Kitty and the Midnight Hour - Carrie Vaughn - 4 Stars

Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Carrie Vaughn

****

Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station - and she also happens to be a werewolf. One night, sick of the usual lame song requests, she accidentally starts 'The Midnight Hour', a late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged. Almost immediately she's deluged by calls from desperate vampires, werewolves and witches from all across the country, wanting to share their woes and ask her advice.

Kitty's new show is a raging success, but it's Kitty herself who could use some help, not least because her monthly change is a deep and dark secret to all but a very special few.

And when she finds one very sexy werewolf-hunter on her tail, not to mention a few homicidal undead, she realises she may just may have bitten off more than she can chew...

Kitty and the Midnight Hour is a book I picked up for £1 from my local Post Office; it's pages yellowed and it's cover with a few rips in, it was pretty obvious it was old stock that has been chucked around the backrooms and they wanted to get rid of it, so I obliged. It's been sitting on my bookshelf for a while, I've been in two minds what to do with it, but haven't had the heart to give it away. I love Urban Fantasies and always find myself gravitating back to them when I hit a reading slump, but in this case I needed a book that was not too serious, and more importantly, fun.

Kitty is a remarkable character in her own right, she has a lot of issues that she is burdened with and copes admirably. What I admire about her is throughout the book she really grows from the 'bottom-of-the-pack' to become a rather challenging and strong woman. The premise of the story is that Kitty works nights as a DJ for her local Radio Station, one night she decides to have a little fun, stir up something more interesting than some dodgy 80's rock songs. A caller asks something about the supernatural and Kitty kindly obliges -- which sets off a chain of more callers wanting to know more about vampires, werewolves and the like. Which also sets off both werewolf and vampire to call in, acknowledging the fact that they are just 'misunderstood' and are as human as the rest of them. 

I loved this book and how fun it was to read; nothing was too serious but it managed to boast a great original story concept. The characters were alright, some I tolerated whilst others I really did like. I loved how Carrie did the mechanics of the werewolves and how she wrote it into the story, as though Kitty was third person. I really enjoyed that and how original it was, separating the werewolf entity from the human part. I thought her dialogue was witty and catchy, I also really enjoyed the relationship between Kitty and Cormac, they had a lot of chemistry. I do believe when you become cat and mouse, or in this case, hunter and the hunted, there is a degree of tension, and I think that sometimes it conveys into the best sexual tension and broadens the horizon for a relationship... maybe that is my little weird mind working, but that's my opinion. 

This is first of a series of... thirteen books, but I have never seen any since this one. I will definitely keep my eye out for the next, just because they were so simple, fun and easy to read, hardly a great mind-numbing venture, a book to have as you are hungover from an absorbing one previous.

The only thing that did let me down was the fact it was predictable, and apart from a rather small lack of description of the world that Carrie Vaughn has created, it is a great series with a kicks heroine and a good storyline. I look forward to reading the rest, if I can find them.