Kitty Saves the World (Kitty Norville Series #14) by Carrie Vaughn

The battle between Kitty and Roman is finally coming to a head as Roman’s master is revealed – and that master’s plan is finally being executed, possibly leading to the end of the world

Leaving only Kitty and her friends to stand against him – even if she has damaged her own credibility by trying to rally people against Roman’s plotting.

She doesn’t know where he is or how to stop Roman’s immense magic – nor even how to avoid the vast power of his influence, but the world hangs in the balance.

This is the final instalment in Kitty’s story and, thematically, it works. The primary emotions of Kitty here are fear and tiredness. Kitty is ready to stop the fight. She is ready to live, to have a family, to not be afraid, to not keep fighting. It makes the ending especially satisfying since it doesn’t have a huge lavish gift of riches for Kitty so much as a mundane peaceful life. I do find it awfully cliché and such a deeply stereotypical ending for how a woman’s Happily Ever After simply must pan out

It leaves no threads untied and it flows through a lot of action and some very well maintained emotional tension

I find myself immensely frustrated by this book on several levels, especially as a conclusion to this entire series. Here is Kitty’s final showdown with Roman, the final explanation of him and the general conclusion of all of it. And I’m disappointed

I’m disappointed because the whole point of Kitty, as the Regina Luporum, was set up as the major opponent of Roman because she was developing her own coalition. She had allies. She had friends. Even in this book it made a repeated point that Kitty’s super power is her friends. That has always been an excellent point of the series – she isn’t the most powerful werewolf, she isn’t the most powerful supernatural. She doesn’t have super powers, she doesn’t have any secret weapons – but she has friends and allies who are willing to work with her, trust her and make her their leader. She is the opposition to Roman because she was building her own army to match his but in a very different way

So in this book I expected those friends to gather. I expected Kitty to lead them, to gather her coalition, to take advantage of the group she’s put together. And she doesn’t. Oh, those friends appear – Grant, Rick, Tina, Sun and a few others. But they appear because “fate” or because “magic” or some other mystical force guided them. Fate is such a very lazy way of writing because it can justify just about any kind of coincidence. There’s very little emphasis on these people, what they bring to the party or much of their history and involvement with Kitty or why they matter now. And, again, most of her contacts are just irrelevant here (and even most who turn up basically fight a battle where we and Kitty are not).

Low Midnight (Kitty Norville #13) by Carrie Vaughn

Cormac has finally completed his probation after his lengthly prison sentence. Time for a new beginning – and not just from prison; the werewolf hunter has no guns, supernatural friends and is now haunted by a Victorian witch. A lot has changed for him.

And with this whole new reality he is now front and centre investigating a 100 year old murder; with completely new tools and a completely new viewpoint.

This book was necessary

I can see you all pulling back now, because “necessary” is a word I fall back on when I don’t have a lot of good to say, especially since I’m very up and down about this whole series (which runs from 1.5 fangs to 4 fangs for me) but hang on there

This book is necessary because it takes Cormac’s story and that story needs to be told to try and hold the ongoing story together. Cormac is one of the main stories and probably Kitty’s closest friend outside of her husband. He was a ruthless, dangerous, gun wielding werewolf hunter then he befriended Kittie the werewolf, spent several books in prison and is now free again with a ghostly Victorian witch partially possessing him.

Yes… that’s a complicated character arc. And to actually analyse that character arc, develop Cormac’s character (especially since, now he’s out of prison and no longer on parole, he’s going to be a much more involved character in the series) we needed this book. We needed a long time through Cormac’s eyes to see how he’s adapted to the vast changes of his life

How does a man with deep involvement in the militia movement who has turned his back on that in disgust despite some of the opinions of it still shaping him adapt? What about a man who has been raised by a highly judgmental and oppressive father who he spent his life trying to please (unsuccessfully) but is now living just about the opposite of everything his dad stood for? What about a man who was deadly with a gun, surrounded by danger (and not just the supernatural) who now cannot carry firearms as a convicted felon? What about a man who spent his life on the fringes of the law with numerous criminal contacts now trying to live within the boundaries of the law for fear of his parole being revoked and due to promises he’s made to Kitty and Ben? What about a man who feared and hated werewolves but whose closest friends are now werewolves? What about a man who hated all things supernatural who is now a witch by proxy and possessed by a ghost? What about a manly-man in almost every stereotype who is now possessed by a woman?

