Monday, November 19, 2012

A Christmas Feral / Mary Matthews


Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Short Story/ Christmas

Approximate word count: 5-6,000 words

Availability   
Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: NO Smashwords: NO Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Mary Matthews is a descendant of American Revolutionary Patriots whose ancestors arrived in the American Colonies in the 1600s. She helped write WWII Veterans’ stories for a Library of Congress project. She writes a romantic mystery series set on the lush West Coast during the 20s. She loves her family, history, wine, and reading — not always in that order. While researching the Roaring 20s, Mary created the Splendid Summer series featuring romantic detectives Grace and Jack — and their magical cats that can solve mysteries without missing a nap.

Find out more about Ms. Matthews at GoodReads or her website.

Description:

This is a charming re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. Judge Scrooge is presented with a case for the legal extermination of feral cats in his town on Christmas Eve.

Appraisal:

Judge Scrooge is a bitter man. His love of money, his turning his back on family, and walking away from the woman he loved has had a caustic effect on his life. I liked the way She (Scrooge’s lost love) was introduced (that is the way he refers to Her). She is an attorney that presents cases in front of Judge Scrooge regularly. He decides to make a ruling for the legal extermination of feral cats in their area solely based on who She is, but defers his ruling until the day after Christmas. This sets the stage for the visit of Tatania, our magical cat, who has a Cheshire cousin.

This is a cute premise, but the story missed the mark, in my opinion. I tended to get lost when the story changed scenes, they were not as well defined as I felt like they could have been, and this threw me out of the story. The moral of the story includes the significance of the balance of nature with all living things as well as the joy of the spirit of Christmas.

FYI:

Tatania, Grace, and Jack are characters from Mary Matthews’ Splendid Summer series.

Format/Typo Issues:

I found no significant errors.

Rating: *** Three Stars

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