Kitty Steals The Show by Carrie Vaughn

Characters drive the plot as Kitty heads to London and meets up with a new vampire Family, the local English pack, and goes to head to head with some old enemies.

Title:  Kitty Steals the Show
Author:  Carrie Vaughn
Series: Kitty Norville Book 10
Publish Date: July 31, 2012
Genre:  Urban Fantasy
Source: Purchased

Publisher’s Description: Kitty has been tapped as the keynote speaker for the First International Conference on Paranatural Studies, taking place in London. The conference brings together scientists, activists, protestors, and supernatural beings from all over the world—and Kitty, Ben, and Cormac are right in the middle of it.

Master vampires from dozens of cities have also gathered in London for a conference of their own. With the help of the Master of London, Kitty gets more of a glimpse into the Long Game—a power struggle among vampires that has been going on for centuries—than she ever has before. In her search for answers, Kitty has the help of some old allies, and meets some new ones, such as Caleb, the alpha werewolf of the British Isles. The conference has also attracted some old enemies, who’ve set their sights on her and her friends.

All the world’s a stage, and Kitty’s just stepped into the spotlight.

Possible spoilers beyond this point.

---

Kat Mandu says…

I enjoyed Kitty a lot more in this than I did the previous book. She’s almost a fan girl in this story as she explores the ins and out of London. She gets to go to panels about werewolves in movies. And gets to meet a vampire who claims to have known Shakespeare. Cormac and Ben get to play too, since London is Amelia’s former home and Ben gets to meet a few kindred werewolf attorneys.

But of course, the whole trip isn’t exactly a vacation. Kitty’s been chosen to give the keynote speech (which means she has to write it first) and there’s a lot of people in town – people like Mercedes Cook and the anti-werewolf activists – who’d rather see her out of the way before she can.

I enjoy the lack of boundaries lycanthropy has in these books. Luis, a character from the second book, returns (to the displeasure and jealousy of Ben) and Kitty gets to meet a few new weres.

All in all, I liked it – so I give it a four.

Invested Ivana says…

While in London for the first ever scientific conference on the supernatural, Kitty learns how the rest of the world’s vampires treat her fellow werewolves, and how pervasive Roman’s influence is on the world’s vampires. She gets tangled up in one plot to take out the Master of London and in another, spearheaded by an old enemy (or two), to capture werewolf soldiers for use in building a supernatural army.

As with all the Kitty books, we get to meet some great new characters, like Ned Allen–vampire, Elizabethan stage actor, and Master of London. I love how Kitty gets all giddy at the idea that Ned knew Shakespeare. We also meet Caleb, the Alpha werewolf of the British Isles. Kitty attempts to move Ned and Caleb’s relationship from “ignoring each other” to “working together,” based on the relationship she has with Rick back home in Denver.

We also get to meet some awful characters. The delegate of world vampires are awful; in particular, they way the view and treat werewolves is horrific. Kitty stirs up trouble by refusing to cow to their self-importance and accusing some of them of working with Roman. She also talks with their wolves, attempt to incite riot and defection, telling the wolves they don’t deserve to be cannon fodder for the coming war. As usual, she has some success, and earns the title Regina Luporum from some of the vampires — Queen of Wolves, a wolf who will stand up for her brethren against the vampires.

Carrie Vaughn has been great about letting us revisit characters from previous books. In Steals the Show, we get to spend time with Allette in D.C. and her descendant Emma in London, Dr. Schumacher and Joseph Tyler at the conference, and Luiz, the were-panther with whom Kitty had a fling while in Washington D.C. for the Senate hearings in Book 2. Assuming she’s still single, Luiz greets Kitty VERY warmly. Once he learns Kitty is married, the scenes where Luiz toys with Ben, much like a cat would, are priceless.

One of the smaller story lines I really enjoyed in this book was Cormac meeting Amelia’s family. It’s interesting to see Kitty observing the changes in Cormac since he “partnered” up with Amelia. It makes me look forward to Low Midnight that much more.

Our reviews in this series…

• Kitty and the Midnight Hour
• Kitty Goes to Washington 
• Kitty Takes a Holiday
• Kitty and the Silver Bullet
• Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand
• Kitty Raises Hell
• Kitty’s House of Horrors
• Kitty Goes to War
• Kitty’s Big Trouble

Other reviews…

• Literally Jen
• My Bookish Ways
• The Ranting Dragon

If you like this book…

…you might try Patricia Brigg’s Mercy Thompson series, Rachel Vincent’s Shifter series, or Eileen Wilks’s World of the Lupi series.