Publisher Blurb: Pastry chef Brad Marks is the new hot thing at the Whitman Street Cat Café; he makes tasty treats for both the human and feline guests at the café. All the patrons love him, and freelance writer Lindsay Somers understands why; five years ago, she was smitten by his charms too—until Brad broke her heart. Lindsay is happy with her new gig at a trendy weekly magazine, but when her boss assigns her to do a story on the cat café, she's thrown back into Brad's orbit yet again...

Ah this one was so cute! I saw some horrible reviews, but I loved it so much. It was light and sweet and everything I want in a nice rom-com. While I feel that this one did drag at times, overall, it was a pleasant read – it just could have been better if it were 50-100 pages shorter. In the middle there was a lot of dialogue that didn’t really add to anything. I especially enjoyed this one being sat in a cat-café and learning all about the adorable kitties that inhabited it.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca, @sourcebookscasa, for my e-copy in exchange for this honest review. Check this one out December 6th if you’re in the mood for a fantastic second chance rom-com!

This was new to me author. I’m not the biggest fan of second chance romances. This one was ok. I really did like the cafe and the cats!! The cover is also cute! I think there was a lot of miscommunication between the MC’s and the fact Lindsay is really open to her feelings. She’s had a lot of emotional trauma. She just wasn’t as likable to me as I had hoped. Brad is sweet but also has some baggage. I think this book has some cute elements though! And it may work better for someone else:)

CHASING YOUR TAIL – Kate McMurray
Whitman Street Cat Café, Book 3
Sourcebooks Casablanca
ISBN: 9781-7285-1460-3
December 6, 2022
Contemporary Romance

New York City – Present Day

Pastry chef Brad Marks is the talk of the Brooklyn neighborhood. He just started working at the Whitman Street Cat Café making not only pastries for customers but also making cat treats for the cats that roam the café. Everyone loves him and his treats, but one particular customer (and best friend to the owner) doesn’t. Lindsay Somers dated Brad years ago, but they split up after she caught him cheating on her. As a restaurant reviewer, she needs to do a write-up on the café’s goodies, but will talking to Brad be hard for her? Seeing Brad again leaves Lindsay with mixed feelings.

During their interview about the café, Brad insists to Lindsay that he never cheated on her. The woman he had his lips locked with that day had surprised him and he suspected that it was a setup to break them up. Lindsay has problems with infidelity after watching her father cheat on her mother, so it’s understandable that she wouldn’t want any man of hers to cheat. The article Lindsay writes for her publication on the café goes viral, bringing in even more business. Meanwhile, she continues to visit the café and run into Brad. Before one can blink an eye, they are kissing and hitting the bedroom. Is a reunion in store for our couple, or will her lack of trust come between them?

Brad and Lindsay went to cooking school together, which is where their relationship began. But after their breakup, they went on to take different paths. Brad worked for a restaurant and finally left that for the chance to start up something different by creating cat treats at the Whitman Street Cat Café. Lindsay tried to work in a restaurant but didn’t like it. For the past several years she has worked as a restaurant reviewer, though the job is tenuous at best. As Brad and Lindsay get reacquainted, they have to learn to deal with what happened in the past. Trust can only be earned, not given.

CHASING YOUR TAIL is the third book in the Whitman Street Cat Café series by Kate McMurray. Readers who remember Lauren, Paige, and Evan from the first two books will love getting caught up with them. Lauren and Paige are part of the café while Evan is their gay friend who works down the street. At first, Lindsay hates the idea of running into Brad but soon they are comfortable with each other, though anytime she sees a woman talk to him, there is a flare of jealousy. The cats are mostly in the background, as the story centers around the adults. Even if you haven’t read the other books in the series, you can easily read CHASING YOUR TAIL. With plenty of fun banter and entertaining antics, this tale will keep readers engrossed. The biggest question is whether Lindsay and Brad will finally find happiness together.

CHASING YOUR TAIL is a cute, sexy, and fun tale that I highly recommend. Be sure to put this at the top of your book shopping list.

