Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

This book was….fine. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it, I’m a bit indifferent. The MCs weren’t very like able and I didn’t believe in their love to be honest. I don’t think there was enough of a focus on them growing to love each other. It felt like they had 5 terrible to decent interactions and boom love.

How much you enjoy this will depend on how you feeling fake dating, miscommunication and cats! Charity and Will have a hot (ahem) encounter while on vacation but things didn't work out at home thanks to something Charity overheard Will saying. Now, though she's using him as a fake boyfriend to avoid efforts by her parents to set her up. We all know how this is going to work out but Gary does a nice job with her characters. And there are cats! Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I missed the first book but this was fine as a standalone.

This book was a quick, cute read. I didn't realize it was the second in a series butI will definitely be going back to read the first!

2 stars.

Codi Gary's "Finding Mr. Purrfect" is the follow-up to her book "A Cat Cafe Christmas." I have similar feelings about this title that I did to its predecessor. I found this book to be frustrating, devoid of chemistry, and annoying to finish. In fact, I almost DNFed it several times. This book falls flat in almost every aspect. Gary fails to capture the attention of her readers at nearly every turn. All of the relationships feel forced, even between the returning Kara and Ben from the first book. None of the characters have any chemistry, romantic or otherwise. Seriously, there isn't a drop of romance between the main characters, Charity and Will. All they do is fight, and not in a "cute" way. Their arguments and fights are ugly, full of miscommunication and misunderstanding... they are fights that, if I got into one of them with my partner, I'd probably think good and long and hard about my relationship status and whether this person was right for me! GO TO THERAPY BEFORE YOU GET INTO A RELATIONSHIP!!!!!!!! Even the friendships between Ben and Will and Kara and Charity feel surface-level and unnatural. All of the secondary characters are literally the worst people you'll ever encounter???? Like why would I want to read about these people (LOL???)????? Charity's parents are THE WORST: they are cold, calculating, misogynistic, fat-shaming pieces of work, and that's before (spoiler alert) is uncovered and we're supposed to feel bad for XYZ person (spoiler again!). Will's sister is annoying, Will's mom is a piece of work, Charity's siblings have no purpose being there... what!

There are a lot of moving parts to this story, far too many for a simple fake dating/enemies-to-lovers romp. Off the top of my head, I can think of 15 different plot points, several of which are half-cocked and unnecessary to the story as a whole. Like, the baking show thing? It's mentioned two or three times throughout the story, and then it all of a sudden becomes the focal point at the end of the book out of nowhere!

Also, are we just going to casually gloss over how Will attempts to out his sister to their mom to deflect from his own messed up problems and take any heat off of him and his misdeeds????? In the year 2023/2024, we're still writing plot points about outing people????? YUCK! This rubbed me the wrong way and I almost dropped the book right then, but this happened closer to the end of the story, so I stuck it out. I probably should have DNFed. This plot point also feels like it's there simply to check a diversity box. The author doesn't go into this topic at all other than surface-level mentioning of it. Ew, I hate that!

Reading this book honestly made me anxious and annoyed, and I felt really crappy when it was over. I couldn't delete it from my Kindle fast enough. I likely won't be reading any other Codi Gary books because I don't find them to be very good or good for my mental health.

Thank you to NetGalley, Codi Gary, and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

Finding Mr. Purrfect was cute and had one of my favorite tropes (fake dating), but fell a bit flat for me. Overall I did enjoy it though!

This was ok but slightly off for me and I can’t figure out why. The relationships seemed a bit u comfortable and forced and the family dynamics were very irritating. Overall not a bad read just also not a great read.

2.5 stars unfortunately rounded down. I enjoyed A Cat Cafe Christmas, the prequel to Finding Mr. Purrfect, because it was cute and sweet, and unfortunately, this one wasn't as cute or sweet and was just more annoying.

