Kitty Steals the Show

Kitty Norville, Book 10

By: Carrie Vaughn

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Kitty has been tapped as the keynote speaker for the First International Conference on Paranatural Studies, taking place in London. The conference brings together scientists, activists, protestors, and supernatural beings from all over the world - and Kitty, Ben, and Cormac are right in the middle of it.Master vampires from dozens of cities have also gathered in London for a conference of their own. With the help of the Master of London, Kitty gets more of a glimpse into the Long Game - a power struggle among vampires that has been going on for centuries - than she ever has before.

In her search for answers, Kitty has the help of some old allies and meets some new ones, such as Caleb, the alpha werewolf of the British Isles. The conference has also attracted some old enemies, who've set their sights on Kitty and her friends.

All the world's a stage, and Kitty's just stepped into the spotlight.

©2012 Carrie Vaughn, LLC (P)2012 Tantor

Rip roaring adventure

Another excellent chapter in the Kitty Norville series, full of action and the trademark wry humor.

Merely a battle won, but not the war

“So the war begins. At last.”
Well, not quite. It’s more like only the opening gambit.
The series arc involving the Long Game moves forward- an inch. But the Big Bad remains absent and the closest we get is a thirty second confrontation with a few of his allies. We also get to spend time with some of the characters from prior books, like former were-soldier Tyler, newly minted vampire Emma, and werejaguar Luiz.

This installment is a lot of blah blah paranormal politics and protests until more than halfway through, when we get one thrilling action scene, followed by a bit of kidnapping suspense. It was still a solid listen, however I preferred the books with more of a self contained mystery procedural format. It’s also nagging me more and more that there isn’t a human contingent looking to form alliances with Kitty’s side in the coming war.

not great

What disappointed you about Kitty Steals the Show?

I love the series, but this one was a bit disappointing. Couldn't keep my attention.

Would you ever listen to anything by Carrie Vaughn again?

Of course I'll listen to her books again. This is the first one I didn't really like.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Blaa

Mediocre at Best

Though I enjoy the Kitty series; this one fell a bit flat. The storyline was uni-dimensional, rather unimaginative and flat. Hope the next book is better.

One of the weakest Kitty Norville books yet

This is the 10th book in the Kitty Norville series. I thought this book was a bit weaker than previous books, it was nice to see Kitty expand to the international stage...but she deal with the same issues as have been dealt with before. I really don’t have a ton to say about this book; it was okay.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was really well done. The narrator did an excellent job with distinguishing between voices and giving the characters a lot of emotion when they spoke.

Kitty and Ben travel to London to attend the first international paranormal conference. While there Kitty end up embroiled in local vamp/werewolf politics. The tension surrounding the 2000 yr old vampire Roman is rising and the long game is coming to a head.

There is nothing really all that surprising in this book. It mainly served to build up tension in the upcoming war between Roman and his enemies.

Kitty does many of things she has done in many recent books in the series; she gets in trouble and then proceeds to talk her way out of it. Neither her, nor Ben have a ton of character growth in this book and they were both kind of vanilla. Honestly I found both of them to be pretty boring.

Cormic is the interesting character in this book. We get glimpses into how he is coping with having Amelia sharing head space with him. Comric does change and grow a lot in the story, but he seems to do a lot of this off screen. I kind of wish we had gotten to follow his story a bit more. Although it is a bit creepy at times how he has a woman stuck in his head.

The plot mainly focused around Roman and the Long Game. There is a lot of posturing between vamp and were groups on either side. Lots of talking between groups and choosing sides. Again, it was pretty boring. I am getting a bit sick about hearing about the Long Game over and over but never really knowing what it is or really having much happen with it. I feel like it’s high past time to move on to something new.

Overall an okay addition to the series. The writing is solid but the characters and story felt a bit old and boring to me. I don’t know if I am just getting bored with Kitty or what. At this point I am on the fence about whether or not I will read the next book in this series. There are just so many excellent urban fantasy series out there; I would recommend the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, the Elemental Assassin series by Jennifer Estep, or the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews over this one if you are an urban fantasy fan.

Mostly set up

I have historically loved the Kitty Norville series, but this one left me a little wanting. First off let me say that Marguerite Gavin is spectacular as usual, and the production of this audio book is of very high quality. The writing itself is crisp, funny, and well done...the story on the other hand is basically a set-up for (hopefully) the next novel. The plot in this book just seemed very low-key, no really overall dramatic plotline, when something does happen it is quickly resolved..then something else might happen but these subsequent events did not really seem connected to the prior event. Rather there seems to be several hidden sub plots/action streams happening that we don't really get to see yet. I equate this book with a "book 1" of a trilogy, where some minor things happen but the real plot is to be revealed and resolved in subsequent novels.
That being said, I think that Ms. Vaugh is leading up to a humdinger of a showdown and anybody who misses this book will be lost in later books. So it is a must-read for Kitty Norville fans, but it will probably leave you a little disappointed that nothing really happens.

Getting tired of werewolf/vampire politics

This series has lost its punch. Kitty seems to be in a never ending battle between werewolves, vampires, and some shady scientists trying to control the fate of the world. Roman is still the main threat to everyone, as he has been the last few books, and Kitty goes to a conference to try to warn the world to unite. It's a lot of political nonsense that is getting old, dragging from book to book.
The narrator of this series, is just OK, as she has a way of putting emphasis on the wrong words, so her sentences have all these imaginary comas, that aren't really there. Can be annoying, to say the least.
All and all, the first books were exciting and had an ending. These last few, are rather dull as far as content goes.