Kitty Steals the Show

In "Kitty Steals The Show", Kitty accepts an invitation to be the keynote speaker at a scientific conference on the supernatural. The conference is in London which, of course, makes Kitty A Werewolf In London, a line the novel wouldn't have been complete without and which provided me with a soundtrack as I listened to the audiobook.


The book starts with a welcome return to the familiar as we get to listen to more of Kitty's talk show and experience the space she's created where the isolated can feel mainstream. I love Kitty's shows because I like who she is on the show.

I also liked that we saw Kitty with her pack for once. She and Ben are settling into their roles as alphas and starting to enjoy themselves and plan for the future rather show more than feeling that leadership is a task thrust on them by circumstance.


Moving the action to London provides a new setting and introduces new characters. London, through the eyes of an American in Europe for the first time, is reasonably well drawn. I liked the way Carrie Vaughn picked up on themes in British and European history and politics and used them to shape the supernatural word. The leading British vampires are aristocratic, entitled, and manipulative in a polite, highly cultured and slightly dispassionate way. Their European counterparts are decadent, old-school vampires who keep werewolves as slaves. The British werewolves, it turns out, have not accepted slavery. Nor have they remained in small packs, each with their own territory. Instead they have come together under a single, charismatic but decidedly working class, leader.


We revisit the Long Game and Kitty finds herself up against familiar enemies. There is a strong sense of the gravitational pull from the coming war dragging Kitty into a role she may not be equipped for, has little desire to occupy but is unable to walk away from.

At the end of the book, we return to Kitty's talk show, which she is using as a platform to warn the world of the menace of the Long Game. One of Kitty's listeners asks her to remember why she set up the show: to help those who had nowhere else to go. That's the Kitty who hooked me into this series, not the uber-alpha werewolf leader. That's the Kitty I hope to see more of in the next books. show less

My partner came across a blurb about this book, and recommended it on the basis that it is set in London at an academic conference on supernaturals ("this book couldn't be more you"). The premise is certainly one that seems promising, but I did not initially realize that I was stepping into the tenth book in a running series, which complicated my reading. Kitty is a standard protagonist in urban fantasy, which actually makes her feel two-dimensional; what I didn't know initially I could suppose, based not on the novel in hand but rather my reading of the genre at large. As a whole, the novel feels like a transition - a shift in focus for an established series - and for that reason is less interesting for a new reader. However, my show more interest has been piqued, so I may be looking to see how Kitty comes to speak at a conference in London in the first place. show less

This is the tenth entry in Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series, and Kitty is visiting London this time to take part in the first International Conference on Paranormal Studies where she is supposed to deliver the keynote speech. To sum it up in advance, it’s a solid, quite entertaining entry in the series but nowhere as good as some previous volumes.

That is partly due to a lack in local colour – you’d expect the author to evoke some London atmosphere and give the readers a sense of place if she goes to the trouble to move her protagonists all the way across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, however, the novel falls short on that account, for all practical purposes it could have taken place in any major American city (although there show more are some amusing bits about werewolves and plane travel…). Of course, one might argue (and it might even be what Carrie Vaughn had in mind) that you don’t really gather much local colour during International Conferences as you won’t get to see much beyond hotels and conference centres – but even so, it seems a bit of a missed chance.

This is a comparatively minor niggle, though – more serious is that Carrie Vaughn here puts the series’ Big Apocalyptic Masterplot (or BAM, for short) into full throttle, and that I am not particularly impressed by the direction into which it is heading. It seems to be de rigeur for Paranormal Fantasy series these series to have some kind of BAM, and not always to their advantage – I already found it irritating and distracting from what constitues the fun of the series in the final volumes of Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series, and the same happens here.

The strength of this series, in my opinion, has always been in its realism or (maybe a better term, seeing how we’re talking about a Fantasy series here) its down-to-earth-ness, the way Carrie Vaughn’s characters react plausibly to all the supernatural stuff popping up around them, and still go on with their lives in the midst of it. As such, the novels are at their best and most entertaining when they are dealing with small-scale conflicts, when things happen at a personal level that the characters relate to immediately. And the whole apocalyptic setup just does not work very well in this framework. To put it bluntly: Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files do BAM way better than Carrie Vaughn, because the villians in his world are big and mean and scary and generally way over the top. The apocalyptic villains in Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series come across as mostly… petty. They are working on a supposedly century-long conspiracy to destroy and/or take over the world, but the the way their utter, dastardly evilness shows most prominently is that they bear a grudge against Kitty.

Which again illustrates that the series just is not made for a large-scale canvas but excels where it sticks with intimate portraits, and thankfully Kitty Steals the Show has some of that to offer as well – there are many familiar faces who also happen to attend the Conferences (maybe even too many – I for one would have liked to get to spend some more time with most of them) and some new ones, most remarkably the Vampire Master of London who turns out to be… well, it’s told quite early in the novel, but I still do not want to spoil it – suffice it to say that every lover of Elizabethean drama will give a small squee when his identity is revealed (and no, it’s not Shakespeare). And Kitty as gushing fangirl is just hilarious. show less

Kitty has been invited to London to give the keynote speech at a conference about paranormals. She is excited to learn and excited to line up interviews for her radio show. But no conference can go smoothly when protesters both favoring and hating paranormals are a constant presence. Also Roman is still agitating in the background in his quest for war.

