Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Cat Burglar in Training

by Shelley Munro (Goodreads Author)

3.4 of 5 stars 3.40 · rating details · 10 ratings · 7 reviews

Eve Fawkner had no intention of following in her father's footsteps. But when the thugs harassing him to repay his gambling debts threaten her young daughter, Eve is forced to assume the role of London's most notorious cat burglar, The Shadow. The plan is simple: pull off a couple of heists, pay back the goons and go into permanent retirement. But things get messy during h...more

Kindle Edition

Published (first published January 1st 2012)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 32)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Feb 06, 2012 Muzette Alcocer rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, it was an easy and fun read. This story focuses on Lady Evelyn Fawkner, daughter of Viscount Oakthorpe. She and her young daughter, Amber, have recently returned from France to the Oakthorpe estate. In addition to her father, Ben and his wife, Hannah, close friends, also reside at the estate. Her father, with help from Ben, has long been "The Shadow", a cat burglar who focuses on the rich and their jewels.

She returns to find her father in debt, and receives a threatening ph...more

like · see review

Jan 24, 2012 Sandra rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like whodunits with a bit of romance and humor

Shelves: arc-netgalley, whodunit, flowers-and-chocolates, reviewed-on-blog, contemporary

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Cat Burglar in Training is the story of Lady Evelyn Fawkner (Eve) who has recently returned to her home in England and her ancestral estate of Oakthorpe, where her father, the Viscount, lives with his housekeeper and gardener. She fled England six years ago when she became pregnant as the result of a date rape and does not know who drugged her and fathered her daughter. At 24 or thereabouts, having stayed away from men ever since, she has been...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 20, 2012 Lissette rated it 5 of 5 stars

Living in France for the past six years, Eve Fawkner has finally decided to move back home. The decision to do so wasn't an easy one, as she's not returning home alone. Her daughter, the product of a date rape and the very reason she left in the first place, is returning home with her. While the transition is to be a difficult for the both of them, she's willing to finally settle down somehow and bestow her daughter with a sense of normalcy.

Yet she never imagined coming home to chaos and ultimat...more Living in France for the past six years, Eve Fawkner has finally decided to move back home. The decision to do so wasn't an easy one, as she's not returning home alone. Her daughter, the product of a date rape and the very reason she left in the first place, is returning home with her. While the transition is to be a difficult for the both of them, she's willing to finally settle down somehow and bestow her daughter with a sense of normalcy.

Yet she never imagined coming home to chaos and ultimate deceits. Her father, the renowned 'The Shadow', has come across some hard times. He can no longer continue his legacy and demands that Eve follow in his footsteps. Eve has a hard time accepting his request, yet finds herself coming around after the family begins to receive threatening phone calls. With no other choice, she sets off to settle all of his debts.

Immersing herself within society with her beloved best friend, Seth, by her side, she soon has everyone believing that she's nothing more than a blonde bimbo. This facade works well for her as it allows her to move around with no one being none-the-wiser about her true purpose. It also doesn't help that the good looking, and quite debonair, Kahu Williams begins to hound her every step in hopes of bringing her around to his favor.

Side-stepping the advances of several men, Kahu included, Eve knows her time is running short. Creditors are closing in with intent on getting what they're owed in any way possible. A competitor soon enters the scene and she begins to wonder how she'll be able to come up with the money to cover all of her father's expenses. Eve begins to realize that she'll have to come up with a good plan or two to do just that while dodging multiple attempts on her life in the process.

I absolutely loved this novel. Shelley's story-telling is very pleasing and keeps the reader entertained with every turn of the page. Her character and plot development was very well done, in all honesty. Enjoyed it immensely.(less)

like · see review

Feb 20, 2012 Christi Snow rated it 3 of 5 stars

My Review:
C+ spicy
There was a time in my life when my romance reading contained entirely Regency era historical romances. This book reminded me so much of those, even though it is a modern day, contemporary novel. This book takes place in England and features a family of cat burglars. Cat burglars who find their targets through the social whirl of the upper echelon of London society. The first quarter of this book especially read a lot like a historical novel, and just to be clear, I was not thr...more My Review:
C+ spicy
There was a time in my life when my romance reading contained entirely Regency era historical romances. This book reminded me so much of those, even though it is a modern day, contemporary novel. This book takes place in England and features a family of cat burglars. Cat burglars who find their targets through the social whirl of the upper echelon of London society. The first quarter of this book especially read a lot like a historical novel, and just to be clear, I was not thrilled with that. Finally, though, this book did start to settle into a contemporary feeling suspense novel and started to pick up for me.

There was a lot of this book which was completely unbelievable. But it still managed to keep my attention and keep me entertained. I lived in England for two years which both hurt and helped my enjoyment of this novel. It helped just because I got to revisit those memories of visiting the local pubs and the neighborhoods in London that I loved. It hurt when it came to insider knowledge about how difficult, and expensive, it is to drive and park in those same neighborhoods of London (hello, congestion charges anyone?)

I had a hard time believing the cat burglar story line, but at the same time, when I set aside my doubts about it, I found it to be entertaining. I liked the romance between Eve, the family cat-burglar, and Kahu, the police detective from New Zealand. I enjoyed the tension of their relationship, both sexually and just the stress of the fact that they are on opposite sides of the law. It was a fabulous conflict for the story. The resolution at the end was a little too neat, but it kept me guessing. I had a few clues of what was going to happen, but certainly not to the full extent of what actually did happen.

