i was absolutely charmed by Agnes, Havelock and the cats at the shelter. This is just my kind of cozy fantasy - the stakes are high enough to feel the tension but they're awash in the charm of the magical Montreal setting that Fawcett brings to life here. The push and pull taut camaraderie between Agnes and Havelock is catnip for me as a reader - Havelock is exasperated at the furry intruders into his magical workshop but can't help but be fond of Agnes and the strays (even though he'd deny it with every sneeze). And Agnes' determined diligence that morphs into care for the (supposedly) evil Witch King is such a smooth slide, though she can't possibly address it right now because there are cats to care for. And the cats! They're all over this book winding their way through the narrative and burrowing into my heart the whole time, i absolutely wanted to adopt all of them. Fawcett is a queen of this genre for me, her novels always strike the perfect balance between enchanting snug settings and narrative stakes that carry the weight of the story forward. Thank you to Del Rey and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for this honest review.

Erin Connor is proving to be an absolute master of the romance genre for me. I read and loved Unromance last year but her second novel Still Into You has solidified Connor as an auto buy author for me. She writes emotion and physicality in ways that make me as the reader feel so present in every moment the characters are experiencing. I will be shoving Still Into You into the hands of all of my fellow millennial friends who grew up scream singing Linkin Park and Dashboard Confessional in their cars, dreaming of going to Warped Tour, and plotting out their trips on MapQuest. This made me nostalgic in the best ways. I loved that this wasn't so much a second chance as it was more specifically right person wrong time in the initial relationship, and i think Connor does a great job of letting the reader into that previous relationship enough to understand the emotions of present day without bogging the story down with two timelines. The chemistry between Sloane and Dax is ELECTRIC and absolutely sizzles off the page. Dax Nakamura is down BAD and as much as Sloane doesn't always see it Connor does an excellent job of conveying it to the reader even though the book is single POV. The absolute YEARN fest between these two had me blushing and kicking my feet for most of the book My only real complaint is that much is made about how no one can know they dated/they can't date now because it would bring into question Sloane's journalistic integrity and then when it does finally come out it's resolved rather easily. It felt like a bit of a let down narratively but with the focus at that point really on Dax and Sloane i do understand why this was the route taken. And it didn't kill my overall love for the story. Thank you SO much to Forever and Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for this honest review