Cormac has gone through some pretty enormous changes. And this book was both necessary and very good at developing all of this, having him face dangers without guns, having him confront old friends and contacts who are still very much where he was (with guns, breaking the laws, fear the supernatural etc) and realising how different he is. There’s his attempt to try and stay away from anything that would break his parole as well as his slow acceptance with magic

Kitty in the Underworld (Kitty Norville #12) by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty has another book to write – one on legends and history, one that looks back over the past and considers how many of the beast related mythological figures and heroes that feature so highly in history are actually wereanimals.

In particular Regina Luporum, the wolf who raised the infants Romulus and Remus who went on to found the city of Rome. A figure Kitty herself has been identified with

Perhaps too much, especially when a gang of rather odd kidnappers seize Kitty for this very reason. While Kitty thinks of escape, she can’t help but wonder if maybe this odd group has the key to defeating Roman.

So, I started typing this review, changed my mind and deleted it and started again. Then I did the same thing again. And again. And again. I’m now stream of consciousing while I stare at the screen and say “hmmmm”.

I’ve said this before when reading the Kitty Norville series and, to a degree, when reading any long series of books – you need to look at this book in two ways. Once as a book in its own rightand once as part of an ongoing series.

Looking at it as the former, I’m kind of lost. The beginning of the book and set up of the story is odd… after being kidnapped Kitty spends 90% of the book thinking and internal monolguing. There are attempts at escape but… well there are THOUGHTS of escape. I don’t particularly blame Kitty for not working day and night on her escape (except for one incident which I will get to) since there were so few avenues for her to escape – but it meant that most of the book was her generally trying to question her captors about why they’ve actually captured her, quickly becoming extremely sympathetic with one of them in a very rapid and never really labelled as such Stockholm-syndrome manner, until the end when there’s a fight scene and she leaves.

Basically, looking at it separately:

Kitty is kidnapped

Kitty spends a long time considering her imprisonment while kidnappers refuse to talk to her

Kitty: Let me out!

Kidnappers: No

Kitty: Tell me why you kidnapped me!

Kidnappers: No

Kitty thinks about how she’s imprisoned and can’t get out

Kitty: Let me out!

Kidnappers: No.

Kitty: Then tell me why you’ve kidnapped me!

Kidnappers: Here’s some vague clues

Kitty thinks about stories and said vague clues.

Kitty: Let me out!

Kidnappers: No…

Kitty Rocks the House (Kitty Norville # 11) by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty is settled in Denver for the first time in a long time, and there’s a lot of things she has to address. Not least of which is a challenge for leadership of her pack which she has been neglecting with her various battles against Roman. She has to re-build those bonds to see off the challenger.

And then a vampire in town comes looking for Rick – and they sequester themselves behind magical shields, leaving Kitty to soldier on managing Denver, her family, her pack and the fight against Roman alone.

I’m tempted to say this book is a filler – and in many ways it is. There’s little advancement of the meta plot despite a revelation at the end. There’s little coherent central plot to be advanced. There’s a series of random stuff happening, a lot of it isn’t resolved. We see Kitty with her family, we see a couple of her radio shows that aren’t really linked to anything, including a long, vaguely interesting debate between 2 academics and an equally long ramble about a crystal skull.

It doesn’t really go anywhere, it doesn’t really develop anything, it doesn’t bring much in the way of new information, it doesn’t advance Kitty’s life at all. Really, we finish this book no further along than when we started it.

On that score I’d slap 2 fangs on this book, file it under “meh” and move on.

And I’m still tempted to do that – it wasn’t fascinating or immense fun. It was fun and vaguely amusing, but certainly not more than that.

But, when looked at in the context of the entire series, it makes a bit more sense. Kitty has been letting things slide in the last few books. Not her battle against Roman, but her more at home issues. Her pack, her family, the city of Denver – she hasn’t been around, In fact, in the last 2 books (putting aside the short stories) she hasn’t even been in the city – she’s been in London and San Francisco. She has let things slide and she’s supposed to be an alpha werewolf, she’s supposed to have a job and she’s supposed to have a family including a mother who is just recovering from cancer and a sister stressed out about the whole thing.

