Blog Tour Review: Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand, Carrie Vaughn

For the past few days, I have had the immense privilege of being able to read and enjoy the Kitty Norville series back-to-back. Today’s blog tour will be featuring books five and six, Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand and Kitty Raises Hell. We’re starting with book number 5! Here’s the summary from the back of Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand:

“Already the alpha pair of Denver’s werewolf pack, Kitty and Ben now plan to tie the knot human-style by eloping to Vegas. Kitty is looking forward to sipping fru-fru drinks by the pool and doing her popular radio show on live TV, but her hotel is stocked with werewolf-hating bounty hunters. Elsewhere on the Strip an old-school magician might be wielding the real thing; the vampire community is harboring a dark secret; and the irresistable star of a suspicious animal act is determined to seduce Kitty. Sin City has never been so wild, and this werewolf has never had to fight harder to save not only her wedding, but her very life.”

I’ve been loving this series and book 5 is no exception. As can only be expected in Vegas, quite a few things are far more extreme than Kitty has encountered before, and her elopement, needless to say, does not go as expected. By this point, I feel like I know Kitty really well, and I like her a lot. I love how her character has developed over the course of the series, so by this point, she knows what her priorities are, she loves Ben, and she knows enough to be suspicious when things are strange. I loved how all the weirdness in Vegas centered around the acts because in such a place, it would seem completely natural. They don’t need to hide like vampires and lycanthropes do in other cities because exotic is normal. It seemed a perfect stagedrop for what happened.

I also really enjoyed the further involvement of Kitty’s family in this book. I like them, too, and I think it normalizes Kitty and makes her easier to relate to, at least for me, when she has a normal mother and father who are worried and concerned about her. I’m basically eloping except with our parents along, so I loved that Kitty planned the same thing.

This is the first book in the series that ends in a real cliffhanger. Let me say, I was thrilled that I had the sixth one waiting when I finished! Up until now, each was a mostly contained story, but these two go together.

So, long story short, these books have really made me wonder why I don’t read more urban fantasy. Come back a little later for my review of Kitty Raises Hell! In the meantime, you can listen to this great Blog Talk Radio show with Carrie Vaughn, hosted by Miriam at Hachette, or check out a couple of articles written by the author. Carrie Vaughn also has a blog, which you can find right here. Here’s an Amazon link to check the book out further. And finally, I will leave you with a list of the other blogs participating on the tour!