Kitty Goes to War

I enjoyed this Kitty book more than its immediate predecessors which frustrated me because Kitty rarely involved her pack in anything, even though she's the alpha; we heard virtually nothing from her radio show and and her mate, Ben, kept being sent out of the way while Kitty saved the day.

"Kitty Goes To War" has everything I was looking for. It was a delight from beginning to end.

The main plot is about werewolves, in this case, militarised werewolves ( a black op pack gone wild - great idea). Kitty and her pack do their best to bring the wild ones back from the edge and Kitty learns a lot about what it means to be the dominant wolf, even when the others are bigger than you.

We hear more of Kitty's talk radio show, "The Midnight Hour", show more which always puts a smile on my face and this time led to a bizarre confrontation with the owner of the EZMart convenience store chain when occult occurrences keep being linked to his stores. It was an original and well managed twist.

Cormac is back. I always enjoyed him but never liked him. Hey, the first time we met him he'd been hired to kill Kitty. That's not exactly a character reference. Now he's out of prison and not behaving like himself, at least not all the time. The outcome of that sub-plot caught me by surprise and promises good things for future books.

Ben and Kitty finally seem to be working out as a real couple and the book is richer for it.

It seems to me that Carrie Vaughn has pulled everything together in this book. If the series keeps on like this, I will be a very happy reader. show less

As a writer, I'm impressed by how Vaughn has developed each book in the series. She sprinkles in just the right amount of back story. Info dumps aren't an issue. Instead, each book flows quickly and can stand well on its own--more like episodes of a TV series than a book series.

Here, the action pushes along at a fast pace as two major plots converge: Kitty addresses the weirdness of Speedy Mart stores on her radio show, leading to an odd confrontation with the CEO, even as the Army pulls her in as an advisor in an effort to rehabilitate rogue werewolf-soldiers whose pack leader died, leaving them bereft and homicidal. Also, the character of Cormac plays a bigger role than he has in several books, and some surprising developments show more emerge. In all, a fast and good read, just as I expect in this series. show less

My favorite of the Kitty books so far. I just want to note that, as an avid follower of Kitty's adventures/misadventures, I can appreciate the matured characters, the consistently good narrative writing, and the exceptional blend of plot and emotional charisma that Carrie Vaughn offers this series and this novel, in particular. The plot involving rouge berzerker-style Iraq/Afghanistan soliders is touching, to say the least, and incredibly insightful. Vaughn succeeds in relaying a very personal message outside of politics or pro or anti war sympathies. It is all about the people who fight these battles and the baggage they bear along with the victories of successes small or great. Besides that, Cormac's return to the series as a core show more aspect of the plot is a great boon for those of us who love him. Watch out for a nod to Butler's Harry Dresden character. Whether she did it on purpose or by total serendipity, it was much appreciated by this reader. I would recommend this one of the series to anyone, even those who haven't gone through the journey with Kitty from book one. Stand alone, it is a really solid urban fantasy ride. Really well told and really special. Note: I totally teared up at the end. It is one satisfying, engaging read. Kudos to Carrie Vaughn for this one. Big time. show less

When a pack of Green Berets infected with lycanthropy goes rogue, and on United States soil no less, the NIH calls in Kitty Norville, talk-show host and werewolf. Shell-shocked from war as much as from being were-wolves, the soldiers are having a hard time of it. Kitty tries her best, but she's distracted by mysterious goings-on at Speedy Mart and how much prison changed her ex-foe, Cormac.

Kitty really seems like a pack-leader at this point, not just someone trying to make the best of forced responsibilities. I liked how much of Cormac's plot was off-stage--the clues Vaughn dropped in the last few books were more than enough for me to figure it out, and his deadpan big reveal was hilarious. Plus, this book ramps up the plot surrounding show more the Long Game. I hope Vaughn gets to the meat of it soon, instead of letting the escalated tension fizzle out. show less

Although this is the eighth book in this series, it is actually the first Kitty Norville book that I have read. Usually I would not begin a series anywhere but with the first book but I received this one from the Goodreads First Reads program and I wasn't going to read seven books to catch up. Now that I've read this one though I will definitely be going back and reading the earlier books! As a first time reader of the series, I realize that I was missing a lot of background stories. However, I never felt a bit lost in the book which is what I worry about when reading things out of order. Carrie Vaughn did an awesome job with providing just enough background information so that I could keep up but without providing so much that long show more time readers of the series would be bored. I think this is an incredibly hard balance to strike and I was very impressed with how Vaughn handled it.