Review: Kitty Steals the Show by Carrie Vaughn, Book 10 of the Kitty Norville Series

Kitty Norville is taking a holiday from her pack, and even from the US, to attend a conference in Londo. It’s the first conference on the paranatural in the world and it promises to be huge as vampires, werewolves, wizards, the fae as well as doctors, scientists and policy makers all gather to study, share their findings and discuss the many many ramifications of the newly revealed supernatural around the world.

Kitty is due to speak, and on her way over her speech is the main thing preying on her mind. In London she gets to meet up with several old friends and allies who have also gathered for the conference and has great fun being the guest of the Master of London – a Shakespearean actor.

But when she arrives she is also faced with the culture shock of European vampires – and their attitude towards humans and werewolves. But worse still, Roman’s presence is very much felt, his machinations not just threatening Kitty but also the Master of London. Again, Kitty is arrayed against him and again Kitty rallies the forces as more lines are drawn and more allies are made in the Long War against Roman, the Dux Bellorum.

The problem I have with this book is it starts at about 50% in. Before that we have a wonderful amount of foreshadowing and development – which would be great, if I hadn’t read the previous books. As it stands, I learn about Tyler, but nothing new. I learn about Roman, the Dux Bellorum, but nothing new. I learn that Dux Bellorum is plotting and sinister – I knew that – and that vampires look down on werewolves, something I also knew.

I wouldn’t say it was boring to read or painful to read. It wasn’t, it was recapping an interesting world, introducing Kitty to a new setting and introducing a new cast of characters. It was all interesting and a decent revisit of what had passed before and what Kitty was actually involved in now. But it went on too long – there was this whole conference that we barely had chance to see, development of Marid, Antony and Ned that we never really got, even further exploration of Caleb and how being werewolf of all Great Britain and Ireland worked. Since Kitty referenced them, they could have had a greater analysis

Vampires: The Duty of Conformity

Many times in Urban Fantasy we see the various monsters and preternatural beings as a stand in for marginalised groups - and this is often extremely appropriative and skeevy in many kinds of ways as we have discussed.

But there is one message we see repeated in many of these TV series and books that certainly has parallels with both being marginalised or just different from the “norm”. The message of how to be appropriately “Other.”

So many of these stories cover supernatural beings integrating opening into a human society - and the measures they take to be accepted. In short, they are stories of how the alien Other manages to become part of society. And one message we see repeated in many of these is one of acceptability - one of conformity. The way the Other becomes part of the Mainstream is to become the Mainstream, to repress its otherness, even repress who and what they are.

We see this most strongly when there’s a romance in the air - usually with a human woman and a Musty Vampire. The Musty Vampires are nearly always contrasted against a vampire that is either evil or morally ambiguous at least - we have the vampire who is trying to be human, denying his vampirising against the vampire who embraces his own nature and doesn’t compromise to please the mainstream.

Obviously, many of these vampires have reasons to resist their nature - murder and mayhem being primarily among them - but the mustiness is taken to extremes and the contrast between them is large, almost exaggerated, to carry the full weight of the message - to be good, the Other most Conform.

Whether It’s Being Human U.S., or Being Human U.K., a good vampire is one who abstains from blood and associating with his own kind. The objective is to be as close to human as possible.  While being a vampire means a loss of control and most likely death to any human in the vicinity, to be truly understood as good one must maintain the model of conformity. In both of these series, Vampirism is an analogy for drug addiction, which in itself is problematic because of the appropriation of a human experience.

In Being Human U.K., Mitchell pays the ultimate price for his failure to conform by dying.  He commits suicide by werewolf by having his best friend George kill him.  Mitchell begs for death because he knows no matter how hard he struggles that he will always return to drinking blood and thus killing humans.  When you consider the analogy to drug addiction, what hope does this give those who suffer with the disease? It says that one is inherently damaged and that there is no hope.

Review: Kitty's Greatest Hits by Carrie Vaughn, Book 9.5 of the Kitty Norville Series

We follow a series of short stories to catch up on various parts of Carrie Vaughn’s world here.

