This was a great book!! I highly recommend this book. You need to read this today you will not be disappointed!!

**This book will be published August 27, 2024**
Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this eARC in exchange for my review and feedback.

In this story you follow Grimalkin and his 9 lives through historical moments in the UK. If you are an American like me I recommend looking up the mythology behind Cat Sith. We meet this character quite abruptly and I feel like I had a better grasp of what the author's ideas were when knowing this myth. Poor Grimalkin was supposed to get his full 9 lives, but because Cat Sith was distracted he now has to finish off his lives as a ghost. “Three lives to stay, Three lives to stray, and Three lives to play.”

This was a very cozy journey through historical moments seen through a cat's eyes. I enjoyed Grimalkin's commentary as a Victorian cat in a future eras. It had me smiling a few times. I also learned little historical facts along the way with the footnotes and observations of Grimalkin.
The only thing upsetting to me was the ending, I wish we had gotten one last scene with Cat Sith so that Grimalkin could have explained his adventures to someone. The focus is more on the house and its occupants throughout time, which was fun to see, but I feel like Grimalkin needed a final meeting with Cat Sith after his primary one.

Overall, very cozy and quick read. Don't let “ghost” in the title fool you, it's not a “spooky” story. This is a journey through history through the eyes of a Victorian age cat.

This is a really cute read! I do love reading books around cats as I find they are so well written. This is a very different take than others I have read but it was worth it.

It is written from the perspective of a cat, Grimalkin who lives through 12 decades and sees the world changing, the ups and downs of the people coming and going. He truly loves his owner Edith, and is able to see how she lived after his death but also those who live in the house where she did. He sees humans at their best and at their worst and is able to experience the changing of times.

Charming character exploration. Grimalkin is a fun if biased perspective, and seeing his attachments and viewpoints across time makes for interesting reading. Some time periods were tighter and cleaner, but all were enjoyable!

I am definitely an ailurophile, with two of my own, so I knew this book would appeal to me.

“A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays and for the last three he stays.”

This is an old English proverb. The author has imagined the nine lives of one tabby, who actually dies at the end of his first life, so his following eight lives are lived as a ghost, meaning that he can observe but is invisible to humans. It is a great idea, but it does create a few problems for the story structure.

Grimalkin is the puss involved. He is a “cat of uncommon curiosity and insight.” We first meet Grimalkin when he is an elderly cat living in Edinburgh. He was rescued as a kitten by Eilidh in 1887 and she and Grimalkin love one another deeply. Unfortunately (and in error) Grimalkin dies at the end of his first life instead of experiencing the nine lives that are traditional for cats. This error is corrected by Cat-Sith, the King of the Cats. (This is where the story becomes complicated.). Grimalkin chooses to return to Eilidh (his person) as a ghost to complete his nine lives rather than the oblivion of immediately dying permanently. So he returns to his cat life eight times, seemingly at random intervals of time, for just a day each time. When he falls asleep he jumps forward in time to his next life. He is present at Eilidh’s death, misses the First World War entirely, meets a couple of famous Scots, has some adventures and finally dies on the same day that Queen Elizabeth II does, in 2022.

There is change over the decades and new inventions to scare our hero, but each life is very brief and only vaguely connected to his previous lives. This makes for a rather disjointed story, almost like a collection of short stories. Why does he stay in each life for only a day? A longer life at each stop would allow more development of the story and the characters.

But overall I did enjoy the book and became quite attached to Grimalkin as he progressed through his allotted nine lives. I learned a bit about Edinburgh and was reminded of some major events in the twentieth century. It was a nice touch that the last stop was in the home of the author. I think any cat lover would enjoy this quiet little fantasy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press who provided me with the ARC in return for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!
3.5 stars:

I think this book is really cute but also at times insanely devastating. I think the idea is super original and creative, and Grimalkin is well written. It also acts as a bit of a historical fiction (through the eyes of a Victorian cat) which I found interesting - I wasn't expecting his lives to be so spread out. I think the bit of cat God lore at the beginning is really interesting, although I wish it had been fleshed out a bit more. Another thing I didn't love was that the beginning was a bit boring. I read the first 41% of the book over like two weeks and then the last 50% in one night (which tells you something about the pacing or at least the level of engrossment the book will provide). But I liked pretty much everything else.

