Strange Bedfellows

By Amanda Mortlock
** Publication Date 22 September 2026 **
3 stars



I wanted to love this book, I truly did. It has a lot of great elements — magic, romance, cats. Ultimately it was just too convoluted and not well put together for me. I struggled with it.


Cat is a cat who lives in a house and sometimes a shed behind the house. The house is inhabited by roommates who are also students at the college nearby. The house is technically Cat’s house, but also not Cat’s house.


Wes is Cat’s soulmate. At least that’s what Wes says about Cat. What Wes doesn’t know is that Cat is also a human named Cleo. She can shift between being a Cat and being a human. What Cat doesn’t know is why this is or what her life was prior to this house. A woman found her when she was a kitten and raised her, as both a human and a cat. The woman left Cat the house.


When a spell inadvertently brings a witch and her familiar into Cat and Wes’s lives, it turns everything upside down and tears Cat and Wes apart. Bailey and Ollie knew there had to be others like them, but had no idea how to find them. The spell on Halloween allowed Bailey and Ollie/dog to find Cat/Cleo and Wes, to form a coven. Bailey wants to know things about her past. She’s going to drag all of them into her wishes, no matter what it costs them. 


There were definitely elements of this book that were great. Some things were not so great. I can’t put my finger on exactly what I didn’t like about it. Parts of the book do drag on. Parts are not well explained. Some of the elements are so preposterous. Many of the spells and rune usage could have been explained better for the reader. I think the makings of a really good novel are here, however, it does need some work to be better.


I know some loved this book. As I said, I really loved parts of it. This book is on the spicy side, and while I won’t say it’s a can’t miss, I believe that it will find its audience.