Finding Mr. Purrfect by Codi Gary -> Starting January 10th, 2024

[Aly]

Frenemies + Fake Dating = Falling for the wrong person…for all the right reasons

Charity Simmons may have great taste in friends, felines, and fruit tarts, but if there’s one thing the baker and co-owner of Meow and Furever Cat Café knows, it’s that she has horrible taste in men. Case in point: Will Schwartz. He may be the best friend of her best friend’s boyfriend, but after their one night together, Charity is positive Will’s nothing but a womanizing charmer—despite his nice-guy persona and adorable, crooked smile. So why then did she pick him to fake-date to get her parents off her back about being single?

Will Schwartz may give relationships a hard pass, but he’s not about to say no to fake-dating Charity. She’s brilliant, hilarious, and best of all, she’ll put an end to his mother’s interrogations about his love life. And maybe, after all this time giving him the cold shoulder, Charity will finally warm up to him. But it’s not long before Will and Charity realize they got much more than they bargained for--and they’re freaking out. What if what they have isn't make believe but the real, forever kind of love?

[Jessica]

Started. I'm finding it odd that this isn't billed as a sequel to a Cat Cafe Christmas because it is. I barely remembered that one because it was 200+ books ago and my memory is crap, but this one picks up immediately after with the best friends and keeps mentioning events that happened in that one. So that's annoying me, but oh well.

[Melanie]

I'll be starting this shortly but that's good to know. It's not listed as a sequel so I didn't realize it was characters from that book. I'll have to flip through my notes from that one as a quick refresher before starting this.

[Jessica]

Chapter Ten
After the first couple of chapters I stopped feeling like I was missing things with not really remembering Cat Cafe Christmas. I'm enjoying the tension between our two leads but (view spoiler)[ Oh my god Charity's family are awful. No wonder she spent Christmas alone rather than with them. (hide spoiler)]

[Jessica]

Chapter Twenty Four
(view spoiler)[ well that was expected, women supporting women is a nice change in rival businesses, but is also very convenient. (hide spoiler)]

[Jessica]

Chapter Thirty Two
(view spoiler)[ for a third act break up this wasn't the worst but it was still unnecessary. I thought we were going to unplanned pregnancy territory so I'm glad it wasn't that. (hide spoiler)]

[Jessica]

Finished
This was cute but that reality show mini plotline was completely unnecessary and (view spoiler)[ the end proposal had me eye rolling. He really went from I don't know if I'm there yet to proposing in like two weeks. and who in their right mind gets engaged like a week after starting dating officially. (hide spoiler)]

[Melanie]

Finally started this one tonight.

Chapters 1-10
(view spoiler)[
I'm enjoying this so far. Charity and Will have great potential although they seem to want different things out of their lives so I'm interested to see how they resolve that. Wasn't a fan of all the passive aggressive behavior after Mexico but glad they talked that out. Charity's family is awful (except for her SIL Elena, she's nice) and I get why Charity didn't want to spend the holidays with them.
(hide spoiler)]

[Melanie]

Finished this tonight.

Chapters 11-20
(view spoiler)[
The fake dating part is really cute so far, I'm a big fan of that trope. Charity's family continue to be awful, hopefully they come to their senses. I'm interested to see how Charity does on this reality baking show.
(hide spoiler)]

Chapters 21-30
(view spoiler)[
I love that Charity finally stood up to her family, she's right that they're all hypocrites. It's nice that Charity and Will are going to try a real relationship. Also, I'm surprised the baking show stuff hasn't started yet since I'm 75% into the book.
(hide spoiler)]

Chapters 31-41
(view spoiler)[
I'm so glad Charity won the competition. And I like that Will realized he was being dumb and the two reconciled.
(hide spoiler)]