Cat Johnson Braves Doll Lil’s Word Association Challenge!

Author: Carrie Vaughn
Book: Kitty’s Big Trouble
Release: June 28, 2011
Series: Kitty Norville 9
Reviewer: Teresa
Source: Personal Library
Purchase: – Book Depository

Kitty Norville is back and in more trouble than ever. Her recent run-in with werewolves traumatized by the horrors of war has made her start wondering how long the US government might have been covertly using werewolves in combat. Have any famous names in our own history might have actually been supernatural? She’s got suspicions about William Tecumseh Sherman. Then an interview with the right vampire puts her on the trail of Wyatt Earp, vampire hunter.

But her investigations lead her to a clue about enigmatic vampire Roman and the mysterious Long Game played by vampires through the millennia. That, plus a call for help from a powerful vampire ally in San Francisco, suddenly puts Kitty and her friends on the supernatural chessboard, pieces in dangerously active play. And Kitty Norville is never content to be a pawn. . . .

Kitty’s Big Trouble is book nine in the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn, and with nine books behind us I’m going to do this review a little different. One because with Carrie you could pick up one of her books and follow along with the story if you so desired. She does give a little background within each book so you know what’s happened before. I don’t recommend it but that’s because this series has twist and turns that you don’t see coming. Plus there is Kitty and her sarcasm that just makes you laugh and you just want to know what she’s going to say next or do for that matter. I mean, what other series, do you know that has the heroine out herself on national radio that she’s a werewolf or shift on national TV. Yes this one has it all, which is why I say you could start with a later book but why miss out on the past good stuff. This brings us to my second reason there are nine books and Kitty is always getting into trouble, she is a talk show host that talks about the supernatural community that wants to stay hidden and she outs them. Trouble is her middle name.

So to start this review off I’m going to pose my questions. Why because for this one the question are truly more important I think.

Does Kitty get into trouble? Does Kitty leave Denver? Does Kitty work with any of her allies? Do we see Cormac? Does anyone die? Do we see Rick? Do we meet any other vamps? Does Kitty try to hunt down any new stories? What famous people in history does Kitty think were Werewolves? Does Rick tell any of his stories? Does Kitty contact any other vamps to find out about famous Werewolves? Does Roman make an appearance? Do we meet any knew beings? Do we learn any history about one of Kitty’s allies?

Kitty’s Big Trouble opens like the majority of Carrie’s Kitty books do with Kitty on the hunt for information. Within a few paragraphs we find Kitty in the studio doing the Midnight Hour. Here is where Kitty gets her listeners on the hunt for information about famous werewolves in history as well to see if any of them have heard any stories. She wants to find out her history more or less well not hers as in her family history but her werewolf history. Since she came out and found out there was a government program that had run test on the supernatural community at one time she sure there must have been others that have hidden they’re true identity throughout history. So like always Kitty ask her listeners for help and she somewhat gets it, but the question is who in our young bloody history could she think could be a werewolf? One officer peaks her interests, General William T. Sherman but finding the truth is harder than it appears. When a werewolf wants to hide who and what he truly is he can. Of course this doesn’t stop Kitty and she does ask Rick if he knows, but he does not. Kitty talks with the only other vamp she know would could keep that secret and was on the east coast at that time Alette, master vampire of Washington, DC also a friend and ally. But alas Alette won’t tell Kitty that secret, just like a vamp. I can’t tell you if Kitty finds out the answer to her question by the end of the book you’ll have to read it to find out plus she has to put her search on the back burner for a while as she hunts for another historical figure.

Bummed by not learning the information about General Sherman Kitty has another talk with Rick the master vampire of Denver, her friend and ally. During this talk they talk about our young nation and how the vamps reacted to finding out about Rick being out West when they thought no other vamp was in the New World. Now Rick have never truly told Kitty any of his stories, he’s dropped a few names of historic people his known to give her hints on how old he is but she doesn’t know exactly how old he truly is. Like he traveled with Coronado and he knew Doc Holiday, he hasn’t given her much more to go on. This time he gives her a little more, but not much. Lol He does make her think about who/what one famous sheriff was and how he could clean up the West with all those nasty around. That’s right Rick not only new Doc Holiday, he knew Wyatt Earp. This information leaves Kitty wondering what Wyatt Earp was?

Werewolf? Bound Hunter like Cormac? What? To find out we have our first road trip. And where do we go… Dodge City. Ben, Kitty’s husband, mate, (he became a werewolf in Kitty takes a Holiday no Kitty didn’t change him) and lawyer goes of course someone has to keep her out of jail, and Cormac goes. Now Cormac, for those of you that don’t know Cormac is a bounty hunter and when I say bounty hunter I mean he hunts werewolves and vampires etc for bounty not humans. However, he just got out of prison from a bum rap (read Kitty takes a Holiday to find out why) so he has to have permission to leave the state. He’s Ben’s cousin, he’s had a thing for Kitty since book one but never admitted it, now has a female witch’s soul inside him that he picked up in prison and is a part of Kitty and Ben’s pack. Pack of three as Kitty likes to call it. Ben and Kitty are their packs alphas and they have a big pack but their pack of three is more of a family. So the pack of three goes to Dodge City to find some answers. And here starts Kitty’s trouble.

