Not long after the Irish potato famine, Cattie and her family are doing the best they can, which isn’t easy when there are seven children to feed. Cattie was married, but her husband died so soon after they were married so now she’s living back home. Her parents would like to see her married to ease the burden, but the man they had in mind isn’t as shiny as they thought he was. But someone else has Cattie’s eye, and he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Cattie is a typical eldest child of the time period, she works hard around the house and she takes care of her siblings. A lot of the book is spent on the day to day life, and while it was interesting, it sometimes felt a bit repetitive. The story is told in heavy Irish dialect, but I didn’t find that it held me up reading at all, and only served to add to the charm of the time period.
I liked Cattie and I thought up until Edward came along that she was a fairly strong young woman. I didn’t like Edward, at all. All of his actions seemed sketchy from the start and I was happy that at least Cattie’s mother saw through this, I only wish that she would have taken the stars out of her daughter’s eyes a lot sooner. I think sometimes there was a bit of telling more than showing and that’s something that could be easily fixed. Cattie is a well-told time period story with fun characters and a surprising ending. Nicely done.
You can read my review on Amazon and Goodreads, give it a “like” while you’re there. You can purchase Cattie on Amazon for $3.76, it’s enrolled in KU.
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