Like the first two books in the series, I read this one in under 12 hours. They are excellent quick reads. Vaughn is an absolutely hypnotic writer. She keeps you in the story the whole way with perfect pacing, suspenseful endings and realistic dialogue. Once again she has shown her knowledge of pack dynamics which adds such a note of credibility to what is, of course, fantasy. It makes it that much more believable. She also has proven herself a good writer by her research into Native American folklore and mysticism. Despite the book being short, it's obvious that she is not writing from secondhand knowledge. She knows her stuff. The more I read about Kitty, the more I like her. She is a normal character. Well, aside from being a werewolf of course. She has fears and stress like anyone else. Quite a relatable heroine. And I love that she hasn't gone overboard trying to create characters who are beautiful and sexy and perfect, the way many authors do when writing about vampires or werewolves. Carrie has managed to make them more interesting while still maintaining the air of subtle elegance and power. A great book by a wonderful writer.

The fun of Carrie Vaughn's "Kitty" series is that they are - for the most part - on the lighter side of contemporary paranormal. Kitty is a werewolf, and for the first time in three books, she's having a vacation. She's going to work on her memoirs (being the first "out" werewolf can be lucrative) and enjoy some needed time off. Except, of course, that trouble will come knocking no matter where Kitty is holed up. Throwing a major wrinkle in the supporting cast, I really enjoyed this particular Kitty book. The Kitty series is really gaining speed, and you're in for a good ride.

I was really looking forward to reading this book since the last one I read (Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards) was such a depressing novel. All the while I was reading Mercy I was thinking ‘just a bit more and I can start the next Kitty book’. What a relief! This is the third in the ‘Kitty’ series and it changes direction a bit with plot. The first two focused on Kitty’s job as a night time DJ and her challenges dealing with lycanthropy – a condition wherein the ‘patient’ metamorphoses into a werewolf during full moons. In Kitty Takes a Vacation, Kitty gets away from it all in a remote cabin in the woods to write a memoir detailing her experiences as a werewolf. It’s not long, however, before odd things begin happening and odder still when the people in the nearby town show their distrust for Kitty and her ilk. Throw in Ben and Cormac – characters first introduced in the previous books – and you have another fun, light read. I won’t give away plot points, but if you’re a follower of the series you’ll meet some other otherworldly creatures called ‘skinwalkers’ and their particular brand of powers. The secondary characters are somewhat chilling in that they display some personality traits akin to the witch hunters in Salem a century and more ago. I also like the fact that in the Kitty books the endings are not always completely happy but a sort of compromise (not saying however that that was the case in this particular book – you’ll have to read it to find that out!). Kitty Takes a Vacation didn’t disappoint me – it lifted my mood and that’s what I expected from it. I’m going to read the next one, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, in May.

This is the third book in Vaughn's Kitty the werewolf series and it is my favourite one (so far). In this story, Kitty is taking a break after the events of the previous novel (Kitty goes to Washington). She's holed up in a cabin in the woods trying to write her memoirs. As you might expect, being out in the middle the forest is probably not the best place for a werewolf who is trying to get some work done. Instead of writing Kitty finds herself distracted by her inner wolf and the call of the wild. She doesn't have long to worry about her writer's block though, before someone (or something) starts leaving animal sacrifices on her doorstep. Then, Cormac arrives in the middle of the night with an injured Ben and Kitty soon finds herself facing an evil she has never seen before. This is the most action filled of the books so far. I liked how Vaughn lets us see more of Kitty's inner wolf and we learn more about the mysterious Cormac and Ben.

Only in a supernatural novel would taking a vacation go so horribly wrong! I have to absolutely give Vaughn credit for taking me slightly by surprise on two counts. The first would be the situation with Ben as I'd certainly never considered him a possibility for a pairing with Kitty. Yet, when it happens, you don't feel cheated out of Cormac. It really does end up seeming natural and right. I was also quite surprised at the ending, where for the first time in a supernatural novel someone is taken to task for their actions. It's not often that someone with such destruction and a high body count ever has to answer for their actions. Kudos to Vaughn for being one of the first I've read.