Well she finds something, answers not really. She finds the place Rick had told her about that Wyatt Earp had destroyed but there is still a vampire living there. Earp had burned down the building but hadn’t killed all the vamps. The old vamp that hasn’t seen the moon in years dies as the three worked together. Kitty takes his Roman coin thinking it’s a clue and wants to have Rick look at it while Cormac picks up Wyatt Earp’s old steak which fit perfectly in his hand. A tool he can use now that he can’t handle guns. Poor Cormac, though the magic he uses from Amelia works just as well, but that gets into spoilers and I can’t do that. Let’s just say just because Cormac can’t use the weapon’s he’s use to doesn’t mean he doesn’t have another arsenal up his sleeve. As they are just about to leave the site two werewolves show up, yes trouble does seem to follow Kitty, and everyone does seem to think that they can push her around. Granted her sarcasm does get her into as much trouble as her being in the wrong place at times. They didn’t pound her; one of werewolves recognized her as Kitty Norville, because of her tongue no less, that didn’t make the one in charge happy. As she was invading another packs territory was told to yes “Get out of Dodge.” She didn’t like leaving the way she did considering she had found with a vamp but she didn’t want to fight another pack she had hers and one pack is enough. As the three head back to Denver Kitty gets a call from Anastasia, she needs Kitty’s help to stop Roman in San Francisco and she needs her there yesterday. But like all vamps Anastasia doesn’t give Kitty any information to go on just that she needs her help.

Kitty met Anastasia in Kitty’s House of Horrors, and they become allies, I can’t really say friends because sometimes you’re not sure if Kitty truly trusts Anastasia. They went through hell in House of Horrors but Anastasia doesn’t have a give and take like the other vamps Kitty considers friends, so allies but not fully friends. But when it comes to stopping Roman Kitty is willing to help any ally even if she doesn’t know all the details. This lands Kitty in trouble, and Kitty does talk to Rick before heading to San Francisco. He doesn’t recognize the golden Roman coin but he does tell her to be careful while she is out there and gives her a little insight into the pack and the master of San Francisco. As I’ve said trouble is Kitty middle name so it shouldn’t surprise you that after Kitty hits San Francisco we have not stop action and trouble. Well I take that back she has about four hours where she doesn’t get into trouble, but that’s about it. She’s supposed to stay low key and trust me Kitty always tries to stay low key no one lets her. Roman’s werewolves attack her and Ben, and when Cormac joins in to help. They get away from the trap after doing some damage to the three werewolves that attacked them. They walk around Chinatown searching for the place they’re supposed to meet up with Anastasia at and once they find her things get really interesting. She still doesn’t want to give out the information that is needed so the group can safely help her; the only person in the group that has any trust for Anastasia is Kitty. The new group of four goes on a treasure hunt for a magic gatekeeper (best way to describer Grace) who is whiny and very annoying. Just so you know. Once they find Grace who grips about what her family did centuries ago and it’s not her job she takes them to the underground tunnels which are more like a place that is another world. The object which Grace was supposed to protect has disappeared, which is the object of power that Roman is after and his Werewolves come to fight the group. Kitty sends the only human that can’t really protect herself off and the rest of the group fits the werewolves and they thankfully defeat them. However because Kitty had Grace run they don’t have a guide therefore they are lost in the tunnels. Trouble always follows her I tell you. Kitty is the first to find her way out by accident, and gets hurt in the process and meets an odd fellow. He helps her, but she doesn’t trust him when he leads her out to the street she sees Roman’s figure before he disappears. Then a new foe arrives or so she thinks, vampires and Ben in wolf form comes to her aid. The vamps are the Master Boss of San Francisco’s come to fetch the lot of them. Yes we meet the Boss of San Francisco and Kitty has so many questions and of course no one wants to answer those. But a few of the vamps know who she is by her sarcastic answers and her quest for knowledge. More the sarcasm, radio brings out the best in her. The Boss learns what he can and lets the group do what they came to do but he sends a solider with them. Henry gets taken by Roman, he’s the Boss’s solider, and we meet new beings that want to end the “long game” which is a chess game the vampires like to play. We learn Anastasia’s story and how old she truly is and what her part is in the long game and what she wants out of this mission.

The mission is put into place it has a few hitches when does anything go right, if it went the way it was supposed to Kitty wouldn’t get in trouble. And that is where I’m going to leave it for this review. Because I’m not going to give you an ending, I can’t that gives you a spoiler and I can’t do that. I will tell you that someone does die, someone always dies in a Kitty book, and I don’t just mean the evil people that you want to die. A good person dies in the book. Kitty does learn some interesting information that she didn’t know before. She had new contacts and new people to try and get stories out of, and she loves stories. So I hope you enjoyed this review I know it was long sorry for that but it was action packed and there was so much going on. I didn’t give away the spoilers though otherwise it could have been longer.

Also Reviewed By: – – My Bookish Ways

Paperback Dolls is made up of women from different parts of the world, with different backgrounds, different tastes and beliefs that were brought together through a love of reading. We like to think of ourselves as a cyber version of "The View" that focuses on books, authors, and reading. We are proof positive that one common love can unite the most opposite of people and form lasting friendships that introduce other ways of life and perspectives to each other.

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