Grimalkin is an interesting narrator and it's very cute to read about his love for Eilidh or conversely his distaste for certain people/things. SPOILER *** The scene where he finally finds Eilidh and she feels his presence was SO BITTERSWEET ***SPOILER OVER! Justice for Grimalkin! He deserved his 9 lives w/Eilidh :( ! Another thing about Grimalkin is that he's very adaptable (I mean he is a ghost cat jumping thru time so it's kind of a necessity) and it's interesting to see how his attitude towards life changes and how his old beliefs come back.

Overall, this is a super cute, cozy read that is great to read before bed (or any time) - very low stress.

thank you too Harlequin Trade Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with an Ebook Arc in exchange for an honest review!

*2.5/5
I am the first to admit that Cats and History are two of my favorite all time things so when i saw the tagline and summary for this book, i was excited! in concept, this book is perfect for me but alas, in execution, it fell short.
i think for a book to succeed 9 times out of 10, it needs to establish a main character or narrator that the reader can relate or connect with. it gets more difficult when our main character isn’t human but an animal. i think with an animal being our main narrator, in order to have them be a head the reader wants to be in, a writer needs to establish a connection with another animal or human so we can better get attached to our animal narrator. Unfortunately, our main cat Grimalkin doesn’t really have any genuine feeling connections with anyone, so he becomes a bit of a mouth and eyes for the reader to just peer through. I found being in Grimalkins head rather boring and tedious. he felt more like a clueless tour guide than a cat to me.

as for the history aspect, the choice of having the historical context for each year Grimalkin visited relayed to us via footnotes was… interesting. i personally really didn’t like it, i felt like i was reading a text book and it took me out of the story— like who is adding these footnotes? can Grimalkin also see them? where are they coming from, i’m so confused how this works within the story.

Grimalkin learns about each new year he visits by observing new humans each time (for the most part) but unfortunately, i can really tell that these characters are just there to relay what time period they’re in, what’s changed, and show the passage of time. they don’t feel real at all. (personal preference, but it really irks me when an author overcompensates for a characters accents. like i could handle words like “feeling” being shorten to feelin’ or such but having slavic characters saying things like “vait” instead of wait or Scottish one’s constantly saying “wee” every time they speak was getting on my nerve. just say they have an accent, the reader can take it from there).

the actual passage of time being shown from the same general area was pretty cool, and i liked the random cat god/lore, wish he had gotten more of that but i understand why we didn’t.

there were a lot of stylistic things that didn’t mesh with my tastes, so unfortunately this was a bit of a let down. i wouldn’t discourage anyone from checking it out at least if it sounds interesting to them though! my tastes aren’t for everyone !

This was cute and cozy. I am a huge cat lover, so it was very interesting and fun to read. I highly enjoyed it. I will definitely be recommending it. I love seeing all the new places he would wake up.

Have you ever wondered what a cat does with its nine lives? Grimalkin narrates the lives he witnessed and moments passed. That even the small and insignificant carry a tale worth telling even if it doesn’t register as globally important. His lives demonstrate that while the times changes the people are fundamentally the same just with different trappings. A wonderful cozy historical fantasy book to read!

It's an adorable and light-hearted read, perfect for a cozy evening. Not a lot of tension, it’s nice to read before bed type of story. Probably an easy 5 stars if you really love cats and history. Personally, I'm not entirely convinced by the sci-fi or fantasy genre labels, if that's what you're after. However, it's a delightful concept for historical fiction, with a cat as the main character navigating through the events of the past 120 years in Edinburgh. US pub date is August 26th, 2024.

