Customer Reviews

Babies, Bikes and Broads: The third book in the Cat Rising series

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cat Rising: The first in the Cat Rising seriesGirls With Hammers: The second in the Cat Rising series

Cat Hood is finally coming home after five years abroad in Scotland. For the fan of this excellent series, reading Babies, Bikes, and Broads also feels like coming home to a community of friends and family. Author Cynn Chadwick has created a place, the little town of Galway in the hills of North Carolina, filled with characters we've come to know and love, from the slightly mysterious Arlo, to quirky Sophia, Cat's friend and neighbor Delores, Cat's best friend Lily, brother Will.

Cat is summoned home due to a death in the family. She is settled in Scotland; she will make a quick trip, do what is necessary, and leave again. At least that's the plan. Her sister-in-law's death leaves her brother with five-year-old twins to raise alone. Cat doesn't like kids. Even best friend Lily has become a mother. Everywhere Cat turns, there are babies, it seems. Cat feels surrounded by changes she can't adjust to, or doesn't want to accept. A quick retreat seems best.

Of course, family ties have a way of entangling us even when we don't want them to. The reappearance of an old girlfriend also complicates Cat's decision. Her growing affection for the twins lends weight to the ties that bind, while those that reach across the Atlantic seem to grow slimmer each day. As usual, Cat is the last one to see her choices clearly.

Chadwick is a skilled writer. You'll find humor and love, grief, laughter, tears, old betrayals and new challenges, all handled as deftly as Cat handles her carpentry tools, as if they fit in the hand comfortably. I hope she lets us visit Galway again someday.

After settling in and making her own life in Scotland, Cat Hood is called back home to help her recently-widowed brother and his twins get their lives back on track. Her intent is to stay only a short while, but things get very complicated very quickly.

Cat's lover in Scotland is married. She reconciles with her husband and then changes her mind. That confuses and maddens Cat.

Cat runs into Janey, an old friend whose husband has recently died and left her a lot of money. That money seems to be buying up and developing much of Cat's rural home town, but things aren't always as they appear. There is friction between the women immediately, but they need each other for practical reasons and their relationship develops.

Lily is different from when Cat left. Five years and children will change anyone. In fact, Lily and her partner Hannah help Cat work through her aversion to children even if they are her brother's children.

This is just an outstanding series. It is emotional. It is engaging. It is exceptionally well written.

Bottom Line - If you read nothing else in this genre, grab this three-part series. You'll never regret enjoying these books.

I don't usually do book reviews. I purchased the entire series of the Cat Rising books. I love the sytle the author uses and the characters she has created. Because of the price I had expected the typical girl meets girl story but this series goes a step beyond the typical. The books offer up a good dose of humor as the drama unfolds. You are drawn into the characters lifes as they struggle to come to grips with changes. It really does offer up quite a variety of storylines in a well blended landscape of fiction.

The third novel in the Cat Rising series is part romance and part dramatic fiction. Cat finally comes home after her brother's wife suddenly dies. She only expects to be in Galway, North Carolina for a short time, leaving behind her married lover in Scotland, but Cat soon realizes that her future lies in Galway. As the book progresses, we see Cat's growth develop. She gains perspective about her past and her failed love relationships that help her resolve to move forward so she can give herself a second chance. The author has created a multifaceted character in Cat that is flawed, but gains redemption through her attempts to reconnect with the people from her past. The ending is philosophical, but not preachy or trite.

This reviw first appeared in Curve Magazine.www.curvemag.com.

Cynn Chadwick has managed to bring us a third book in the Cat Rising series and it is every bit as good as the first and second. Everyone is a little older, a little more experienced and a little more mature and surely they have all changed a bit so when Cat returns home from Ireland she feels a bit detached. The death of a family member and the per chance meeting of an old love/friend and commitment issues in Ireland are influencing Cat's decision to return to Ireland or stay home. Cat is faced with making this decision considering factors based on family, first loves and commitment to what is really important in life. If you haven't read these three books, you are truly missing out.