Cleo is a willfully aloof college student with an impossible secret. When she meets Wes, a brooding musician, at a Halloween party, their connection is instant, electric, and impossible to ignore. Their romance takes a mystical turn when Wes discovers what Cleo’s been hiding: sometimes she takes the form of his pet cat.
Enter Bailey and Ollie—their magical counterparts—who reveal a deeper tie between Cleo and Wes: he’s a witch, and she’s his familiar. As past secrets collide with their entangled present, Cleo faces her greatest fear—losing Wes. With long-gone threats returning and danger looming, Cleo must confront her role in their dark and violent shared history and decide if she’s willing to fight for their future. (Pub Date: Sep 22 2026)
This... really wasn't for me.
Sometimes I need to pay more attention to the summary because I get a book to read, because I have this feeling that my biggest problem with this book was that it's the wrong genre.
So I'm rating it 2.5 and rounding it up.
Cleo can turn into a cat called Cat. Though they're not different people, their bodies make them work differently depending on what she'd turned into, and it's as if they live in different worlds. Until one night they collapse. She meets the guy who's been keeping Cat, and the attraction is mutual and strong. So strong, they end up vulnerable to a pair of a witch and her familiar, a dog who can also turn into a human man. But also vulnerable to each other and the secrets they keep.
This book had around three moments, first it's a (creepy) romance between a guy and his cat... Sorry, I still can't unsee this. She'd been his cat for over a year, and now he's in love with her? I know they meet as humans too without him knowing Cleo is Cat, but it's uncomfortable to read. And then we enter the supernatural part when the duo shows up and the romance becomes a love triangle (or quartet), or really some Warner teenager series. And while neither of these arcs get any resolution, suddenly we had a demon, and past lives, and pacts—we actually get battles in the book.
I'm not just rounding up it up 3 stars because I was wrong getting a book from a genre I don't like (whatever the genre really is), but because this actually has layers. It's not just some weird monster romance or dark romance. I'm not even sure if it is a romance, considering that gets lost a bit already into the second act. It's a book that will surprise you for better or for worse, and I loved the intention, the idea behind, even all that crazy backstory.
What I really didn't like is how convoluted it came to be. Mixing genres is okay and can be a big win for a book, but you need more control of your storytelling, which I think lacked here. I was confused about what the point of the story was until I was nearer the end, so it's back to is this a steamy and dark romance, is this some adventure to find out about the past and about how to use superpowers/spells, or is this a soft horror story? Maybe it's even coming of age? I wasn't sure what my focus should have been, so each time I started creating expectations they'd turn up to be not important after all. I didn't like the feeling, making it hard to connect with the plot. Looking back, I'd read it as if this were a coming of age horror story.
It's an easy book to read but be ready for some crazy stuff.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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