Patti Fischer

If you like food, cats, friends, and second chance romances, then crack open this book. Lindsay and Brad had a bad break up. Lindsay has a lot of issues and Brad wants to get back together. After five years they’re in close contact and it’s time for a major reassessment.
People like to play it safe. But sometimes one has to shake things up, both personally and professionally.
Chasing your Tail is also about chasing your dreams.

I don’t know why but I found some parts of this book pretty lengthy, especially the parts where the scene is just narrated or the character’s thoughts are narrated, and that made it kind of hard to get through. BUT…it was certainly a real life romance. Although there were funny parts, the way that the relationship between Brad and Lindsay was depicted in a really realistic way made this book hit me more. Although I didn’t feel the heart racing rush, I did feel this warm, good feeling in my heart whenever I’d highlight my favorite lines. Plus, there were adorable cats involved that just made the book cuter and food was a main highlight so I just got hungry while reading (which is good and fun haha). Technically, I’m giving this book a 3.6-3.7 but since I can’t show that in my rating, I placed a four.

This is book 3 in the Whitman Street Cat Cafe series but can certainly be read as a stand alone (I haven’t read the first two). Lindsay is a food writer who’s best friend owns the cat cafe. Said best friend hires Lindsay’s ex, Brad, to be the new pastry chef. Lindsay is still mad about their breakup, but Brad misses her and hopes to win her back.

This was a solid second chance romance. I enjoyed the friendships as well. Lindsay’s group of friends were loyal and honest and fun characters. I enjoyed the flashbacks to her and Brad’s original relationship but wish they would have been placed in separate chapters because it felt a little disjointed sometimes. Other than that, it was a cute, quick read!

Publication Date: December 6, 2022
Contemporary Romance

Five years ago, Mark broke Lindsay’s heart. Fast forward to the future when he takes a job as a pastry chef at her best friend’s cat café, Mark reenters Lindsay’s orbit and the two are forced to face their unresolved conflict and feelings.

The following review contains spoilers but I can’t really avoid that in order to convey my thoughts.

Second chance romance isn’t exactly my favourite trope but it can work for me. In order to do so, there needs to be genuine moments where one (and the other depending if we get multiple POVs which is the case here) have a reason to change their feelings towards the other. From the first time Mark sees Lindsay again he wants to clear the air about what really happened the night they broke up. Yet, the two are meeting in a professional setting so when he keeps making remarks about how he wants it to get personal I started suffering from second hand embarrassment. I nearly died when he tried to end the conversation thinking that asking her back to his place was a great idea.

Then the two encounter each other again and agree that clearing the air would probably be good. What would have been good was clearing the air at a coffee shop A restaurant? A mall? Somewhere with witnesses. Not going back to his apartment where you inevitably had sex immediately following 5 years of pent up anger towards him. It is obvious in a romance that the characters will end up together so reading a romance isn’t really about the end result but the journey we take in getting there. The rekindling of their romance just didn’t feel like a natural progression of conflict and associated feelings and I as a reader wanted to hide from the plot itself.

Lindsay had experienced a lot of emotional trauma as a result of her father’s adultery and was projecting onto Mark which was incredibly frustrating. To the point that I wanted to sit Lindsay down on my couch and start asking “well how did that make you feel?” Aside from both of them sharing a passion for cooking I’m also not really sure what the attraction between the two was.

I DNF’d halfway because the pacing didn’t work for me and I cared more about the stray cats in the café then I did the characters.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

good book and really enjoyed the characters and their journey. I liked the romance.. I enjoyed how the characters grew in the book and what happened.

3.5 stars
This was an ok read. I found Brad and Lindsey interesting characters and enjoyed reading their story. For the most part I liked both characters and understood where they were coming from. I loved the friends’ relationships that they both have. The premise was very interesting. I loved the cat café and the cats, they added to the fabric of the story. The epilogue was the best – getting to see the couple in their HEA and where their careers ended up, was greatly appreciated.

I wanted more from the romance than what we got. The story felt more about the friends and Lindsey’s career than it did about the actual romance between Brad and Lindsey. Yes, they were on page together, but for most of the story she kept pushing him away. I was tripped up a few times by the names – Lindsey (heroine) and Lauren (best friend).