From ancient vampires in the court of Henry VII, as well as the parable of Daniel, through to Rick, the current master vampire of Denver’s long history both in the time of Coronado as well as his brushes with past attempts by the US government to study supernatural beings.

Kitty, of course, has an outing and we get to see how she dealt in all her solo time away from the pack and we fill in some much needed information about TJ

The star of the book, we get to see both Ben and Connor growing up, Connor as a monster hunter and, of course, his time in prison meeting Amelia and what that entailed.

This is a book that collects several of Carrie Vaughn’s short stories that have appeared in various anthologies. I’ve said before that I don’t like short stories and I include that as a caveat here – look at my rating from the understanding this isn’t my preferred style of writing.

The main problem I had with all of these stories is that there was an awful lot of naval gazing. Lots of angsting, lots of monologuing, lots of sitting around rambling about their feelings. Now this isn’t something I’m a fan of at the best of time since it tends to be a whole lot of telling not showing and the length of angst just serves to either make it feel fake or make me wish one of the side characters would give them a swift kick and tell them to snap out of it. But it’s worse in a short story context because we have a big chunk of angst, then when it’s resolved we move on to a new chunk of angst from a different person/situation.

Another issue I had is that many of these short stories radically expanded the world. We had stories where brand new creatures are introduced and they’re background mentions. I’m sat reading it thinking “no no, stop – you can’t just introduce unicorns and merfolk and skip ahead! Back to the unicorns, someone explain the unicorn to me!” I found it kind of frustrating that we’re not looking at the unicorn instead we’re going to tell a love story (one that didn’t end Happily Ever After – which was certainly unique and new).

There were also several stories in this book that I didn’t particularly enjoy – I don’t think they added a great deal, especially Catherine of Aragon, the Daniel parable and Rick’s back stories. They were moderately interesting in their own right but didn’t add a great deal to the overall ongoing meta, they just weren’t relevant enough to what was happening in the 9 book series for me to be very engaged by them. I also didn’t particularly like that we were looking at Rick’s story in colonial Central America but the only glance we have at the native population is as victims Rick heroically saved. The other books with Kitty and Emma were decent enough stories but didn't really grab me.

One story I am mixed on is TJ’s story. In many ways this was sorely needed – the treatment of TJ in the first book was awful and to update his non-existent back story they added that he had AIDS. Danger, danger, this character is drowning in damaging tropes and causing me to start drinking early.

So more history for TJ wasn’t so much wanted as rather desperately needed – and his turning into a werewolf, his first pack and his interests as a biker were perfect to plug some of the holes. Him turning into a werewolf because he had AIDS after being so reckless with lots of unprotected promiscuous sex while at the same time being alone not so much. Still it was a step up – admittedly the only way was up, but it was a step up. Unfortunately, Carrie Vaughn's notes on this story in the back of the book are pretty appalling, I'm afraid.

Review: Kitty's Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn, Book 9 of the Kitty Norville Series

Kitty has received a call from Anastasia – Roman is acting again. The ancient vampire playing a game of nothing short of world domination is on the move again with a new plot and a new plan. This involving a magical artefact of great power that could severely twist the balance in the struggle. Anastasia needs backup – and of course that involves Kitty.

So Kitty finds herself travelling to San Francisco. But the action is not nearly as simple as she imagined as she delves deeply into Chinatown and faces beings she never encountered before and a whole different level of threats and questions. They’re outside their territory and dealing with threats outside their experience – as if a 2,000 year old vampire weren’t more than threat enough. There’s a lot to learn, a lot of new experiences and whole new concepts to grasp

And, of course, while she’s willing to backup Anastasia because she doesn’t want Roman to win an more than the vampire does, she also has to deal with the fact so many vampires see werewolves as servants and footsoldiers. It’s a balance to help without being pigeonholed into a subordinate role.