Finding Mr. Purrfect picks up right after A Cat Cafe Christmas. As an aside, this is not billed as the sequel, but I think this one would make way more sense if you've read A Cat Cafe Christmas. Will and Charity, respective best friends of Ben and Kara who are newly together, end up in Mexico together for a week-long vacation, and after a week of mostly avoiding each other, they have a magical New Year's Eve night and end up sleeping together. And here's where the first annoying thing happens: Charity overhears Will on the phone with Ben, and Will says something like "no, we're just friends," which upsets Charity because she thought there was something between the two of them. Charity confronts Will, and he explains that he didn't mean it, but he just wanted to talk to Charity before telling Ben anything. Is this ideal? No, but Will is honest about it and clear that he doesn't think of Charity as "just a friend." Charity doesn't buy his reasoning, and is mad at him for like 5 chapters after this. Which was annoying. Will explained himself, and although maybe it wasn't the right thing to do, it felt genuine when he told Charity that he did have feelings for her.

From there, it just continues to be dramatic and chaotic. There's the plot line about Charity's family: her parents have never really been supportive of her (think Emily and Richard Gilmore), and they're actively cold and harsh toward her. Her parents also keep trying to set her up with people, which is how Will and Charity end up fake dating as a ploy to get her parents off her back. But not before they introduce her to Chris, who continues to pursue Charity even after she says she's dating Will??? He says he is okay and just wants to be friends with her, but it just feels weird to have him stick around for such a long time and continue to invite Charity to things.

Then there's Will's lingering trauma from growing up living paycheck to paycheck and being very worried about money to the point that he... doesn't want to get married because he doesn't want to be financially tied to someone. Like he's never heard of separate bank accounts. The resolution to this plot line is also extremely rushed and unsatisfying.

And there's the plot line where Charity is selected to be a contestant on a baking show. This plot line is half-baked (pun very intended). It doesn't start until maybe 60% through the book, and it's not super clear what the rules of the show are or what's happening. It all happens quickly, very little actual baking is mentioned, and there's an actual villain on the show, which feels weird for his villain-ness to be such a short plot point.

I feel mixed about the Jewish rep in this story -- Will is Jewish, and there are some pretty funny casual moments I appreciated, like when Charity's father asks Will to say grace at a family dinner and he politely declines. But, I would have appreciated more actual Jewish rep instead of just a few funny moments and his mom constantly asking him about grandkids.

It wasn't all bad, though. The scenes in the cat cafe are still cute, and there are a few sweet plot points that advance the success of the cat cafe and vet clinic. I also read it in ~24 hours. But the more I think about it, the less I like it and the more frustrated I feel about it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for providing me with an eARC of Finding Mr. Purrfect in exchange for my honest review.

This is a straightforward contemporary romance with family drama and a fake dating storyline. It’s a pleasant read with low stakes and low conflict.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

I’m an adult looking at this book through the lens of lived experience and real-life questions.

First, I enjoyed the book. Will and Charity were fun to read. Will was a schmoozer, a charmer, a little fake, but in a fun way. He learned to be more real with Charity. Charity has walls up and is super defensive, butters that down with Will. They become friends. Charity develops feelings, Will develops fear, but to be fair, he was clear from the beginning. And the book goes on. I won’t spoil.

I appreciate that this book features a mixed race couple who have different religions, but there is never much impact with either of these. It might as well be a white Protestant couple. Except for the cover of the book, the first time I truly became aware in the text that the main character is African American is when her father enters a room and the author inserts his description. This makes it seem almost like an afterthought - maybe a category decision of “Oooh let’s call this BiPoc”. When the parents start confessing at the dinner table, I thought we might get something about how hard he had to work to become a Black Judge, but nope. Or how hard she had to work to stand out as a black woman /black wife in society and that’s why she was so body conscious. Nope. Will is Jewish- what? We see zero evidence of this until it’s thrown in that his mom might find it nice if his future wife was also Jewish but no pressure. Shouldn’t there be a “show, don’t tell” moment in the story to emphasize that their religion actually is important to them if it’s important enough for Charity to convert, beyond the awkward quiz that Will’s mom gave?

Will’s mother who was ill- poor research. All over body pain= me thinking immediate rheumatoid arthritis. If I think it, physicians immediately would test for it. It’s not a mystery ailment. And a recommendation of immediate retirement before even trying medical intervention? I can’t see it. If it came to that, a person would try for medical disability wouldn’t they, since she doesn’t actually have retirement?

How does Will all of sudden get over his hangups? Life long problems and look how he dumped all that on his mom. He just thinks on it and then bam he’s over it?

