Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Title: Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Author: Carrie Vaughn
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 288 (Mass Market Paperback)
My good friend calico_reaction twisted my arm and forced me to buy this book.
Okay, I take that back. There was no arm twisting involved. ;-)
At any rate, she knew I liked urban fantasy romance and thought I would really like this book. And as usual, she was right.
Wow, what a fast read. Seriously, y'all, I read this in roughly four hours. Funny, witty, well-written and interesting, this book definitely caught my attention and kept it.
Kitty Norville is the night DJ at a Denver radio station, and she likes it that way considering she's a werewolf and therefore a nocturnal creature. She's kept her secret identity very much in the closet, only turning during the full moon or when absolutely necessary. She likes being human, and all the perks that come with it (like chocolate). She's witty, well-spoken and funny.
One night she brings up a story about Bat Boy from the "Wide World of News," which inadvertently garners attention and turns her show into a late night talk show on all things supernatural. Soon she finds herself giving all kinds of advice, not to mention discouraging goth chicks from trying to find those famed vampire orgies everyone talks about. The head of the local vampire Family, Arturo, though doesn't like Kitty's show and puts out a hit on her. It's during the hit, as her would-be assassin is coming after her in the studio, that Kitty reveals on air that she's actually a werewolf.
The hit ends up not going down (obviously, otherwise there wouldn't have been a book or an entire series), and she and Cormac (an assassin of the supernatural, if you will) form an unlikely alliance. It's after Kitty's confession that the book turns into a bit of a murder mystery. Kitty's called in by Detective Hardin--who'd handled the aftermath of the botched hit--to help her figure out if a young prostitute was killed by a werewolf. Kitty goes to the crime scene, takes a sniff and realizes there's a rogue werewolf in Denver who's been murdering innocent women.
This book had excellent tension. There was sexual tension between Kitty and Cormac (I want to know if they end up together, dammit!). Tension between Kitty and Hardin. Tension between Kitty and Arturo. Tension between Kitty and Carl, the alpha male of her pack. Tension between Kitty and Meg, Carl's mate and the alpha female of the pack. Tension between Meg and Carl. Tension between Kitty's best friend T.J. (who's also a werewolf) and Carl. Tension between the vampires and the werewolves. Tension, tension, tension.
I also thought the way Vaughn handled the pack mentality was interesting, and how touch was so important to werewolves, how it more than anything was a sign of affection and a way to comfort. The dynamics were interesting, too, with the whole alpha/beta thing.
One thing that did bother me was how needy and submissive Kitty tended to be at times. As a human, she was a strong woman, but as Wolf she was weak. She allowed Carl to walk all over her and fuck her at will, obeyed whatever orders she was given and virtually begged at times for the smallest morsel of affection. Thinking about it now, this reminds me of women who are mentally and emotionally abused by their partners, in that even the smartest, strongest women can find themselves weak after a certain amount of abuse. And Carl's behavior--as a human and a wolf--was abusive. And yet she'd fallen in love with him and was loyal to him, still begged for scraps of his affection. Carl--like many abusive husbands--made Kitty dependent upon him, for protection, for friends, for guidance. He tried to keep her from doing anything that would give her the slightest bit of autonomy, and demanded that she stop doing The Midnight Hour. The only way Kitty managed to continue doing the show was by giving him half of her salary.
As she began to pull away from the pack, though, and help Hardin with the case and see Carl and Meg as they really were Kitty became stronger. Carl's hold over her began to slip and she started to fight back. She started to live her own life and realize that maybe the pack rules weren't the only ones to live by. I was very glad when this happened, because I like Kitty. And frankly, Carl's an ass.
I also have to say that Kitty's story about the night she was turned was absolutely heartbreaking. I won't spoil it for anyone, but damn. Seriously. Just damn.
I'm very curious to see where this series goes, and need to get my butt to the bookstore to pick up the next three in the series. After reading just the first few pages of Kitty Goes to Washington from the excerpt in this book, I know I'm definitely hooked. Plus, she has a caller at the beginning of the next one who thinks he's a were-alpaca. Seriously. A were-alpaca. I'm dying over here.
I give it:
