Kitty's House of Horrors Carrie Vaughn Book

Kitty's House of Horrors
by Carrie Vaughn
Published 2010, Grand Central Publishing
review copy provided by Grand Central Publishing

Kitty's House of Horrors sees Kitty talked into participating in a Reality Television show, with various other supernatural folk. She's sharing a cabin in Montana with some vampires, a witch, a magician, two psychics, a were-seal Alaskan legistator, and a (not supernatural at all) Skeptic. Though she hates being dragged into television appearances, Kitty agrees to do this, and leaves civilation, and even takes the helm of some of the crew's scheduled "reality tv related activities" for lack of a better word. Then, the vampire's assistant is killed and Kitty's worry kicks in, only to get worse when she and her new friends find most of the production crew dead. What is going on? Who is out to get them? And will they all make it out alive--or not? You'll have to read this one to find out!

Having only read two others in this series, I can’t say whether or not Kitty's House of Horrors leads off the previous title well. I will warn you there are some surprising spoilers, but nothing that will ruin the book for a new reader. That said, Kitty's House of Horrors is another well done addition to the series—of course. How could it not be? And I’m glad the fine folks at Grand Central sent it my way. I have to be honest though, if there was one thing I didn’t like about the book, it was the Reality TV premise—but Ms. Vaughn pulled it off well, and I enjoyed the story more than I thought I might when I first read the blurb. So, if you’re curious to see what Kitty gets into now, and how this whole thing plays out, the novel came out in January, and it should be available at any bookstore local to you, I don't doubt, or as ever, online at Amazon.

There's a version of this review up at my Examiner pages, if you'd like to give it a hit. Thanks, and I hope you've enjoyed this review.

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A review of Kitty and the Midnight Hour

Kitty and the Midnight Hour
by Carrie Vaughn
Publisher: Grand Central (who sent me my review copy).

In Carrie Vaughn’s first novel, Kitty and the Midnight Hour, we meet Kitty Norville, a DJ at a Denver, Colorado radio station, who while bored with her usual midnight shift of AOR fueled music, inadvertently launches a talk show—not just any talk show, mind you. No, this one fast becomes a kind of “vent hour” for Denver’s supernatural community—Vampires, witches, and, (like Kitty herself) other werewolves phone in every night to air their grievances and woes. And lo, Kitty’s show turns out to be such a rousing success, she’s given the go-ahead to continue the format—and syndicated nationwide. So night after night, she sits in her booth with her engineer, chatting about all the psychological problems one never thinks of when thinking of adjusting to the life led by the Supernatural set.
But the job and fame don’t come without a price: Kitty’s pack and their pushy leader Carl do not appreciate Kitty’s newfound fame, at all; more immediate than their complaints and taunts, someone wants Kitty off the air, permanently—alive if necessary; dead, preferably. And they are willing to pay a skilled assassin to have her nightly appearances eternally canceled. And if that weren’t enough trouble for our heroine, the police suddenly show up with a problem of their own: there’ve been a rash of animal attacks. But now that Kitty has outted herself, live on national radio, are they looking at her as the possible murderer? With everyone from the local faction of normal folk terrified by the supernatural half of society, and the local vampire godfather, and the tent revivalists who traipse into town, and even those inside Kitty’s pack, upset with her success (and some would argue, loud mouth) is she truly in danger? Or is she just being set up, and by whom? You’ll have to read to find out!

If there is one downside to the novel, I’d have to say, it ended a little differently than I expected, but that’s not a bad thing really. Read it and you’ll see what I mean. In the end, I found this to be very enjoyable. Is it because of the unique setting, and its refreshingly rural landscape? Maybe. Is it poor Kitty’s trials? Maybe. (And no, I won’t spoil it for you by telling you how all this ties up, but I will say, it doesn’t parallel much in today’s market standard kick butt-take names endings) but it . . . well, rocks, in my humble opinion. :)

In the current saturated market of one New York set Urban Fantasy vampire/vampire hunter/werewolf hunter title after another, the tiny little tome that is *Kitty and the Midnight Hour really stands out. If you have not tried it yet, well, I think you are in for a treat.
You can find it at Amazon, or scoot on over to Ms. Vaughn's site for some other independent locations where this book is sold.