Kitty, Ben and Cormac have been invited to stay with the master vampire of the city. Ned was a famous Shakespearean actor and knew Shakespeare and other literary lights of the day. Kitty is awed and fascinated by him. But as a vampire, Ben and Cormac don't trust him. Ned arranges for Kitty to meet other vampires who have gathered out of concern for the conference where Kitty sees things a show more modern American werewolf has trouble handling.

Kitty also meets the werewolf who is the alpha of the British werewolves. And Kitty meets faeries. Kitty is gathering allies for the upcoming war and foments rebellion among the werewolves who are held as property by some of the vampires. She is also trying to find out which vampires are allied with Roman.

When her friend Tyler is kidnapped, Kitty calls on all her allies to help find him including the werewolf alpha, the vampire Ned, and her new human contact who is a descendent of Amelia, the spirit who is sharing headspace with her friend Cormac.

This was an exciting and entertaining addition to the long running Kitty Norville series. I liked the way Kitty firmed up her belief that communication can solve many problems and that conspiracies exposed to the light lose some of their power. show less

I have really enjoyed the Kitty Norville series. All the books have their own storyline yet connect the series with other continuing factors. There has not been one book in the series that I disliked and I am always happy to dive into the next one.

I love being inside Kitty's head as she finds her way out of whatever situation she has found herself in. She has a great way with words and always seems to be the voice of reason. I enjoy the way she answers her callers on her talk show and how she takes care of those out to hurt her and those she loves and protects. Although I miss her pack when she is off in the world I do enjoy the different locations of each book. Carrie is great with world building and making her reader feel a part of show more the journey.

KITTY STEALS THE SHOW follows Kitty as she attends the International Conference on Paranatural Studies where she is set to be a keynote speaker. There wasn't quite as much action as we have seen in previous books but there is still plenty of suspenseful situations. New allies are found and new enemies revealed. We get to see some previous characters and hang out with some interesting people while finding out more about the world in which the series takes place. Kitty's Keynote speech rocked but was a shocking way to go and was not enjoyed by all.

If your new to the series I think you could jump into the series and be ok but I would recommend starting with book one so you get to know Kitty better and see how much she has evolved and grown. I cant wait to see what happens next. show less

I love Kitty Norville. She may be my favorite character in any of the Urban Fantasy/Paranormal series that I read. She is strong and can get things done but she is also compassionate and caring. Carrie Vaughn is a strong writer and her world building is amazing. Ms Vaughn also doesn't always write things the way you'd expect and some of her twists through this series had me very nervous for the dear characters I have grown attached to. She has never let me down. All the choices she made as to what happens in this world with these characters have made for a fuller, richer reading experience than most of the other series in this market. So many start out strong and loose focus along the way but ten books in, the Kitty stories are just show more getting stronger.

"Kitty Steals the Show" is definitely a bridge book. This story is filled with revelations about the "long game" we have heard whispers of for awhile now. I feel like we are definitely getting closer to a huge climax in the vampire war. Kitty, Ben and Cormac travel to London in "Kitty Steals the Show". Kitty has been invited to be the keynote speaker at the first paranormal conference. This gives the perfect set up to get a lot of the 'long game' players in one place. Enemies are established and allies are formed. We also visit with several characters we met in previous installments. Reading about Ben meeting Carrie's ex-lover and werepanther. I laughed out loud at that part and even teared up at a couple other parts. That is a sure sign that I love what I am reading!

Oh Cormac! I have such a 'thing' for this guy. I have from the start. I enjoyed his part of this story very much. He is very present and I love seeing him start to come to 'life' in a way. However right now I am not a fan of Amelia the ghost who is living in Cormac's body. She doesn't seem very useful and I really feel like his character is stunted by having her there. Referring back to my earlier comment about Ms. Vaughn never leading me astray, I will keep positive while I see how this all ends up being resolved.

Every time I get a new Kitty novel, I am reminded about what a wonderful series this is. This did nothing to change my mind. I wish I could everyone reading this series! It is so worth it. show less

Before I start my review, I must admit that I've not read any of the other books in this series. When the folks at TOR asked me to participate in the blog tour, I almost declined because I really don't like starting a series late in the game (and in this case, the tenth book), but the premise intrigued me, and for some reason I decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did (though my checking account is probably pissed at me because now I feel the need to go back and buy the other books so I can catch up on what I've missed.)

In this installment Kitty (I love her name -- more on why later) and friends head off to London for a meeting of paranormal folk where Kitty is set to be a keynote speaker. London is filled with paranormal peeps show more (werewolves, weretigers, vampires, ghosts...okay, you get the picture) who have come together to meet with others like themselves as well as other activists/supporters of their kind. As expected, there are also protestors, and a few rogue paranormal beings who will make Kitty's trip a memorable one.

I was surprised at how easily I was able to follow the story and the characters. While I could tell that there was a lot of history between them, I never felt lost as to who was who and what role they played. I did feel that there were probably plot points that would have had more of an impact had I actually read the other books, which was to be expected, but that will just make going back and reading the others that much more fun.

I found this to be a really fun read. Though I haven't read any of the Sookie Stackhouse books, I am a huge fan of "True Blood", and this book definitely had the same feel. I absolutely adore Kitty. I also love that she's a werewolf and her name is Kitty (yeah, I'm easily amused). She's tough, likable, and very relatable and I can't wait to find the time to go back and get to know her from the beginning of the series. show less