Kissed by Cat is the latest in Silhouette Romance’s Soulmates promotion of paranormal stories. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s a nice read.

Two hundred years ago, Catherine Wyndham made an enemy of a powerful witch named Hezabeth. When she learned the witch was cruel to her cat, Catherine freed the animal, earning Hezabeth’s wrath in the process. The witch cursed Catherine for two hundred years. By day she would be a woman, but at night she would transform into a cat. The only way she could break the curse would be to find a man who loved her both as a cat and a woman. If she couldn’t find someone to love her in two hundred years, she would turn into a cat forever.

With only a week left, Catherine finds herself in a small Indiana town. One night, while in her cat form, she is captured by veterinarian Garrett McAllister, who takes her back to his animal shelter. The next morning, he’s shocked to find a naked woman inside the building, with no signs of the cat. Thinking quickly, Catherine concocts a story to explain her presence and manages to talk him into hiring her as his new veterinary assistant. A gruff man with burn scars on his body, Garrett is better with animals than people and has had trouble keeping an assistant. Catherine turns out to be the best assistant he’s ever had, with a special ability to soothe the animals in their care. She also seems to have secrets she’s not telling him…

Kissed by Cat is a very short series romance, and it never quite manages to overcome the limitations of the format. The characters are both sympathetic, but their development is slight. The romance has some nice moments, but is too rushed to be believable. The story breezes by without making much of a lasting impact.

That’s not to say it isn’t enjoyable while it lasts. It’s a pleasant read with nice characters and some cute scenes. At the very least, it’s not your typical series romance plot. The author’s storytelling is smooth and I had no trouble reading it in one sitting. I really didn’t dislike a thing about it. It’s simply a sweet story about two people I liked well enough, even if I didn’t feel like I knew them all that well (or maybe there wasn’t enough to them to know).

The author delivers the occasional moment that’s very nicely drawn. For instance, after two hundred years of wandering, Cat came to Indiana yearning to experience the stereotypical small house with a white picket fence before losing her human form forever. Garrett’s aunt happens to own such a house and he offers to let Cat stay there. The image of Cat curled up in a chair, simply sitting quietly and enjoying the hominess of the house, is an affecting one. The story builds to a very nice climax that didn’t quite manage to convince me they knew each other well enough to be in love, but for a few moments there at the end, it came close.

The Silhouette Romance line isn’t one I read regularly, but I enjoy paranormal stories so I have been following the Soulmates books. This isn’t one of the best (Nicole Burnham’s The Knight’s Kiss and Deanna Talcott’s unicorn story Her Last Chance are some of the stronger entries). It’s still a nice story that should appeal to readers looking for something a little different.