Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville)

Carrie has written an unusual novel for the Modern Supernatural genre. First the heroine is a DJ. Second as an accident of boredom, she creates a new radio talk show in which the supernatural world is talked about by both the mundane and the supers. What is not so unusual is that she is a super and struggling to keep those of the mundane persusion from discovering what she is, this also includes a police detective, her lawyer, her boss, and her listeners. Kitty Norville, the heroine, is a delightful character who deals with being a recently coverted werewolf, 3 years ago, in her personal life; while answering the concerns and fears of her supernatural callers. Like my other favorite authors in this genre Carrie has taken an effort to develop the cultures of the werewolves and the vampires, while immersing them into our world today. What I am really enjoying is how she has slowly but surely introduced the supes to the mundane world, some authors have worlds where some or all of the supes have come out of hiding, but none have discussed what happens when the mundane world finds out that their safe world has real monsters living right next door. Her second book, Kitty Goes To Washinton, sends Kitty to Washinton to face a Senate hearing on Supes. Again, like all my other favorite book, characterization is very strong, the plot is well paced, and well thought out. Kitty must deal with real problems in her personal life, pack politics can be fatal; and the consequences of her public life, most supes don't want to come out of hiding, and the heads of the local were pack and vamp family look at her continued airing of the show as personal challenges to their preciuos authority; while she comes up with answers to her troubled, mostly recently turned weres and vamps, listeners. The show gives her a fealing of accomplishment and self worth, along with a good income as it starts to become nationally syndicated; so she fights for her show even against assasins and rogue wolves.

Wow, what a story. I had a lot of fun reading this book. The only problem with it was it was too short. I wanted to hear much more about Kitty. The characters are well developed and you can see a clear progression of growth in the propagandist as she moves along in the story. The emotions and dialog of the characters are believable and nicely written, not over the top dramatic never once did I say, hey that was out of character with X, consistent and good. The story line was not something totally new but it was nicely written in such a way that made it interesting to read and the comedy was quite funny. I could really relate with Kitty. Her descriptions and devotion to the little written about genre of werewolf culture was refreshing and new. If you liked Vaughn's book you would probably also like Mary Janice Davidson, and Kim Harrison. I can hardly wait to read the next installment!

I'm a big fan of paranormal books and am always on the lookout for something new. This is new, and it's good too, not a trashy romance masqurading as the next LK Hamilton. One of the best things about this book was the way in which Vaughn describes life as a member of a werewolf pack. I've read a lot of books about werewolves, but none that described the sexual and power relationship struggles so realistically. This book has just enough sex to make it interesting, but not so much that I felt embarassed to read it. It's got a murder mystery subplot, and a great deal of dialogue and character development. If you're wondering whether to buy it or just get it from the library, buy it. It's good enough to last a second or third reading.

While I'm usually a skeptic of fantasy as a genre, and doubly so of vampire/werewolf fiction, I find this book surprisingly delightful. My first read of the ARC gave me hints of depth and metaphor that stretch far beyond what I normally expect of a first time author, and required a second reading. Rarely do books of this genre offer more than a stage for the sexual fantasies of socially stunted teens this one, however, offers metaphoric discourse on race, prejudice, homosexuality, HIV/AIDS, and gender issues. Yet, unlike most books that strive woodenly for a social relevance, this book also offers a very solid story that holds the reader from cover to cover. The book is unusually short for a modern fantasy offering, (which is in itself quite refreshing) and the author goes straight to the story without a lot of self-indulgent fluff that seems to be the earmark of most current urban fantasy novels. Overall, I highly recommend this book.