Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville #1) by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station - and a werewolf in the closet. Her new late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged 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?


Type: Urban Fantasy, Vampires/Shifters (Werewolves)
Heat: 1 out of 5
Rating: 2 out of 5


Have you ever had one of those days where your head thunks onto your desk and you just can't seem to move and do anything about it because, well, it's just been one of those days? Kitty and The Midnight Hour...pretty much the same result. This was my first time reading Vaughn and the first 100 pages were rough going and reminded me of a very lackluster paranormal version of the television show Frasier. All I kept thinking was why on earth did anyone recommend this series to me?!? Thankfully things pick up the second half of the book and while I didn't love the story all that much more at least there was more action to keep me interested and not bored to the point of tears.

This werewolf story lacked almost all of my favorite things about werewolves. I love a good Alpha that's strong, a little aggressive but above all else respects women and protects them. Doesn't take advantage. Is honorable and in control. Carl the Alpha isn't any of the above.This is one seriously messed up and sick wolf Pack with no redeeming qualities. Kitty is at the bottom of the pack and she's tired of being picked on and put down but as long as she's the "baby" she'll be protected by the Packs Alpha. Her radio program is taking off and Kitty starts trying to assert her independence which does not go over well. Not only is their a rogue werewolf attacking women but now someone is trying to have Kitty killed as well and they aren't subtle about it. Enter one of my biggest complaints. Carl does nothing to stop the people out to get Kitty even after he knows who is behind it. He doesn't really do anything about the rogue wolf either and on top of it he's cheating scum! He screws around with anyone in the Pack he wants, including Kitty, because he's the Alpha. Okay, they're wolves, I can kinda be okay with that. Until you find out he has a mate. Aaaaaaand, not okay with that. Like I said. Slimy cheating scum. There's no support with this Pack only abuse, both physical and emotional. What made it even harder to read was that Kitty knows it's abusive but she loves Carl anyway and wants to please him and be with him anyways. I spent a lot of this book cringing at, well, almost everything that happened. It really wasn't a fun story to get lost in and the ending was far from satisfying even though Kitty as a person was much improved. The way the villain(s) were handled at the end had me wanting to throw my book at the wall and biting back a scream of "seriously?!? that's how it ends?!!!" I just couldn't believe it and hope that it's something that comes back up in later books and is fixed.

General William T. Sherman

The Good: There were a few things about the book I enjoyed and might convince me to give the series a second try. My favorite part was Cormac, the hitman who hunted werewolves including Kitty. He's awesome and pretty damn close to the only reason I'd pick up book two. He's a little crazy. A good bit scary. But he's at least good for his word and amazingly is there for Kitty when she needs him. He adds a couple funny scenes too which I greatly appreciated. Another thing I liked was mention of General William T Sherman. How he was really a werewolf which was obvious if you just look at him. So, of course, I had to go look up a picture of him and, yeah, I can totally see it! And last, Kitty actually grew a lot as a person. She stopped accepting the abusive relationship with her pack and started standing up for herself. Fighting back against everything that was wrong with the Pack. I hope she continues to grow and that the rest of the series isn't so depressingly hard to read. I just don't know if I'm up for another go at it after such a painfully hard to read book one. 

Have you ever read a book that was far from being a favorite but you just had to pick up book two to see if it improved? If you did, how's it go?