Then there’s always the question of how far a werewolf wants to be dragged into vampire plotting – and whether she can afford not to be

I like this book though there weren’t many twists or mysteries, there was a lot of exploration and expansion of what had happened before and a development of the meta-plot. We’re setting our feet solidly and focusing a lot on the pack of three that I like so much. We can see the relationships develop more, boundaries set, plans laid and everything just moved along against an interesting backdrop and a curious, intriguing and exciting storyline. There are no real twists, but there’s a lot that’s curious and interesting and expanded upon

Kitty spends much of this book rather out of her depth – which makes her very reactionary. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing – not every book has to be driven by the protagonist, so long as the protagonist is following events rather than being dragged along by them. And Kitty followed, she wasn’t dragged. She followed guides to places she didn’t understand, spoke to people who knew more than her, took action as appropriate, listened a lot, spoke a little more than she should (she is, after all, Kitty) and was still a part of everything even if she didn’t set the direction.

I think this book may be a transition book. Because while the story was good in and of itself, it set us up for so much more – both expanding the supernatural world as we know it and setting a whole new theme for the books. Kitty isn’t just the DJ who occasionally wanders into things for funsies and gets in trouble (though, I have to say, her whole decision to go to Dodge city was utterly unnecessary and extremely convoluted. Why was that even there? It felt like padding stuffed into the book for no good reason). No, the battle against Roman is pretty much being passed to her, she has been set up as its general and, in so doing, it requires her to be involved more. We should see a lot less of Kitty either stumbling into situations for no good reason (Kitty’s House of Horrors, Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand) or being dragged into it by other people – we’re going to see Kitty actively getting involved in situations with an actual reason to do so. I think it’s going to be a major improvement of the series

Review: Kitty Goes to War, by Carrie Vaughn, book 8 of the Kitty Norville Series

The government has a job for Kitty – or a request anyway. It seems that that nasty idea of werewolf soldiers has actually gone forward. Not officially, but a werewolf soldier thought it was a great idea and created his own little pack/squad. The problem? Well, a mortar round landing on him in Afghanistan, leaving his squad leaderless, and worse, his pack alphaless is the problem. Even more of a problem is the remaining werewolves, ignorant of what it is to be a werewolf, trained with lethal combats skills warring with each other for the new alpha position. Oh, and going AWOL.

Kitty, as the public face of werewolves, is asked to find this little pack of soldiers, bring them back to military custody and, even more, try and find a way to reintegrate them not only into civilian life, but into humanity as a whole. Something she has to think of as she goes along for, despite being Agony Aunt for the supernatural community, no-one has written a manual on exactly what it means to be a werewolf anyway.

At the same time, her reporting of a series of weird supernatural occurrences at a chain of convenience stores seems to have ruffled feathers. Faced with a lawsuit – and extremely dangerous magic, she has to rely on the newly released Cormac to figure out exactly what insidious plotting is happening at Speedy Mart.

This book isn’t an action packed book, at least, not until the end. But nor does it need to be. After all, Kitty has lead a pretty action packed life, especially in the last book. It was nice to see Kitty take on a more cerebral, emotional challenge after the death defying action of Kitty’s House of Horrors. After all, Kitty can’t have a life that is entirely death and destruction – even if she does have plenty of action, drama and major issues to deal with.

I really love the story about re-integrating the were-wolf soldiers into civilian – and human – life. I think it shows  not just an idea of how adapting to civilian life can be difficult, especially after a war zone but it also brings home the message we have seen in book after book about how hard it can be to be a werewolf. We’ve seen kitty fight her instincts, the effect of body language on her and her pack, the effort of navigating life as a werewolf, but this really brings it together as to the full difficulties of being a werewolf above and beyond the need to go camping every month. It also shows the importance of a supportive and helpful pack extremely well as well as why werewolf soldiers would be such an utterly poor idea.

In short, it finally brings together and shows us all the problems Kitty has mentioned in a very concise example. It has the added bonus of showing Kitty as an alpha and how she has grown into the role as well as the problems of there being no user-manual to being a werewolf and how much Kitty has to make it up as she goes along.

Kitty's House of Horrors by Carrie Vaughn, book 7 of the Kitty Norville Series

Kitty Norville has been given a new opportunity to garner more publicity for her radio show – reality television. Yes, some rather dubious studio has a plan, gather the few celebrity supernatural beings together – werewolves, vampires, psychics, sorcerers, put them in a cabin in the remote wilderness while filming them all as if it were Big Brother. Sounds like fun?

