Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another good read!, 17 April 2007
Well, another Kitty novel and another incredibly entertaining read! Yet after the first two, I expected no less from Carrie Vaughn's newest installment.
Following the traumatic events of Kitty Goes to Washington, our favorite werewolf/radio host needs some well-deserved time off from everything. Retreating to a mountain cabin in Colorado, Kitty hopes to recuperate, both physically and emotionally, and to write her memoirs. But with her uncanny ability to attract trouble wherever she goes, Kitty soon discovers that someone cursed her, leaving animal sacrifices on her front porch. Before long, Kitty will find herself in danger yet again.
The story, as was the case with its two predecessors, is told in the first person. I relished this new opportunity to get into Kitty's head and was not disappointed. Carrie Vaughn has created a very real and complex young lady. Kitty's vulnerabilities make her an extremely genuine person, no different from most girls out there. The lycanthropy notwithstanding, of course! Kitty Norville is so genuine that, even though this series contains vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of the night, Vaughn weaves it all together and create an unmistakably "human" tale.
New character development makes this book an even more satisfying reading experience. Revelations about both Cormac and Ben O'Farrell add another layer to the characterization.
Once again, the pace is crisp, keeping you turning those pages. The main problem with the Kitty novels is that they end too rapidly! And although Kitty Takes a Holiday is the third one, the series remains fresh and intriguing.
Fun, fast-paced, engaging and entertaining, Kitty Takes a Holiday should not disappoint fans of the series thus far.
[...].
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Third book in the series - still a great read!, 4 April 2007
The two previous Kitty stories ("Kitty And The Midnight Hour" and "Kitty Goes To Washington") were great reads - fun, fresh, light and yet with serious aspects, an amusing tale of a young woman who becomes a werewolf and tries to find her place in the pack and in the world.
"Kitty Takes A Holiday", whilst equally good, goes in a slightly different direction. The previous books have focused initially on her radio station and then on her appearance before the senate, with most of the focus on Kitty and her actions. In this story Kitty is more passive - she is taking a break at a cabin in the middle of nowhere trying to write a book but strange things start to happen. Is she being cursed? Because of her notoriety she is recognised by the locals, some of whom fear her and some try to be kind. But she knows someone doesn't want her there and is trying to frighten her away and the police are hopeless. Then Cormac (the werewolf and vampire hunter) and Ben (her lawyer) arrive at the cabin; Ben has been bitten by a werewolf and Kitty needs to look after him and help him through the transition.
The previous books have shown some attraction between Cormac and Kitty and in this story we learn a lot more about that, as well as about Ben, Cormac and Ben's histories, and even Cormac's semi-psychotic nature. Kitty is growing up more and more as this series continues - now she's having to function as an Alpha to Ben as he learns about being a werewolf. Most of the action seems to be taking place between these three and it allows more characterisation than has previously been evident in the books. We also learn of a new supernatural creature and Kitty, Cormac and Ben find themselves up against something dark, evil and difficult to understand.
My only real disappointment with this book was that it didn't seem to have an obvious resolution at the end - there were a number of loose ends which lead on to the next book ("Kitty And The Silver Bullet"), not only in terms of Kitty's relationship with Ben and Cormac, with Cormac's future but also with any long-term effects of the curse that they experienced in this book. Still it was a great read, very fast-moving and interesting and continuing the great characters introduced in previous books and it's one I can recommend.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Sanity Saver and a Plain-Old Good Read, 2 Jul 2007
Let me start off by prefacing that in an airport, where one is the required two hours early for departure and inherits an additional rascally three-hour delay in said departure, one desperately needs an escape. Five hours literally flew by when I cracked the pages of this book. That, in a nutshell, made it a spectacular read. Engrossing, witty and packed with characters a reader can sink their literary teeth into is the slightly longer version, but gives one an even better idea of all this book has to offer.
Kitty Norville needs a break. Going national about her furry side isn't the only reason. She's got a writing gig now too and a secluded mountain cabin seems the ideal retreat. Having a severe case of writer's block though, Kitty is distracted to say the least...especially when dead animals keep showing up to decorate her front porch. The locals are nice enough, though not particularly keen to have the nation's first werewolf at their doorsteps. Naturally, it seems someone wants her gone. When Cormac, werewolf hunter extraordinaire, shows up with an injured Ben (her lawyer) in tow, it's all Kitty can do to hold down the fort, much less write about it. Witchcraft and evil skin walkers compound the situation and Kitty begins to wonder if any of them will get out of this alive, much less walk the right side of the law.
Having never read the series before, I was prepared to be a little lost. Surprisingly, and pleasantly enough, I was glad to read a book that made sense from its own perspective while still gleaning enough information about the past two books (Kitty and the Midnight hour first, then Kitty Goes to Washington) to want to double back. Kitty is an interesting character, and her special twist, that of the first werewolf to exit the closet, puts a whole new perspective on the werewolf story. Being that the story takes place mainly at the cabin, I was also prepared for the story to get a little stale, but not so. There's plenty of action to keep readers turning the pages. There's a slight romantic edge, and I suspect a carryover from past books with one of the characters, though it's not the main focus of this primarily fantasy minded novel. I'm glad I had this book with me during my stay at the airport. Not only did it save my sanity, but it made me laugh, made me chew my lips in suspense and made me an all out fan of Vaughn's first person writing. Looking forward to the others in the series now.
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