“MacGyver caught the silver tab between his teeth and slid the zipper free.”

From Melinda Metz’s The Secret Life of Mac.

While people that don’t know MacGyver would think that the indoor cat leads a boring life, it is anything but. Mac and his human, Jamie, live in the quiet Storybook Court neighborhood in Los Angeles with Jamie’s husband, David, and his idiotic dog, Diogee. Jamie and David are getting ready for their honeymoon (after Mac so brilliantly got the two together), when Jamie’s cousin, Briony, arrives from Wisconsin. After an “incident,” Briony left her fiancé (Caleb) at the alter and called off the wedding. In an attempt to escape her intense panic, Briony has agreed to pet sit while Jamie and David are away, but Mac can tell that she needs help and sets a plan in motion to help Briony just like he helped Jamie. One night, while out on one of his normal adventures, Mac ventures into a neighboring retirement community, the Gardens, where he meets another sad human named Gib. The pair share a love of sardines and build an unusual friendship which allows Mac to meet Nate, the manager at the Gardens… which also leads to Nate and Briony meeting. Mac’s repeated escapes to the Gardens allows Briony to meet many of the residents (including the new, smooth-talking tenant, Archie, and his helicopter granddaughter, Eliza). The overworked Nate isn’t looking for a relationship with his fractured family or recent disasters around the Gardens, and neither is Briony, but the two soon find themselves tangled up in a messy, complicated romance with MacGyver their only hope of happiness.

The second novel in Metz’s MacGyver series manages to create a similar, but unique story. Some readers will be able to guess some events before they take place, but most will be surprised to see everything unfold. The perfect read for cat lovers, The Secret Life of Mac is an enjoyable, easy read.