Well, things get considerably less fun when people disappear. And the power goes out. And the phones stop working. And then people start dying.

Suddenly the monsters are the hunted ones and there are booby traps and guns and bombs and a hidden enemy lurking the forest trying to pick them off one by one.

At this point, the only thing left is to try to survive and try to escape.


Ok, after a brief problem in the beginning (which I’ll get to) I liked this story. I liked the novelty of it – the monsters being confined and hunted so. I liked the tension of it – it was really well paced and the suspense was built beautifully. I liked the character dynamics, everyone was unique enough to be interesting without any convoluted tension or dubious interactions that made no sense. Everything was natural, tense and a little scary

And speaking of scary, I’m impressed by how the enemies were made to be scary. Considering the powers in the house, the different kinds of preternatural creatures, it would be easy to just think “why doesn’t Kitty and Co just walk out the house and eat them?” but we never get that. The enemies, normal humans, are always threatening always a danger and never once do you just think “they’re just human, eat them!”

Review: Kitty Raises Hell by Carrie Vaughn, Book 6 of the Kitty Norville Series

Kitty is back home in Denver – but it seems something has followed her from Vegas. After severely hurting and annoying a cult dedicated to Tiamat, a personification of chaos, she finds the deities name burned into her club. Very soon, it’s clear that some kind of fiery, intangible entity is hunting them.

And how do you fight something intangible? Something intangible that can burn anything it touches? Something intangible you can’t even see yet can burn you from the inside out?

And how do you do that before it kills anyone – or before it kills anyone else? How do you keep everyone safe?

And how can you fight it while at the same time reassuring and protecting a wolf pack, one you’ve only just adopted, one you’ve only just become alpha of?

And, when enmeshed in undead politics, how do you know who you can trust to help and whether you’re just digging yourself in deeper.

And how do you do all that and continue to run a successful and fun radio show?

Of course, tracking down what the monster is takes time and investigation – it’s a mystery. The problem with mysteries is it’s very hard to pace it well, and this is certainly an issue with this book. We spend a long time with Kitty and co basically sat around saying “I don’t know.” They follow up leads and get “I don’t know” back. They ask questions – more I don’t know. It’s kind of frustrating to feel it all going round in circles without actually going anywhere. However, I do accept that party of this is a thematic point. I mean, the characters are frustrated and lost and worried. They don’t know what’s happening, they know people are going to die, they know all their lives are at risk. So, yes, this is a realistic thing to happen

Review: Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, by Carrie Vaughn, Book 5 of the Kitty Norville Series

Kitty is getting married and the plans are consuming her life. Wouldn’t it be relaxing if she and Ben could just elope? And if you’re going to Elope, why not do it properly and head for Vegas?

Of course, what should have been the simple option quickly becomes much much more complex. First there’s her producer who thinks Vegas would be the perfect opportunity for her to have her first real television show, which takes a lot of preparation

Then she finds out there’s a gun show full of werewolf hunters with silver bullets in her hotel.

Then there’s the poker tournament and mob plot that ben gets himself involved in.

Meanwhile , Kitty finds herself investigating the Master of the City, lycanthrope animal acts and a magician who may actually be the real thing.

And then Tiamat, goddess of chaos gets involved and it gets really exciting.

What was the point of that?

I’m sorry, but that’s my main response to this book. At the end of the last book I was on a bhigh, Kitty was the new alpha, she was developing a relationship with Ben and she was dealing with a major family issue of her mother’s cancer. She also has to sort out her new pack which is bound to have teething troubles as well as consider where she stands with Rick as the new Master Vampire of Denver and what that entails. And, of course, Cormac is still in gaol. Sounds like a great story, right?

So instead we went to Vegas so they could elope. Left all of that behind – the pause button has been pressed, it’s time for an intermission, it seems.

And then there follows a huge long series of irrelevancies and things that just don’t make a lot of sense. Kitty decides that it’s a great chance to have her first televised show in front of a live audience while she’s getting married (rather than having it at another time, y’know as would make sense).

Review: Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn. Book 4 of the Kitty Norville Series

After a long time away, Kitty finds herself drawn back to Denver. First it was Rick, a vampire friend trying to drag her into vampire politics, but then it was something far more personal – her mother has cancer.

