Kitty and The Midnight Hour

Kitty Norville, Book 1

By: Carrie Vaughn

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 7 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station---and a werewolf in the closet. Sick of lame song requests, she accidentally starts "The Midnight Hour," a late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged. After desperate vampires, werewolves, and witches across the country begin calling in to share their woes, her new show 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.

©2005 Carrie Vaughn, LLC (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Fresh, hip, fantastic.... Don't miss this one. You're in for a real treat!" (L. A. Banks, author of he Vampire Huntress Legends series)

Voice Of The Night

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Love the sarcasm and the deep midnight calls. Great radio scenes. Great start to a paranormal series. Story filled with sarcasm but not humor, and can be a bit on the dark side.
Thxs to 1st in series sale for a preview of this author.

What other book might you compare Kitty and The Midnight Hour to and why?

If you like this story, see modern Marcia Clark's series of Racheal Knight. Another great book with sarcasm. Reader January LeVoy knocks it out of the ballpark

Which character – as performed by Marguerite Gavin – was your favorite?

Ozzie as he is the great agent. Actually all the characters in this story are good. I just got hooked on Ms Gavin and her Kate Shugak/Alaska series.
Kitty in this story has the same determined strength as does the Kate series. Strong women who do the right thing, no matter what.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

a bit tearful at the ending, but it certainly makes you want book #2

Any additional comments?

note: I use the new 1.25x speed to match the author's intent

A refreshing heroine

What did you like best about this story?

An unexpected heroine, a DJ tired of putting up with bullies. Kitty is more like a regular woman, well except for the fact that she is a werewolf. The lowest member of the Denver pack, decides to keep a controversial radio talk show on the air. Her life goes from simply accepting her position in the pack to standing up for her believes regardless of the consequences.

I truly enjoyed reading this book. The fact Kitty is not the typical kick ass heroine, was a refreshing change. A very smart young woman fights her way through all odds to come on top.

Which character – as performed by Marguerite Gavin – was your favorite?

The main character Kitty Norville

Fresh, exciting, engaging take on being a werewolf

Some books slide right into my mind as if there was already a slot there, waiting for them. My imagination lights up like a fairground, my mouth smiles, my eyes are fixed on the movie screen in my head and the world becomes a barely registered background noise.

"Kitty And The Midnight Hour" had this effect on me. It soothed me with a light, fun, fresh tone and then gripped me with darker themes, handled for their human impact, not their sensational value.

Kitty Norville is a werewolf (yeah, yeah, the name came first, what's a girl supposed to do about that?) and a damaged young woman, unsure of herself, habitually but unhappily submissive, living in the ruins of the life that was taken from her when she was turned against her will.

She has survived by grace of being part of a Pack which offers her protection and companionship as long as she accepts her status at the bottom of the hierarchy and keeps her true nature secret.

Kitty's main source of solace and personal identity comes from hosting an unremarkable late-night radio show playing old, sorry, classic pop music. One night, she decides to take calls from listeners and accidentally creates "The Midnight Hour. The show that isn't afraid of the dark or the people who live there". When the talk-show takes off Kitty's life grows more and more complicated as the demands of her Pack and of the supernatural powers that be conflict with her desire to go on with a show that is drawing attention to a world that is supposed to be secret.

I've grown used to books imposing pack behavior on werewolves so I was almost as slow as Kitty in understand that her Alpha is truly abusive, no matter how much the wolf in her wants to roll on her back and show him her belly. Kitty's personal growth in the face of this abuse is one of the most interesting things in the book.

The book is packed with action, including multiple fights between the wolves, which Carrie Vaughn describes vividly, sustaining excitement without resorting to too much gore.

The radio show itself is wonderful. If it was on the air, I'd be a regular listener. The tone is exactly right for a good talk-show and it provides a great vehicle for getting to know the supernatural world and its denizens.

The audiobook, and this is a PERFECT novel for an audiobook, is narrated by Marguerite Gavin (go HERE to read an interview with her). I've spent hours listening to Marguerite Gavin narrating the Kate Shugak books. I has stupidly assumed that I knew what her voice was like. Now I realize that I was listening to what she thinks Kate Shugak (a thirty-something Aluet with a damaged voice) sounds like. Marguerite Gavin's Kitty is younger and, of course, has a great voice for radio. It's a great achievement and it means I'll be looking hard at the (many) 0ther books she's narrated.

I'm hooked on Kitty Norville now. The first book provides lots of teasers on what might happen next and I want to hear more episodes of Kitty's show, so book two, "Kitty Goes To Washington" will be pushing its way to the top of my TBR pile very soon.

Pleasant Surprise!

I tried this and some other books after browsing some Amazon lists for new authors. Based on the cover art and the publisher's description I expected an OK book, but I was happy to find a book that exceeded my expectations. I really enjoyed this book the entire way through.

I adore the narrator based on listening to her read the Rachel Morgan series so that helped, but the story also deserves credit for getting my interest early and keeping it the whole way through. Ms. Gavin reads with a rhythm that's engaging and that feels like someone actually talking versus the fake, repetitive, sing-song rhythm some narrators use. She does a fabulous job of defining each character with her voice, which I don't think is an easy thing to do well.

