Final Catcall: A Magical Cats Mystery by Sofie Kelly

            It’s always nice, in my view, to see a romantic situation get resolved in a series.  This is especially true when it feels as though things are realistically resolved; meaning not too rushed or done in an implausible and unrealistic way.  I’m happy to say, that none of those things happened with Kathleen and Marcus.

The last person librarian Kathleen Paulson expected to find on her porch was her ex-boyfriend, Andrew.  Flying all the way from Boston to Mayville Heights, MN, Andrew is determined to win Kathleen back and have her go home to Boston with him.  Never mind the fact that he’s the one who up and married someone else while dating Kathleen.  According to Andrew, that is something Kathleen is somehow supposed to forget.

                Thankfully, Kathleen has much more sense than to get back together with Andrew just because he says so.  Despite things seeming to be over with Detective Marcus Gordon, Kathleen is not going to immediately throw herself into another man’s arms.  She is especially not going to do that with someone who hurt her so badly.  Besides, Kathleen likes living in Mayville Heights, and she likes who she is there.  Here, Kathleen is finally able to have her own identity; one that is not connected to her well-known family.  Not that Andrew will listen to any of this, though.  He tells Kathleen he’s going to be staying for two weeks, no matter what she says.

                In those two weeks Andrew puts himself in Kathleen’s path whenever he can.  He tries to pull her away from work, takes her out to meals, and insists on having Kathleen show him around.  For the most part Kathleen stands her ground with Andrew’s schemes, but there is not much she can do when Andrew volunteers to help with the local theatre festival, that just so happens to have part of it held in the library’s gazebo.  The festival needs Andrew’s carpentry skills, and Kathleen knows it.  If putting up with Andrew means helping the festival be a success, Kathleen will do it.                      

                Clearly, Andrew does not understand Kathleen’s new way of life or why she wants to live it.  That becomes abundantly clear when together they find the dead body of one of the festival directors.  At this sight, Andrew insists Kathleen return with him to Boston.  Little does he know how much stumbling across bodies has become part of Kathleen’s life.  This case is different, though.  That’s because Marcus’s sister is involved, forcing Marcus off the case.  He then, in essence, switches roles with Kathleen, as she warns him to stay out of things and he insists on becoming involved with the case on his own.  It’s a role reversal both of them needed in order to finally understand each other and realize they are meant to be together.

                It’s probably very obvious from what I have written that I didn't like Andrew.  Everything was always about him.  It was never about Kathleen.  I don’t recall him even once offering to move to Mayville Heights to be with Kathleen.  She was always supposed to uproot and leave everything she had created behind in order to be with him.  That is why I am so glad she and Marcus were finally able to experience the other person’s point of view.  Now, instead of believing they can’t be together, they can work towards being a couple in a good, strong relationship based upon respect, unlike what Kathleen would have had with Andrew.

                Now that Kathleen and Marcus are together, there is one more thing that needs to happen in the series.  Kathleen really needs to stop getting injured.  I think her body would appreciate it.