters and found the plot and characterisation a little forced. It also became too chaotic and ridiculous for me.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

𝗖𝗮𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝗱𝘆 - 𝗗𝗮𝘄𝗻 𝗢’𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿

𝗖𝗔𝗧 𝗟𝗔𝗗𝗬 [𝗻.]
𝙎𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙚, 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙯𝙮, 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙛, 𝙤𝙣-𝙩𝙝𝙚-𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙛, 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚 . . .
It’s safer for Mia to play the part that people expect. She’s a good wife to her husband Tristan, a doting stepmother, she slips on her suit for work each morning like a new skin.
But beneath the surface, there’s another woman just clawing to get out . . .
When a shocking event shatters the conventional life she’s been so careful to build, Mia is faced with a choice. Does she live for a society that’s all too quick to judge, or does she live for herself?
And if that’s as an independent woman with a cat, then the world better get ready . . .

Oh my god I loved this book so much! I read it in two days, a sure sign that I’ve loved a book.
As most of you know I’m a huge cat lover, my little Misty often pops up on here, so having the chance to read Cat Lady was very exciting.
Mia was a very relatable character, she’s portrayed in such a fantastic way that you’re rooting for her from the very beginning.
Dawn’s writing was so engaging and immersive, hilarious and emotional.
I really don’t want to spoil the story at all, I will just say that I hope everyone finds the book as wonderful as I did, and having read Cat Lady I am definitely going to be reading more of her work.
Cat Lady is out now!!

really like dawn o’porter as a woman and as an author, but i just don’t think the premise of this was entirely for me. i appreciated the greater message though!

Dawn O’Porter does it again. Another brilliant read which keeps you turning page after page even after you should be asleep! Real, raw, and so true to life!

I flew through this contemporary fiction book. Throughout the book there were admittedly many “what on earth am I reading” occasions but nonetheless the pages kept turning.

Cat Lady follows Mia, who lives in London with her husband, step-son and her beloved cat called Pigeon. Mia is successful at work, loves routine and avoids dealing with in-depth emotions and struggles to relate to those who are more emotionally open.

Without giving away the plot, Pigeon is the most important part of Mia’s life - offering comfort and consistency. Other people in Mia’s life struggle to understand the importance of Pigeon to Mia, primarily due to Mia’s inability to communicate and form deep relationships.

Through a phase of unfortunate events and questionable decisions Mia’s life seems to spiral out of control and Cat Lady is the story of this episode in Mia’s life.
This book is laugh out loud at times, unashamedly honest and real, and unlike any other popular fiction that I’ve read in a long time. It was refreshing to read about a successful and married 40+ female character who does not want or need children out of choice. The satirical representation of the city workplace throughout the book was not only relatable but at times appropriately funny and frustrating - in ways that the reader will often be able to relate to in their own places of work. I also enjoyed reading about a flawed protagonist who you can still support and want a positive outcome. I am not a cat person and you definitely don’t need to be a cat person to read this book.

At times some of Mia’s thoughts and actions did totally baffle me, which I believe is the intention of the author but for that reason some of the more chaotic moments probably knocked off a star in the rating.

I’m coming to realise that Dawn O’Porter is now a must-buy author for, since I’ve enjoyed the three I have read by her. As you’ll know from my page I’m more of a literary fiction lover than a contemporary fiction lover - but DO’P is definitely an exception to that norm!

I am a big fan of Dawn O’Porter and I’ve followed her for years since the early days of her documentary making. But I’ve actually not read her other books and so was grateful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this. And it did not disappoint! I am a massive cat fan so might be a bit biased here but the book really spoke to me and I related to it on a number of levels. I really liked Mia and was rooting for her from the beginning. The book is both hilarious and emotional and everything in between.

I really would recommend and I am straight off to read Dawn’s other work!

Could not get into this at all I’m afraid and gave up early on. Had I persevered, I may have enjoyed it but I really struggled with empathising with any of the characters. Also, there was a scene between the stepchild, stepmom and mother and Mothers Day falling on a school day, which come on, is a rather glaring and obvious error.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy of this book to review.

Mia is Tristan's wife, Oliver's step mum and the Managing Director of a jewellery design company. She met Tristan at a charity event. Mia has a cat called Pigeon and a frequent visitor called Belinda who is Tristan's ex-wife.

I absolutely adored this novel and it's one of my favourites of 2022. Morsels and pearls of humour tuck in neatly alongside some extremely hard-hitting themes. You'll be missing out in my opinion if you don't grab a copy of Dawn O'Porter's, Cat Lady.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from HarperCollins via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I absolutely loved this book. I was hooked straight away. I was fascinated by Mia and her ways. She had her routine and stuck to it and didn’t like those who didn’t keep to a schedule.

As we get more into the story she learn about Mia’s past it’s easy to understand the way she is.

I enjoyed reading the parts describing Mia and her cat Pigeons routines it was lovely. This book had me laughing, being angry and sad too.

I’ve not read any books by this author before but I will definitely read more in the future.