Hi everyone,

Cats have so long been associated with Halloween. Maybe it’s because every good witch needs their trusty cat companion? Maybe its because cats are so often associated with good or bad luck. Maybe its because cats are portrayed as evil beings who don’t care about anyone? Even though we all know that’s not the most untrue statement to ever be uttered!

So to celebrate all things cats, here is a post I have been longing to do for a while now: I am finally featuring my beautiful little baby, Draco! By matching pictures of him to books….

I apologise in advance for my photo skills, they are….really not great at all. I could blame “the light” but…I feel like it’s probably me.

Draco meets Octopus = The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

This is Draco on one of his birthday presents – a scratcher post shaped like an octopus. It’s name is Barnabus. Now I’ve always found octopi very odd, I’m not fond of the sea or sea creatures, and so The Abyss Surrounds Us, a story about sea monsters, seems like the perfect match!

The Abyss Surrounds Us – Emily Skrutskie

Goodreads: Cas has fought pirates her entire life. But can she survive living among them?

For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. She’s been a Reckoner trainer-in-training ever since she could walk, raising the genetically-engineered beasts to defend ships as they cross the pirate-infested NeoPacific. But when the pirate queen Santa Elena swoops in on Cas’s first solo mission and snatches her from the bloodstained decks, Cas’s dream of being a full-time trainer seems dead in the water.

There’s no time to mourn. Waiting for her on the pirate ship is an unhatched Reckoner pup. Santa Elena wants to take back the seas with a monster of her own, and she needs a proper trainer to do it. She orders Cas to raise the pup, make sure he imprints on her ship, and, when the time comes, teach him to fight for the pirates. If Cas fails, her blood will be the next to paint the sea.

Draco Dressed Up All Fancy = Red, White + Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

This is one of, I think maybe two photos, where I have managed to get a picture of Draco in some form of clothing. We’ve also tried putting him in a shark hat but his head is too small so it just falls off. Here, I feel he’s just so dashing in his bowtie, he reminds me of Henry from RWRB, so fancy and royal!

Red, White & Royal Blye – Casey McQuiston

Goodreads blurb: What happens when America’s First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?

When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.

Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through?

Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn’t always diplomatic. 

Draco fights Crocodile = We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

Okay this match might be a long reach. BUT. Draco attacking his cute friendly crocodile who just wants to be friends totally reminds me of Nasir and Altair from We Hunt the Flame. Altair is obviously the friendly neighbourhood croc, whilst Nasir is the vicious (yet cute and soft) assassin who must bite.

We Hunt the Flame – Hafsah Faizal

Goodreads blurb: People lived because she killed.
People died because he lived.

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways.

Both are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya—but neither wants to be.

War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the king on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds—and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.

Set in a richly detailed world inspired by ancient Arabia, We Hunt the Flame is a gripping debut of discovery, conquering fear, and taking identity into your own hands.

Draco Shines = Crier’s War by Nina Varela

I think the colours of the two images below show exactly why I matched these two. Because the cover of Crier’s War is just so damn shiny! It is absolutely beautiful and reflects one hundred different colours depending on the light, and it reminds me of Draco in the Christmas tree with so many shiny things around him.

Crier’s War – Nina Varela

Goodreads blurb: After the War of Kinds ravaged the kingdom of Rabu, the Automae, designed to be the playthings of royals, usurped their owners’ estates and bent the human race to their will.

Now Ayla, a human servant rising in the ranks at the House of the Sovereign, dreams of avenging her family’s death…by killing the sovereign’s daughter, Lady Crier.

Crier was Made to be beautiful, flawless, and to carry on her father’s legacy. But that was before her betrothal to the enigmatic Scyre Kinok, before she discovered her father isn’t the benevolent king she once admired, and most importantly, before she met Ayla.

Now, with growing human unrest across the land, pressures from a foreign queen, and an evil new leader on the rise, Crier and Ayla find there may be only one path to love: war. 

Baby Draco = The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

So this is Draco maybe a day after we picked him up from the shelter, about two years ago. HE SO BABY. I just want to protect him so much. Which is exactly what Nana’s owner, Satoru, is trying to do in The Travelling Cat Chronicles. It’s such an adorable, and yet heartbreaking book about the love between human and cat.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles – Hiro Arikawa

Goodreads blurb: Sometimes you have to leave behind everything you know to find the place you truly belong…

Nana the cat is on a road trip. He is not sure where he’s going or why, but it means that he gets to sit in the front seat of a silver van with his beloved owner, Satoru. Side by side, they cruise around Japan through the changing seasons, visiting Satoru’s old friends. He meets Yoshimine, the brusque and unsentimental farmer for whom cats are just ratters; Sugi and Chikako, the warm-hearted couple who run a pet-friendly B&B; and Kosuke, the mournful husband whose cat-loving wife has just left him. There’s even a very special dog who forces Nana to reassess his disdain for the canine species.

But what is the purpose of this road trip? And why is everyone so interested in Nana? Nana does not know and Satoru won’t say. But when Nana finally works it out, his small heart will break…

***

So this post was actually so much harder than I thought it would be, and I put the blame solely at my photography skills. Most of my photos of Draco are blurs, or have a million other items in the background…Perhaps if I improve my photo skills, I might do another of these posts in a few months from now.

Do you have any cats? What book characters do they remind you of? Let me know in the comments below!

Paws out,
Rach + Draco