1.5 stars rounded to 2

I'm a little disappointed. While I loved the idea behind this story, ultimately, I feel that the execution fell flat. The first chapter or two had me into it, but past that, the story seemed to drag on. I found myself skimming to get to the end. It felt repetitive and the prose/tone of the writing got boring... especially after Cat-Sìth was no longer an active participant in the story. There wasn't a whole lot that held my attention.

The blurb of this book made it seem like it was going to be an overarching look at the human condition and history from the perspective of a Victorian-age cat. While there was a lot of larger historical happenings that were included that I appreciated, it felt more focused on the city of Edinburg rather than the people and relationships that the story was trying to present. It lacked in emotion and human connection. Partially, it felt like a walking tour guide of the city and the historical events that were happening around the times presented.

Like I said earlier, I loved the idea behind the story... and had it focused more on connection or even the cat afterlife aspect rather than the historical events I think I would have enjoyed it more.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Netgalley, and Alex Howard for the Advanced Copy of this book.

Received an advanced copy for free in return for a honest review.

I love any book with a cat on the cover. This alone will make me pick the book up. What kept me reading was the cat’s character. The character is the cat is the perfect sassy and indignant mix that is so fun to read. I loved his reaction to the new technology of each era. I also loved the selection of little scenes and events the main characters experiences, from short events I never heard of to large events that changed the world. I was kinda disappointed with how short each decades was because the middle felt more of a random collection of short stories than a story. But the author brought back events and characters that helped tie it all together. Overall, it’s a lovely read with a fun main character.

Glad to have received a copy of this from Harlequin Trade Publishing & NetGalley. I'll round this up from a 3.5 just because I love cats.

I read this book with my own cat in my lap that is close to 15, the same age as Grimalkin. Thankfully he is not a ghost! ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

Grimalkin's life comes to an end and he is given the chance to relive 9 lives in the same location as a ghost cat spanning over a 100 year time period. No one can see or hear him. I am not sure why he is told he gets more "lives" if he is still a ghost, but cats are mysterious so I just went along with it.

Every time he takes a long nap he wakes up in a new time period, some of which are emotional for him or take place during notable historical events and he has to interpret the current pop culture - often leading him to get annoyed with the outfits or use of slang from the people around him. Imagine a Victorian era cat trying to figure out people in the 60s, 90s, 00s and so on. Some of it was funny, although I eventually got bored and was like "Ok, I get it, the cat is snooty." 😂

If you love historical time periods, particularly one from the POV of a cat, then you will like this book.

This is a cozy read. I enjoyed it in sections over several days. I am a cat lover, so this story caught my attention immediately. Thinking about things from a cats perspective cannot be easy to write, but it was fun to read. My favorite sections were those of play for our main cat character.

This book also incorporates history and stereotypical things from different time periods. I wasn't sure exactly how a cat would have known or narrated some parts of the book. That was a little confusing, but easy to overlook for the cute and cozy read. It was a nice calm read after some of my heavy fantasy series.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for my Advanced Reader ebook.

This book is so sweet, oh my god. Grimalkin is the cutest thing ever. The vibes of this book are just so peaceful and calm. This is such an original idea and it’s beautiful. The way Grimalkin’s mind evolves with every era and the way he adapts was so fun to read and I loved growing with him. The research put into each of the different eras is apparent. This is just such a comforting read. The ending was so melancholic but it left me feeling complete and it wrapped up the story well. I am super grateful for this ARC!!

I love the ideas here, but not the execution.

I was expecting the vignettes to examine the humanity of each new tenant in the flat, with our feline lead musing on the human condition and how different eras affect that as he travels the decades. Maybe I misinterpreted the synopsis, and if so, that’s on me. What I got, however, was our feline lead giving an educational tour with as many history beats as possible shoved into each vignette.

I’m sure this will work for some readers, as will the author’s sense of humor, but neither worked for me.