I read this book as a stand-alone and didn’t feel like I was missing anything.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Chasing Your Tail is a nice second chance romance. Food writer Lindsay Somers has been avoiding her ex for years. When he takes a job at her friends cat cafe she has to decide if she can forgive and forget. The story starts off well as we get to know Lindsay and Brad and this issues that caused their break up years ago. The foodie world is interesting to read about and I liked the setting of the book because of it. I had a hard time connecting with Lindsay through out the story. I found her stubborn and unreasonable at times. However, the book is well written and the author creates a situation where both Lindsay and Brad have to grow and mature to make this relationship work.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the arc. This is my honest review

I unfortunately am coming away from this with a not so great opinion. First off, the writing was tough, between the pacing and the repetitiveness, which to me are two of the most important aspects, I had to push myself through. On top of that and more than anything I found the characters incredibly unlikeable. They felt immature and just not right for each other, the chemistry was off I guess you could say. I really wanted to like this but it just had too many faults against it.

I had such high hopes for this one given it's a second chance romance and I love those! Unfortunately, I was let down by the overall story and found the character motivation to be unbelievable and lacking. The characters lacked chemistry and depth. Sadly, this was a complete miss and overall disappointing.

This book was entirely forgettable. I remember some minor irritant scenes in which I felt things were contrived or even mean-spirited. Not a recommendation from me.

After reading the blurb over on NetGalley, I immediately, at first, put in a request to read this novel. At first glance at the blurb alone, it had the draw and appeal in what I like to read in a book. Mainly, romance and humour. Of course, there was the added bonus of second chance love with the main characters, Brad and Lindsay. All three elements promised a truly enjoyable read, but did those promises deliver?

The answer is yes and no.

From a personal perspective, I struggled to get in-tune with this novel. I wasn't gripped from the get-go like I usually am, and I had to plow on through to see if there would be a moment within that would redeem the slower than usual start. There was, but it was towards the latter end of the novel by which point I assume other readers would have DNF'd. Of course, each other writes the story they want to write, how they want to write it, and that is simply what has been done here. I greatly respect Kate's choice in doing her own thing the way she wanted to do it to tell the story, but it hasn't resonated with readers this time around, it seems.

One element that I would like to praise Kate on, which others seem to have done the opposite, is the character of Lindsay. Lindsay is a character full of insecurities, anxieties and most of all, trust issues. This was a hard no for a lot of readers, as after she on several occasions was posed with the truth and opportunities to clear the air, still had doubts and did not open herself to trust Brad. Usually within romance novels, at the first time of begging to be trusted or opportunity to clear the air, the woman has immediately forgiven the man, they'd kiss and usually end up in bed together. Lindsay and her issues represent some of us in society who have been through the wringer, several times, and openly show that they're nervous to trust again for various reasons. I loved this realistic representation of some of us women, rather than the romanticised version often portrayed in romance novels. The trick is with people and characters like Lindsay, is to not give up when things seem tough or 'too much'. We're worth pursuing and not giving up on, and I applaud Kate for not creating a character that would simply fall at a man's feet.

Speaking of our main man, Brad has the patience of a saint. Sure, he thinks about giving up on Lindsay when after several attempts, she's still hesitant to trust, but he deep down knew that she was worth it and all that the two of them went through over the course of this novel. Brad is an ideal book boyfriend, and deserves a medal for putting the past behind him, staying the course and staying true to himself.

Chasing Your Tail has promise to be a truly enjoyable read. If there was another version of this book down the line, I would recommend wrapping up Lindsay's decision maybe a bit earlier than what is currently available, and to perhaps include a bit more of a wrapped up--less rushed--ending before the epilogue. Other than that, this wasn't a bad read but could be improved.

3.5 stars.

*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

*This review will contain minor spoilers*

"Chasing Your Tail" is a story about two people who absolutely should not be in a relationship trying to be in a relationship with each other. As much as I wanted to love this book, it frequently made me incredibly angry.