The story kept moving at a fast pace all the time. Kitty always had some situation that she needed to get or keep under control. I loved how both the main story lines kept the action going but also caused Kitty to reflect a lot on who she is and if she was doing the right thing. I loved that Kitty is an uncertain leader - she can put on the alpha attitude when necessary but she also shows compassion and is concerned about her friends. She doubts herself but keeps moving forward anyway.

The story also has a personal connection for me. I spent several years living in the Denver area so when Vaughn is describing the route that Kitty and friends take down to Colorado Springs or around the city to each Speedy Mart, I know exactly the area she is describing. Vaughn has based her characters in a real city and backed that up with a lot of details. I find that this gives paranormal books a great sense of realism and makes me wonder what really does go on without our knowledge?! show less

"Kitty Goes to War" has cemented the fact that this series deserves a spot in my top five series. It may be closer to one or two actually. After the first book, I wasn't even sure I wanted to continue on because Kitty was a weak character who let people run all over her. Now I see that it was probably Vaughn's intention all along to show readers how far Kitty could grow and change. She is now a strong leader. She is always a dang nice person. I thought "Kitty's House of Horrors" was my favorite book in the series and it was unti this one came along. The plot is actually fairly simple in complexity. Kitty gets a request to help three werewolf soldiers back from Afganistan. Things blew up for them over there and they are all suffering. show more Kitty is their one chance to gain back some semblence of a normal life. Around the same time, something weird is going on with a local convienance store chain called Speedy Mart. Cormac is doing the investigation and most of the legwork on this case while Kitty and Ben focus on the soldiers. The book never bores, each page is relevant to the plot. This story dealt a lot with the ideas of what makes up pack and inter-pack relations. The action scenes are great and never become so intense that the book loses sight of the emotions of the characters involved. Cormac is back and in this book sustantially. He has changed a little since prison but even Kitty and Ben can't guess how much. I am very much looking forward to seeing more of Cormac in the future. I am very eager to read the next book in this series. show less

The government has a job for Kitty – or a request anyway. It seems that that nasty idea of werewolf soldiers has actually gone forward. Not officially, but a werewolf soldier thought it was a great idea and created his own little pack/squad. The problem? Well, a mortar round landing on him in Afghanistan, leaving his squad leaderless, and worse, his pack alphaless is the problem. Even more of a problem is the remaining werewolves, ignorant of what it is to be a werewolf, trained with lethal combats skills warring with each other for the new alpha position. Oh, and going AWOL.

Kitty, as the public face of werewolves, is asked to find this little pack of soldiers, bring them back to military custody and, even more, try and find a way to show more reintegrate them not only into civilian life, but into humanity as a whole. Something she has to think of as she goes along for, despite being Agony Aunt for the supernatural community, no-one has written a manual on exactly what it means to be a werewolf anyway.

At the same time, her reporting of a series of weird supernatural occurrences at a chain of convenience stores seems to have ruffled feathers. Faced with a lawsuit – and extremely dangerous magic, she has to rely on the newly released Cormac to figure out exactly what insidious plotting is happening at Speedy Mart.

This book isn’t an action packed book, at least, not until the end. But nor does it need to be. After all, Kitty has lead a pretty action packed life, especially in the last book. It was nice to see Kitty take on a more cerebral, emotional challenge after the death defying action of Kitty’s House of Horrors. After all, Kitty can’t have a life that is entirely death and destruction – even if she does have plenty of action, drama and major issues to deal with.

I really love the story about re-integrating the were-wolf soldiers into civilian – and human – life. I think it shows not just an idea of how adapting to civilian life can be difficult, especially after a war zone but it also brings home the message we have seen in book after book about how hard it can be to be a werewolf. We’ve seen kitty fight her instincts, the effect of body language on her and her pack, the effort of navigating life as a werewolf, but this really brings it together as to the full difficulties of being a werewolf above and beyond the need to go camping every month. It also shows the importance of a supportive and helpful pack extremely well as well as why werewolf soldiers would be such an utterly poor idea.

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