Who would I recommend this book too? I think that there are enough historical undertones that historical readers would enjoy the crossover aspect of this book. It is a contemporary romantic suspense, but with just a few slight modifications it could just as easily be a victorian era historical novel. As such, I think that it would make a good transition novel for historical readers who want to move into reading more contemporary.(less)

like · see review

Feb 12, 2012 Bookworm1858 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, romance, netgalley

This book and I got off on the wrong foot because while reading the synopsis, I honed in on the word "viscount" and immediately fleshed out a Regency-era story. However viscounts still exist in the present day, which is in fact where this story is set. This is obviously one hundred percent my fault but it meant that I was disoriented and unsure of time period. Come to think of it, even after reading it, I don't feel entirely sure of the time period because although there were mentions of phones...more This book and I got off on the wrong foot because while reading the synopsis, I honed in on the word "viscount" and immediately fleshed out a Regency-era story. However viscounts still exist in the present day, which is in fact where this story is set. This is obviously one hundred percent my fault but it meant that I was disoriented and unsure of time period. Come to think of it, even after reading it, I don't feel entirely sure of the time period because although there were mentions of phones and social networks, something felt off.

Actually most of the book felt off with too much stuffed in for the book to reasonably contain. Main character Eve must take up cat burglaring, the family profession, as her father is just too old and injured to do it himself. Nobody is able to get an honest job it seems. They also have competition in the area and her father owes tremendous debts to a very bad guy who has no compunction about threatening Eve and her daughter and feels no shame in propositioning Eve in exchange for forgiving some of the debts. Then there is Eve's complicated relationship with her father and servants (?) Ben and Hannah, the Terrible Trio as she dubs them with alternating exasperation and love.

And that's just the start! There is also Eve's quest to discover the man who drugged and raped her, leading to the conception of her daughter six years earlier. A new character on the scene is Kiwi cop Kahu, who just might be bringing Eve out of her self-imposed chastity and his own quest to discover who murdered his brother.

Just listing off the plot threads took up a considerable amount of time and the book itself had trouble juggling them. I soon realized that Eve's efforts to discover her rapist was the most important thread but the other threads seemed to rise and fall in importance. I wish the romance had been a bit more prominent since this is a romance novel; Kahu seemed very intriguing but I didn't see them forming much of an emotional connection although the physical attraction was off-the-charts.

Additionally the setting was confusing for me; I guess I'm just not very familiar with the upper-class lifestyle but the schedule of these people didn't make sense to me. There were so many parties and other events and so little actual work. People didn't seem to use their phones or computers very much despite having access to them (I'm not sure anyone owned a TV), although this might be because narrating their interaction with technology isn't necessarily very interesting.

Overall: The plot was not satisfactorily paced for me and I wanted more of the romance-ideally witty banter but just more scenes between the main couple would have been good.(less)

like · see review

Jul 29, 2012 Deb Novack rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bcc-100bks-in-yr, book-chick-city-mys-susp-challenge, my-tbr-thinning, wad2012ebkchallenge

After being in France for many years Eve is returning home with her daughter who is the product of a date rape,that is another reason Eve left home to begin a new life. Once home she finds she must continue her father's business of being a cat burglar to help him pay off his debts. Eve also wants to find the man who raped her six years earlier. Several men have become interested in Eve, especially Kahu, a police detective from New Zealand, but she wants no romance.

This author developed her story...more

like · see review

Jul 24, 2012 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-romance, thief, read-in-2012, ebook

Mm, this did help me channel my The Dark Knight Rises obsession. But I STILL WANT MORE.

like · see review

May 08, 2013 Thomas marked it as to-read

Apr 15, 2013 Igraine marked it as auf-gar-keinen-fall

Mar 25, 2013 Michaelairine marked it as to-read

Mar 02, 2013 Tantri Setyorini marked it as to-read

Apr 16, 2013 Traci Treffert rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2013

Jan 20, 2013 Ogechi Wosu marked it as to-read

Dec 22, 2012 Nicole Hintze marked it as to-read

Nov 05, 2012 Valorie marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: comptr-nook, mysteries

Nov 03, 2012 Linda B marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries, nook

Nov 01, 2012 Mena marked it as my-library-s-z

Oct 06, 2012 Angel Starr marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own

Oct 11, 2012 Wendy Soliman added it

Shelves: romance

Sep 23, 2012 Rita marked it as to-read

Shelves: 3-library

Aug 10, 2012 Ngh rated it 2 of 5 stars

Jul 17, 2012 CAS marked it as to-read

Jul 14, 2012 Jo marked it as to-read

Jul 10, 2012 KarenF marked it as to-read

Jul 07, 2012 Morgan marked it as to-read

May 29, 2012 Savannah rated it 5 of 5 stars

May 20, 2012 elyse marked it as netgalley

Mar 11, 2012 Samantha is currently reading it

Shelves: e-books

Feb 06, 2012 MobileMinx marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Mar 26, 2012 mad4rombks marked it as to-read

« previous 1 2 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (1)

Genres

Mystery

2 users

Romance

2 users

See top shelves...

About Shelley Munro

Shelley lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband and a small, bossy dog called Scotty.

Typical New Zealanders, Shelley and her husband left home for their big OE soon after they married (translation of New Zealand speak - big overseas experience). A year long adventure lengthened to six years of roaming the world. Enduring memories include being almost sat on by a mountain gorilla in Rwanda...more

More about Shelley Munro...

Books by Shelley Munro

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Cat Burglar in Tr...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Cat Burglar in Training
avg rating	preview: Cat Burglar in Training Goodreads rating: 3.40 (10 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13239118-cat-burglar-in-training?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348441929l/13239118.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13239118-cat-burglar-in-training?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Cat Burglar in Training by Shelley Munro[/url]

Cat Burglar in Training

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

combineOther Editions (1)

Genres

About Shelley Munro

Books by Shelley Munro

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Cat Burglar in Tr...

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (1)