Refusing to abandon her family, Kitty is forced to return to Denver where she was previously banished – instantly setting her against her old alphas, Carl and Meg. And also dragging her, against her wishes, into deep vampire politics, not just to help Rick against Arturo, the master of Denver, but also enmeshing her in even deeper webs as a new vampire visits the city and agrees to an interview.

Kitty has to decide whether to flee or stand her ground so she can be there for her family – and she has to continue to navigate her new relationship and new pack with Ben – a pack that is growing. And she has to decide who tom protect and who to risk – especially when her staying at all puts all of her human family at risk.

Kitty just wants to lead her own life – but she can’t abandon her family at this worst time, she can’t abandon people who come to her for help, cannot – and will not – abandon her work and will not run any more.

I think the thing I like most about this book is how it took many of the issues I had with Kitty and the Midnight Hour and fixed them. Carl is expressly labelled as abusive and a complete arsehole. His being a werewolf is adamantly rejected as an excuse or justification. He’s an abuser and treated as such. His victims are victims and treated as such (even if the rescue doesn’t go to plan) and, ultimately he gets his most glorious comeuppance. 

Seeing Kitty come back, so much stronger, so much tougher, seeing things so much clearer than she once did was one of those wonderful literature moments; she left a victim and came back and refused to be controlled.

Despite that, Kitty doesn’t come back seeking revenge or seeking to take control. She hasn’t stepped outside of herself. She is, ultimately, still the same person who is conflict averse and ultimately wants to live her own life without disturbance but is dragged into these conflicts, ultimately, to both preserve her autonomy AND to protect the vulnerable. She has evolved and grown as a character without completely transforming into someone unrecognisable. She’s not perfect, she’s not fearless, but she is real, she is alpha and she is strong

Review: Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn. Book 3 of the Kitty Norville Series

After the dramas of Kitty Goes to Washington, including her own kidnapping, Kitty needs a break. In fact she needs a holiday.

So her show is on hold, much of her life in fact, while she takes stock, finds some peace and writes a book of her memoirs (now in much demand after the dramas she’s lived through).

Of course, few things are ever that simple. Especially with curse wielding locals who are not happy to see a werewolf move into the area, unhelpful police and a campaign of intimidation from her magically capable neighbours.

Cormac and Ben show back up to see her – but it’s not a social call. One of Cormac’s jobs has gone badly wrong – Ben has been bitten by a werewolf and Kitty has to introduce him to his new life as well as herself deal with being part of a pack again. And if that wasn’t enough, the threat that Cormac hunted has followed him back to kitty – and they’re faced with the dual problems of supernatural menace and legal consequences hanging over them

And she has to analyse her own motives – is she taking a holiday? Or has she quit entirely? And not just her job, but her humanity – running off to the wilderness and succumbing more to her wolf.

Review: Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn, book 2 of the Kitty Norville series

Kitty is taking her radio show to Washington DC

After the existence of vampires and weres became more and more unavoidable and more and more well known beyond the fringe, the government has finally had to take notice. Not least of which because there's a government department appropriating funds to investigating paranormal biology.

Kitty, as one of the few publicly open and known werewolves, has been called to testify in front of the Senate committee. But the chairman of the committee is a senator she's known before – a religious fanatic who is convinced that vampires and weres are devil spawn that need to be destroyed – is this an investigation or a witch hunt? And to further add to the doubt and confusion it seems that the government scientists, Dr. Flemming, who she has been working with is neither as pure in his methods or his intentions as she had previously thought – just how compromised are the doctor's ethics and what risk does that pose for Kitty?

In DC she also again runs into the mysterious priest, Elijah Smith, with his strange power to suppress supernatural natures and compel vampires and weres to follow him in his travelling commune. She also finally gets to see how weres can exist without a pack – and a whole different side to vampires.

There's a lot going on in this book and a huge chunk more of the world is revealed, with considerably more possibilities – things have got a whole lot deeper for Kitty and her world.

