Pretty cute and generally clever, but could be a little more polished. ( )

A delightful story about a girl who can talk to cats, whose celebrity-obsessed best friends drag her into a mystery involving a kidnapped blogger and her pink cat. Witty and fun.

Light teen buddy fantasy. Natalie has the lamest Talent ever, the ability to talk to cats. Her older sister and her genius younger sister all have major league Talents like their parents do, so Natalie feels unappreciated. When actors come to their school to shoot scenes from an update of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Natalie's celebrity-obsessed buddies are in heaven. But there's a problem. A popular celebrity blogger, also in town for the movie, has been replaced by an imposter--at least her cat says so. Now Natalie is up to her ears in trouble, trying to save the kidnapped blogger and to keep from getting arrested for catnapping and celebrity stalking. And what about that cute guy from trig class?

Add half a star if you're a fan of teen buddy movies. ( )

Q: How much fun was Kimberly Pauley's latest novel?
A: A heck of a lot! CAT GIRL'S DAY OFF is one hundred percent ridiculous, in the best way possible!

I loved reading this book. Based on the premise that, in our modern world, many people are born with talents. Natalie Ng, for example, has several talented people in her family. One of her sisters can tell if someone is lying, another can blend in with her surroundings like a chameleon. Natalie, however, has the supposedly low-grade talent of being able to talk to cats.

So when her bff, Oscar, shares a video of celebrity blogger Easton West nd her fabulously pink pets with Natalie, the last thing Natalie expects is to be launched into a rescue mission. See, when most people see this video, they just see a perturbed cat. Natalie hears the cat screaming for help. And it turns out the plot is even thicker than it appears. Easton West is in town to check out the filming of a movie loosely based on Ferris Bueller's Day Off -- and the movie is being filmed at Natalie and her friend's high school and the surrounding Chicago area. When Natalie, through a bit of hijinks, finally gets to talk to Easton's cat, it appears that Easton isn't Easton at all. The real Easton may have been kidnapped, and the only evidence they have is, well, the word of the blogger's pets.

This fun, exciting romp of a book is in part love letter to Chicago, and very much in the spirit of John Hughes. With all its goofiness, the characters are real and compelling, and totally loveable. Even better? The villains are just as fun to read. I'm looking forward to future novels for Kimberly Pauley -- I'm sure they'll be just as refreshing as CAT GIRL. ( )

Cat Girl’s Day Off by Kimberly Pauley is set in a world where people have non-secret superpowers. Chicago schoolgirl, Nat, has a very talented family. Her parents and siblings all have multiple and powerful superpowers. It runs in the family. Except Nat only has one superpower: she can talk to cats. Whoopdidoo.

The excitement starts when her best friends force her to watch a YouTube video of a celebrity blogger who’s come to town to cover the filming of a teen movie. Nat notices the blogger’s pink cat is calling out for help in the clip. Somehow, the blogger’s been replaced by a double and only her pets and Nat no about it. It’s up to Nat and her friends to work out what’s going on.

Cat Girl’s Day Off was an amusing and quirky (in a good way) book. A quick light read that made me laugh out loud a few times (mostly at the snarky cats). The celebrity angle had be a bit doubtful at first since I’m really not the kind of person who gives a crap about celebrities, but then neither does Nat, so that was OK. Her friends were a bit over the top at first, but by the end they had developed into non-clichéd characters. A couple of times Nat’s inner monologue got a bit repetitive, but mostly it was entertaining. And her strictly PG swearing made me smile. (Oh, poodle farts!)

Ultimately, this was partly a coming-of-age story. In the end (not a spoiler) Nat comes to accept her powers as not completely useless and grows up a bit. The other part, the mystery and celebrity impersonation part, was taken a little bit lightly at times. Yes, it was inescapably amusing when the cats helped the humans catch the bad guy, but not quite enough weight was given to all the bad things that were going on.

Cat Girl’s Day Off was a light, fun read. Don’t read it if you’re in the mood for something serious and, as should be obvious by now, don’t read it if you hate cats. I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, but I believe it is generally available from today.

4 / 5 stars ( )