Oh, and my grade for this one:

For more on Carrie Vaughn see her home page or her blog (that has some of the best movie reviews I've ever read! :)

(Yes, I originally published this at the Examiner, but the book's one of my favorites, so I had to repost it here for my readers. :))

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ATUF guest Laura Bickle

I failed to mention this yesterday, so I hope it's not too late, but there is an interesting post, over at Abigail's fine All Things Urban Fantasy with Urban Fantasy author Laura Bickle concerning her upcoming debut novel Ember, and the cute minor character (ahem, a salamander). Go on over and take a peek, if you have a chance.

Oh, and my friend Julianne at Writing the Renaissance has a post on Francois I who, it looks, had a similiar thing for salamanders. :) Check it out here.

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Waiting on Wednesday?

Been looking around for some new stuff to read, and found some great titles. I only wish I had more expendable cash!  I particularly like the look of Eileen Rendahl's Don't Kill the Messenger.

Anywho, made up a little article about some of the new books out. It's up over at the Examiner if y'all care to take a look.

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Carrie Vaughn interview at ATUF

All Things Urban Fantasy if you haven't seen it has an interview with Fantasy author Carrie Vaughn (I'm *so* jealous! ;)) Go read it here. Kudos to ATUF for scoring this interview! ;)

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Erica Hayes at All Things Urban Fantasy

Author Erica Hayes is guestblogging over at All Things Urban Fantasy today. Go take a peek, and have fun!

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Five Fabulous Friday giveaways

We need some good news today, don't we? So I thought I'd look around for something nifty for my readers. Lo and behold, look what I found! Swag!

Plot Monkeys is giving away an Amazon gift card:
http://www.plotmonkeys.com/2010/03/05/friday-contest-2/

La Femme Readers is giving away an ARC copy of Tricia Rayburn's Siren.
http://lafemmereaders.blogspot.com/2010/03/arc-giveaway-of-siren-by-tricia-rayburn.html

All Things Urban Fantasy is giving away a copy of NUM8ERS by Rachel Ward.
http://allthingsurbanfantasy.blogspot.com/2010/03/review-giveaway-3-copies-of-num8ers-by.html

Fang-tastic Books is giving away a copy of Ellen Schreiber's Manga Blood Relatives Vol. 3.
http://fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com/2010/03/welcome-guest-ellen-schreiber-author-of.html

Vampire Wire is giving away a copy of Skyler White's new novel And Falling Fly
http://vampirewire.blogspot.com/2010/03/interview-with-skyler-white-contest-for.html

Good luck to all who try for these goodies! :)

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upcoming releases and events

And, in other news, I have a new article for you, on the new releases--and a few blogger posts to look out for. You can see it here. Enjoy, and have fun at the chats!

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First review of the year!

Popping in with yet another review; Kitty Goes to Washington. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

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Zombies!

I'm currently speeding my way through this certain zombie book in preparation for reviewing it. But since I'm pretty sure I won't have it done this week, in the meantime, I popped up this review of Laurell K. Hamilton's second novel--which, incidentally, includes zombies. Gah.

(Ok, ok, listening to my little mental voice (that sounds remarkably like my fanboy little brother) yack in my ear now, so I have to eventually go toss in some codes on the ole Playstation and see if I can get away from the Resident Evil zombies before they eat my brain. LOL I wonder if that means I should drag hubby out to see Zombieland one of these fine days.... oh, dear. ;))

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Another new book review posted

Posted another new book review: of Carrie Vaughn's Kitty and the Midnight Hour. Which I think is another good one. :) I hope you will enjoy it. Have a great day!

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Another new review up

Hello again! Are you all recovered from Halloween candy overload yet? I hope so. I cannot believe it is November, already. November! It doesn't feel like it(and in large part because of our really warm temperatures here. Yes, I know my northern friends are cringing. Don't worry, I am sure we'll be paying for it this winter. ;))

Anywho, we had a very busy weekend, involving moving vans and lots of heavy lifting, and I'm paying for *that* right now. But I had to get some work done, so I thought I'd drop in a leave the newest link here, if anyone wants to see the latest book review. :) It's here, by the way. I hope you find it enjoyable. Have a good one, and don't go overdosing on that candy corn, y'all! ;)

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New interview up

Sorry I haven't posted much this week; I've been busily writing, reading, posting articles (getting :( rejection letters), oh well. You can see my latest interview with Terri Garey, a lovely local paranormal romance author, here. Enjoy.

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