Review: Kitty Goes to War by Carrie Vaughn

Publisher: Tor Book
Where did you get this book from: Review Copy from publisher.
Release Date: 29th June 2010
This review contains some spoilers.

I must admit that I had almost given up on this series – mainly because of the lack of emotional build up between Kitty and her mate Ben. But Kitty’s House of Horrors, which IMHO, is the best book in the series. It brought me back, and I was willing to give this series another chance. Kitty Goes to War is the 8th instalment of The Kitty Norville Series.
Here’s the blurb from the book:

Kitty Norville, alpha werewolf and host of The Midnight Hour, a radio call-in show, is contacted by a friend at the NIH’s Center for the Study of Paranatural Biology. Three army soldiers, recently returned from the war in Afghanistan, are being held at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. They’re killer werewolves−and post-traumatic stress has left them unable to control their shape-shifting and unable to interact with people. Kitty agrees to see them, hoping to help by bringing them into her pack.
Meanwhile, Kitty gets sued for libel by CEO Harold Franklin after featuring Speedy Mart−his nationwide chain of twenty-four-hour convenience stores with a reputation for attracting supernatural unpleasantness−on her show.

Very bad weather is on the horizon.

After the intense experience in Kitty’s House of Horrors, this book is a little more chilled out – well as chilled out as Kitty’s life could be. Even though Kitty has her hands full dealing with the soldiers and Franklin, this book flows really well. One of the things I really like about this book is the pace. There is a lot going on, but I didn’t feel it was rushed and there are no “fillers” to pad the book out. The reason I didn’t give this book a 5 star is because in a way this book is an “in between” book in the story arc, which is adding to the main storyline of the vampire’s “long game”, and the way Vaughn delivers the action is superb, but her portrayal of romance is somewhat limited.

This book addresses the relationship issue I mentioned earlier in the previous books. With Cormac back on the scene, it’s easy to see the reason behind Kitty’s choice of mate. Kitty will always get herself in the middle of the action, trying her best to help people and stirring up the supernatural world in the process. She can’t help it; she is a radio talk show host. Ben just lets her be and lets her take the centre stage while he helps her in whatever situation she gets herself into.

Kitty enlists Cormac’s help to investigate Franklin and Speedy Mart. She notices that Cormac has been behaving strangely. Is it a result of being locked up for 2 years or something more mysterious? I am very glad that Cormac is finally back. His skill, knowledge and friendship is going to make the series even more exciting and Kitty could really use a friend with the life she leads. Now that Kitty’s “pack of three” is back together, I feel like they are ready to take on the world.

Kitty stays true to herself and tries to believe that there is humanity in werewolves. We get to see more of her pack’s dynamics, and Ben. I find it interesting that Kitty and Ben are not the strongest werewolves but they hold the pack together by their personalities. I like how Kitty learns when to ask the pack to do something, and when to give order as an alpha. The Denver pack as a whole haven’t got strong werewolves – as their previous alpha killed off any potential threat, but they are making a big impact (through Kitty) in the supernatural world. All in all, I really enjoyed Kitty Goes to War and I give it 4 Stars.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.