Book Review: Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat ShelterA charming historical fantasy for fans of cats and shadow lords
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter Cozy fantasy has been a popular subgenre over the past several years. Most of them involve quirky characters running small businesses like bakeries, coffeeshops, or bookstores. I have to admit that I don’t find the idea of running a small business with its inherent stressors to be comforting, but the charm of the cozy fantasy tends to stem more from the community the characters find, rather than the nature of the business they’re running. Making friends is fun. Stressing out over supply chain issues and payroll is not fun. Glossing over the realities of running a small business is something you also have to do in Heather Fawcett’s latest, Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter. In this charming historical fantasy novel, Agnes Aubert is the founder of a struggling cat shelter in 1920s Montreal. As the book opens, Agnes is searching for a new location for the shelter since her current building was badly damaged in a magical duel between two wizards. With the harsh Canadian winter coming soon and her options running short, Agnes settles on a place with a suspiciously low monthly rent. Soon after she moves in, Agnes realizes that her cozy little cat shelter has become a front for an illegal shop that trades in magical items sold by the most notorious dark magician in the world– Havelock Renard, the Witch King who nearly ended the world three years earlier. When an enemy from Havelock’s past shows up and puts both the magic shop and the cat shelter in danger, Agnes must set aside her disdain for magicians to find a way to deal with Havelock’s enemy, keep the police from looking too closely at her business, and– most importantly– save the stray and feral cats of Montreal’s streets. As a cozy fantasy, there’s a lot to love in Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter. This is a subgenre that lives or dies by its characters, and it’s headed by an unlikely heroine: Agnes is a thirty-five year old woman who lives for her cats, has a tragic past, is perhaps a little too generous, and has a fantastic ability to get things done when the chips are down despite her tendency to cry in ordinary situations. She has a sister she loves who loves her in return, and a kindly brother-in-law who is also a politician and mostly absent from the story. She also has dozens of cats, most of whom are incidental but there are several named cats that you come to adore, and who are essential to the plot– in the roundabout way that cats have. The magical characters can be a little too quirky or cryptic at times, but they serve as solid foils to the comparatively ordinary Agnes and her companions. As a follow-up to Fawcett’s previous Emily Wilde books, Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter lacks some of the bite those books had. Emily Wilde took action at every turn, while Agnes gets involved with Havelock’s business dealings out of necessity and because she despises the disorder in his part of the property. I don’t know that these books have the same goal, though, and it’s hard to properly pin down “cozy” given that what exactly cozy is is a moving target that varies from one person to another. Personally, I found the blend of research and faerie lore in the Emily Wilde books to be more cozy than the cat shelter of Agnes Aubert. I kept wondering if one of the cats Agnes brought into the shelter would have some contagious disease that would wreak havoc on the other cats. Still, this book has plenty to love and while I personally don’t think it’s the coziest fantasy novel out there, it’s easy to love. Agnes is an endearing character, her cats are loveable, and even Havelock Renard charms the reader as a figure poking fun at the notorious shadow lords in trendy romantasies. Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter is an enjoyable story told by a skilled storyteller who clearly had fun while writing this. I had a lot of fun reading it and ended up staying up late one night so I could finish it. Even if I didn’t love it quite as much as the Emily Wilde books, I still loved it. What can I say? I’m a cat person, and this book feels like it was written specifically for cat people like me. Traveling in Books is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Traveling in Books that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
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Sunday, 8 February 2026
Book Review: Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter
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