This world remains one that intrigues me. While it has many of the Urban Fantasy staples and most of them follow along very strong lines (which isn't a bad thing, the classics became classics for a reason and it's actually nice to see a lot of the legends represented rather than so many discarded) we still have a very original moment. This series is taking part as the supernatural is revealed to the mortal world. This isn't where the supernatural world is hidden nor is it after the supernatural world is known to the more mundane world – this is the first series where we're seeing the actual revelation

I'm also glad we saw the flip side of not having a pack. Idyllic and peaceful on the outside, with everyone doing their own thing with no rules or restrictions or politics or games of dominance and submission – but at the same time you don't have people looking out for you, caring about you, worrying about you and ready and willing to back you up, support you and dig you out. I really liked how well it was done – the contrast of freedom and security – of how not owing anyone also meant no-one owed you anything either.

The plot was also very together. I didn't know where it was going, it was a completely new angle and I predict any of it. I won't say it had a lot of twists (though there were some) but it was a complete mystery and I had no idea how any of the plot lines would resolve until they actually did. It remained interesting and compelling throughout, always keeping me engaged and curious to see what happens next and where the story was going.

Ok, there's a moment that bothered me. For some reason they decided to go check out Elijah the freaky preacher with a psychic she'd just met and a reporter for one of those out-there monster shows (y'know, the TV equivalent of the Weekly World News). She just decided to go. No special reason why she should, let alone without reliable backup. And wouldn't you know it, the reporter just happened to have special special protective charms to hand out AND a grandma who knew exactly what to do about Elijah. It wasn't book breaking but the plot did wobble rather there, methinks.

If I had one other niggle it's that the ending was too pat. The committee seemed to be very restrained and reasonable with their findings and it felt, well, too ideal maybe. Or maybe I have too much cynicism. Other than these two, I think the story held together well without plot holes are head scratching

Kitty as a character is something I can't decide on. She's strong and independent at times and then she turns round and tolerates dominance and control – then she seems to resent it and rebels and defies in a way that seems to reject even simple kindness... then capitulates in the face of arrogant high handedness. I won't say she's an unreasonable character, I would say more she is a growing character, a maturing character just realising her strength but still assailed with doubts. So she's either very complex and nuanced and well written – or she's inconsistent and clumsy and not well characterised. I'm not sure which :)

We do have some POC in this book, quite a few. But most of them by far seem to be presented as foreign. They were decent characters and not overtly problematic (though certainly bit characters) but at the same time POC = from some exotic other place is not a great trope.

We had some vague past references to GBLTness – Kitty and Arlett hurriedly assuring each other that they're straight (*eye roll*) and a story about gay couple causing political chaos with their infantile love affair. Thankfully both are very very brief side points and after the treatment of TJ last book, I'm pleased by that.

While, so far, the book has generally avoided too much the tope of fantastic prejudice (where being supernatural is often compared to being a marginalised group that faces discrimination, oppression and persecution) we're skirting the line and I fear we may be heading rapidly in that direction

All in all, I am much happier with this book than I was the first book. Kitty is a much stronger person, there are less problematic elements and the story feels more concise and less vaguely rambly. The plot lines were more concise, there weren't loose threads hanging around and they flowed together naturally. And while Kitty makes a decision or two that make me scratch my head in bewilderment, I'm not actually screaming “why why WHY would you do this?!” at my kindle as I was before.

Review: Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn, book 1 of the Kitty Norville series

Kitty is a werewolf. Though she has worked hard to keep it hidden from her friends and family – and certainly from her work colleagues at the radio station she late night DJs for.

At least she did, until one show got out of hand and suddenly she is talking the supernatural all the time. Her ratings spike and she grows ever more popular reaching out to people who want to talk about the supernatural – as well as a huge number of vampires and werewolves who want someone to talk to, to advise them and who understands them

Now as an ever growing and ever more famous personality who is openly supernatural she faces a world that is rapidly changing as the supernatural is revealed and acknowledged. Further she faces her pack – and the local Vampire Family – who are less than pleased with her independence and her public revelations.

There's also a travelling preacher moving from place to place – offering faith healing and a way to change supernatural creatures into humans. He seems legitimate to an extent – but none of the people who go for his cure are ever seen again

And there's the pack. The pack that is not pleased by Kitty's independence and is in turmoil from her increased dominance and refusal to accede to her alpha's demands – as well as jealousy from Meg, the alpha female who fears being replaced.