I agree with another reviewer about some characters being somewhat derivative, but I didn't find it so blatent that it bothered me. That said, I'd like to see a unique, quirky, interesting character or two added as the series progresses.

There was enough going on in the plot to keep things moving and the main character was realistic and likeable. I was happy that the author stayed away from some of the trite characteristics for the main character that I've seen in some books of this genre.

I'd stretch things and give the book a 4 rating instead of a 3.5, mostly for managing to catch my interest so well with the first book in a series, but I decided to give this a 5 overall because of the narration. I've already downloaded the next book in the series and can't wait to listen!

A main character who actually has some growth!

I know.... I know... Kitty's tolerance of physical and sexual abuse was an intentional part of the story and, to be fair, Vaughn did this very well - i.e. unlike many (too many) other writers in this genre who write abuse/coercion like it's romance, the abuse in this story was certainly presented as abuse, not romance. But it was still a bit frustrating at times and I just wanted to shake Kitty and tell her to smarten up.

Someone compared Kitty with Rachel Morgan and, surprisingly, I have to agree. If you liked Harrison's Morgan series, you'll probably like this book too: the tone is similar, the main characters are similar, even the plot is sort of similar (well, not the plot so much as the theme of "main character trying to find herself and her place among her peers/friends as she grows in strength/awareness")

And that sorta sums up the plot. It's about 2/3 an exploration of Kitty's life/growth and 1/3 an investigation into what might happen in (our current) world where werewolves are discovered to be real. We are not left hanging at the end of the book, but there is enough left unresolved that you'll be curious to see what Kitty gets up to in the next installment. I quite liked it and plan to read the rest of the series.

The narration is very good. There is violence and sex but it's not graphic and I don't recall much in the way of swearing.

Better than expected

I got this because it was on sale for 6 dollars and it deemed a pretty interesting story. The narration was done well. If you like the paranormal, you will like this book. The write does an excellent job on the characters, getting into the head of a warewolf!

good story and humor

What made the experience of listening to Kitty and The Midnight Hour the most enjoyable?

more humor than i expected. made the story that much better. a little slow to start but got up to speed quickly. loved how the narrator clearly depicted each voice so well and distinctly:)
totally recommend this book and i will continue to read Carrie's books:)

What if twilight wasn't shit..

Modern horror fantasy in a realistic setting. Toys with tropes. Realistic characters, and amusing interactions.

Thoroughly enjoyed it, but...

***Mostly Spoiler Free***
This review will discuss characteristics of the main character, but will not give any specifics of the actual story away.
**************************

The narrator was fantastic, thank goodness. I'm always afraid of getting an annoying one that ruins the story, but that wasn't the case here.
The story itself was a lot of fun. I love the idea of a night shift DJ who's "otherness" is the focal point of their show.
The reason I couldn't give this story a full 5 stars was because of the unfortunate character flaw of the main character in the first half of the book. I'm not one of those loud mouthed feminist types who believe that women shouldn't ever be vulnerable. However, the passivity and submissiveness of Kitty's character in the beginning was almost painful in it's awkwardness.
Admittedly, it doesn't last for the entire book (and I almost stopped reading a few times because of it), but it's very cringe inducing. Not only that, it's so extreme in the early moments, it's almost completely unbelievable. Each time it cropped up, it took me completely out of the story.

The rest of the book was enjoyable for the most part, and I really WAS glad I stuck with it by the end. I was somewhat disappointed with the resolution of one of the story's conflicts because it felt far too obvious what was happening.

I also felt that the main conflict at the end of the story was too neat and clean, and that the author missed an amazing opportunity to put a perfectly plausible twist at the end that would have been much more enjoyable to read (it certainly would have felt like a more satisfying ending), and would have fit very well with that characters' story arc.

Still, over all it wasn't bad, and I'm willing to give the 2nd book a try next. Now that Kitty seems to have gotten over her ridiculously over submissive streak, I'm hoping for a more satisfying conclusion to the next book.

No where near as good as advertised

I was expecting something with a strong female character when I read the description, a female werewolf who is a late night DJ and investigates a murder. Instead the lead character cringes and whines and gets abused on a regular basis. She begs to be used by her alpha and cringes in fear in front of everyone. While the narration was wonderful, Marguerite Gavin does a wonderful job with inflections and intonations making the dialogue come alive, the story falls flat.

Kitty's alpha uses his position to sleep around and has his own harem. Kitty is kept as a play toy and the pack treats her like a favorite chew toy, someone with no value other than in being used and abused by the pack, including being used sexually. I began to wonder if the author had an untapped BDSM side she was trying to work out.

I hate to give up when so many others have given good reviews and I will keep listening while I do other things for the background noise (Gavin's voice is very soothing), but if the second book doesn't have a much stronger Kitty then I won't bother trying again.

The story is cliche, other than the abused submissive wolf side of things, and if not for Gavin it would be a returned book. It really isn't worth the the time to listen to but it would have been worse having to read it.