This text is copied over from my original post on Reddit
When Hamon (aka Fluffy tail lover) dropped Catgirl in the Pantry: An anime-inspired reverse isekai adventure romance by Scott Sinclair in the #reccomendations channel of the Discord I was skeptical. The title gave me some doubts. While the title may evoke images of a smutty catgirl story, what we actually get is a loving deconstruction of the catgirl genre.
Catgirl in the Pantry is about Gavin, a highschool student, who suddenly finds that a catgirl has appeared in the pantry of his house. The catgirl introduces herself as Lilah, a Emisary of nature. An Emisary of Nature is a human who are inhabited by an animal spirit, changing their appearance and enhancing strength and stamina. Gavin convinces Lilah to hide out in his room while the both figure out what the hell is going on. This isn't always easy, as Lilah is energetic and inquisitive. She is used to roaming the wilds of her home world. While Lilah is hiding in Gavin's room, they develop a close friendship that Gavin starts to hope will develop into more. But Lilah doesn't seem to keen on a relationship after being dumped into a confusing new world.
Meanwhile, Gavin needs to maintain his normal life. That means he needs to go to school, spend time with his family, and oh yeah start dating Autumn, who he has had a crush on forever. Do you smell trouble? I do.
The story is slow burn, giving the friendship between Gavin and Lilah a lot of time to develop. Around the halfway mark things pick up, when a secret global organization dead set on eliminating "cryptos" (visitors from otherw worlds) sets their sights on Lilah. At this point external events in the story pick up and you see more action.
What I liked: I liked Gavin and Lilah. Gavin and Lilah are fleshed out characters, and there are interesting secondary characters, like Gavin's best friend Michael. I haven't (yet) read a lot of catgirl stuff, but I thought Scott's approach was thoughtful, if a bit on the nose at times. At first I was worried that the book would run into the issues mentioned in Born Sexy Yesterday, but Scott successfully navigates that hurdle.
What I didn't like: This book follows some traditional romance beats, where the relationship is completed in the final pages of the book, with a single prologue chapter time jumps forward explains how the relationships resolve. The denouement is far too short, the situation isn't given space to breath.
Overall I would recommend this book, and will keep an eye out for Scott's future stuff.
Will have to try this. Catgirls are relevant to my interests.