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Kitty and the Midnight HourCarrie Vaughn
Urban Fantasy
Kitty Norville/Book 1
Warner/November 1, 2005
From the back cover ~
VAMPIRES. WEREWOLVES. TALK RADIO.
Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station--and a werewolf in the closet. Sick of lame song requests, she accidentally starts "The Midnight Hour," a late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged.
After desperate vampires, werewolves, and witches across the country begin calling in to share their woes, her new show is a raging success. But it's Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew…
No clue how long this, and a few others from this series, have been sitting on the TBR pile. If I had to guess I'd say a few years. I haven't read anything of Vaughn's before so this fits in nicely with this month's theme of New To Me Author. It also fits nicely with time constraints I found myself in, coming in at just under 260 pages. I didn't start reading until Monday night which I'll blame on playing with my new cell phone - ie. learning how to use the darn thing.The premise is an interesting one. Kitty Norville is getting by with her night time radio gig when a call and a threat changes everything. She's a werewolf and now everyone knows. Here's where I had the first problem. Kitty's radio show not only outs werewolves but vampires as well. Kitty's alpha, Asshat Carl, tells her to stop doing the show, she doesn't, and... nothing. He threatens her but nothing comes of it. Then there's Arturo, the local Master vampire. He didn't like Kitty before the show and now likes her even less. He wants her to stop the show too. She doesn't, Arturo threatens, actually follows through. Pack politics also affect Kitty's life, threatening her and her venture into talk radio semi-stardom, leaving Kitty wondering who to trust.
The pack dynamics are pretty much what you would expect with an alpha ruling and a hierarchy that puts Kitty near the bottom. She starts out very submissive, really kind of wimpy for a werewolf but we do see her slowly evolve and begin to stand up for herself. That I did like. She wasn't this kick-ass chick, telling all the alphas off but she did stop hanging her head so often. One thing I didn't like about the pack was Carl. What a total ass! He has a mate but one of the perks of being an alpha is having sex with whomever he want - that included Kitty whether she wanted to or not. Was it rape? Yes and no. We get both Kitty and her Wolf's reaction to Carl with Kitty wanting to run and Wolf wanting to please Carl and be loved by Carl. Then both Kitty and her Wolf wanting to be loved and taken care of by Carl. However you read it, that aspect didn't appeal to me at all.
Kitty's life continues with more turmoil and mayhem. Not all of this is from outside sources. Kitty doesn't always apply common sense and gets herself into some of the less than favorable situations. She disregards advice from friends, packmates and even her lawyer. She may be growing more of a backbone but she's not there yet which is why it's so frustrating when she continues to put herself into these situations.
None of the male characters stood out for me. There's TJ, Kitty's packmate and close friend. He's okay but too much of a follower of Carl, whom I detested. Then there's Cormac the bounty hunter. We don't learn much about him which made it hard to connect with him. There's Carl - I've pretty much made my feelings known about him. The little bit we saw of Arturo was kind of interesting. I'd say vampire Rick was the most interesting. The feeling is that he's a powerful vampire but doesn't like to show off. He's sort of a friend of Kitty's, maybe ally is a better term. I could see him becoming a more vital part of the series.
In the end, I'm left with some curiosity for Kitty and her world and will most likely read the next installment, if only to get it off the TBR pile.
Rating: C
Books in this series ~
Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Kitty Goes to Washington
Kitty Takes a Holiday
Kitty and the Silver Bullet
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand
Kitty Raises Hell
Kitty's House of Horrors
Kitty Goes to War
Kitty's Big Trouble
I really enjoyed Kitty as a character. I've only read the first four. I didn't realize there were so many new ones!
ReplyDeleteMaybe I can review the next one for a TBR review.
Julia ~ If Kitty continues to grow in the next book, then I can see continuing w/the series. She does have potential. :)
ReplyDeleteLeslie, I read a short story by Vaughn about Cormac in one of the anthologies I hit last summer -- Dark and Stormy Knights -- that I really enjoyed. He's a really interesting character. But frankly once I looked at this series it just looked like there were too many books out already to begin reading this series.
ReplyDeleteI'll wait for your second review. :)
I think I have this first one somewhere in my TBR pile... unless I gave it away. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteI liked reading your opinion about it :) I'm most likely going to wait for you to pick up more books of this series before I take the plunge though :P
Hmmm, 260pages for a first book, that's pretty slim.
Hils ~ Cormac does have some potential so maybe we see more sides of him past this first book.
ReplyDeleteNath ~ It might be a while before I read the next one. It was short but still had a lot going on.
LOL, it's okay Leslie. It's been in my TBR pile for a few years... a few more won't change things :)
ReplyDelete