Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett Review

Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life—and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a much-needed cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for lost cats.
&nbsp

But after she is forced to move the cat shelter, Agnes learns that her new landlord is using her charity as a front—for an internationally renowned and thoroughly disreputable magic shop. Owned by the disorganized—not to mention self-absorbed, irritating, but also decidedly handsome—Havelock Renard, magician and failed Dark Lord, the shop draws magical clientele from around the world, partly due to the quality of Havelock’s illicit goods as well as their curiosity about his shadowy past and rumors of his incredible powers. Agnes's charity offers the perfect cover for illegal magics.
&nbsp

Agnes couldn’t care less about the shop—magical intrigue or not, there are cats to be rescued. But when an enemy from Havelock’s past surfaces, the magic shop—and more importantly, the cat shelter—are suddenly in jeopardy. To save the shelter, will Agnes have to set aside her social conscience and protect the man who once tried to bring about the apocalypse—and is now trying to steal her heart?

A charity owner who has trouble lying and cares too much, a dark magician who just wants to be left alone, a shop that smells like fresh pastries in the morning, and an endless variety of adorable cats. Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett feels like it was specially crafted to hit every cozy fantasy reader’s must-have’s checklist and to appease cat lovers. Yet outside of its obvious cat motif and well-pitched warm vibes, this book has a surprisingly solid urban fantasy story based around magical artifacts that’s good enough to appeal to SFF readers who are less enthusiastic about cats or the cozy fantasy genre (on Goodreads, 4.5 stars rounded down)

On paper, this book has all the cards stacked against it for my personal reading tastes. Cozy fantasy tends to be very hit or miss for me if they’re too low stakes or directionless, I am not a cat person (I’m a dog guy in addition to both my Mom and my late dog being allergic to them), and I’m not a vibe reader, instead gravitating towards books with strong narratives or character work. Perhaps the nicest thing I can say about Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter is that against all odds and its main selling points, I liked it! This book is very well suited for readers that love cozy fantasy stories, many fans already listing Fawcett’s popular Emily Wilde series as a hallmark example for the genre. While I had issues with that one and found it tonally inconsistent, I could tell that she was a good author despite my apathy towards the book. In this one, the different moving pieces and vision really came together in a satisfying and cohesive manner while also having better crossover appeal thanks to some surprisingly flashy and bursts of fantasy combat that some may find unexpected given its marketing and synopsis.

Starting with the main reason most readers are interested in this book, the cats. Set in Montreal in the 1910’s, opinions towards stray cats are not what they are today which makes Agnes Aubert’s cat shelter charity considerably more difficult to stay afloat. In a city that has too many stray cats facing wintery weather that can be deadly, she’s faced with constant stress and worry that she’s never doing enough to save the cats that have nowhere else to go. Her character serves as a great proxy for any reader who’s a cat lover, always putting the wellbeing of the cats before herself while also demonstrating knowledge and expertise taking care of and matching them with prospective new owners. Fawcett’s visual descriptions and portrayals of a rotating group of cats are varied, though there are a few notable recurring ones including the mischievous and commanding His Majesty and the socially unaware and off-beat Banshee who is somehow always in the middle of things. From finding cats on the street, taking care of them in her charity shop, to cat shenanigans and mild mischief, the cats are at the front of the story and are well represented throughout the book. All of the key scenes and story elements are all tied to Agnes’s cat charity survival where the odds are stacked against it.

Given that cats are often seen as a nuisance at best, to dirty and disease-ridden vermin at worst, Agnes is in a bind after she’s forced to find a new location for her charity shop after her last location is severely damaged by magicians running amok and dueling in the streets. Finding it impossible to find any landlord willing to rent their space for a cat shelter, let alone one that she and her sister Elise can afford on a charity budget, Agnes’s only option is a mysterious and ominous empty shop located on a busy street that is not only spacious, but includes a moderately lavish apartment unit upstairs for a suspicious low rent. And her dire circumstances are what leads her to sharing a tenant space with Havelock Renard, a magician and infamous figure feared for attempting to bring on the apocalypse three years ago. While Agnes tries her best to keep her charity going, Havelock is in the business of buying/selling/creating magical artifacts infused with powers which magicians can use to cast spells and abilities.

While the cat shelter is cozy enough, Agnes’s character wants nothing to do with magic and in fact even has a mild grudge against magicians after the loss of her charity’s last location and narrowly avoiding the apocalypse. Against her wishes, Havelock and the various magical artifacts present are where the book’s fantasy genre comes in. Interestingly, this book’s fantasy story felt like a cozified hybrid of Gareth Brown’s Book of Doors and the Society of Unknown Objects which were both books I enjoyed to varying degrees, Agnes Albert’s Mystical Cat Shelter ironically falling somewhere in between the two. While not overly action-packed or intense given its cozy fantasy intent, this book has an unexpectedly good urban fantasy story that revolves around possessing these magical artifacts and the search for said famed book created by a legendary and powerful magician. Havelock and a dangerous rival who believes he has the book of power quarrel though warding and fortification vs breaking and entering the shop, all while poor Agnes wants none of it who believes the presence of magicians will scare away potential customers.

Fortunately for her, both Agnes and Havelock are consistently fun characters to read about who share a lot of fun banter and have great platonic chemistry potentially turning into something more. Cat lovers will automatically empathize with Agnes’s plight, but her character also can be very appealing due to her inability and uncomfortableness with lying or deception, even when it’s necessary. Her shyness with talking to strangers, unless it’s concerning the cats which she’s passionate about and her frustration with the magicians always making a scene are key traits that I think a lot of introverted readers will find very relatable. Following the loss of her husband two years prior to the start of the book, her character also explores grief in a casual but wholesome manner which is thankfully not tossed out the window when she crosses paths with Havelock, his attractive yet quirky features be damned. Havelock on the other hand is also a character that’s very likable, really just an inventive and inquisitive young man who just wants to be left alone to work on his artifacts.

One important point worth noting, I do think certain marketing blurbs and reviews try too hard to push or shoehorn popular tropes into the book that just aren’t there, leading to potentially off or disappointing expectations. I’ve seen some people describe their dynamics as enemies-to-lovers and grumpy x sunshine which I just don’t see, if anything it being more like opposite opinions on magic and mild bafflement of each other’s interests. Agnes Aubert is far from a sunshine character, their pairing being more like an organized and meticulous responsible figure x tired disheveled and mildly chaotic source of mayhem. The romance is also chaste, sweet and very light to the point where I would barely even consider it a fantasy romance. It’s a nice supporting element to the main story but is otherwise quite subtle.

Though limited and brief, the magical fights are quite good and there’s a lot of mysterious intrigue as Agnes works her way around these artifacts. While the first half of the book mostly covers her cat shelter operation and her limited exploration of her new location, the second half of the book gradually raises the stakes and intensity which becomes quite compelling for an otherwise cozy read. I’ve heard some cozy fantasy fans negatively criticize that the back-half of the story loses the cozy feel or pivots in a direction they did not enjoy, however I disagree with those sentiments and feel that the ending is what takes a pleasant but forgettable book about cats to a noteworthy subgenre example. The slow building of the fantasy elements relating to the magicians’ origins and bond with a parallel forested magical world paired with the growing conflict around the power artifacts feels purposeful and planned, which I found to be a considerable improvement to Emily Wilde whose last act felt out of place from the rest of the book.

Adding to the cozy appeal, another one of the book’s best assets is its wonderful ambiance and magical visuals (I mean that in the shimmery manner, not literally magical though that also applies here). I spoke highly of it in my review for Emily Wilde, but Fawcett has a knack for setting scenes well, a nice balance of visuals and feel to compliment notable moments in the story. Set during the colder months in Montreal which is known for blustery snowy weather, this book features many enchanted snowfall scenes that contrast the dark and mysterious feel of Agnes’s new shop and its unexplored basement levels. Depictions of the magician’s dark forest world, smells of freshly baked pastries, and Havelock’s own abode also feature well-crafted sensory descriptions that add to the story. It goes without saying that between its Fall/Winter setting and the imbued warm vibes, this book makes the perfect snowy or rainy day read that only adds to the coziness factor.

While this can be an amazing read for cozy fantasy readers, my one critique is that the first-half of the book can be a bit slow, dry, and directionless at times. The cats are more than enough to carry the story but for those that aren’t huge cat people, the book can sometimes feel like it’s dragging until Havelock is introduced almost one hundred pages in (I had the identical sentiment with Emily Wilde until Bambleby came in). Even after he’s included, the fantasy side of the book feels like a bit lacking until the half-way point when it improves substantially.

Another notable but less critical nitpick is that I often felt like the book was holding back or being narratively restrained in order to maintain its cozy fantasy intent and appeal. This book has a lot of strong narrative material such as Agnes’s grief for her late husband Robin who served as her support system and her conflicted interest in Havelock only a few years later. Havelock’s falling out with his sister and the public opinions of his attempt at the apocalypse are interesting storylines that are quickly brushed over and explored quite casually. The darker elements involving the magicians’ true beings, loss of sanity in the forested world, and their intrinsic link to magic are kept very light and sparce despite being quite serious and grave in concept. I felt like this story had all the right ideas to take it from an above average fantasy book to a standout favorite beyond its subgenre if it went further, often falling short or mellowing itself out for the sake of playing it safe and cozy. This is perhaps most noticeable with the book’s ending that feels overly convenient, rose-tinted, perfectly happily ever after set, cutting multiple corners and details to get there. An important scene involving the crowd outside Agnes’s shop and the changing political policies during an upcoming legislative session in particular veered out of sweet and into comically saccharine territory. It’s lovely for sensitive readers but a little frustrating to me for how close it is to being amazing, especially since it feels like conscious narrative choices to fit the genre rather than limitations due to writing skills or flawed conceptualization.

Warm, pleasant, charming, and of course filled with lots of cats, Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter fully lives up to its promise to be a cozy fantasy reader’s wintery safe space. Featuring a solid story that highlights both the cat shelter and fantasy elements well, this is a very accessible book that appeals to both cozy readers as well as more traditional SFF fans. Additionally, this book features Fawcett’s signature atmospheric writing style while also more casual for those that found Emily Wilde to be scholastic-heavy or aloof, and is a comfortably easy read. And while I had some minor nitpicks with some of the narrative details, the fact that I quite enjoyed this book despite not being a cat person nor a cozy reader is really a success!