Kitty and the Midnight Hour

This is the first urban fantasy book that I have finished (or at least today's definition of urban fantasy, which I won't debate here but I think of as either vampires or werewolves or the like in a more modern setting than typical fantasy medieval setting). Urban fantasy is not a favorite genre of mine, in fact, far from it. And my reasons all have to do with depth: depth of story/plot, depth of character, depth of emotion, depth of theme(s), depth of symbolism, depth of history, etc. I think urban fantasy has a definite place on the bookshelf, but generally not on my bookshelf. And I'm not saying that all urban fantasy isn't deep, but well, much of it doesn't appear to be, and that's most likely intentional.

So for an urban fantasy book, I liked this first book in the Kitty Norville series. Kitty Norville is a werewolf living in Colorado who works as a late night DJ. Eventually, her show becomes more of a talk show with interviews and callers and discussions about fantastical creatures such as Kitty herself. Now throw in an abusive pack leader, a hunky assassin, and a bossy vampire and the result is Kitty's first adventure.

The author has a story that ends at the end of this book but she also introduces what I bet will become an over-arcing story that later books will continue to visit. I really enjoyed the playlist that Ms. Vaughn put in the beginning of the book, explaining that these particular songs were playing while she was writing. I did not read to the songs, but I kind of wished I had, and maybe I will try it out.

I respect this particular author who I've seen at several cons, and that's why I read the book. I'm still not a big fan of urban fantasy, but I do enjoy this author, and will read more of this series.