The behaviour of both main characters was at times immature and at others deeply unforgiveable. Lindsay was unwilling to work on her relationship with Brad to the point of immaturity. Girl, if you can never trust him (or any other man by the sounds of it) you need a) therapy and b) some time alone to work on yourself. Lindsay is best summed up by this sentence from Brad's perspective, "He'd stepped in it and pissed her off. She was going to make him pay for it the entire meal." Lindsay is MEAN to Brad. Broken trust is one thing, but at heart her character is a mean girl. At one point Brad thinks, "He [is] tired of her scraps," and yet he keeps begging her to give him a chance while she punishes him for his mistakes! The scene where they go out for dinner to review a new restaurant and he makes the mistake of being friendly with the chef was a real turning point for how I viewed this book.

But that doesn't mean Brad is better. He's trying to win back this girl, who he claims is "The One", but openly tells her he is still going to flirt with other people but since he is coming home to her and choosing her she has to be okay with it. He isn't attempting to correct the behaviour that made her not trust him in the first place.

I also found the casual homophobia/transphobia from Brad's dad to be really jarring. The way it was written in made me uncomfortable and was not dealt with in a sensitive way. It actually almost felt like the author condoned that sort of thinking because it was so casually inserted and not in a way that ever really condemned it past saying "pastry chefs can be straight, cis men too!"

The overall book also needed some work. The pacing was off, it got super repetitive, and there were some continuity errors that left me confused. Namely, Lindsay sitting out a taping for a cooking show because she is 'violently allergic' to lobster, then reminiscing on her and Brad getting lobster rolls when they were students. In general, many of the plot choices left me confused (i.e. them 'banging it out' at 35%) and I didn't find it an enjoyable read.

A dnf. It just wasn't for me and I made a decision last year that there are too many books out there to read to make myself read a book I don't enjoy. There is nothing wrong with the book and I recommend you give it a try but it just wasn't a moment for me.

I had high hopes for a romance novel featuring cats. Alas...

This was a boring second-chance romance. The reasons the couple broke up in the first place were thin, and other than them saying that they hadn't gotten over the other fully in the intervening five years, it's unclear based on their interactions why they would want to be together again. No real chemistry between any of the characters, except maybe the hero and an orange tabby.

Brad Marks is the talk of the town as the pastry chef at the Whitman Street Cat Cafe in Brooklyn. He not only makes sinful treats humans but also for the feline patrons. Everyone seems to love him and he’s easy on the eyes too.
Lindsay Somers understands the appeal. After all, five years ago he was the love of her life - until he broke her heart. She was in the same class as him in culinary school and she blames him for her quitting cooking and heading towards just writing about it. She’s happy at her job as a food critic, but now she has to interview him. That’s an interview she can’t say no to, as it not will really boost the cafe. To make things worse, the cafe is run by her best friend - the “traitor” who hired Brad in the first place.
I really thought I was going to love this one. It’s about chefs, it’s set in NYC, it’s a about a cat cafe and it’s a second chance romance. Alas, that didn’t happen. The whole book feels like a third act conflict for a book I didn’t read and was supposed to. I totally didn’t buy the “strong” reason for the break-up and after a while Lindsay was just repetitive and annoying.
As the reason for the break-up was not that horrible, there was also no reason for any groveling, which is the staple of a good second chance romance. You kinda root for Brad to be honest.
The way everything is magically resolved in the end felt a little forced too, especially after so many chapters of this “I can neither forgive nor forget” song and dance.
It had amazing potential as a romance, but as it is, it’s just a good book for foodies.
Rep and possible triggers: several secondary characters are queer. Homophobic comments towards main character due to his choice of profession, toxic family relationships, mentions of cheating

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you @NetGalley for the advance copy.

I really thought a book that involved a cat cafe and a second chance at love (one of my favorite tropes) would be right up my alley. Unfortunately I just wasn't a fan of Chasing Your Tail. I struggled to like Lindsay, and not even how much I liked Brad's character could make me enjoy the book because I was constantly rolling my eyes at HER!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc, but this just wasn't for me.

This was enjoyable enough but the fmc was really annoying. She was clearly in love with Brad the whole time but would never open up about it. He was putting in all the effort and she was not reciprocating at all.

I received an arc through netgalley.