This is so cute! I love the cover so much.
I love cats very very much so I was so excited when I received this!
We follow Grimalkin a cat. It felt like I was reading a book of short stories rather than a novel, but I loved it! I loved that we followed a long period of haunting ranging from the early 1900s through to the 2020s. Every haunting was different and it was such a fun read. 5 ⭐️

2.5

The premise was really interesting, but the plot just didn't deliver. I felt the narrative to be a bit flat, and the way Grimalkin cycled through important historical events felt a bit forced. It could be a bit fun and a bit cute, but in the end, I feel like it was a rather forgettable story.

Received a free copy from Netgalley.

The blurb for this book promises "some startling revelations about the mystery of existence, the unstoppable march of time and the true meaning of feline companionship." Unfortunately, this book seems to be more of a passion piece written by an aficionado of Edinburgh history, and it lacks much of a cohesive narrative or emotional core.

The structure of the book consists of our protagonist, the cat Grimalkin, living out his “9 lives” as a ghost cat who gets to experience one single day at various points of history in a particular home in Edinburgh. The vignettes of each day give the air of history nerd fan fiction. It simply seems for too convenient and fantastic for one single home to see so many quintessentially historic and notable moments, such as the writer JM Barrie meeting with a publisher regarding his new book, Peter and Wendy, or a young Rockefeller daughter chatting with her friend - who seems to be dating Alexander Fleming, the scientist who discovered penicillin - about her daddy’s fancy new building opening up in New York City. The dialogue seems incredibly artificial and expository, deliberately crafted to mention as many major historical beats of the time rather than crafted to emulate actual humor discussion. This causes this book to read more as an educational play for children rather than a novel.

Interspersed with these educational vignettes is the rare moment of human (or rather, feline) connection: mainly in Grimalkin’s affection for Eilidh and the pain of watching her grow older. I feel the emotional core of the book would have been better served focusing more on Eilidh and other things that Grimalkin cares about rather than a historical overview of each day and age. The moments that DO center on Grimalkin’s connection to Eilidh are very powerful and engaging, and I only wish they were developed further.

Truly, the book seems to be written more as a vehicle for the author to explore their passion for ages’ past, with our feline protagonist merely serving as a fly on the wall to observe these historical meanderings. Similarly, I have issues with the premise itself, wherein the cat god has missed Grimalkin’s death and was unable to ensure his delivery to the next of his 9 lives; therefore, Grimalkin is gifted 9 ghostly days in various points of history, which if you ask me, is not a great alternative. (Why only one day??)

The whole set up of the plot makes sense only when viewed as a means to allow our fly on the wall feline protagonist to briefly visit various decades to observe very little and then move on to the next rather than an actual believable scenario.

Furthermore, the family featured in each vignette is entirely brand new and unrelated, which I find entirely unlikely. NO ONE stays for more than a decade or so to raise their children and grow old? I was excited when one vignette featured a baby being born, sure that we would follow that baby as it grew older, only to find that it was yet again replaced by an entirely new family in the next vignette. It’s difficult to continue reading without an emotional investment in any characters, and the actual stories of each vignette aren’t quite interesting enough to hold interest on their own.

This jumping between scenes and new characters makes it difficult to make the motivation to keep reading. One wonders if this concept would have been better served as a series of short stories rather than one “cohesive” novel that fails to sufficiently develop its protagonist is a meaningful way. At one point, Grimalkin bemoans his fate to only observe his surroundings, learning but never effecting change, and I deeply empathized. It is a difficult trudge as a reader to follow an effectively impotent protagonist for an entire book.

Overall, there are some nice and humorous moments sprinkled throughout, but eventually the same joke grows tired (“now what is THIS wild contraption?!” x 1000) and the story falls flat with a fizzle of an ending, nothing meaning much of anything in the end.

I received this book as an ARC thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley.

The Ghost Cat is a delightful perspective on how times change. I enjoyed the glimpses of different eras from the cats perspective. Well done.