But - like I said, I did enjoy reading it. If I was editing another go on the book, I would take care of the above and make it five stars. As it is, I give it 3.5. That rounds to a 4.

I have to say that I enjoyed the first book in the series but this one wasn't my favorite. This book fell flat for me. I didn't really enjoy the main characters Charity and Ben. Charity's family was annoying and demanding. I'm not a fan of the fake dating trope. I don't think I was in the right type of mood for this book.

Tropes: fake dating and enemies to lovers.

I was really hoping to like this one since I enjoyed the first, but I couldn't get into their romance. It felt very one-sided for this hatred between the characters and that never works for me. The FMC wasn't a character I liked much, but I did understand her struggles with the drama that surrounded her family. The cover is very adorable though since I love cats!

This was a great read for me! I thought Charity and and Will's fake dating scheme was so fun. I loved getting to watch the character growth for both of them with their families and their jobs! Definitely was a sweet romance, however the "we can't be together" complex was a little annoying for me,

Charity and Will spend time together as their best friends are dating. They aren't what each other think the want. I liked how it was told from each point of view. Hope there are more books in this series.

“Charity Simmons removed her gloves and tossed them into the nearest trash can, surveying the trays of square cookies she’d been prepping all morning.” Here are reasons to read the Contemporary book:

Cafe Universe - taking place in the same universe as Cat Cafe Christmas, we follow Kara’s friend charity
“Solo” Vacation - who is vacation by herself, kind of, in Mexico after Kara and her boyfriend Ben decide to cancel and go to his family’s house for Christmas
The best Friend - She is not totally alone, since Ben’s best friend Will is also there, bu Charity avoids him due to his supposed womanizing ways
Baking Show - besides she has a lot to keep busy with including the cafe expansion and a baking show competition that will give them the funds to do it

So unfortunately my reasons to read doesn’t give me enough room to talk about everything from this book. The baking competition is not the highlight, so don’t go into it for that. There is a fake dating trope and it’s nice to spend time with Kara and Ben again. If you read Cat Cafe Christmas, you remember how each chapter started with a cat description, but in this one it’s a cat themed bakery treat or drink. Still so cute and such a fun romantic read!

As a cat lover, I knew I had to read this book. It is the second book in a series about a Cat Cafe, but it can be read as a standalone. This one dives into the Charity's life, a baker at the cat cafe with her friend Kara. I loved the baking, the cats, the family members and Will the man that she has to fake date to please her parents! A fun read!

"Finding Mr. Purrfect" by Codi Gary is a delightful and heartwarming fake-dating romance that had me hooked from the first page. Charity Simmons, a brilliant baker with a knack for terrible taste in men, reluctantly enlists the help of commitment-phobe Will Schwartz to pose as her fake boyfriend. The chemistry between Charity and Will is electric, and their banter is both witty and charming. Gary's writing style is engaging, making the book a breeze to read.

The story, filled with cats, coffee, and humor, is a perfect blend of romance and friendship. The fake-dating trope adds a layer of fun and tension, and as Charity and Will navigate the complexities of their arrangement, they find themselves questioning whether their connection is more than just pretend. "Finding Mr. Purrfect" is a feel-good romance that will leave you with a smile and a warm heart, making it a must-read for fans of the genre.

This one had pretty solid individual character developments in the face of past trauma and adversities, but that was kind of the main focus of the book. There is a fake dating romance going on, but they have some pretty ugly fights at the beginning and at the third act breakup, which were a bit unpleasant? I found the family drama and cruelty also to be unpleasant (esp the FMC's side?), the book needs TWs mentioned at the beginning.

TWs - misogyny, fat shaming, cheating, anxiety, lack of support / discouragement and shaming by family members

-- I got a copy from Netgalley

So, it seems that Finding Mr. Purrfect, by Codi Gary, is a sequel. Not realizing this before, I read this as a standalone and it was fine. It is a cute easy romance story about fake dating. The characters were likable and there were a few laugh-out-loud moments. Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with the ARC ebook I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

Cute and quick read. The premise was interesting and the characters had fairly decent chemistry. Worth a read. 3 🌟

This is a sequel to Cat Cafe Christmas. I would recommend reading that first. The main trope in this is fake dating. It was a cute book and a quick easy read.