Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn

Summary (courtesy of GoodReads):  Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station - and a werewolf in the closet. Her new late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged is a raging success, but it's Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew?    From the Publisher (Warner Books)

And a little note:  I tend to grab my summaries from GoodReads for a few reasons.   First, I see no need to reinvent the wheel.  If someone has already written up a nice summary, I don't feel the need to write another one.  Second, because I am quoting the entire summary, I avoid any plagiarism (which is why I'm now giving the link to the GoodReads summary also).   Third, I'm a bit lazy.  I'd rather just get on with writing my thoughts on the book (which refers back to the first reason, as well).   :)

And here's what I thought:  I had actually read this book a while back, because one of my friends was raving about it.  I actually liked it very much (and still do), but didn't get past the third book in the series.   Not because I didn't like the series, but just because I forgot by the next time a new book in the series came out.  Re-reading this was fun, and made me think it might be a nice idea to pick up all of the books in the series and just have a "Kitty feast."    So on to the book --- Carrie Vaughn has created a great character in Kitty Norville.  She's smart and tough, (but not too wise-ass), and she's pretty realistic about what it's like to be a werewolf.  I thought it was great that the story really begins when Kitty's hosting one of her usual radio shows, and it turns into a whole "let's talk about vampires and werewolves" show.  The story progresses along with a good pace, and there are some strong supporting characters here, as well.   I like that in Vaughn's world, she has Kitty explain about the whole "mass conversion" (at least that's what I call it) from human to wolf.  On page 63, Kitty basically explains, "We were bigger than regular wolves -- conservation of mass, a two-hundred-pound man becomes a two-hundred-pound wolf, when a full-grown Canis lupus doesn't get much bigger than a hundred pounds or so."  Not to be picky, but I always have a difficult time when *ahem* in certain stories (*or should I say, movies*), the werewolf is HUGE, and seems to be more than twice the size/weight of the human.   Vaughn also does a nice job with Kitty and how it is when she changes into a wolf -- the wolf becomes like an alter ego, another self.   This book was a pretty quick read, and a great story.  

And, there's a fun playlist in the Acknowledgments before the book starts.  I would totally agree that this would be a great soundtrack to this book. 

This book met one of the challenge categories for my Hogwarts challenge.  I'm determined to start ticking off these through July and August!!  Challenge category:  Transfiguration - read any book that has trans or figure in its title, is about shape shifting, has a shape shifter in it, or is about anything having to do with changing one thing into another