Thomas Khatt is just minding his own business when his neighbor who dies in his arms turns him into a mountain lion. Now Thomas has to figure out this new world involving animals who can talk and become familiars to witches and wizards. There are quite a few funny characters in this book like a pyromaniac squirrel. Everybody seems to want Thomas for their own reasons and he has to try to figure out who is being honest with him and who is just trying to use him.

It was a fairly quick read and the world was pretty well fleshed out. I hope to read more of the series. This was a good first book for a series. I can see where they might want to go with the storylines.

This book was excellent. I found his antics to be both amusing & curious, as I could strongly identify with what the character was going through in relation to the demands of the human world and I was extremely interested in how the magical world would turn out for him.
I did feel it reminded me of the Harry Dresden series because it involved real life intertwined with the magical realm and the lead character was superb in the respect of his wry sense of humour and the startling situations he got himself into.
This was a fantastic first novel and I would highly recommend it to other lovers of this genre.

This book has a fantastic start. Thomas Khatt (did you cat that?) wakes one day and has turned into a cougar. He can't speak or shapeshift back. He's now a feline for the rest of his life.

Just great. I lose my voice but I get to keep my spare tire? Further proof that the universe itself is a sadistic bastard.

He tries to use a computer, wash and plenty of other things. It was pretty hilarious and curious his situation that you can't help but keep reading.

One or two more days and I'd be sticking my tongue where the sun don't shine without a thought about it.

"Thomas is still very much at war with the idea that grooming with his tongue is sanitary. I know he'd love a good brushing."

Fantastic.

But then the book starts spending a huge amount of time... explaining the magic system.
How or why people can turn into a familiar. The politics of the magi world. Bonding contracts. Wards, runes and other stuff. The Council of whoever.

So instead of just playing along with the hilarious and lighthearted approach, the book starts trying to be too serious.

I think there's a problem nowadays when people think that magic needs to be almost scientifically explained instead of it just existing. To simply have the story not solve everything with it or just keeping the limits/explanations with the author.

Then a lot of meandering around and what sealed the deal, introducing too many characters left and right without giving them much page time, and consequently, depth.

For example, the book begins when Archmage Archibald dies in front of Thomas and he becomes a cat. It's clear later he was murdered? But who was he? We don't really know. He wanted to kill the council? For what? And we never even see this council.

Then Sabrina appears and puts a spell on Thomas to allow him to talk. After a little while she disappears from the story until the very end.

Angelica is Thomas' girlfriend who is mentioned in the beginning as Thomas thinks how she's gonna see the situation. Then she is forgotten, appears near the end, disappears again, reappears. The same goes for Rudy, a pyromaniac squirrel that shooks small fireworks like bazookas.

Then Cornealius, Cindy, Oric, O'Meara, a pack of werewolves, a dragon (!), some other familiars and stuff keep appearing very briefly and fading.

The dragon was curious and O'Meara had the most page time for a secondary character. But she also disappears for a lot of time.

I think that's the problem after the beginning. The idea was great but then the story didn't know where it wanted to go from there.

I even forgot who some of those characters were. When we discover who killed Archibald I didn't care neither for him nor for the killer's identity. The Council of Magi by the end had three open spots and that meant utter chaos for them and I just shrugged.

I think that the story lacked focus. It was too disperse and the secondary characters too many with very little page time, which in turn also affected Thomas' characterization as he never got to be close with anyone except O'Meara... who also disappears for a huge part of the story just when they had started going.

Catnapped. I was getting catnapped! The fucking bastards were catnapping me!"

The concept was pretty good, the humor is great and the beginning is fantastic. I also appreciated Thomas refusal to simply bow down and accept things thrown at him.
Unfortunately after that it tried to do too many things at once and none got the depth it deserved, specially considering the short length of the book.

I received this from NetGalley, so thanks to them for the read.